Product Mastery Now for Product Managers, Leaders, and Innovators

  How three powerful questions can lead to better product management I hosted a virtual summit in April this year (www.theeverydayinnovator.com/summit) and I met many wonderful people. One introduced me to her Slinky Dog metaphor for product management and a methodology called FAST Goals. She calls FAST Goals a winning methodology as it enables you to win, solving problems and creating value for customers. It connects what you need to accomplish with how you will accomplish it along with the why for taking specific actions. In the discussion, we role-play using FAST Goals to solve problems I have had as a frequent traveler — something most of us are doing far less of now but will return to eventually. Her name is Jeannine Siviy. She has been a software and systems engineer, contributing to and leading product development for several organizations, including Kodak and the Software Engineering Institute. She is currently the Director of Healthcare Solutions at SDLC Partners. Summary of some concepts discussed for product managers [2:48] What is the Slinky Dog metaphor for product management? The Slinky Dog metaphor reminds people when they’re running ahead of everybody else. If you’re ahead, you need to pause and let your team, peers, clients, etc., catch up in an organized way. You don’t want them to catch up by slamming into you. If the Slinky Dog is stretched too far, it breaks. [5:11] What problem does the FAST Goals methodology solve? When you’re working on product management and innovation, there are a lot of perspectives and different voices in the room. FAST Goals unifies those voices to create a clear line of sight between top-level objectives and day-to-day work. It empowers people to make decisions in day-to-day work with confidence and know that their work is contributing to the big picture outcome. [8:25] What are the key components of FAST Goals? It’s a ladder of abstraction method. FAST indicates the rapidity of the method and is also an acronym for Function Analysis Systems Technique, a manufacturing technique that I modified into FAST Goals. It uses a diagram to answer three questions: “What goals are you pursuing? How do you intend to achieve those goals? Why do these goals matter? Every goal is paired with a success metric so that you’ll know when you’ve achieved it, and each goal has strategies and tactics that are also measured. [13:15] Let’s walk through an example of using FAST Goals to improve customer experience at an airport. Our top goal is to improve customer experience at the airport. We brainstorm pain points and unsolved problems, like not knowing how much time it will take to get to your gate, food needing improvement, and difficulty navigating through the airport. Then we synthesize, looking for common themes and determining the meaning of each idea. Next we organize and simplify and write the ideas on the diagram, usually in a simple noun-verb format. Then we validate by asking how and why we’ll accomplish these goals. This process works best with a cross-functional team. [20:13] Let’s take a closer look at a specific problem—not knowing how much time it will take to get to the gate. At the top of the diagram, our main goal is to improve customer experience. We’ll write “Predict time to gate” as our sub-goal. Under that, we’ll write how we could do that, such as with an app on the phone or smart glasses. Then we’ll identify why we would implement a solution to this problem. One why is to predict the time to the gate, but we might identify other whys like optimizing the time to the gate, giving directions, or determining if there’s time to get a snack. Once we make sure our what, how, and why are all aligned, the people who launch the app or glasses have a good sense of why that product exists. After beginning development and research, the team may find another idea and change the diagram; that’s okay because the diagram still keeps everybody aligned. As we synthesize, we may reframe the problem and change the top goal. We can add other market segments to the diagram, like how we would solve problems for travelers with kids. We might expand our highest goal to improve the entire travel experience. [31:17] What artifact do teams end up with after FAST Goals? They end up with a diagram that becomes the North Star of the team doing the work. There’s usually a document behind the diagram further explaining the meaning of each goal, strategies, tactics, and measures. Bonus Question [35:58] What are some examples of when you’ve seen FAST Goals applied to make meaningful changes in organizations? A software and system development organization was working on flight systems, which involve human safety, so their quality was outstanding. However, their cost and schedule variability was very high. We tried to improve cost and schedule, but couldn’t get a

