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Product Discovery – Part 1 – Beyond the Checklist

July 5, 2024 By Scott

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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Filed Under: Marketing, Product Management, Tech / Business / General

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

June 27, 2024 By Scott

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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Filed Under: Product Management, Tech / Business / General

Lessons for Product Management from Emergency Services & Aviation

June 20, 2024 By Scott

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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Filed Under: Product Management, Tech / Business / General

Product Management Analytics Purpose & Goals

June 10, 2024 By Scott

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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Filed Under: Analytics, Product Management, Tech / Business / General

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

May 28, 2024 By Scott

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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Filed Under: Product Management, Tech / Business / General

Professional Videoconference Tips & Tricks

May 24, 2024 By Scott

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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Filed Under: Tech / Business / General

Product Management & Sales – Building a Pipeline

May 15, 2024 By Scott

TL;DR: If you’re a product manager at an early-stage company that’s about to hire for sales, and you end up temporarily supporting the entire process ahead of these hires, you may need to get ahead of things. If this is where you are, skip the following intro bits and head down to the Sales Stage Forecasting Process template below.

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Filed Under: Marketing, Product Management, Tech / