tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-85051412024-03-17T20:03:12.367-07:00Journal on Product Design and DevelopmentAs an entrepreneur, product designer and product leader in healthcare, financial services and human capital management software industries, I have seen a number of problems related to creating useful products, and getting things done. I decided to keep track of some common scenarios. All views are mine. Not my employers'.Prashanth Padmanabhanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18109341721500716760noreply@blogger.comBlogger930125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8505141.post-10507961126360023472023-10-09T21:50:00.004-07:002023-10-09T21:55:18.128-07:00The Anatomy of An Effective Jobs Definition Document<p><span face="Roboto, sans-serif" style="color: #374151; font-family: georgia; font-size: 12pt; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><b>The Role of a Jobs Definition Document in Customer Management</b></span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-9b05922d-7fff-470b-672c-885a037964d9" style="font-family: georgia;"><p style="background-color: #f7f7f8; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span face="Roboto, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: #374151; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">In enterprise software companies, challenges often arise that test the strength of customer relationships. These challenges may stem from dissatisfaction with a product or service, requiring more than just routine customer service solutions. Such urgent issues often escalate to the sales or executive teams, as they directly impact customer satisfaction, expansions, renewals, and revenue.<br /></span><span face="Roboto, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: #374151; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Enter the Jobs Definition Document (JDD). This tool empowers product managers to address these high-stakes situations effectively. It serves as a roadmap for action, facilitating two key outcomes:</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: #f7f7f8; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;">Internal Alignment:</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;"> The JDD helps bring a shared understanding of the customer's problems across all internal departments.<br /></span></li><li><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;">Customer Communication: </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;">The JDD enables the product leader to clearly communicate the current capabilities to solve the customer's problems and outline a mutually beneficial action plan.</span></li></ul><p></p><p style="background-color: #f7f7f8; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 15pt; text-align: left;"><span face="Roboto, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: #374151; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 400; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">By providing a structured approach to crisis management, the JDD is invaluable in averting financial repercussions like revenue loss or delays.</span></p><div style="background-color: #f7f7f8; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 18pt 0pt 4pt; text-align: left;"><span face="Roboto, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><b>Purpose of the Jobs Definition Document</b></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: #f7f7f8; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Roboto, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: #374151; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">A Jobs Definition Document (JDD) is a crucial discussion artifact between stakeholders within the vendor organization and the customer organization. It aims to:</span></p><ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="color: #374151; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="background-color: #f7f7f8; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 15pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;">Identify all the critical jobs that a customer wants to accomplish.</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="color: #374151; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="background-color: #f7f7f8; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;">Describe the current capabilities that help the customer perform these jobs.</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="color: #374151; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="background-color: #f7f7f8; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;">Clarify the status and scope of these capabilities.</span></p></li></ul><p style="background-color: #f7f7f8; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 18pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 4pt; text-align: left;"><span face="Roboto, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><b>Key Sections of a JDD</b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: #f7f7f8; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Roboto, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: #374151; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">A comprehensive JDD is composed of the following main sections. Each bullet point can be a slide.</span></p><ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="color: #374151; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="background-color: #f7f7f8; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 15pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;">Business Scenario Description:</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;"> A brief context to understand the environment in which the customer operates.</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="color: #374151; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="background-color: #f7f7f8; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;">List of Customers' Jobs-to-be-Done:</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;"> Enumerate the various tasks or objectives the customer aims to achieve.</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="color: #374151; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="background-color: #f7f7f8; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;">Status of Capabilities:</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;"> Describe the maturity or availability of capabilities that will assist the customer.</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="color: #374151; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="background-color: #f7f7f8; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;">Job Overviews:</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;"> A succinct explanation of each job in one slide.</span></p></li><ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="2" dir="ltr" style="color: #374151; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; list-style-type: circle; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="background-color: #f7f7f8; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;">Name of the Job To Be Done</span></p></li><li aria-level="2" dir="ltr" style="color: #374151; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; list-style-type: circle; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="background-color: #f7f7f8; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;">Job Description</span></p></li><li aria-level="2" dir="ltr" style="color: #374151; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; list-style-type: circle; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="background-color: #f7f7f8; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;">Diagram: </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;">A visual representation of each job-to-be-done.</span></p></li><li aria-level="2" dir="ltr" style="color: #374151; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; list-style-type: circle; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="background-color: #f7f7f8; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;">Assumptions, Risks, and Limitations:</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;"> Qualifications that may affect the capabilities or jobs.</span></p></li></ul></ul><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: #f7f7f8; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 15pt;"><span face="Roboto, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: #374151; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 213px; overflow: hidden; width: 521px;"><img height="213" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/Rpvg8C1igmWuvDx-VsMtbub17ZuIMlkgNZeQOUqr8H4dHgm-iA7O45U8ShCVYSn77ITPkWEtLUNasiLWWsA44f3Uv9KB0IWq7qTqOidAXPr7CBAmDzHLzIifQE3RjD4K3cC7Y1Io8v5EUtZt8m5VoX4" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="521" /></span></span></p><ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="color: #374151; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="background-color: #f7f7f8; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-top: 15pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;">Next Steps: </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;">Action items for moving forward.</span></p></li></ul><p style="background-color: #f7f7f8; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 4pt; margin-top: 18pt; text-align: left;"><span face="Roboto, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><b>Format of a JDD</b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Roboto, sans-serif" style="color: #374151; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Since the discussion artifact may have to be presented to an internal and external audience in a short session, a slide presentation format is good. </span></p><p style="background-color: #f7f7f8; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 18pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 4pt; text-align: left;"><span face="Roboto, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><b>Trigger for Creating a JDD</b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="background-color: #f7f7f8; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 15pt;"><span face="Roboto, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: #374151; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">A JDD usually originates when a product leader identifies that a current or potential customer has specific, unmet needs hindering their ability to implement or purchase a solution. The document is usually created when there is an unforeseen problem or escalation because the normal customer support or product research process does not meet the needs of the customer.</span></p><p style="background-color: #f7f7f8; line-height: 1.6; margin-bottom: 4pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 3pt 0pt 0pt; text-align: left;"><span face="Roboto, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><b>Assumptions</b></span></p><ul style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="color: #374151; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="background-color: #f7f7f8; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;">A JDD is not a contract or a Statement of Work (SoW).</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="color: #374151; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="background-color: #f7f7f8; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;">This guide assumes that the readers are familiar with the jobs-to-be-done framework by Prof. Clayton Christensen</span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="color: #374151; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="background-color: #f7f7f8; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;">A JDD is not an appropriate artifact to address site reliability or billing issues.</span></p></li></ul></span>Prashanth Padmanabhanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18109341721500716760noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8505141.post-49869495608339010982022-12-15T11:48:00.003-08:002022-12-15T11:59:58.021-08:00Chief Product Officer Job Description Written by Chat GPT<p><span face="Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"" style="background-color: #f7f7f8; color: #374151; font-size: 16px; white-space: pre-wrap;">This week I asked ChatGPT to write a job description for Chief Product Officer. This job description suits any senior product leader responsible for a product area. I did not edit the description. I thought product managers and leaders might find it interesting.</span></p><p><b style="background-color: #f7f7f8; color: #374151; font-family: Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; white-space: pre-wrap;">Chief Product Officer Job Description Written by Chat GPT</b></p><p><span face="Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"" style="background-color: #f7f7f8; color: #374151; font-size: 16px; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Chief Product Officer (CPO) is responsible for overseeing the development and management of a company's products and services. The CPO works closely with the executive team, as well as with design, engineering, and sales teams, to ensure that the company's products meet the needs of its customers and are aligned with the company's overall business strategy.</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: #f7f7f8; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; color: #374151; font-family: Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; margin: 1.25em 0px; white-space: pre-wrap;">The CPO is a strategic leader who understands the market and competitors, and can develop and execute a product roadmap that delivers value to customers and differentiates the company from its competitors. The CPO is also responsible for managing the product team, setting goals and priorities, and tracking progress against key performance indicators.</p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: #f7f7f8; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; color: #374151; font-family: Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; margin: 1.25em 0px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Key responsibilities of the Chief Product Officer include:</p><ul style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: #f7f7f8; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; color: #374151; display: flex; flex-direction: column; font-family: Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 1.25em 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1rem; white-space: pre-wrap;"><li style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; display: block; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0.375em; position: relative;">Developing and implementing a product strategy that is aligned with the company's overall business goals and objectives</li><li style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; display: block; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0.375em; position: relative;"><br /></li><li style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; display: block; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0.375em; position: relative;">Leading the product team and providing guidance and direction to ensure that products are delivered on time and within budget</li><li style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; display: block; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0.375em; position: relative;"><br /></li><li style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; display: block; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0.375em; position: relative;">Managing the product development process, including gathering and prioritizing product and customer requirements, defining product vision and roadmaps, and coordinating with cross-functional teams to ensure that products are delivered on time</li><li style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; display: block; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0.375em; position: relative;"><br /></li><li style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; display: block; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0.375em; position: relative;">Tracking and analyzing key performance metrics to identify trends and opportunities, and make data-driven decisions to improve product performance</li><li style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; display: block; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0.375em; position: relative;"><br /></li><li style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; display: block; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0.375em; position: relative;">Collaborating with the sales team to identify new opportunities and support the development of go-to-market strategies</li><li style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; display: block; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0.375em; position: relative;"><br /></li><li style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; display: block; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0.375em; position: relative;">Building and maintaining relationships with key customers, partners, and industry influencers to gather feedback and insights that can inform product development and strategy</li></ul><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: #f7f7f8; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; color: #374151; font-family: Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; margin: 1.25em 0px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Qualifications for the Chief Product Officer role typically include:</p><ul style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; background-color: #f7f7f8; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; color: #374151; display: flex; flex-direction: column; font-family: Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 1.25em 0px 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1rem; white-space: pre-wrap;"><li style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; display: block; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0.375em; position: relative;">A bachelor's or master's degree in a relevant field, such as business, engineering, or computer science</li><li style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; display: block; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0.375em; position: relative;"><br /></li><li style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; display: block; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0.375em; position: relative;">10+ years of experience in product management or a related field</li><li style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; display: block; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0.375em; position: relative;"><br /></li><li style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; display: block; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0.375em; position: relative;">Proven track record of success in developing and launching products that meet customer needs and drive business growth</li><li style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; display: block; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0.375em; position: relative;"><br /></li><li style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; display: block; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0.375em; position: relative;">Strong strategic thinking and leadership skills, with the ability to set clear goals and priorities, and motivate and manage a team to achieve them</li><li style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; display: block; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0.375em; position: relative;"><br /></li><li style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; display: block; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0.375em; position: relative;">Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to build relationships and collaborate effectively with cross-functional teams and stakeholders at all levels of the organization</li><li style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; display: block; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0.375em; position: relative;"><br /></li><li style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59,130,246,0.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; display: block; margin: 0px; padding-left: 0.375em; position: relative;">Knowledge of market trends, customer needs, and competitive landscape, and the ability to use this information to inform product strategy and development.</li></ul><div><br /></div>Prashanth Padmanabhanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18109341721500716760noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8505141.post-11295915063207569962020-12-19T19:21:00.022-08:002020-12-29T19:48:26.643-08:00Design-led Innovation Can Make a Business Powerful<p><span face="Lato, sans-serif" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I believe in design-led innovation for new product development, and enhancing existing products. I have been using the approach of design-led innovation for over a decade in multiple companies to build commercially successful software products. My colleagues and team mates know this. Depending upon their interaction with me, some of them may say that I believe in visiting users, observing them, and listening to their pain points. Some product management colleagues may say that I ask them to tell a story using </span><a href="https://productdesignjournal.blogspot.com/2020/12/context-purpose-and-anatomy-of.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span face="Lato, sans-serif" style="color: #1155cc; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">concept stories</span></a><span face="Lato, sans-serif" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Some may say that I believe in rapid prototyping to understand the user journey. Some may say that, I believe in validating a solution with real users, by walking them through a prototype in person or using tools such as usertesting.com, before engineers start coding the functionality. My product operations colleagues may say that I ask them to </span><a href="https://productdesignjournal.blogspot.com/2020/11/infusing-systematic-innovation-in.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span face="Lato, sans-serif" style="color: #1155cc; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">incorporate innovation into quarterly product planning</span></a><span face="Lato, sans-serif" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and execution.