How product managers can break through the barriers that are keeping them from taking action Product managers are doers. We make change happen. We are mini-CEOs after all, right? Here is the big difference between being a product manager and a CEO; CEOs actually can make change happen. They have the authority to do so. Us product managers, no so much, and yet we are doers and we still bring about change. We have to sell our ideas, overcome roadblocks, and get others to join our cause. It helps if we love the work we do. Our guest is going to help us accomplish these things. She is a doer herself, with a history of helping organizations create technology products to solve problems, including being a Product Manager Director at IDEO, Senior Director of Innovation at Autodesk, and a Mentor at Stanford Latino Entrepreneur Leaders Program. Most recently, she has codified the steps for being a doer in an organization in her book, Start Within: How to sell your idea, overcome roadblocks, and love your job. Her name is Karen Holst and she’ll share some of these steps in this discussion to help you excel as a product manager. Summary of some concepts discussed for product managers [3:32] What was a key takeaway from your time at IDEO? The people there are humble and eager to learn, even though they have many accomplishments. IDEO intentionally hires people like this because they contribute to the culture. [4:53] What was a key takeaway from your time at Autodesk? Innovation doesn’t look the same in every company, and it’s important to allow time to figure out how things work, where you’ll fit in, and how you can effect change. [6:17] What have you learned about dealing with barriers when you’re trying to create something new? You may be the smartest person in the room, and you may know the right solution, but it’s not enough to just be right. You also have to sell your idea. If others don’t buy-in, it’s going to fall flat. [8:31] Who is the audience of the book you wrote with Douglas Ferguson, Start Within: How to sell your idea, overcome roadblocks, and love your job? I wrote the book for myself and people like me. It’s for doers—people who want to get started innovating within their organizations. [10:36] How can we take action internally? The more you fill your brain with new ideas and diverse thinking, the more value you’ll have later. Bringing naysayers into your conversation can help you think differently. If you’re feeling pessimistic, talking with optimistic, enthusiastic people can help you balance. If we don’t find edges where we allow uncomfortableness, we get stuck in a rut of the same way of doing and thinking. [15:03] What is getting in the way of doers not taking action? One reason is exclusivity around the terms we use to talk about innovation. Innovation can seem difficult to achieve. In reality, innovation is anytime we’re launching new ideas, whether revolutionary or incremental. Another roadblock is not knowing where to start. Innovation can take the form of many different processes, and it’s not linear. Start Within is a playbook—innovation is about knowing the different plays or processes and knowing when to get stakeholder alignment. [18:12] What are some skills that enable doers to be more effective? Being a doer does not require a charismatic, extroverted personality. Doers’ skills can be learned and practiced. Start with small ideas. Recognize small steps and experiments that can lead to your bigger goals. Embrace the beginner’s mindset. It’s difficult to approach the work that you’re an expert in with this mindset, but it’s important to listen and allow others to learn. Also, explore areas where you are a beginner—new industries, new roles. This is where you can really grow and find purpose. If you know you’re too close to an idea, ask someone else to lead so that you can listen and learn as an outsider. After you pitch an idea, be quiet and listen instead of continuing to explain. If nothing else, you’ll learn how to improve your pitching skills. Prototyping ourselves is part of prototyping innovation. Recognize that you will hear “no” at every step. That doesn’t mean you have to pause. Maybe there’s a different approach. A useful tool is mapping out your nos on post-it notes. On the first post-it note, write, “I’m hearing no because…” and fill in the reason. On the next post-it note, write, “Maybe if…” and fill in a way you could think about it differently. On the last post-it note, write, “Then…” and fill in what you could do differently. You could create the opportunity for people who normally say no, like the legal compliance team, to switch roles and imagine that they’re innovators. Try to bend your thinking and bring in different perspectives. Bonus Question: What are so

What product managers can do when you launch a product at the wrong time Times change, trends start, and trends die. Remember those friendship bracelets made of rubber brands? They were so popular with students that many schools prohibited them because they became a source of distraction. A few months later the trend was dead. Sometimes a smart product concept is created but the market is not ready for it — the timing is off. The trick is recognizing when market conditions change and the product concept should be dusted off and tried again. It is easy to miss the changes. Our guest, Jerry Abiog, had a new opportunity for an old product because of how COVID-19 has impacted restaurants, but he almost missed it until a chance encounter with a restaurant owner while walking his dogs. Jerry has led growth and strategy for various startups and co-founded Standard Insights where he also serves as CMO. Summary of some concepts discussed for product managers [2:31] How do you help companies improve their customer experience? We look at data first because data drives everything. Our winning formula combines these three principles: Improving customer experience Preventing customer indecision Telling the customer what to do next. Companies that can synthesize data and act on it are going to win. [7:55] Let’s dive into your product story. I’m the co-founder of Standard Insights. We help companies drive repeat buyers using AI. We’re a 2-year-old company, and our market was originally eCommerce, but we had the vision of expanding to other markets such as restaurants. Last year, we developed an