TetraMesa

Product Discovery – Part 2 – Moving from Concept to Execution

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Introduction

This is a follow up to Product Discovery – Part 1 – Beyond the Checklist where we looked at a story as a lesson before considering the more tactical get-it-done checklists.

Here is product discovery at the highest level, summed up in two bullet points.

  • Living in the Problem Space: Asking good questions.
  • Living in the Solution Space: Coming up with answers that are: 1) viable; with market demand via value propositions(s), and 2) feasible; technically and operationally producible within some defined financial criteria, as well as compliant with any regulatory issues.

That’s it! Everything that follows are the details.

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Product Discovery – Part 1 – Beyond the Checklist

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Some of the best products happened through one of two means; the first is the traditional market research, deep study and so on. The other is practically by accident; often the flash of inspiration entrepreneurial route. Everything else is somewhere in the middle. This series is about how we can maybe do better in either case.

I’m going to handle this topic in two parts. This first is just a story illustrating the value we can learn by going deep into the weeds and emphasizes the value of deep discovery; in this case for a B2B product. Why bother? Because I think otherwise we may be missing things. After that, in a separate article, we’ll run through the more basic discovery checklists.

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More Product Management Lessons from Fire/Rescue/EMS and Beyond

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Welcome to Part 2 in this series. When I started Part 1, I had no idea how quickly a whole lot of thoughts would flow regarding the cross-over utility of some ideas from sometimes time-pressured or higher-stakes fields into general product management.

Train How You Fight

Another great line from a fire instructor, “You can never train too hard for a job that can kill you.” This stresses the importance of realistic training that prepares firefighters for real-life scenarios. And train we do. Beyond initial training, we have weekly sessions, special classes, and more. In aviation there’s recurrent medical and flight checks, etc. Now, in corporate, there are hopefully less things that will kill you than in emergency response situations. But there are systems and equipment breakdowns. There are high-stakes situations. Are you prepared? Have you practiced scenarios? Or is the book up there on the shelf getting dusty? The problem with risk mitigation is you don’t make money from it. It’s value preserving, not value accretive. It’s a cost item, not a revenue item. Backup systems, security efforts are necessary, but they are on the cost side. Regardless, the only way to be really ready is training. Some say – with some validity – that’s what insurance is for; to buy away risk. And yet, is that responsible? Is it ethical? Maybe. It depends on your situation. You have to assess that. It’s not all gloom and doom though. There’s items on the plus side here. What about customer training / onboarding? Or sales? Whether it’s to mitigate bad outcomes or drive towards good ones, are you constantly learning? The better the training, the better the game is likely to go. Train how you fight.

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Lessons for Product Management from Emergency Services & Aviation

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This article started from chats with a colleague about how I managed doing volunteer emergency work at night or weekend adventure sports and then went into the office the next day to deal with important, but less extreme matters. It turned into lessons I’ve learned, (or think I’ve learned anyway), from that part of my life and how they affect my perspective on working in more corporate environments. She thought I should share them. I quickly ended up with more than I’d thought so this will turn into a few posts perhaps. Here we go…

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Product Management Analytics Purpose & Goals

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At a strategic level, Product Analytics isn’t just about the “How.” That’s important, but is more tactical. It’s more about the “What” and the “Why.” Basically, are your outcomes driving toward your goals.

We are overwhelmed by information, not because there is too much, but because we haven’t learned how to tame it. Information lies stagnant in rapidly expanding pools as our ability to collect and warehouse it increases, but our ability to make sense of and communicate it remains inert, largely without notice.

Stephen Few, Data Visualization Expert

The What and the Why

What are you trying to do? Probably running and growing your business; within guardrails including internal financial and external regulatory concerns. Most analytics are historical lagging indicators. You may have items you consider leading indicators; a sales pipeline or scheduling system, possibly equipment failure estimations, etc. And you may be using predictive models including AI tools. But mostly, your performance reports will be historical. And why study history? Typically it’s to try to predict or change the future.

So What are you trying to do?

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Strategic AI Considerations for Senior Product Leaders: Navigating Innovation and Execution

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Introduction

Strategy Considerations
Typos courtesy of AI image generation. We’re still not quite there yet.

Artificial Intelligence is yet another tool that is an overnight success, decades in the making. The Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO) seems huge since ChatGPT brought AI from what Gartner’s Hype Cycle calls the Trough of Disillusionment to what might be the beginnings of the Slope of Enlightenment. But what do you really need to do with it, if anything? Do you need to build anything strategically core to your customer offerings? Use it as a tool to enhance existing offerings? Or use something more operational; from process management to marketing. One challenge right now is people seem to want to just sprinkle some AI on things to make sure the buzzword is in a product checklist or annual report.

According to Statista’s “AI Trends & Predictions Roadmap to 2025,” AI market value will increase from US$244 billion in 2025 to US$827 billion by 2030. You can find predications of various magnitudes from other sources. But what does it mean? Chances are it means your competitors are deploying AI. Whether it’s for something useful with solid ROI or not is the question. If your competition is deploying things, you’d better at least be doing research.

So where do you start? Too many posts I’m seeing talk about AI Strategy go right to implementation. That’s AI at tactical level. There’s value in that. And it’s possible to think of general capabilities as strategic. But being strategic means starting with your business drivers. Your AI strategy, (just like all the others), should be based on the value you’re trying to create. At the very highest level, as always… there’s basically two goals: Increase Revenue. Or Decrease Costs. Unless you’re actually building and selling the AI tools themselves, chances are the value you’re creating comes from elsewhere. In which case AI is “just” a tool; another means to an end. Being skilled at it may be a strategic capability, but it’s not a business strategy in and of itself.

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Professional Videoconference Tips & Tricks

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Recently, more than a handful of colleagues in a networking group I belong to expressed concerns about videoconferencing issues since working remotely more often. As someone who’s worked remotely for years, I’d perhaps forgotten there are many for whom this is still new. Over time I’ve collected my own set of tips. There’s plenty of other tips out there, but I’m going to spill them all out for you here in depth to try to make a comprehensive list. If you find I’ve still missed a favorite tip you’ve gotten, please make a comment.

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Product Management & Sales – BFFs?

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TL;DR: A strong product and sales relationship is crucial for any company’s success. Ideally, these teams should work together seamlessly with a shared goal and a collaborative spirit. However, tension can sometimes arise, as with any other working relationship. But if you’re in product management and don’t see the sales team as a valuable partner, it’s time to reframe how you view this critical collaboration.

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Staff Augmentation for Software Projects – Why and How

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What is Staff Augmentation and What Flavors Does it Come In?

Staff Augmentation - Man picking people icons from screenStaff Augmentation may be just a new fancy way of saying “Contractor,” or “Consultant,” or similar. However you want to define it, external professionals you bring on to your project become embedded with your own team; whether they’re on site or remote. Typically, these temporary team members will report to your own Business Analysts, Project Manager, Scrum Masters, or whomever your product/project owner happens to be. If you’re sourcing this talent from a firm, they will have their own general management and possibly project management, but but will usually report to someone on your team as a matter of day-to-day workflow.

Typically, staff augmentation will be a relatively simple affair. You’re going to hire an individual or a firm to provide contracting services; usually for a set period of time, maybe with an option to extend a contract. You’re buying skills that you will deploy to a project. This could be to backfill one or two people or add a special skill on a temporary basis. Another option is you’re staffing a whole team. This could be where the externally contracted firm provides not only engineering talent,  but also design, project management, and possibly business analysis as well.

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