</span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-5a0607f0-7fff-aa07-ba5b-83cfa1cf47fe"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Lato, sans-serif" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">However, only a few of my colleagues may realize that this approach is an important business strategy. In this article, I wanted to share my belief that design-led innovation could be a key business strategy that will lead to inventions that create power. Such power is necessary for the commercial success of a business. There are several different kinds of business powers. Invention, in my opinion, is the stepping stone to every sustainable business power. The importance of power for a business to be successful is beyond the scope of this article. A good book on that topic is </span><a href="https://amzn.to/37AGrZ8" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span face="Lato, sans-serif" style="color: #1155cc; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Seven Powers by Hamilton Helmer.</span></a><span face="Lato, sans-serif" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Lato, sans-serif" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">To be successful, a business must create something new that produces substantial and sustained economic gain for customers and for themselves. Having access to resources alone may not be enough. Even Qatar, a country that controls 12% of the worlds's natural gas reserves was poor for a long time. </span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/06/business/energy-environment/liquefied-natural-gas-makes-qatar-an-energy-giant.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span face="Lato, sans-serif" style="color: #1155cc; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Qatar became wealthy only after investing heavily in inventing the process of liquefaction of natural gas</span></a><span face="Lato, sans-serif" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, which made it possible for Qatar to export natural gas to Europe and other parts of Asia. </span></p><br /><h3 style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span face="Lato, sans-serif" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Design-led innovation will make practitioners powerful too</b></span></h3><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Lato, sans-serif" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Lato, sans-serif" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I also want to use this article to share my belief that practitioners of design-led innovation, including product managers, designers and executives are more valuable to the industry and hence more powerful themselves. Because they have a framework for creating economic value in a predictable and repeatable manner, they will have better long term personal financial returns as well as job satisfaction. Because the skill of design-led innovation and the resulting invention is hard to be codified and turned into a software algorithm, I believe the skill will always command high compensation.</span></p><br /><h3 style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span face="Lato, sans-serif" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">How is design-led innovation different from other product development approaches?</span></h3><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Lato, sans-serif" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Most product teams and executives take the approach of analytical thinking or intuitive thinking.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Lato, sans-serif" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Analytical thinking, where executives and product managers look at market data and determine the potential for a new product or feature, is an essential skill. For example, a product manager for financial advice products may look at a country and determine that there is a market to provide automated advice to people who have about $100,000 invested and are underserved by current financial advisers. They will accurately determine the market size, the potential opportunity and come to a conclusion that if they build a product that serves this market there is money to be made. They may then proceed to build a product and take it to financial advisors who are their existing customers. Financial advisors, who are usually compensated based on a percentage of assets under management, may or may not be very interested in the offering because the product essentially replaces them. The product may fail. This is not a hypothetical example. I actually observed this happen. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Lato, sans-serif" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Intuitive thinkers, who have prior experience in the domain, may rightly conclude that the process of providing financial advice to people with less money to invest is very cumbersome and we need to simplify the same using technology. Usually, intuitive thinkers are domain experts from clients services, product managers or product designers who have built a prior product, or subject matter experts who spent time in the industry and understand the manual processes and problems involved. Their conclusions will be accurate too. They may decide to reduce the burden of financial advisors with algorithm based financial advice to simplify the process so that financial advisors can serve more clients. Rather than observe and learn from users, they may try to automate existing processes, rather than rethink the processes. Rather than focus on the end user, they may focus on financial advisors, and on themselves, the technology providers. Such an approach is not bad. It might even succeed. For example Wealthfront and Personal Capital did automate the financial advice processes and charged a smaller fee compared to what a human advisor charges. They did become substantial businesses. However, they may not have significant barriers to entry.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Lato, sans-serif" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A product manager who follows design-led innovation might decide to visit a financial advisor for a co-innovation workshop and talk to her about the challenges her clients face. The financial advisor may talk about how their clients want their adult children to be engaged in the wealth management process. This might uncover the fact that there are 70 Million young people in the US who do not invest outside their retirement plans at all, even though they have some money to invest, simply because they are put off by the process to invest, do not trust current institutions, or do not want to pay the fees involved. Catering to this market usually involves inventing a product that appeals to them delivered via a channel they are comfortable with. The invention could be a new business model, where there is no fee to the consumer for investing, as </span><a href="https://robinhood.com/us/en/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span face="Lato, sans-serif" style="color: #1155cc; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Robinhood</span></a><span face="Lato, sans-serif" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> did, or a transparent fixed low monthly fee for the investor like </span><a href="http://acorn.com" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span face="Lato, sans-serif" style="color: #1155cc; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Acorn</span></a><span face="Lato, sans-serif" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> did. Such new inventions are most likely to stem out of a design-led innovation process, not just from an analytical or intuitive thinking process. The above companies most likely observed their users, and looked beyond product or features requests from current customers and tried to understand the real pain of their end users and invented new products and services, taking advantage of new technology, to solve their problems. </span></p><br /><h3 style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span face="Lato, sans-serif" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">What is the design-led innovation process?</span></h3><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Lato, sans-serif" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Lato, sans-serif" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The design led innovation process starts with observing users, reaching out and listening to a few of them, coming up with a solution, prototyping it quickly and validating the idea with actual users, and iterating the cycle multiple times. A prototype is not necessarily a piece of clickable software. For example, when Joe Gebbia and Bryan Chesky of AirBnB had an idea for a bed and breakfast, they did not start by building a clickable prototype. They actually rented out a mattress in their San Francisco apartment to designers during a conference to see if the idea will work. When Steve Jobs wanted to build Apple retail stores, he built a full scale retail store prototype inside a warehouse to understand how the store might work, before building real stores. Such product leaders most likely did not start with market analysis or inputs from experts. They most likely called a few potential users, created a tangible experience that users can validate and give meaningful feedback on, and repeated the process multiple times before they reached a product ready for pilot. </span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Lato, sans-serif" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The design led innovation approach does not ignore analytical thinking or intuitive thinking. Instead a product manager adopting the approach will take market research and intuitive inputs into consideration, but observe users directly, understand their journey, recognize their pain points, formulate a solution, prototype it, validate it, repeat the process multiple times until the solution created verifiable value, and then turn that solution into a product and into a strategic advantage for the business.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Lato, sans-serif" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Lato, sans-serif" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Figure: Design-led innovation can make a business powerful.</span></p><br /></span><div><span id="docs-internal-guid-2640821f-7fff-d2bc-15aa-19a09c6f09b7"><span face="Lato, sans-serif" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 442px; overflow: hidden; width: 613px;"><img height="442" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/W0RZTM4xJgkynXdxQEOmrDVd9E4IPaj2yQWX1uGQR6pS2z6GSKVHoS4u-xbYTQT87t-VLEddilkDhVQJGRqtpyG0yob1JSbOKRc2JpMSDKwTxN86l9sqb4e1rmtT36PjnHI0N6k0" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="613" /></span></span></span></div><div><span id="docs-internal-guid-463463eb-7fff-2ed6-5cf2-2c0d46731b26"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Lato, sans-serif" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The diagram above is adapted and enhanced by Prashanth based on the book '<a href="https://amzn.to/34r1M5p">The Design of Business</a>' by Roger martin.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Lato, sans-serif" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><h3 style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span face="Lato, sans-serif" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Applying design-led innovation to ongoing product development</span></h3><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Lato, sans-serif" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Lato, sans-serif" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">While I pointed out successful new companies, I have learned from my experience that the same approach of observing, listening, inventing, prototyping and validating before building and scaling a product, applies to product teams that keep improving their product. Not every product team is going to create a Robinhood, Acorn, AirBnB, or Apple retail store every year. It is possible to take a design-led innovation approach to ongoing feature development in existing products. My colleagues and I field tested a framework at Jemstep. It worked well. You can read about how to do it </span><a href="https://productdesignjournal.blogspot.com/2020/11/infusing-systematic-innovation-in.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span face="Lato, sans-serif" style="color: #1155cc; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">here</span></a><span face="Lato, sans-serif" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. </span></p><br /><h3 style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span face="Lato, sans-serif" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Does everyone embrace the approach?</span></h3><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Lato, sans-serif" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Lato, sans-serif" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">All of the senior executives who hired me to build products did so because they knew that the design-led innovation approach that I took led to commercially successful products. Some senior executives did not believe in the approach. It is most likely because their incentives were aligned towards extracting value from an existing business in the short term rather than building sustainable business advantage. When the executives that I worked with took such a short term approach, the business failed and they eventually left.</span></p><br /><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Lato, sans-serif" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Most product management colleagues agree that the approach is effective. Some colleagues who are experienced in the domain were impatient with the approach because they believed that they already knew what to build, because they have done it before. It took me a while to convince them that while their knowledge is valuable, it may be a few years old and may require a second look. Once they accompanied me for co-innovation sessions with customers and users, they came around and adopted the design-led innovation process. Some product management colleagues with business management degrees wondered why I asked them to draw and tell stories when they were meant to do more important things such as market analysis. They too became converts once they started meeting customers and users and started getting their feedback. Such colleagues did not become experts in the process overnight. They worked with product designers in the beginning and slowly gained the necessary skills. Some of my user experience design colleagues wondered why I ask product managers to think about user journeys, when designers have formally learned such things in college and are better trained in creating such artifacts. Slowly but steadily, almost all of them embraced the process, and delivered products successfully. </span></p><br /><h3 style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span face="Lato, sans-serif" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">How can a product manager or product designer use this information?</span></h3><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Lato, sans-serif" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span face="Lato, sans-serif" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If you are a product manager or product designer, you can first find out the product innovation approach your company is taking at this time. Are they taking a design-led innovation approach or are they building products without listening to potential users first. If they are taking the latter approach, they will likely fail sooner or later. Attempt to introduce design-led innovation in your company. If your colleagues do not believe in the approach, keep your skills polished and keep an eye out for other leaders or companies that believe in the approach. If you are considering joining a new company, ask them if they follow a design-led innovation process. Even if they are not, check if they are willing to invest in the process of design-led innovation. If you have the freedom, the money and the authority, implement the design led innovation process in your company. When you hire people, consider people with such skills or experience. The chances of your company’s success and the chances of your personal success will certainly improve if you do so. If your efforts do not bear fruit in one company, do not give up. Remember what Warren Buffet said. “When a management with a reputation for brilliance tackles a business with a reputation for bad economics, it is the reputation of the business that remains intact.” Move on to the next organization with better economics and better leadership and try again. </span></p><div><span face="Lato, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div></span></div>Prashanth Padmanabhanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18109341721500716760noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8505141.post-92212890253342796102020-12-04T00:58:00.003-08:002023-11-02T12:21:15.433-07:00Context, Purpose, and Anatomy of an Effective Concept Story<p><span id="docs-internal-guid-ee388c77-7fff-9e46-593f-8c959a52c00b"></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">One of the most useful artifacts in a design-led innovation and product development process is the concept story. While there are many good formats for this story, I developed my own version about 10 years back and fine tuned it with multiple teams, projects and companies. It worked very well for me and my colleagues who adopted it. It has played an important role in most successful products I designed and delivered in the past decade.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; white-space: pre-wrap;">The context where a concept story fits</span></p><div><span id="docs-internal-guid-3bd291bf-7fff-67c8-ed4d-848b5557c178"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">To understand why and when a concept story makes sense, we can start by looking at the design-led innovation framework. The design led innovation or design thinking process always starts with a user and a mystery around the user. </span></span></p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">For example, the business or product leadership team in a brokerage company might wonder why they are not able to attract young people to their investment platform. After some initial interviews they may arrive at the heuristic stage where they conclude that, it may be because young people usually have less money to invest, which is a hurdle for investing in companies they want to invest in. So they may hypothesize that providing the ability to buy fractional shares might attract young people to their investing platform. The third stage in the framework is the algorithm phase where a detailed way of accomplishing the goal is defined. The fourth stage is where the algorithm or process is turned into software code where it is made reliable and repeatable. A concept story is very effective in the heuristic stage of the design led innovation process. To explain the stage where the story fits in, please have a look at the diagram and the example scenario below.</span></span></p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Figure 1: A concept story’s place in the design-led innovation framework. </span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-825a5452-7fff-ee92-92b1-16884c0b2ad7"><span face="Lato, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 355px; overflow: hidden; width: 624px;"><img height="355" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/ggwk5Dx29heNsr_oLRFINO9QxWO-g9MfgBWzP6LyDVep6Bh1dIPFvP1kAzFfp9PyyHmO1FDM0n-0NghXzONYsT93b8Dzuj-YGGFYI6qFRb9rWbVojNsKmrQt-LiDqvZgL5gIXkd9" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="624" /></span></span></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></span></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b>Purpose of a concept story</b></span></span></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-c8c51063-7fff-93a6-280e-1b0c783ccb94"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">A concept story has three main purposes. First, to identify the user and empathize with her. Second, to articulate the value the solution will create for her. Third, to visualize how a use may interact with the software and other supporting personas.</span></span></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></span></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-f6a5789d-7fff-d1d3-f3e8-eb35c8fa738a"><span face="Lato, sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 321px; overflow: hidden; width: 624px;"><img height="321" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/uXoXDztoFoG8VMLtheEXCc4RlfWls7225pM5qtzT6g1M6y4BmNSWinci8hb8A6KuhVh6eyK_FNj9dC3WmP3iSODP3hq4D6uSz_av3uAY0dKr3CLktWu4qk6pViE-Ur0KcZXfTCa_" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="624" /></span></span></span></span></p><div><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-d84cdc8c-7fff-fee4-907f-55b24c323ab6"><p dir="ltr" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">The result of a concept story creation process is clarity of thought in the mind of the product manager, the designer, the engineering architect and a common understanding of the mental model among all team members.</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Most of the value of a concept story will be achieved, even if the product managers and designer do not show the concept story to anyone else. Another advantage of a concept story is to serve as a communication artifact, particularly when a product manager is working across countries, time zones, cultures and organizations. Since pictures and storytelling were invented long before language was invented, they are several times more effective in communicating an idea compared to words. Even if a product manager is confident about her command over the written word, the recipients of the written word may not have the skill to understand the written word, particularly if they are from another country, culture or region. I have noticed that a good concept story takes about 3 hours to put together but eliminates up to 20 person hours in work sessions. </span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">The Anatomy of an effective concept story</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">There are five main attributes in an effective concept story.