AI-driven digital menu, because we saw the start of a trend as McDonald’s began to use digital menus that can make recommendations. I took the idea to my buddy who owns a restaurant, and he thought it was a great idea, but just not the right time because to use it he would have to lay off 60% of his wait staff. We put the digital menu idea on the shelf and moved on. When COVID came along, we tweaked the platform and launched it. Now we’re getting an average of a call a day from restaurants. It’s a lot more appealing in the current environment. A lot of companies are racing into the market with digital menus, but we’re taking it a step further by making it AI-driven. In addition to the contactless menu and contactless pay options, our menu can make AI-driven recommendations about customers’ favorite foods, seasonal foods, or drink pairings. We also provide AI-driven customer outreach through texts, social media, or email to encourage customers to order again. [19:35] What was the customer validation process like? When we originally developed the AI-driven platform two years ago, we allowed our sales and marketing outreach and our current customers to dictate product development. Our current customers and others who didn’t become customers gave us insights on how to pitch. When we expanded to include restaurants, we didn’t do a validation because it all happened so quickly and we already had the main engine, but now we are tweaking our digital menu based on feedback from customers. Life doesn’t go in a straight line. It’s all these turns and ups and downs. When the opportunity presents itself, you just have to go after it. Otherwise, someone else will. Action Guide: Put the information Jerry shared into action now. Click here to download the Action Guide.   Useful links: Jerry’s company, Standard Insights The digital menu Connect with Jerry on LinkedIn Innovation Quote “Never let a good crisis go to waste.” – attributed to Winston Churchill Thanks! Thank you for being an Everyday Innovator and learning with me from the successes and failures of product innovators, managers, and developers. If you enjoyed the discussion, help out a fellow product manager by sharing it using the social media buttons you see below. Source

How product managers can boost innovation in companies large and small In 2012 I read a book titled, Startup Owner’s Manual: The Step-by-Step Guide for Building a Great Company. It’s a book that spoke to me. It tied together many of my experiences and I helped me put them into a framework. It shared the need to get out of the office and learn from actual customers – something I had found vital but that I did not always practice on projects. Finding this book also made me aware of Steve Blank, its author. Later, like many of us, I learned about Lean Startup thinking from Eric Ries and found threads to adjacent thinking that was in the Startup Owner’s Manual. It made sense to me later when I read Steve Blank saying that Eric Ries is his best student. Consequently, I think of Eric Ries as the create of Lean Startup and Steve Blank as its father. Steve is someone I have wanted to discuss innovation with for a long time and this interview fulfills that dream. I hope you enjoy it! Summary of some concepts discussed for product managers [6:13] What is the purpose of your book The Startup Owner’s Manual: The Step-by-Step Guide for Building a Great Company? As I reflected on my life as an entrepreneur, I recognized a pattern in my experiences with eight startups that I had been a part of over 21 years. Investors told startups to act like smaller versions of large companies—coming up with a business plan on paper without talking to customers or testing prototypes. Successful startups ignored that advice. I wrote The Four Steps to the Epiphany, which kicked off the Lean Startup movement. I articulated Customer Development methodology, which says: There are no facts inside your building, so you need to get outside. While large companies execute business models, startups search for business model, so startups need their own tools. My student Eric Ries became the first adopter of Customer Development and recognized that in the 21st century, people were starting to adopt Agile Engineering, where you build products incrementally and iteratively. Alex Osterwalder then popularized the Business Model Canvas, which describes on a single piece of paper the key things a founder needs to know. Customer Development, Agile Engineering, and the Business Model Canvas became the Lean Startup. After the startup world rapidly adopted the Lean methodologies, I wrote The Startup Owner’s Manual: The Step-by-Step Guide for Building a Great Company as a handbook for how to use those methodologies. [19:48] How have you seen the startup environment change since you published The Startup Owner’s Manual in 2012? The Lean Startup and Customer Development came out of the rubble of the crash of the dot com bubble at the turn of the century. After the crash, investors became risk adverse and were looking for product market fit. It was a mass extinction of startups and investors. The Lean methodology emerged as a way to build startups iteratively and incrementally without wasting a lot of resources. With Lean, you can pivot quickly; incremental changes are much cheaper and faster than failures later. I think we’ll see a similar effect in 2020 as Lean is used and we develop new methodologies to take advantage of a changed environment. [23:51] Why do larger, established organizations need to apply ideas from The Startup Owner’s Manual? The last decade has been pretty tough on established