</span></span></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">First, the concept story should have a name that mentions the user and what she accomplishes using the product or feature. </span></span></span></span></li><li><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Second, the concept story should describe the user persona, her pain points, and the supporting personas. </span></span></span></span></li><li><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Third, the concept story should mention a trigger for the user journey. </span></span></span></span></li><li><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Fourth, the concept story should show how a user interacts with the software or other personas to accomplish her task. This usually is accompanied by hand drawn low fidelity mockups. </span></span></span></span></li><li><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Finally, the concept story should state what the user accomplished.</span></span></span></span></li></ul><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>Things to avoid while writing a concept story</b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">A concept story should follow a single journey. The story should not contain multiple branches. </span></li></ul><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face="Lato,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Figure: The Anatomy of an effective concept story</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face="Lato,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-eb3755c3-7fff-5182-4086-d355117a7b76"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 463px; overflow: hidden; width: 624px;"><img height="463" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/5pVGzQlrQejfQDKWLLszwCbqKo3ggE4ic78XXNFUapsIU5zsZIkX7Q4CFkuWt2eXvQ_tYn5HH1vAaVt4RQxVIV6gkLeJS12eyCwmn9y7pbhngTZ0yuCC-W-nvTNMjRqfY7gWBM8y" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="624" /></span></span></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Writing a concept story is like cooking a dish. The best way to master the craft of a concept story is to build one and use it as an artifact to refine your thinking and to share your thoughts. Although, having appropriate illustrations and a good layout will significantly enhance the thinking and discussions, getting the attributes right is far more important than getting the illustrations or the layout right. </span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b>What is the level of detail we should go to in a concept story?</b></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">If you are </span><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">familiar</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"> with <a href="https://robinhood.com/us/en/">Robinhood, the brokerage company</a>, you will realize that the concept story above describes their entire business. The story deliberately leaves out many details, without losing the essence of their business model. Once the main story is agreed upon, you can create more stories for other main use cases. For use cases where the concept is already well understood, you could skip the story and go to the medium fidelity prototype directly.</span></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b id="docs-internal-guid-2c2b35ae-7fff-a993-23b8-22326c1342b2" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Is a concept story always required?</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">To answer this question, it is best to look at the design-led innovation framework and check the stage in which you are at for a particular product or a feature. For example, if based on conversations with existing customers, a new feature is very well understood and can be articulated in the form of a prototype without further internal discussion, then you can skip the concept story and go straight to a medium fidelity prototype. In my experience 95% of product managers do not write a concept story and start with other artifacts and stumble through the process through elaborate in-person work sessions and conversations. Many of them succeed in building the feature. But they are less effective, and less successful compared to those who choose to create a concept story.</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Who should create the concept story?</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">The mental model of the concept story is clearly the responsibility of the product manager. However, all ideas may not always come from the product manager. A senior designer with domain knowledge will have a lot to contribute. An engineering architect may have clear ideas as well. The responsibility of creating a concept story is the job of the product manager. In my experience, I have seen product managers creating the artifact without hands on help from a designer. I have also seen product managers working with a designer to create the low fidelity mockups. I have seen scenarios where the product manager created the first draft of the concept story and the designers with more formal visual design education and skill, refining the content without altering the product manager’s mental model.</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">What happens to those who do not write a concept story or follow design led-innovation?</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Majority of product teams do not follow design-led innovation. Many of them do succeed in building useful products for their users. However, in such organizations the role of a product manager is that of a business analyst who listens to an existing process or a proposed process and write down the algorithm, in the form of a user story, so that engineers can code it. Such projects may or may not succeed. The solutions will most certainly be inferior to a solution created by a team that follows the design led innovation process. If you want to be an effective product manager, you will be much better off working for an organization that believes in and invests in design-led innovation. Many companies do. Seek them out. Stay away from those who do not invest in this. Because they are less likely to succeed.</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></span></p><div style="font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face="Lato,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face="Lato,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 463px; overflow: hidden; width: 624px;"><br /></span></span></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span face="Lato,sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><br /></span><p></p><div style="font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></div></span></div></span></div>Prashanth Padmanabhanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18109341721500716760noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8505141.post-3228918816655370912020-11-01T02:14:00.011-08:002020-11-01T02:46:53.204-08:00Infusing Systematic Innovation Into Product Design and Development<p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When I build new products from concept to launch, I ask my teams to adopt the </span><a href="https://www.ideou.com/blogs/inspiration/what-is-design-thinking" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">design thinking process</span></a><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. For example, when I built a product called </span><a href="https://productdesignjournal.blogspot.com/2015/11/predictive-health-insights-personalized.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Castlight Action</span></a><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, the first several weeks of the project was devoted to listening to benefits leaders from companies such as Walmart, and Mondelez to understand their pain points around health benefits administration and communication. The next several weeks were devoted to coming up with a hypothesis, concept story creation, rapid prototyping, concept validation with targeted users followed by detailed definition, design and development. The product was a commercial success when we launched. Hundreds of customers adopted it and it made millions in revenue every year for Castlight Health. In this project, there was a dedicated team of 70 people with a very clear goal of creating a commercially successful product. </span></span></p><span id="docs-internal-guid-d4539c1c-7fff-998a-428f-fa32512b9247"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">However, when there is no major program with an ambitious goal, applying the design thinking process became sporadic and inconsistent. Thanks to the efforts of </span><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/vaneetloomba/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Vince Loomba, head of product operations</span></a><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, Castlight Health had a very robust quarterly planning process for development projects. However, systematic innovation that is sustainable, became particularly hard. Innovation did happen during quarterly execution. But it happened in a hidden factory, led by individual initiative, where progress was hard to track and success hard to measure. Product managers were more focused on getting executives and engineering to invest in their ideas rather than identifying products and features that bring value for customers and become a commercial success. When specific functionality was approved for investment in a quarter, designers and user researchers were given limited time and shorter notices to test the concept and do detailed design. </span><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/rutaraju/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ruta Raju, Castlight’s head of design</span></a><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> at that time pointed out to me that innovation and design projects should be treated as separate projects with specific deliverables rather than hurried predecessors of development projects. I agreed with his observation and promised to work on it. </span></span></p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I also noticed that in some companies I knew, the executive team and product managers decided to build and release major functionality to customers with little or no customer co-innovation session or concept testing with targeted real users. Such products were not used by customers and months of investment was wasted.</span></span></p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When I had an opportunity to rethink the product management process at Jemstep, I requested my colleague </span><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-j-kim/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Jason Kim, Director of product operations</span></a><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> to separate innovation assignments from development assignments. I suggested that, apart from the regular development assignments for a quarter, we have a set of innovation assignments with specific deliverables that will become candidates for development assignments in the subsequent quarter. I also requested product managers and designers to plan their time commitments for such assignments every quarter. Jason then created detailed and separate project plans for development assignments and innovation assignments. I identified the skills needed and the tools we need to invest in to support this process. Product managers were trained on specific skills and supported when necessary.</span></span></p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A. Quarterly Innovation Assignments</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For innovation assignments, product managers and designers worked together to do the following.</span></span></p><ol style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><li dir="ltr" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Create </span><a href="https://productdesignjournal.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-hr-generalist-story-for.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">concept stories</span></a><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> with low fidelity mockups.</span></span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Conduct customer co-innovation sessions to validate hypothesis. </span></span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Create Medium fidelity prototypes of proposed functionality</span></span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Conduct concept testing with real users </span></span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Calculate the return on investment for large innovation objectives.</span></span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Review the solution with internal teams including executive sponsors</span></span></p></li></ol><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">For example, when we chose to invest in Individual Retirement Accounts for our robo advice product at Jemstep, </span><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurajlewison/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Laura Lewison, the lead product manager responsible</span></a><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, did a return on investment analysis for the functionality and had the numbers ready for executive review of quarterly investment. She had co-innovation sessions with our customers to validate the need. She also created medium fidelity prototypes that simulated the functionality completed and tested the concept with real users.</span></span></p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Such innovation projects were given a full calendar quarter. They were treated like any other quarterly objective. The key difference was that the deliverables were user-validated concepts with fully developed medium fidelity prototypes. These deliverables and insights were then used to determine if and when we should invest in developing such functionality.</span></span></p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Every functionality we developed was put through a concept validation test with carefully chosen end users. For example, we could choose users in their forties, living in Texas, who have an individual retirement account, and a bank account to validate a concept. All this can be done in a matter of minutes and insights can be derived in a matter of hours. We used UserTesting.com to recruit users and conduct such validation. When possible, product managers met</span><a href="https://productdesignjournal.blogspot.com/2010/10/customer-research-principles-for.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> customers</span></a><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and validated the concepts as well.</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-42065092-7fff-22a8-7316-cb5536990db2"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 400px; overflow: hidden; width: 624px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img height="400" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/lJOeCzoj3rcwVXIoX8U7Uxt69cuZurVR_oK6YGWEs1RcSce6kVn0Vlxeg7C5d_5bkKKwYvISHdD5g6uiL8naOu7bbQ4ufMe-UKEaQgKZd7Z6veiwYqBCFaa1hhDSZihdr7mKKrBo" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="624" /></span></span></span></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">B. Quarterly Development Assignments.</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For Development projects product managers created <a href="https://productdesignjournal.blogspot.com/2019/06/the-anatomy-of-effective-product.html">product definition documents</a>, epics, user stories, acceptance criteria, and test cases. Designers created high fidelity mockups. Engineers programmed the functionality and demoed their progress every week.</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b id="docs-internal-guid-b7fec94a-7fff-86d0-2ac8-eef857be83f3" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Skills required for such an approach</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Because every product and capability was required to go through this framework, product managers and designers will have to learn specific skills. The skills required to perform these tasks are customer co-innovation skills, ability to create a concept story with low fidelity mockups, ability to create a medium fidelity prototype that explains the user journey, ability to conduct moderated and unmoderated concept validations using a service such as UserTesting.com, and the ability to write a product definition document.</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Challenges a product leader will face</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A product leader taking this approach will face the following challenges. </span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span>First, you may not get executive support for such investment. To get such support, convey that such an approach leads to the development of high quality products in a sustainable manner, while significantly increasing the chances of success. Unfortunately, not every senior executive understands the importance of design thinking and innovation. There may be good business reasons for that belief. </span></span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">My recommendation is to adapt the process to suit the company or find another company to work for. </span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">In today's hyper competitive world, companies that take this approach will most likely beat companies that do not take this approach. </span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Second, a product leader may face resistance from product managers who may not see some of these tasks as their responsibilities. Product designers may see this as product managers encroaching upon their area of expertise. These are genuine concerns and challenges that will have to be addressed. In my experience, particularly at Jemstep, my colleagues found a way to make this happen. There may be exceptions, which the product leader will have to manage.</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Why was this not done before?</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The above framework sounds logical and simple enough. So, why is this not implemented more broadly in more companies? I believe that design thinking, concept story creation and user validation functions were considered very specialized and expensive activities. In SAP for example such research was conducted in separate buildings where users were recruited and paid to participate in person. Testing one feature used to cost tens of thousands of dollars. That has changed significantly with the advent of online services such as UserTesting.com. Prototyping tools have evolved significantly in the past few years. Today, it is possible for a skilled product manager and designer to simulate a final product pretty quickly. Product managers and the design team at Jemstep led by </span><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidma06/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #1155cc; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">David Ma</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> built medium fidelity prototypes for every feature and validated most features with real users before the feature was presented as candidates for development. I know from experience that this is possible and doable.</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Taking this approach requires hard work, skill and commitment. However, this is a foolproof way to build commercially successful products that customers value. If there is enough interest, I may expand on this topic a bit more in the future.</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></p><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div></span>Prashanth Padmanabhanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18109341721500716760noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8505141.post-35207973750847393502020-10-06T01:55:00.009-07:002020-10-06T09:19:37.761-07:00Designing the machine that makes the machine<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-abc7f6a5-7fff-add3-9dc9-93a5d794de1d"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-09b0325a-7fff-85b7-6466-7fa0f8406767"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><p dir="ltr" style="color: black; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">In the past decade, I was hired as a product leader to execute multiple assignments in the human capital management, health benefits and financial services industries. Over the years I learned that when an organization hired me as a product leader they not only hired me to design the machine (the product) but also to design the machine that makes the machine. </span></span></p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="color: black; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">Elon Musk famously pointed out that “The machine that makes the machine is vastly harder than the machine itself”. He added "The extreme difficulty of scaling production of a new technology is not well understood. It is 1000% to 10,000% harder than making a few prototypes."</span></span></p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span><p dir="ltr" style="color: black; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">A product leader is hired to design the machine that makes the machine</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="color: black; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="color: black; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Based on my conversations with a few CEOs and business leaders who hired me or wanted to hire me, I determined that the most important value a product leader is expected to bring to the table is the ability to define what the machine that makes the machine is, build it and run it. Very few job descriptions for a product leader (Director, Vice President or Chief Product Officer) call this out clearly, let alone define what that is. Even the hiring managers, who were CEOs of small companies or business leaders in a big company, were not able to articulate this very clearly to me. Instead they said one of the following things. These are real scenarios and quotes from CEOs of companies that hired me or wanted to hire me.</span></span></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 17.3333px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></span></div><ol style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><li dir="ltr" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div style="color: black; font-size: 13pt; text-align: left; white-space: pre;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Scenario 1:</span><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> We believe we have a good idea to solve a customer need and have smart engineers who have some solutions. We need a leader to architect the product to ensure that it brings value for customers, validate it with customers and then rapidly scale it for hundreds of customers. </span></span></div><p></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div style="color: black; font-size: 13pt; text-align: left; white-space: pre;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Scenario 2: </span><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We have identified a major opportunity in our industry. We have smart people who have extensive experience in the industry. We are working with two customers to provide solutions. They are excited about what they see. But every project requires our engineering team and client services team to be involved every day. Our CEO, Client Services and Sales can’t agree on what is priority. We think a product leader can step in and provide a roadmap and deliver high quality products reliably. </span></span></div><p></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div style="color: black; font-size: 13pt; text-align: left; white-space: pre;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Scenario 3: </span><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We have a product that a few companies bought. We poured smart people and money into it. However we are struggling with delivering the product because there are competing priorities for our customers and we have a hard time delivering anything. </span></span></div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 17.3333px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Scenarios A, B and C are companies usually at the Series A funding stage if they are private. They may be small divisions within a larger public company. Such divisions resemble a Series A company in terms of purpose, autonomy, responsibility and investment.</span></div></span></span><p></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="color: black; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Scenario 4: </span><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We have delivered a very successful product. Millions of users are using it. They love it. We grew rapidly and hired many smart individual contributors who are great at defining and delivering features. However, we need product leaders who make the team work together well to serve customers at a scale we are not used to. The processes, skills, tools, artifacts and frameworks that worked for 1 Million users may not work for the number of users we have now. We need a product leader who can bring experience, hire new talent, mentor them, help them develop professionally, develop new leaders, bring wisdom, and execute with discipline in a regulated industry. </span></span></p></li></ol><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="color: black; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Let’s now look at how a machine could be designed to meet these needs.</span></span></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="color: black; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Ray Dalio, the leader of the most successful hedge fund in the world said that the role of a leader is to design a machine that can produce outcomes that meet an organization’s goal. He defined the machine as people and culture. I extended that framework a few years back to include what a product leader’s machine for delivering outcomes for a product company might look like. This is based on my experience executing about 4 assignments in the past decade. It has evolved over time.</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="color: black; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="color: black; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Figure: The Product Management Machine</span></span></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="color: black; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 229px; overflow: hidden; width: 624px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><img height="229" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/ykDrjyym4U0ffFEoiUvCx--kRjlIQxLENHni2S5EdL2nZE2OFZhYtMzh86NMnReI6Yyc9TU2aCCJ_cc8fTM10YimtDtb1HEO9P-4k1TIhowY2XZr9FpPe54EnJyNa12JxfAMOfF4" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="624" /></span></span></span></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="color: black; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">This is how a product leader can go about using this framework when starting a new assignment within the company or in a new company. This could be the first 90 day plan for a product leader.</span></span></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="color: black; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Before accepting the assignment.</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="color: black; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></span></p><ol style="color: black; font-size: 13pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><li dir="ltr" style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Determine </span><a href="https://twitter.com/shreyas/status/1274835474985611264" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the maturity level of product management in the organization</span></a><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Are you the first product leader? Is product management at an experimental stage? Is it valued and respected? The importance of product management for a company may change over time.</span></span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Understand the mission of the company. For example, the mission could be to ‘democratize financial advice’, or ‘simplify navigating the healthcare system’. Ensure that you believe in that mission and its impact on society.</span></span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If you are not familiar with the industry or subdomain, learn and get certified in the specific subdomain. For example, a year before I joined Castlight Health, I got certified in data science and machine learning from Johns Hopkins. When I joined the financial services industry, I called a few of my expert friends and learned the domain through a few work sessions. Recently I added some certifications on Financial Technology from Wharton University. Certifications and learning by conversations are effective ways to understand the domain. Now-a-days, you can learn almost any topic from top universities in a matter of weeks. One of the main skills a product leader needs to have is to know how to learn ten times faster than normal. </span><a href="https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I highly recommend this course</span></a><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> that teaches you how to learn.</span></span></p></li></ol><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="color: black; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">After accepting the assignment but before starting it.</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="color: black; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></span></p><ol style="color: black; font-size: 13pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><li dir="ltr" style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Listen to engineering leaders to build credibility. Meet them for coffee or over the phone to understand their point of view and challenges. Convey that you are there to serve them well and you value engineering.</span></span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Listen to client services leaders or user growth leaders and the support team leader to understand their challenges. Since they are responsible for retaining customers, they can give you raw insights into what is happening on the ground.</span></span></p></li></ol><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="color: black; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Month ONE</span></span></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><ol style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><li dir="ltr" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div style="color: black; font-size: 13pt; text-align: left; white-space: pre;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Understand the top three priorities for the year </span><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">from the CEO or the business leader responsible. For example, when I joined Jemstep, my manager and Jemstep CEO, </span><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/simonroy/" style="font-size: 13pt; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Simon Roy</span></a><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> made it clear to me that delivering the product to the first major bank customer was the top priority. At Castlight Health, my manager and </span><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/maeveo2/" style="font-size: 13pt; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">current CEO Maeve O’Meara</span></a><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> made it clear to me that delivering the predictive analytics and programmatic marketing product to Walmart and Mondelez was the top priority for the first year.</span></span></div><span style="font-size: 17.3333px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div></span><p></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div style="color: black; font-size: 13pt; font-weight: 700; text-align: left; white-space: pre;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">People: It is important to understand people, their motivations and their character </span><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 400; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">as quickly as you can</span><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 400; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 400; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Once you get the right people in the bus, the bus can be taken to the right destination even if it went in the wrong direction for a few days or weeks. But the wrong people in the bus will ensure that you fail. </span></span></div><span style="font-size: 17.3333px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div></span><p></p></li><ol style="color: black; font-size: 13pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><li dir="ltr" style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: lower-alpha; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Focus on people. Understand their current assignments and individual feature roadmaps. Recognize overlaps on assignments or features without a clear custodian.</span></span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: lower-alpha; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Understand their aspirations and mental models.</span></span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: lower-alpha; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Learn about their prior experience and place them in </span><a href="https://www.pragmaticinstitute.com/framework/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the pragmatic product management framework.</span></a><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> For example, some may be closer to customers and not very close to engineering. Some may have deep experience in analytical thinking but not much experience in day to day execution. Some may be good at design thinking.</span></span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: lower-alpha; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Look at the artifacts they produce.</span></span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: lower-alpha; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Assess their mastery of the craft of product management.</span></span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: lower-alpha; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Design a learning map for everyone based on skill levels and gaps.</span></span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: lower-alpha; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Do not make any changes to people or organizations at this time.</span></span></p></li></ol></ol><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="color: black; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 36pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">Unfortunately there is no college degree for product management. It is likely that you will have a team or hire a team of people with varied backgrounds. All product managers irrespective of their responsibilities need to have a basic set of skills. For example, they needed to know how to write a user story. Verify the artifacts of even the most experienced product managers. You would be surprised by the lack of current skills. I normally put everyone through </span><a href="https://www.pragmaticinstitute.com/framework/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Pragmatic Product Management</span></a><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"> and key product managers through </span><a href="https://www.ideou.com/collections/featured-design-thinking/products/insights-for-innovation" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline;">IDEO’s Design Thinking</span></a><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"> training programs.</span></span></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><ol start="3" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><li dir="ltr" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div style="color: black; font-size: 13pt; text-align: left; white-space: pre;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Process: </b></span><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 400; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The purpose here is to understand if there is a commonly understood way of doing things to collaborate with customers or users, define features, design them, define them for engineering and deliver them.</span></span></div><span style="font-size: 17.3333px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div></span><p></p></li><ol style="color: black; font-size: 13pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><li dir="ltr" style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: lower-alpha; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Understand if there is a process for getting things done.</span></span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: lower-alpha; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">See actual artifacts delivered by the product and design teams. A person’s writing pretty accurately reflects their thinking, knowledge, communication skills and attention to detail. Written communication is critical in today’s world of distributed teams.</span></span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: lower-alpha; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Understand how the product team collaborates with engineering. Impress upon them that they need to partner with engineering and earn their trust to be successful. </span></span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: lower-alpha; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Understand the sharing of responsibilities between product managers and designers. </span></span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: lower-alpha; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Make minor process changes if needed. But do not change the process dramatically in the first month.</span></span></p></li></ol></ol><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 18pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div style="color: black; font-size: 13pt; text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-weight: 700;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">MONTH TWO</span></span></div><p></p><div style="display: inline; font-size: 13pt; text-align: left; white-space: pre;"><ol start="4" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><li style="font-weight: 700;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-abc7f6a5-7fff-add3-9dc9-93a5d794de1d"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-09b0325a-7fff-85b7-6466-7fa0f8406767"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="display: inline; font-size: 13pt; font-weight: 700; text-align: left; white-space: pre;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Platform: </span><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 400; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The product management team and the design team need effective tools to do their work. These tools do not have to be expensive. Many of these tools can be simple document creation tools or spreadsheet based tools. Some will be off the shelf tools. Ensure that everyone uses them and is skilled at using them.</span></div></span></span></span></span></li><ol style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><li dir="ltr" style="color: black; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: lower-alpha; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Understand tools used for product definition and design</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="color: black; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: lower-alpha; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Understand the tools used to deploy or implement the product.</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: lower-alpha; vertical-align: baseline;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></p><div style="color: black; font-size: 13pt; text-align: left; white-space: pre;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Understand the underlying technology platform from the engineering leaders.</span></div><p></p></li></ol><li dir="ltr" style="color: black; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Product Design: </span><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 400; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">You have to be familiar with the product in month 1. However, in month 2 you need to develop a deeper understanding of every persona, every user Journey, and every possible alternative flow. You may have to work with product managers and designers to accomplish this.
</span></p></li><ol style="color: black; font-size: 13pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><li dir="ltr" style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: lower-alpha; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Review every persona and the job they want the product to do.</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: lower-alpha; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Review every user journey in the product. Ask the team for the user flow diagrams. Ask them to create it if needed.</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: lower-alpha; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Review an entity relationships diagram if available with engineering. If not ask senior product managers to create an entities and logical relationships diagram. </span><a href="https://www.coursera.org/lecture/analytics-mysql/how-entity-relationship-diagrams-work-6kP20" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Train them to create one</span></a><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> if required.</span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: lower-alpha; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Visit three top customers or prospects and </span><a href="https://productdesignjournal.blogspot.com/2010/10/customer-research-principles-for.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">conduct co-innovation workshops </span></a><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. If possible, spend a day at your customer support team’s offices and listen to 50 calls. I have not done this in my previous jobs. Instead I listened to recordings of calls that my colleagues made at Castlight. However, colleagues who did this in-person told me that it is very valuable. I plan to do this for future assignments.</span></p></li></ol></span></ol></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="color: black; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><span style="font-family: georgia;">MONTH THREE</span></b></span></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><ol start="6" style="color: black; font-size: 13pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><li dir="ltr" style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: decimal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Product Strategy:</span><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> By month three it will be clear if the team is executing towards the company’s goals. However month 3 is the time to take a deep look at data to verify if the current and planned roadmaps bring value to customers. It is also time to verify if the company is getting back some of the value or will get back some of the value in the future.</span></span></p></li><ol style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><li dir="ltr" style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: lower-alpha; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">This is the time to ask senior product managers to perform ROI analysis on major functionality if they have not already done so. </span></span></p></li><li dir="ltr" style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; list-style-type: lower-alpha; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is also a good time to have a workshop with the senior product managers to review if the features under development align with the goals of the company. </span><a href="https://twitter.com/shreyas/status/1244810075908128768" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Shreyas Doshi of Stripe has done a very good job of defining good and bad product strategy</span></a><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. It is worth a read to understand what needs to be done.