organizations. They’ve seen a lot of disruption because everything is changing around them. Large companies started looking at startup tools to deal with high-speed changes and disruptions in their business models. In 2013, Harvard Business Review published my article “Why the Lean Startup Changes Everything.” Corporate CEOs realized that they could use the toolset that startups were using. In the 21st century, being an ambidextrous organization, able to execute and innovate simultaneously, is not optional. [28:04] How are these large organizations doing? A lot of corporations adopted innovation theater, not innovation. They copied the patterns of successful startups, but didn’t get the outcomes they desired. These companies were focused on demos, not delivery. They never really solved the hard problems like integrating the innovation pipeline into the organization and accepting failure as learning and discovery. [30:20] How can established companies integrate innovation? All companies have great passionate innovators, but in large corporations, they’re frustrated. Large organizations celebrate the stories of innovation heroics, entrepreneurs who fight the internal company system and get a product out against all odds. But this means the company doesn’t have a system for innovation. What they really need is an innovation doctrine, which is the heuristics and rules that allow innovation to thrive. This can’t be implemented by individual heroics; it must start at the board lev

Learn the qualities of a successful product manager and leader. Part of the path to becoming a product master is developing as a leader. Leaders of product management need agility, influence, trust, empathy, and motivating vision. And, those are the topics our guest, Roman Pichler, explores with us in this episode. Roman is a product management expert specializing in digital products. He is the author of several books, including his latest, titled, How to Lead in Product Management. His popular blog is also available as a podcast and both are simply named Roman Pichler. Summary of some concepts discussed for product managers [2:00] What is agile product management? Agile product management is product management infused or enriched by agile practices and principles. It’s interactive, iterative, incremental, and collaborative. [6:15] You recently published How to Lead in Product Management: Practices to Align Stakeholders, Guide Development Teams, and Create Value Together. Why did you write this book to help product leaders? Over the last 15 years, the product community has changed for the better, benefiting from tools like scrum and agile, but the soft skills have received less attention. Hard skills like market research or roadmapping are important, but they’re not enough. Product leaders can’t succeed if they neglect people skills and leadership skills. I wanted to offer practical help for product people and draw attention to the importance of soft skills in product management. As a product manager told me recently, product management is 80% people and 20% technology. [10:18] As product managers, how do we approach having responsibility but no authority? We don’t have any positional authority or transactional power. We can’t make people do things, but we rely on people’s work. To encourage stakeholders and development team members to move in the same direction, we have to influence them and get them to listen to us and follow our guidance. That’s only possible if people trust us. [12:09] What are ways to facilitate trust? Empathize—develop a kind and warm-hearted attitude; take a genuine, respectful interest in them; and be concerned for their well-being. Empathy is not about approval or agreement; it’s about accepting. By empathizing, we can discover their underlying needs, interests, and goals, and build trust. Listen deeply and actively. Don’t be overly critical or judgmental; be present for them. Speak and act with integrity. Saying what we believe and acting accordingly is easier said than done. Get to know people personally. This could be as simple as having coffee together, or it could be sharing failure stories, which shows vulnerability and builds trust. Strengthen product management expertise. [17:30] Tell us about product vision. Product vision is an inspirational goal that describes the positive change that the product will bring about. The vision is the foundation, and it’s important that stakeholders and the development team buy into it. A collaborative workshop with key stakeholders is a great way to kick off a new product development effort and create the initial vision. When you make a major change to an existing product, revisit the vision and adjust if necessary. The collaborative workshop gets people’s buy-in, leverages collective wisdom, and ensures there is a shared understanding. To avoid a few people dominating the workshop, it’s valuable to prepare the workshop and have a skilled facilitator. [28:22] What are other important qualities that are key to being an effective product leader? Again, empathy is important to train ourselves in. Also, mindfulness is very helpful. Bring awareness to what is going on and increase your ability to stay present and be aware of yourself. This gives you more choices and makes you less likely to do something you’ll regret later. [35:28] Bonus Question: What are your tips for better time management? Focus on your core responsibilities. Instead of helping meet a need outside your job, investigate the real cause of that need. Don’t neglect less urgent but important work. Invest in building relationships. Take proper breaks to let your body and mind recover. Empower and coach others and delegate work. Avoid task-switching and timebox your activities. Action Guide: Put the information Roman shared into action now. Click here to download the Action Guide. Useful links: Roman’s website, RomanPichler.com Innovation Quote “A person’s true potential is unknown (and unknowable) … it’s impossible to foresee what can be accomplished with years of passion, toil, and training.” – Carol Dweck—Growth Mindsets Thanks! Thank you for being an Everyday Innovator and learning with me from the successes and failures of product innovators, managers, and developers. If you enjoyed the discussion, help out a fellow product manager by sharing it using the social m