</span></span></p></li></ol></ol><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="color: black; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Communicating your work to the organization.</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="color: black; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="color: black; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">It is important to communicate what you are doing as a product leader to those who do the work following your directions and senior leaders who expect you to produce the desired outcomes. I normally send a weekly work plan email to critical leaders and colleagues outlining the main priorities of the week and what I plan to do and who I plan to work with. It serves many purposes. It helps the product leader earn credibility with product, engineering and key business leaders. It keeps the CEO and senior leaders informed about the areas of focus for the week. More importantly it also points out what the product leader is not planning to do. It gives others an opportunity to point out important tasks if they don’t see it. This is hard to do. But very valuable.</span></span></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="color: black; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Applying this framework</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="color: black; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="color: black; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">This framework is based on my experience. It may not apply to every scenario. I am certain it won’t apply to any scenario and organization without some modification. I also want to point out that this is a machine that requires continuous monitoring and nurturing. It is not a self-driving car. It needs a driver, the product leader.</span></span></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><p dir="ltr" style="color: black; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-size: 13pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Product leaders could use this framework as a starting point when they start an assignment or a new job. Product managers who aspire to become product leaders could use this framework to understand how their product leaders might be approaching their work. CEOs and business leaders considering hiring product leaders (Directors, Vice Presidents, Chief Product Officers) can use this framework to understand what a product leader can and should bring to their organization. If you use it, let me know. I look forward to learning from all of you.</span></span></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div></span></span></span></span></div>Prashanth Padmanabhanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18109341721500716760noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8505141.post-92155937788531312322019-12-27T14:33:00.001-08:002019-12-28T23:05:55.826-08:00Ideation and Innovation In The Product Design and Development Life Cycle<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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For the the past 8 years or so, I have been designing, developing and delivering cloud based enterprise software in a quarterly cadence for use by employees and customers of organizations. This model is normally referred to as business to business to consumer (B2B2C) model. I have done this in the human capital management, health benefits and recently in the financial technology industries. In all these organizations, I followed a quarterly development cycle where senior executives and product leaders set the business goals for a year and product managers defined features that need to be developed to meet those goals with quarterly planning and delivery cycles. </div>
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When developing functionality rapidly quarter after quarter, I noticed that sometimes product teams become delivery oriented and lose their ability to innovate. They stop meeting users and customers in a planned and systematic way. Market research and innovations becomes the responsibility of a few individuals. No matter how smart those individuals are, they eventually run out of energy, ideas, and lose touch with the capabilities of the organization. When this happens, product managers who deliver a product, start looking up to senior executives to point them to the next big thing. If they do not hear a clear direction from senior executives, they become demotivated and may leave the organization or become less engaged with the with the mission of the company. Slowly but steadily, talented people leave and the organization fails.</div>
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There is another extreme scenario that happens in some startup organizations where there is no successful product yet. In such organizations, every work session and every meeting becomes a new product brain storming session with no frameworks or business processes to listen to the voice of the market, identify the pain of a customer, test the feasibility of a solution, confirm a hypothesis, clarify the details of a solution, pilot it for a customer and build a product in a phased manner. In this scenario, the organization makes poor investment decisions, product decisions and commercialization decisions. The organization either fails or takes a very long time to become successful.</div>
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These are not good results for any organization.</div>
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I believe it is necessary for the sustainability of an enterprise software business to incorporate the process of ideation and innovation in the product design and development process. It is also important to tap the creativity and talent of many people in the organization rather than rely on the vision of one or two people in the company. I developed the following framework a few years back to do this. It has worked well for me and has helped me created products that bring multiple millions in annual recurring revenue. Please note that this framework has been tested only in business to business to consumer software models. This is designed to work in an existing medium sized software organization with 100 to 500 employees. Smaller organizations may take a different more nimbler approach. </div>
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<b>1. Proof of concept :</b> This is the stage where executives have a hypothesis about a market need and a product manager or engineer has an idea to build a solution. At this stage, one senior product manager working with a senior engineering architect builds a proof of concept to test the feasibility of the solution. They may show the solution to end consumers and get their inputs at this stage. No formal customer co-innovation or user testing is done. At the end of this session they produce a functioning proof of concept that proves that their idea works. I normally prefer to make this a project to be completed within a quarter. This proof of concept is formally tracked as a quarterly objective. It should take about 25 percent of an experienced and motivated product manager's time and about 25 percent of an engineering architect's time.. That translates to about 200 hours of work in a quarter.<br />
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<b>2. Co-Innovation: </b>Once a solution is proven to be feasible with the capabilities available in the organization, it is time to go meet 2-3 customers for 2 hours work sessions. Product managers will have to create detailed <a href="https://www.nngroup.com/articles/storyboards-visualize-ideas/">concept stories with low fidelity mock-ups</a> to tell the story to customers. usually 2-3 concept stories explaining 2-3 user cases will work. Once they complete the co-innovation sessions with 2-3 customers or prospects, they should be able to define a possible solution and<a href="https://productdesignjournal.blogspot.com/2012/04/prototyping-backyard-garden.html"> prototype it using medium fidelity mocks</a>. It is important that they prototype almost 90 percent of the functionality to ensure that prototype conveys the user experience and value created for a customer. <a href="https://productdesignjournal.blogspot.com/2010/10/customer-research-principles-for.html">Co-Innovation sessions</a> require senior product leaders who understand the <a href="https://www.ideou.com/pages/design-thinking">design thinking process</a>, a user experience designer and a sales executive. The sales executive's role is to guide the team to work with appropriate prospects and customers who are most likely to co-innovate and most likely to buy the proposed solution. The co-innovation session should be led by the product team and not the sales team. If done well, this should lead to a paid pilot project with a customer.<br />
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<b>3. Pilot</b>: This is the stage where one customers is willing to pay to test the solution. At this time, it is important to commit to the delivery of the solution as long as the customer signs a contract or statement of work. The project will be considered a pilot only if there is a paying customer. If no customer is willing to pay, then the co-innovation process continues until the product meet the needs of a customer. Even when one customer is using the solution, it is still not appropriate to call it a product, until the solution has been implemented for at least two customers.<br />
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<b>4. Minimum Viable Product:</b> I consider any functionality or solution to be a product, even a <a href="https://productdesignjournal.blogspot.com/2017/06/how-to-build-minimum-viable-product.html">minimum viable one</a>, only when it meets the needs of at least two paying customers. Once the solution has been implemented for two customers, the sales team can start selling the product to several customers. This stage will require multiple senior product managers and multiple engineering teams working full time to build features that meet the needs of the market and strategic customers. It is important to note that a product considered minimum viable for one customer may not be so for another customer. this will be the case until the product reaches about 10 customers.<br />
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<b>5. Growth: </b>When a product goes beyond two customers, it is time to think about scaling the product for dozens of customers. This is when a platform product manager, usually a senior leader in the team, and a senior engineering architect join the team to build foundations such as configuration tools, reports, scalable infrastructure and data models. This usually takes about on 1-2 product managers working with multiple engineering teams for 2-3 quarters. The skills required to do this are very different from the skills required to build a minimum viable product.<br />
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<b>The key take aways:</b><br />
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<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>It is possible to incorporate an innovation framework into the quarterly product planning and development process to tap into the talent and creativity of many people in the organization in a systematic and sustainable manner.</li>
<li>Product organizations that recognize the different stages of product design and development and apply different execution frameworks to each type of work will outperform those who don't.</li>
</ul>
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Executive teams that recognize this and invest in such frameworks and people will outperform those who do not do so.<br />
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Prashanth Padmanabhanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18109341721500716760noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8505141.post-41726711094300705732019-06-20T00:33:00.007-07:002023-12-10T10:47:44.004-08:00The Anatomy of an Effective Product Definition Document<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #374151; font-family: Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Imagine a tool that not only organizes your team's thoughts but also becomes the cornerstone of collaboration and debate in product development. That's the power of a well-crafted product definition document. As a Vice President of Product Management, I've seen firsthand how this crucial artifact serves dual purposes. It's not just about gathering ideas; it's a platform for engaging discussions with customer success managers, professional services teams, and the product team itself.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(69,89,164,.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; color: #374151; font-family: Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; margin: 1.25em 0px; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(69,89,164,.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--tw-prose-bold); font-weight: 600;">Empowering Product Managers with a Structured Approach</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(69,89,164,.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; color: #374151; font-family: Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; margin: 1.25em 0px; white-space-collapse: preserve;">During each quarterly planning stage, I encourage every product manager, especially the newcomers, to craft a product definition document. For those unfamiliar with this process, I provide a structured framework. This framework is designed to:</p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="color: #374151; font-family: Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Develop empathy for the user.</span></li><li><span style="color: #374151; font-family: Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Garner inputs from customer success and professional services.</span></li><li><span style="color: #374151; font-family: Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Foster collaboration with technical architects during the definition phase.</span></li><li><span style="color: #374151; font-family: Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Shift the mindset from 'inventor' to 'custodian' of the solution.</span></li><li><span style="color: #374151; font-family: Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Encourage the development and defense of a unique point of view.</span></li><li><span style="color: #374151; font-family: Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Build credibility in proposing solutions.</span></li></ol></div>
<p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(69,89,164,.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; color: #374151; font-family: Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; margin: 1.25em 0px; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(69,89,164,.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--tw-prose-bold); font-weight: 600;">Distinguishing the Product Definition Document</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(69,89,164,.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; color: #374151; font-family: Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; margin: 1.25em 0px; white-space-collapse: preserve;">It's crucial to understand that a product definition document is distinct from a vision document. Its primary function is to outline functionalities achievable within a planning period, typically a quarter or 3 months.</p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(69,89,164,.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; color: #374151; font-family: Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; margin: 1.25em 0px; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(69,89,164,.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--tw-prose-bold); font-weight: 600;">Key Characteristics of an Effective Product Definition Document</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(69,89,164,.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px;"></p><ol style="color: #374151; font-family: Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; text-align: left; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><li><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(69,89,164,.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--tw-prose-bold); font-weight: 600;">Meaningful Title</span>: The title should be clear and understandable across the organization. A well-chosen title, like "Contact Center Agent Experience for Web Chat - Phase 1," indicates thoughtful consideration of the problem's nature and scope.
</li><li><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(69,89,164,.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--tw-prose-bold); font-family: Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Date</span><span style="color: #374151; font-family: Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; white-space-collapse: preserve;">: Including the creation and last updated dates provides valuable context, especially when the document is revisited months later
</span></li><li><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(69,89,164,.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--tw-prose-bold); font-family: Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Authors and Contributors</span><span style="color: #374151; font-family: Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; white-space-collapse: preserve;">: This section should reflect a diverse range of inputs, highlighting the collaborative nature of the project.
</span></li><li><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(69,89,164,.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--tw-prose-bold); font-family: Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Document Purpose</span><span style="color: #374151; font-family: Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; white-space-collapse: preserve;">: Clearly articulate whether the document is for collaboration, development readiness, or requires legal or clinical review. This reflects the product manager's awareness of the document's audience and its multi-stage development process.
</span></li><li><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(69,89,164,.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--tw-prose-bold); font-family: Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Key Word Explanation</span><span style="color: #374151; font-family: Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; white-space-collapse: preserve;">: Define key terms in simple language to avoid confusion and facilitate clear, concise discussions. For example, explaining terms like "Sweepstakes" or "Call Disposition" ensures everyone is on the same page.
</span></li><li><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(69,89,164,.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--tw-prose-bold); font-family: Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Executive Summary</span><span style="color: #374151; font-family: Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; white-space-collapse: preserve;">: This is not just for executives; it's a concise overview for all readers, outlining the user persona, their challenges, and the proposed solutions. A well-written summary is often a hallmark of an experienced product manager.
The executive summary should explain the JOB the customer is trying to get done. The PAIN they will experience, if they do not have a solution and the GAIN. The gain is the solution and its value proposition for the user.
For example, a tenant in an apartment wants to get a broken faucet fixed quickly by explaining the problem to the customer service person of the property manager. In this case the JOB is to resolve the problem fast. The PAIN is wasted time and a flooded apartment. The GAIN: Attaching a picture of the leaking faucet to her text message to the customer service team will explain the problem better and will lead to faster resolution.
</span></li><li><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(69,89,164,.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--tw-prose-bold); font-family: Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; white-space-collapse: preserve;">User Interaction Diagram</span><span style="color: #374151; font-family: Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; white-space-collapse: preserve;">: Include a persona description, a simple, abstract diagram showing how the user will interact with the product or feature. This visual element can be more effective than lengthy descriptions.
Figure: Sometimes all it takes is a hand drawn diagram.
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwSaRwk49_A1grhCF_o4b2JoKFjjjWXi-bNnUs0AB8Vwvmp0OGaibFbNTNFgpR6Js00NoHIIhYdFVQRRsHwl84Gu5saKC4WIjqQOWAdaMr2_JRhu6q0Gu0HCZcqiHAudySl6rR/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-09-24+at+10.41.11+PM.png" style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: medium;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwSaRwk49_A1grhCF_o4b2JoKFjjjWXi-bNnUs0AB8Vwvmp0OGaibFbNTNFgpR6Js00NoHIIhYdFVQRRsHwl84Gu5saKC4WIjqQOWAdaMr2_JRhu6q0Gu0HCZcqiHAudySl6rR/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-09-24+at+10.41.11+PM.png" /></a>
</span></li><li><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(69,89,164,.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--tw-prose-bold); font-family: Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Feature Details</span><span style="color: #374151; font-family: Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; white-space-collapse: preserve;">: Use sentences and diagrams to describe the feature. This section evolves with each work session, often containing links to detailed use cases, mocks or prototypes.
</span></li><li><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(69,89,164,.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--tw-prose-bold); font-family: Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Risks, Assumptions, and Limitations</span><span style="color: #374151; font-family: Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; white-space-collapse: preserve;">: A transparent discussion of these aspects shows a realistic understanding of the project scope.
</span></li><li><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(69,89,164,.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--tw-prose-bold); font-family: Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Acceptance Criteria</span><span style="color: #374151; font-family: Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; white-space-collapse: preserve;">: Define what criteria will be used to verify the completion of work.</span></li></ol><p></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(69,89,164,.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; color: #374151; font-family: Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; margin: 1.25em 0px; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(69,89,164,.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--tw-prose-bold); font-weight: 600;">Conclusion: The Art of Conciseness and Clarity</span></p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(69,89,164,.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; color: #374151; font-family: Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; margin: 1.25em 0px; white-space-collapse: preserve;">The best product definition documents are concise, typically starting as a 2-page document and potentially extending up to 5 pages. Anything more comprehensive is better suited for a prototype or can be broken down into multiple phases. As a product manager, your goal is to convey your vision clearly and succinctly, setting the stage for successful development and collaboration.</p><p style="--tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-ring-color: rgba(69,89,164,.5); --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 transparent; --tw-shadow: 0 0 transparent; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; border: 0px solid rgb(217, 217, 227); box-sizing: border-box; color: #374151; font-family: Söhne, ui-sans-serif, system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px; margin: 1.25em 0px; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></p><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></div>
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Prashanth Padmanabhanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18109341721500716760noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8505141.post-84745231556549768472018-01-28T00:27:00.002-08:002018-01-31T23:12:08.151-08:00When A Product Says It Uses Machine Learning What Does It Mean?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I was at my employer's annual sales conference recently where many digital health vendors and their CEOs were present. In one of the sessions they all said that they use machine learning to personalize their product for users. The CEOs did not go into any details. I could tell that some of my colleagues and partners in the audience were skeptical, but they did not ask the leaders of those companies to elaborate. I suspect that most people in the audience did not understand what the leaders of those companies meant when they said they use machine learning. Unfortunately that might be the case with many enterprise software buyers. But it does not have to be that way. While designing machine learning driven products is tough and requires a highly skilled team of data analysts, data scientists data engineers, and product managers, the basic concept of machine learning is quite simple. In this post, I will take a few examples from the real world and my experience at Castlight, building machine learning driven products, to explain what a machine learning model is, what a simple rules based model is, and how those models are used in the real world to benefit employees of companies that buy software driven by such models.<br />
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At Castlight Health, we make it simple for employees of American companies to navigate their healthcare, benefits and wellness programs. We provide employees with a web application and a mobile application where they can see health benefits information personalized to their needs. To do this, we use a combination of rules based and machine learning based models. This is a hypothetical example of a rules based model. "If a pregnant woman is over 35 years of age, place her in a segment called high-risk-pregnancy". This model is a not a machine learning driven model. It is driven by clinical rules written by experienced clinicians. Software developers simply listen to clinicians and turn that rule into a software program. This information is then given to our personalization engine. Once our personalization engine understands a woman is in the high-risk-pregnancy segment, benefits programs that are relevant for a woman with high risk pregnancy are promoted to her via our web, mobile and email channels. When she logs into our application, instead of viewing information about all the benefits her employer provides, which could be exhausting, she will see benefits that are relevant for her. The hypothesis is that such personalization makes employees aware of relevant benefits, engages them with the benefits providers and wellness programs in a timely manner, improves their health, and reduces healthcare costs for them and their employers. This actually works. That is why hundreds of employers pay us tens of millions of dollars every year. The example we saw above is rules based prediction and personalization. You may be wondering about an example where machine learning is used to predict and personalize. To understand that we need to first understand what machine learning is.<br />
<b><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span>What Is A Machine Learning Learning Model?</b><br />
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A machine learning model is where software developers do not program the computer (the machine) with an explicit logic. Instead they make the machine learn by training the machine with historical information. For example, if we want to check if an email is spam or not spam we can create a machine learning model. To do this data scientist will take several known spam emails, label them as 'spam' and feed those to a suitable computer program, 'the machine'. Data scientists will not say why the email is spam. They will simply say "My dear machine, this is a spam email. I want you to look at the email and recognize that this email is spam". So the machine learns what a spam email might be like and, after looking at enough spam emails, gets better and better at identifying a spam email. After it gets really good at identifying spam email, the model is deployed and goes to work identifying spam email in the real world and putting them in the junk folder. It is important to note that data scientists in most product teams don't invent the computer algorithms they use. They simply use an existing computer algorithm and build a model. It is a bit like this. An electric car engineering team does not have to invent the electric motor. They just have to design it for the particular type of car and build it.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKc8QVQiCsF_W_pkDFzqeaY5ANKl7x28hjI0jiY9Jp7uoGrRC2AHYOAfrDSGsn3a0UPgoVLD9e4PDAcE9uWnytTdoD4k1GIILz9f8d1xKoFEMmdXpsM9pcaHzaex2SXWxfyeGr/s1600/Screen+Shot+2018-01-28+at+1.30.17+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="352" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKc8QVQiCsF_W_pkDFzqeaY5ANKl7x28hjI0jiY9Jp7uoGrRC2AHYOAfrDSGsn3a0UPgoVLD9e4PDAcE9uWnytTdoD4k1GIILz9f8d1xKoFEMmdXpsM9pcaHzaex2SXWxfyeGr/s640/Screen+Shot+2018-01-28+at+1.30.17+AM.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image Courtesy: Europeana Collections</td></tr>
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<b>A Machine Learning Model use Case For Benefits Navigation</b></div>
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We just looked at a real world example of a machine learning model. I now want to give you a hypothetical use case of a machine learning model in a health navigation product such as the one Castlight Health provides. Let's say that employers want employees who get an unnecessary back surgery to get a second opinion before they decide on the back surgery. This is because clinicians know from experience that many back surgeries do not improve the condition of a person's back. Instead they cost a lot of money for the employer and the employee and cause a lot of pain and suffering for the employee. In most cases, a surgery also results in weeks of time off from work and, in some cases, lost wages for the employee. So there is a big incentive to identify people who might get a back surgery and make them aware of second opinion programs as well as inform them about the costs and benefits of back surgeries. The problem is there is no simple rule to find out who might be considering a back surgery. This is where machine learning comes handy. Castlight data scientists have access to de-identified information about the medical history of people who had a back surgery. They can feed that information to a computer algorithm (the machine) and tell that machine "My dear machine, this is the medical history of people who had a back surgery in the past. I don't know why they got a back surgery. But they all did. I want you to look at this data and learn to identify people who are likely to get a back surgery." With enough data the Castlight machine learning models gets really good at identifying people who are likely to get a back surgery. The model is then deployed to analyze medical data of employees and predict if someone is likely to get a back surgery. Once it identifies such people, the model informs the Castlight personalization engine about this. The personalization engine then goes to work, promoting second opinion programs and educational information to those identified via web, mobile and email channels. Once again, the hypothesis is that even if the product prevents only a few unnecessary back surgeries a year, the cost savings could be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars and the health improvements could be significant too.<br />
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I avoided technical terms on purpose in the above examples. Data scientists reading this post, will recognize that what I described above is supervised learning. There are other types of machine learning, which I did not go into in this post.<br />
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If you are an enterprise buyer or a sale person competing against another product claiming to be machine learning driven or artificial intelligence driven, ask the product manager or the sales person to explain the use case. If they are not able to explain in simple terms what they are using machine learning and how it turns into real value, you should be very skeptical about their claims and verify before buying their software. A product does not have to be machine learning driven to be good. Simple rules based engines can do a good job to address many problems. However, it is important to understand the difference.<br />
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Please note that for business reasons, I did not use actual use cases. I also did not go into more details about our personalization engine, and our system of intelligence, which are far more sophisticated than what I outlined here. If you would like to learn more, contact me or my colleagues at Castlight Health and we will be glad to share more. If you are in the San Francisco Bay area drop by at our San Francisco or Mountain View offices and I will be glad to give you a demo of our products. If you like this kind of work and want to join Castlight, give me a call. We are always looking for good data scientists, data engineers, clinicians and product managers who understand machine learning and data driven products.<br />
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Prashanth Padmanabhanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18109341721500716760noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8505141.post-71194794436549819242017-06-18T00:10:00.001-07:002017-06-18T00:29:12.884-07:00How To Build A Minimum Viable Product<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Earlier this year, my employer <a href="http://www.castlighthealth.com/press-releases/castlight-health-announces-strategic-acquisition-of-jiff/">Castlight Health acquired another company called</a> <a href="https://www.jiff.com/">Jiff</a>. I took over the product responsibility for machine learning driven and user input driven personalization for the combined companies. The team that built personalization at Jiff is a capable team with many ideas, some customer implementation under their belt and tens of customers who have bought into those ideas. Looking at the clear need in the market, I decided to focus on executing on those ideas to accelerate delivery of functionality to customers who were paying us millions of dollars every year. Since then the team has delivered their first major functionality release which personalizes Jiff home page and prescribes benefits based on machine learning driven prediction intelligence from Castlight. We are now working towards the next release focusing on user input driven personalization and benefits prescription.<br />
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When I did my initial analysis of the team and Jiff personalization product, I noticed that like any young and ambitious team, my colleagues were trying to build too many things too fast. I introduced two principles. The first one is to design and <b>build minimum viable products </b>rather than release too much functionality at one time. The second principle is to <b>deliver value early and often</b>. I will talk about the first principle in this post.<br />
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<b>Minimum Viable Product (MVP)</b><br />
I shared the diagram below with the team and explained how we need to build a minimum viable product. For example, I explained to them that if we are building Survey functionality, we should not release it without building at least a simple reporting functionality. It is not only a product error, but also a business error. If we release a Survey feature without associated reporting, customers will reach out to us for reporting, increasing our cost of customer operations. Since manual reporting will involve data analysts and engineers, we will also lose the opportunity to build new valuable features. All these things will make the customer wait for days and weeks and will most certainly decrease their satisfaction with our product. It will also slow down the delivery of future innovation.<br />
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I also asked the team to <a href="http://productdesignjournal.blogspot.com/2012/05/building-architect-vs-landlord.html">think like a landlord rather than like an architect</a>. The team responded very well. We started defining our products in a very disciplined manner. We consciously reduced features that were not necessary for the MVP. We started thinking about total cost of operations rather than just the first release of the product. Sometimes, sales teams and even business executives lose track of this fundamental principle. It is the responsibility of the product manager to ensure that this principle is understood and adhered to.<br />
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<b>Deliver Value Early and Often</b><br />
We also followed the principle of delivering value early and often to customers. We have large customers who have hundreds of thousands of users. Such customers go live with our benefits management platform usually once a year. These implementation projects are large, take months to execute and have tens of work streams involving multiple teams. I notice a tendency among implementation teams to not show any product until very late in the process. I am putting down a process in place where we show and even release functionality to customers months ahead of their requested delivery dates. I believe it has several advantages. I will write more about this principle in a future post.</div>
Prashanth Padmanabhanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18109341721500716760noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8505141.post-9299551296611907882017-03-22T23:04:00.001-07:002017-03-27T23:51:45.809-07:00Road-mapping User Journeys Is Better Than Road-mapping Features<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<b>Heads of product will face this problem in most software product companies.</b> During every planning period, every product team comes with a long list of features they want to build. Most features will have cryptic names that few people understand and investments are made without even a clear idea about what is being built let along the return on investments. All well-meaning product teams clammer to get their features in without realizing how they fit into the overall objectives of the company. They build the features. The features don't fit well together. Even if they are good, they never get promoted to the right users at the right time. Even in the event the products are used, the reporting teams don't have an idea that the features are getting used because they did not built the tracking instrumentation. Product marketing teams or aggressive sales teams make up their own stories about what the product can do with little input from the teams that built the product. Once the product is made available, disgruntled customers complain bitterly and refuse to renew their contract. The sales team comes to the product team and requests for features. The product team build features with no purpose other than to keep the contract from getting cancelled. Everybody loses including the customer.<br />
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<b>Such behavior of product teams might be overlooked for a while in a large company</b> with a very successful product that is already a market leader and makes huge profits. However if you are a company trying to build a product for a new market or if you are a small company working hard to keep your customers, this sort of behavior could kill your company or at the very least your product managers our of work in a couple of years. Slowly but steadily, product managers who build features without knowledge of user journeys and without tracking usage will slowly lose investment and their value to the organization and eventually their job. In other words if one wants to succeed as a product manager of product leader in the long run, user focused and data driven roadmap planning is probably the only way to go.<br />
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<b>Changing behavior of product teams is very hard.</b> But there is a framework that might work. In my early experiments with a user journey driven framework for roadmap planning, I see acceptance from various teams and acknowledgment of value from product managers. This is the framework. Ask your product teams, including product managers who build features, product managers who are custodians of existing features, user marketing teams that promote your products and analytics teams that instrument your product for tracking and reporting to think about all their features, assignments and campaigns in the context of a user's journey. Here is an example of a user journey [1] where multiple teams contribute.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9E0ic7wnpZPUjQqavfpg5oq_snuevfFqDQmfXL0I2SDSWprPLYgSEkf5sHDZ5UEBthWk8IWSuQ29fhjl8VyFbv8q4ohv7tQ0bBYqPimCzcZdfei-KwKHKEQYF8AuD8PY0F3Yn/s1600/Screen+Shot+2017-03-22+at+10.16.23+PM.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="252" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9E0ic7wnpZPUjQqavfpg5oq_snuevfFqDQmfXL0I2SDSWprPLYgSEkf5sHDZ5UEBthWk8IWSuQ29fhjl8VyFbv8q4ohv7tQ0bBYqPimCzcZdfei-KwKHKEQYF8AuD8PY0F3Yn/s640/Screen+Shot+2017-03-22+at+10.16.23+PM.png" width="640" /></a><br />
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Ask them to build a collection of the top 5 users journeys that their features form a part of and estimate the impact of those user journeys on product objectives. To do this first, they have to think about the user. Second, they have to think about the other product managers and teams that they need to rely on and collaborate with. Third they need to focus on how much engagement does their feature bring today. Fourth, they need to collaborate with the analytics teams to estimate the potential impact of the user journey on product objectives. Fifth, they need to identify instrumentation gaps in their features and think about building just the right instrumentation for reporting purposes.<br />