The recipe for rapid product design for product managers A Design Sprint is how you can solve big problems and test new ideas in just five days. That is also the subtitle of the groundbreaking book called Sprint. The Design Sprint became popular at Google a few years ago, which is also when Sprint was published. More recently, I am seeing product managers using Design Sprints in organizations to create new product concepts, resulting in realistic prototypes in five days. One of the original contributors to the Design Sprint methodology is my guest, John Zeratksy, who co-authored the Sprint book. He was also a guest two years ago, sharing how product managers can make better use of their time, in episode 210. Not just as a practitioner, but as an original creator of the Design Sprint, John takes us through the 5 phases of a sprint: Map, Sketch, Decide, Prototype, and Test. Summary of some concepts discussed for product managers [6:28] How did the Design Sprint come about? While working as a designer at Google Ventures, I was looking for a systematic, structured process to help companies achieve their goals. Around this time I met Jake Knapp, who had been experimenting with a new process for team collaboration called a Design Sprint. We soon decided that the Design Sprint was the repeatable process we needed to bring a team together and help them focus on their problems and opportunities. Jake joined the team at Google Ventures in 2012, and we started running Design Sprints. After a year of tweaking, we arrived at a repeatable recipe based around the five-day structure that is still used today. Like a startup incubator, we wanted to help startups prove the validity of their business model quickly. Like everyone else, startups struggle to focus their time. Design Sprints help them focus on the core work that makes the product valuable. The Design Sprint is a recipe that gives teams very clear, specific, proven steps to follow when they’re getting started. [14:01] What is the result of a Design Sprint? The Design Sprint is all about creating a realistic prototype and testing it with real customers at the end of the week. The prototype is not actually functional, but it looks real. If the prototype is realistic, reactions from customers are very high quality. [15:42] Can you run a Design Sprint in less than five days? You can run a great Sprint in four days, but don’t go shorter than that. You can run a similar collaborative working session in less than four days, but it’s not really a Design Sprint. If you’ve never done a Design Sprint before, start with the five-day process because it’s outlined in the book and includes a bit of buffer time. Many companies who are experienced with Design Sprints use the four-day option. If you do the four-day process, you can allow an extra day before the Sprint to allow people to clear their schedules so they can focus for the next four days. [22:46] How do we prepare for the Design Sprint? Most important, you must have a big problem or opportunity. Sprints work best when they’re focused on something really important. Gather a team that reflects the real team that’s responsible for solving the problem. Set aside time; in the five-day process, this is a five-day workweek with one big goal per day. Let’s walk through the Design Sprint recipe: [24:13] Monday: Map This is all about problem framing. You create a shared map to get the team on the same page. We start at the end by considering our longterm goal for the project. We also write down questions, unknowns, assumptions, and things that could trip us up. We interview members of the sprint team or extended team to bring as many perspectives as possible. We use the pattern Note and Vote throughout the Sprint. On Monday, everyone individually writes down their mental map of how the customer interaction with the product looks. Each person highlights the parts they think are most important and share those parts with the group. We vote on the most important parts. Everyone feels involved in a meaningful way even if their ideas aren’t selected. [24:48] Tuesday: Sketch The goal is to generate ideas for what you might build or do to solve the problem or take advantage of the opportunity. Individuals work alone to think through ideas. This process tends to generate higher quality ideas than brainstorming. [25:33] Wednesday: Decide We decide which sketches are most likely to work. We use a structured critique to make decisions. This is done in a group because while individuals are great at coming up with ideas, groups are great at making decisions. [26:23] Thursday: Prototype We usually build multiple prototypes of different approaches to solving the problem. The key to getting the prototype done in one day is focusing only on the facade. The prototype that the customer sees looks real, but it’s not functional. Exactly what to prototype depends on the questions you’re tr