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During this process product teams will realize that a feature cannot become successful on its own. It required some one such as a user marketing teams and other upstream features such as home page or mobile channel to promote it. User marketing teams will realize that there are good features that bring value for customers not being promoted. Product managers will recognize that their feature usage is not being tracked by the reporting teams. This will help them convince the reporting instrumentation teams to build just the necessary instrumentation. Product teams can communicate a collection of user stories to product leaders, product marketing and sales so that they sell what has been built. Not what they cooked up. Customer success teams will be happy because they will get accurate reporting on user journeys that matter without having to wrestle with the analytics team to dig up data every time they have to report progress to a customer.<br />
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I am not saying this is easy. However it has worked in the past for me and my new experiments are showing signs of more promise. If done right, this approach could be the difference between your small software company staying in business or going out of business.<br />
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If you don't have a framework for evaluating features, product teams will use phrases such as 'customer commits', 'table stakes' or 'strategic project' to justify the investment. While customer specific features are part of every product team's work, when you hear such phrases from more than 25% of your product managers, as a head of product, you should be very concerned because you will end up with a hodgepodge of features that bring no value for your users. If you are a CEO, and you hear phrases like these from your product team very often, you should be very concerned because your investment is being squandered by a team that is inexperienced and has no framework for execution towards your business goals.<br />
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[1] The user journey discussed above is for a business to business to consumer (B2B2C) product company. Many enterprise software companies fall into this category. I am making the assumption here that you are a cloud product company and your customers pay you if and only if you can prove to them that their employees are using your product to either stay compliant, save money or help you make money.</div>
Prashanth Padmanabhanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18109341721500716760noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8505141.post-48154055204714834422017-01-12T07:58:00.001-08:002017-01-12T08:01:21.370-08:00Product Managers Could Explain Data Science Results In Plain English<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
One of the key responsibilities of a product manager working with a data science team could be to articulate the results of a data science project in plain English to other team members and stakeholders. I take the following approach to do this.<br />
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First, I request the data science team to aim for a small success within three months of work. In collaboration with the data scientists and a subject matter expert, I create a concept story (1) that outlines the specific results we aim to achieve. We aim for modest results in a short period rather than aim for very ambitious results in a year (4).<br />
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Second, I sit down and have a conversation with one of the data scientists (2) to understand the results of the data science project. I do this during the research phase of the project as soon as the team reaches the projects desired research goals (3). The data scientist will usually share a data file with the results of the data science project. I normally request the data scientist to point out the top three highlights of the research. We then verbalize the results and convert the results into a plain english sentence in a short work session. For example, in a data science project to match data sets, the plain English sentence might say "We were able to improve the match rate between dataset A and dataset B from about 2000 to about 10,000." I then build on the sentence by stating what it means for an end user. For example, the plain English statement might be "When a person looks at a doctor, she is five times more likely to see a hospital affiliation compared to before."<br />
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Third, I provide a screen shot of the application area where the data manifests itself to make the data easier to understand for all team members and stakeholders.<br />
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A product manager who takes on these responsibilities in the data product team can play a meaningful role (4). It is also a good way to gain credibility not only with the data scientists but also with stakeholders who may not always have a data science background. It might take 6 months and a couple of successful releases for the data scientists and stakeholders to appreciate the role of a product manager. Don't let that stop you. Keep at it and you will succeed.<br />
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1. I might share a sample concept story in a future post, if possible.<br />
2. Experienced data scientists are good at articulating the results achieved.<br />
3. Data science research outcome is later turned into scalable code by a data engineering team.<br />
4. Overstating the scope and impact of a data science project is a common mistake.<br />
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Prashanth Padmanabhanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18109341721500716760noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8505141.post-62826985648084392532017-01-12T03:09:00.001-08:002017-01-12T03:10:17.381-08:00Keep Application Teams Posted About Data Science Projects<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
In some cases the results of a data science project might lead to the creation of vast quantities of useful data. If the resulting data is used by applications, it is necessary to keep application engineering teams informed in advance so that they can be prepared for the increase in available data. They may have to invest in improving their infrastructure and performance to accommodate the new data.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4HY3mSXOBZLa4A3ri2ER81XwKQUFggekmqSsvA0wR0ttcqxwpme7Z4Q5D2QAW18XnQbK7ioSVAIAGqhPlOFrSeD_0yDyD4cvNqK5kkwnmAG8N5g1SVWs6BPQQvpM3pfIJC31a/s1600/Screen+Shot+2017-01-12+at+4.36.34+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="476" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4HY3mSXOBZLa4A3ri2ER81XwKQUFggekmqSsvA0wR0ttcqxwpme7Z4Q5D2QAW18XnQbK7ioSVAIAGqhPlOFrSeD_0yDyD4cvNqK5kkwnmAG8N5g1SVWs6BPQQvpM3pfIJC31a/s640/Screen+Shot+2017-01-12+at+4.36.34+PM.png" width="640" /></a></div>
Think of data as water and applications as the hydro electric dam that uses the water to generate electricity. A sudden unexpected deluge of water might overwhelm the turbines. So keep those responsible informed about the possible deluge. <br />
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This could be a key responsibility of a product manager working with a data science team.</div>
Prashanth Padmanabhanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18109341721500716760noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8505141.post-17067473637348613892017-01-11T09:42:00.000-08:002017-01-11T09:47:49.105-08:00Gene - An Intimate History - Book<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I took a few days off from work recently. During that time I read the book, <a href="http://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Gene/Siddhartha-Mukherjee/9781476733500" target="_blank">The Gene - An Intimate History by Siddhartha Mukherjee. </a> I read that the gene is going to change the world, the same way the atom and the bit changed the world.<br />
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Advances in technology have enabled human beings to not just read but also write into a gene. The idea of debugging a human being by editing the gene is cause for celebration and cause for concern at the same time. You can read the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/15/books/review/the-gene-by-siddhartha-mukherjee.html?_r=0" target="_blank">New York Times review of the book here.</a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhE7uLj9Vg4fwbLxcBU2t2_PTq1G8AB97lDCP_awsHutvhBxy6I-lkiyqZRVwM_JhzxlN86HEbkUo9qG3d1_GLCL1_qUX6PIXHvuuLIQlfqukr1IOVXxJfQAx374lojbcQmMC0e/s1600/gene.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhE7uLj9Vg4fwbLxcBU2t2_PTq1G8AB97lDCP_awsHutvhBxy6I-lkiyqZRVwM_JhzxlN86HEbkUo9qG3d1_GLCL1_qUX6PIXHvuuLIQlfqukr1IOVXxJfQAx374lojbcQmMC0e/s640/gene.jpg" width="418" /></a></div>
Prashanth Padmanabhanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18109341721500716760noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8505141.post-38310217951241131732017-01-11T08:55:00.001-08:002017-01-11T09:20:44.271-08:00Data Science Teams Are Twice As Big & Work Twice As Long As App Teams<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
At Castlight Health, I have worked with two data science teams that developed multiple data products. Based on my experience, I noticed that in a data product development team, the data science and engineering team is usually twice as big as the application development team. In other words, if you are developing a data product, your invest twice as much in the data science and engineering team as you would in an application engineering team in any given period.<br />
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Another important fact is that the data science and engineering team needs to work about twice as long as the application engineering team. Think about it this way. If you are developing a Maps product, the maps application engineering team might be about 4 engineers who work for an year to build the product. However the maps data teams will be about 8 people and will work for two years to create and operationalize the first version of the product.<br />
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If you are a product manager involved in planning a data product, this is a good insight to share with your stakeholders and investment decision makers. This of course is a rough idea based on data products in the healthcare industry.</div>
Prashanth Padmanabhanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18109341721500716760noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8505141.post-83973533303726946122016-12-29T16:46:00.000-08:002016-12-29T16:46:33.402-08:00Data Science In Real Life - Course<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
One of my development goals for Q4 2016 was to understand how data science happens in real life. I took a few days during the holidays to complete a course on this topic taught by researchers at the Johns Hopkins University. Unlike the other courses in the Executive Data Science specialization, this one was not always on topic. It did have very useful insights into what are the things that could go wrong and what are the pitfalls one can avoid. This year I applied the lessons learned from these courses to the data science projects I managed at Castlight. This knowledge contributed in a meaningful way to the success of such projects. The Executive Data Science specialization is a good one for product managers who want to work with data scientists.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWLIYoK2j7FF4Lew8YNrU_zO0odjRa2D0gt7uYBcsaXNB8Ww2cx1jX4LoAPcVlozdJtOv7zy9e4lcL0uP62ht5G_VXyOClnaSRnGYRrpTxUCk0fZmsmDzITvUEIhtPfJW5NmMV/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-12-29+at+4.25.15+PM.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="524" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWLIYoK2j7FF4Lew8YNrU_zO0odjRa2D0gt7uYBcsaXNB8Ww2cx1jX4LoAPcVlozdJtOv7zy9e4lcL0uP62ht5G_VXyOClnaSRnGYRrpTxUCk0fZmsmDzITvUEIhtPfJW5NmMV/s640/Screen+Shot+2016-12-29+at+4.25.15+PM.png" width="640" /></a></div>
Prashanth Padmanabhanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18109341721500716760noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8505141.post-34686678194141622072016-12-27T01:32:00.001-08:002019-07-14T15:55:55.424-07:00Product Design Of Everyday Things - Wine Glass Hanger <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The basic design of the wine glass rack.</td></tr>
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This week I took a break from thinking about designing data products to think about designing some day to day products. We have a lot of wine glasses at home that get used only during parties. So I decided to make a wooden wine glass rack for the pantry from some left over wood from an earlier project. The first step was to make a prototype to verify the basic design. The second step was to check how many glasses can a single rack hold. The third step was to build it and test the mounting and visual appeal. The fourth step was to install it in the pantry.<br />
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The principles of product design do not change much irrespective of the end product. Have a clear goal, build a prototype to verify the design of the minimum viable product, test the production version by simulating the final deployment and finally, deploy the product and learn from the experience. Improve if you can.<br />
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This one was designed and built in a few hours.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4avwrX5fo3sP-sg7V0Kf0m2LJt1W_9lJ67hXq0lfo9uEjpQBLyLFp9Gzq25K4swfZbPhZRk85yHm81QWv0s4KDc-KQ_KOWFdRUpJXVsO93NeGP1jQLkD9NZF89TXzoulxsrfe/s1600/IMG_1726.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4avwrX5fo3sP-sg7V0Kf0m2LJt1W_9lJ67hXq0lfo9uEjpQBLyLFp9Gzq25K4swfZbPhZRk85yHm81QWv0s4KDc-KQ_KOWFdRUpJXVsO93NeGP1jQLkD9NZF89TXzoulxsrfe/s640/IMG_1726.JPG" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Testing capacity. Will one rack hold 3 glasses?</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0QmWrc0JMg6ySxtKBOC97dWaM5V2Prr13XRjmjSUeTuLH4X4uZdJsyK-ASEr1uIzqvB-b2oZ3mf__I2DWUp-dH_oIqf90Taxz8Gxx374-RYek4czbco2fvRsP78oNA9NE4kMP/s1600/IMG_1732.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0QmWrc0JMg6ySxtKBOC97dWaM5V2Prr13XRjmjSUeTuLH4X4uZdJsyK-ASEr1uIzqvB-b2oZ3mf__I2DWUp-dH_oIqf90Taxz8Gxx374-RYek4czbco2fvRsP78oNA9NE4kMP/s640/IMG_1732.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Trial Installation in the garage to check how it looks when mounted with all glasses.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6BYcV_E0BhWjvF6a5vCkREQz1K_NXKhxnhqTAuDLp8iRClA3axBOhIrSahmqdVGCLQmCogMek6tchxZbkug8hCi7Nsf77Gtj8yY4tq7cdu4aQaz-Hma7oEdVB04HVwQQQkauW/s1600/IMG_1733.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6BYcV_E0BhWjvF6a5vCkREQz1K_NXKhxnhqTAuDLp8iRClA3axBOhIrSahmqdVGCLQmCogMek6tchxZbkug8hCi7Nsf77Gtj8yY4tq7cdu4aQaz-Hma7oEdVB04HVwQQQkauW/s640/IMG_1733.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Final installation in the pantry.</td></tr>
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Prashanth Padmanabhanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18109341721500716760noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8505141.post-12839778308198432012016-11-27T19:16:00.002-08:002016-11-27T22:33:47.939-08:00Data Science Can Help You Find A Good Doctor<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
In 2015, I led a team that built a data science driven product called <a href="http://productdesignjournal.blogspot.com/2015/11/predictive-health-insights-personalized.html" target="_blank">Action</a>. Action predicted people who might need care in the near future and helped them understand their benefits and their conditions better. Tens of leading companies in the US have Action now. Many more are in the process of implementing it.<br />
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The second data science driven project that I led at Castlight health was to address a seemingly simple problem that is very difficult to solve. This is the problem. How do you find a good doctor? How do you know if that doctor has treated many people for similar conditions before? Has the doctor kept up with advances in medicine. Does the doctor provide quality service? While these sound like simple questions, the answers are not easy to get. Information about quality of health care providers such as doctors are very hard to find. You can find reviews on sites such as Yelp. While those reviews are helpful, they may not provide the necessary information to make an informed decision. For example, you may not get information about the number of times a doctor has performed a procedure. You may not get information about the quality of outcomes. This is compounded by the fact that many doctors work at multiple hospitals and healthcare facilities.<br />
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The good news is such information is available from multiple sources and we have been adding such information to providers' profiles in Castlight Health for a long time. The bad news is such information is hard to decipher and verify. The data comes from varied sources in various intervals with varying levels of data quality. This is where data science comes in. Data from multiple sources can be combined and matched with healthcare providers such as physicians, using rules generated based on machine learning models. Data scientists and product managers train the models to match data using a training data set and then apply the model to vast quantities of data.<br />
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After spending a few months on this problem, our product and data science teams made the first release recently. We made significant improvements to coverage and accuracy. We will continue to make meaningful improvements every month to help people find a good doctor. It is important to note that there is nothing like clean data. Experienced data scientists and product managers in the data domain know that there is only less dirty data.<br />
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I am very pleased with the mission of the second project. I know that when the millions of people who use Castlight Health choose a doctor, there is a higher likelihood that they will pick a better doctor and as a result get a better outcome. When my daughter asks me what I do for a living, I plan to tell her that I help mommies and daddies find a good doctor for their children so that their children can be healthier. I am pretty sure she is going to be impressed.<br />
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If you do not have <a href="http://www.castlighthealth.com/" target="_blank">Castlight Health</a> at work, ask you benefits leader. It is a useful product to understand your benefits and make the best of it. </div>
Prashanth Padmanabhanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18109341721500716760noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8505141.post-75639883449429128442016-11-27T19:16:00.001-08:002016-11-27T19:18:28.544-08:00Book - Ego Is The Enemy<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I recently read t<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Ego-Enemy-Ryan-Holiday/dp/1591847818" target="_blank">he book "Ego Is The Enemy</a>" by Ryan Holiday. It is an interesting book that points out an important fact. In life and at work, if you take your ego out of the equation, work become a lot simpler and life becomes a lot more productive. It is hard to do but it worked for me a few times. Interestingly, my ego became a problem when my projects succeeded. That is the time when I needed something to ground myself. This book helped. Worth a read.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt3Y-OM1fGeDuI2MrbbndA7MfUmxrYcIE3dG0FIFKL7_qf0AfXK1Zr2K2pNxKU27mTDivmDN8DLNzXLTY4x0OjAYRQ8cNWWsjX_yU8fv7q8s6FavrzktY-9XBBEDSo2_JUrpg_/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-11-27+at+7.12.40+PM.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt3Y-OM1fGeDuI2MrbbndA7MfUmxrYcIE3dG0FIFKL7_qf0AfXK1Zr2K2pNxKU27mTDivmDN8DLNzXLTY4x0OjAYRQ8cNWWsjX_yU8fv7q8s6FavrzktY-9XBBEDSo2_JUrpg_/s320/Screen+Shot+2016-11-27+at+7.12.40+PM.png" width="224" /></a></div>
Prashanth Padmanabhanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18109341721500716760noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8505141.post-36714235971595779142016-11-21T20:28:00.000-08:002016-11-21T20:28:56.990-08:00Book - Reinventing American Healthcare<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The book, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Reinventing-American-Health-Care-Outrageously/dp/1610393457" target="_blank">Reinventing American Health Care</a> is a very good book for technology product managers who want to understand the history of the American Health Care industry, its current status and a glimpse into the near future. I moved from human capital management technology to health benefits management and predictive analytics technology at Castlight Health. Among the few books I read to understand American Health Care industry, this one is the best.<br />
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If you are working in the human capital management technology industry, health benefits management is one of the growth areas. In the coming years it is inevitable for large human capital management technology companies to expand into health benefits management and wellness management. In my opinion, health benefits and wellness management is where the next hundreds of millions in cloud software and services revenue is going to come from. This book is a good read for all the HCM product managers and HCM consultants who want to understand the fundamental problems of this new market. It is not an easy market. But good opportunities are never easy.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4zz2g4806T4pxtyQE5N50JEX821O9mwLYx7BjMjvyM-2v7zXztRWb1vou91QMwA88Sy761ykaDM-1WlobVx4JVWFl6Et9w7kNvOpl4q2zCr2TWdiJceALUYv4hOLxWEgUVV7y/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-11-21+at+8.03.35+PM.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4zz2g4806T4pxtyQE5N50JEX821O9mwLYx7BjMjvyM-2v7zXztRWb1vou91QMwA88Sy761ykaDM-1WlobVx4JVWFl6Et9w7kNvOpl4q2zCr2TWdiJceALUYv4hOLxWEgUVV7y/s640/Screen+Shot+2016-11-21+at+8.03.35+PM.png" width="416" /></a></div>
Prashanth Padmanabhanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18109341721500716760noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8505141.post-5307473540151049612016-08-06T17:34:00.001-07:002016-08-06T20:56:31.319-07:00How Can Product Managers Add Value In A Data Centric Enterprise Software Company<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
All enterprise software companies that I have worked in and have had the opportunity to interact with have mainly four groups of experts managing different aspects of their data. There are data driven products. These products are enabled by data intelligence products. Data intelligence products are enabled by an Enterprise Data Warehouse that organized and stores the data. The enterprise data ware house is fed by a data management team that monitors, received, prepares and audits data.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi90-A7OGpuwVzWeySMUzV9njjI2Iahl08xd20IrnXRiMZiYhbo1b7WxSG_HIcJXK1rqHO43Krnt1Q_tGfuwRR_wqY-5fbSnWG7qaO7PC4QFtQIwQ4gug2YHsS7dbKVrjMhMl0B/s1600/Screen+Shot+2016-08-06+at+5.37.16+PM.png" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="286" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi90-A7OGpuwVzWeySMUzV9njjI2Iahl08xd20IrnXRiMZiYhbo1b7WxSG_HIcJXK1rqHO43Krnt1Q_tGfuwRR_wqY-5fbSnWG7qaO7PC4QFtQIwQ4gug2YHsS7dbKVrjMhMl0B/s640/Screen+Shot+2016-08-06+at+5.37.16+PM.png" width="640" /></a><br />
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<b>The Role of Product Managers In A Data Centric Enterprise Software Provider</b><br />
My workplace is a data centric organization. The value and quality of data we have determine the kind of innovation we can build and deliver to our customers. At my workplace my colleagues and I have designed and applied product management tools such as design thinking and agile development to data driven products development and data intelligence products. We are not there yet on applying product management tools, practices and techniques to data management.<br />
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My hypothesis is that data management has become a critical foundational capability for enterprise software companies building data driven products. Today, it is managed like a information technology (IT) support service that is called upon when needed or yelled upon when something goes wrong. It is treated like a utility that is supposed to work. Instead it should be treated like a product organization whose capabilities could become a unique advantage for a data centric organization. It should be supported with product management skills, tools and techniques.<br />
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Product managers can add value to data management organizations by doing the following.<br />
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<li><b>Identifying the capabilities</b> that will add value to the business and build a barrier to competition.</li>
<li><b>Define and document the capabilities</b> a data management team is building including acceptance criteria.</li>
<li><b>Convey the value created by a data capability for the business to executives</b>. For example, making a new data set available might enable the creation of new innovation. Making a data set available sooner and more frequently might be a market differentiator. It might keep competition away or may enable the business to charge more for current services. Building a file monitoring and audit capability might make the business more reliable, scalable and might help the business expand into new markets that were otherwise not financially feasible to operate in.</li>
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<b>There are some hurdles and risks. </b><br />
Data management teams traditionally have operated as an information technology organization that did a few projects with longer term milestones. They may not understand or appreciate operating like a product development organization. However every product is going to be data driven and to succeed, every company needs to manage their data management organization like they manage a product organization. My belief is that those who master this will succeed. Those who don't will fail. If you are a product manager or a data analyst, I recommend that you join an organization that understands and appreciate this insight. Ask questions about how an organization operates before joining them. Interview data teams in a company and understand their acceptance or resistance to such a direction. Such due diligence will increase you chances of success in your job. It will also increase the success of the business.<br />
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If you are playing the role of data product manager and are working with a data management team, please share you experiences. I would love to know your thoughts. If all this conversation got you excited, consider joining me at Castlight. <a href="http://jobs.castlighthealth.com/ShowJob/Id/874413/Director,-Product-Management-(Data-Intelligence-Platform)/" target="_blank">We are hiring for the Director, Data Intelligence product management role you see above. </a></div>
Prashanth Padmanabhanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18109341721500716760noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8505141.post-55211010830316966772016-07-15T22:42:00.000-07:002016-07-15T23:02:17.546-07:00How can a product manager help a data science team be successful<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I have been working with data scientists to build data products for over a year now. The first product we build is Castlight Action. <a href="http://productdesignjournal.blogspot.com/2015/11/predictive-health-insights-personalized.html">Castlight Action is now being used by several large US employers</a>. During this time I learned a lot about the role product managers can play while working with data scientists building a data or data intelligence product. Since the successful release of the Action product, we are taking some of the lessons learned in Action and applying them to other problems and products. These are my observations from both the experiences.<br />
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<b>The Pre-requisite</b><br />
Product managers can prepare themselves by getting some formal education on data science. I did this a couple of years back by getting certified on courses meant for data scientists. However, I believe that may not be necessary and may not be feasible for most product managers.<br />
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Last year, John Hopkins University released <a href="https://www.coursera.org/specializations/executive-data-science" target="_blank">a certification in data science for executives</a>. This is a good course for product managers to take. I took it this year and found it very valuable. Since then, I tried out some of the concepts in the real world. The concepts taught in this course work in the real world. I highly recommend this course for all product managers planning to or aspiring to work with data scientists.<br />
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<b>The Key Responsibilities</b><br />
I want to outline some of the key responsibilities of a product manager working on a data science product. This may not be a comprehensive list. I am listing the things I have observed so far. I may continue to update this list.<br />
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<b>1. Define the purpose of the data science project</b><br />
The product managers needs to define the capability your company will have once the data science project is complete. I can give you two examples from the work of my teams at Castlight Health. a) We wanted to identify segments of people who are similar and predict their healthcare needs for a certain period in the future. b) We wanted to look at two doctors with the same name in a directory of doctors and determine if the doctors are the same person or not. This is important to create a reliable directory of doctors for our users. Keep the capability description to one page. There is no need to write a long requirements document.<br />
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<b>2. Break down the milestones and deliverables for the data scientists</b><br />
Because any data science project is a research project, it is harder to breakdown work that falls into the cadence of a scrum team. This is an area where a product manager can play a useful role. The product manager need not tell the data scientist what to do. Most product managers will not have the skill to do so. How ever a product manager can specify what needs to be accomplished. To do this a product manager needs to understand how data scientist works to solve a problem. T<a href="https://www.coursera.org/specializations/executive-data-science" target="_blank">he course on Data Science for executives from Johns Hopkins</a> can help you with that. Don't just browse through the course. Get the certification.<br />
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<b>3. Temper the expectations of your colleagues and business leaders</b><br />
A product manager needs to explain a data science project and the expected deliverables in simple language to executives, who may or may not be educated about how data scientists work. It is important to explain that the results of a data science project are not always predictable. After a month of work the data science team may come to the conclusion that a particular model does not work as expected and may have to go down a different path. It is the product managers responsibility to set reasonable expectations and communicate results.<br />
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<b>4. Product Managers can perform tasks such as creating <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Test_set" target="_blank">test data sets</a></b><br />
Data product managers can even perform tasks in a data science project. For example, they can create <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Test_set" target="_blank">a test data set </a>to evaluate the efficacy of a machine learning model. Product managers do not need engineering backgrounds or have knowledge of programming to do so. I created a test data set recently for our doctor directory matching project using the tools, my data science colleagues created. They are command line tools. So some familiarity with command line tools and some curiosity about data are pre-requisites. Participating in such tasks will help product managers understand the data and the business problem intimately. It will also help you build credibility with the data scientists.<br />
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I plan to write more about the role of product managers in a data or data intelligence product. If you have played the role of a product manager for a product involving data scientists, please share your thoughts. You may have noticed that I use the terms data products and data intelligence products. I believe that data product are different from data intelligence products. More about that later.<br />
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Prashanth Padmanabhanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18109341721500716760noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8505141.post-36080845016037912492016-04-16T23:09:00.002-07:002016-04-16T23:27:56.802-07:00Data Science Can Empower Benefits Leaders Communicate Less and Yet Accomplish More<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
In many companies today, internal communications overload is a big problem. Internal communication teams including human resources teams are wary of sending out more emails or direct mail than necessary. They also know that most employees ignore internal communications because such communications are poorly written, poorly designed and not personalized. For critical communications such as benefits enrollment, many human resource departments use electronic mail, paper mail, and posters to ensure that the message gets across. Most employees have learned to ignore internal communications unless that message is repeated multiple times.<br />
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In this scenario, if a benefits leader wants to educate specific segments of people about health benefits that are relevant to them, there were limited tools available to them. My team at Castlight has taken significant steps to address this need among other things. My purpose here is not to promote the products we build. Instead, I want to talk a bit about how we are planning to use the lessons learned while building Castlight Action, our predictive analytics and personalized recommendations product, to empower benefits leaders in all our customer organizations, make employees aware of their benefits, to enable employees become healthier and even help them save some money in the process.<br />
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Since we have data about the behavior of millions of users and billions of claims, we use data mining techniques such as cluster analysis to identify segments of people with similar attributes who behave the same way. We may not understand why certain segments of people with similar attributes behave the same way, but we know that they do. Then we identify the people with such attributes who are not behaving the same way and tell them they might want to consider such behavior.<br />
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The above paragraph is very abstract. So, let me share an example. From our data, we know that for some reason people in their twenties care a lot about dental health. In other words, people in their twenties get dental checkups every year. Once they reach their thirties their lives probably get busier with family and children and they do not get as many dental checkups. So, let us say they were a 1000 people in their twenties in a company with 10,000 people. 800 out of those 1000 people get dental checkups every year. So we wonder about why those 200 people in their twenties are not behaving like the others. Maybe they just joined the company. Maybe they don't know any good dentists near their home. Maybe they think it would be very expensive to go get a dental check up. We really don't know why. However, we know that if we tell them about the dental benefits they have via their employer and enable them to find high quality, reasonably priced dentists near them, there is a very good chance that they will get their dental checkup done. This leads to benefits awareness, benefits satisfaction, better health, better productivity and in many cases some cost savings.<br />
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The interesting thing is that we can accomplish this by communicating to just those 200 people rather than communicating to the 800 people who already get their dental checkups and the 9000 people who are not in their twenties and don't care about dental health. I took a fairly simple example to explain how we reduce the need for mass communication about benefits and significantly increase personalized communications that engage employees and slowly but steadily change behavior, improve benefits satisfaction, make employees healthier, and even save some money for the employer and the employee. Most segments are not this simple to build or comprehend.<br />
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Building such an infrastructure and assembling a product, data science and communications team that can do this can cost employers tens of millions of dollars, even if they have a clear idea about how to do this.<br />
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Today, Castlight has several such segments and serve many employers in the US. Every month, we keep adding more segments that make personalized highly relevant and valuable recommendations to employees. Every piece of communication we send out makes one person a bit more knowledgeable about his or her benefits, has the chance to make him or her a bit healthier, makes him or her a bit more productive and saves him or her and their employer a little bit of money. We do this several million times every year. Knowing this is what motivates me to get up every day morning and go to work. If you are a physician, data scientist, product designer, content strategist, or a product manager and think this is fun to do, give me call. I am on LinkedIn.<br />
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Prashanth Padmanabhanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18109341721500716760noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8505141.post-21141273021446413432016-03-05T22:35:00.001-08:002016-03-05T22:57:09.930-08:00The Innovator's Prescription by Clayton Christensen<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
When I joined Castlight Health about 10 months ago, I looked for a good book that provides a good overview of the problems facing American healthcare. While I heard about many specific problems, I wanted to understand the history of today's problems, the reasons those problems arose, the players who have a vested interest in solving those problems and the possible directions to solve those problems. My wife got me the book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Innovators-Prescription-Disruptive-Solution/dp/0071592083" target="_blank">The Innovator's prescription by Clayton Christensen</a>, written in 2009. It gave me the required perspective. It answered questions such as who should we build healthcare solutions for and who has the motivation to change healthcare.<br />
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If you are new to healthcare technology and want to get a clear idea, this is a good book to read. I posted a video of Clay Christensen summarizing the book below. He summarizes ten years of research in 60 minutes.<br />
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Prashanth Padmanabhanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18109341721500716760noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8505141.post-34123166958195377962016-02-26T22:52:00.000-08:002016-02-26T22:56:12.381-08:00Castlight Action was on Fox Business News <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
It is a product manager's dream to have his or her product covered by the Wall Street Journal and Fox Business News in the same month. I am living that dream this month. <a href="http://productdesignjournal.blogspot.com/2015/11/predictive-health-insights-personalized.html" target="_blank">Castlight Action sends personalized health care recommendations</a> to employees at the right time so that they get better heath outcomes and better financial outcomes. Leading the team that designed and built Action and launching it for some of the largest employers in the world will rank among the top five highlights of my career building software products.<br />
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My colleague Kristin Torres Mowat, explains Action to the Fox Business team. You can <a href="http://tinyurl.com/h6jm597" target="_blank">see the video here</a>.<br />
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Prashanth Padmanabhanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18109341721500716760noreply@blogger.com0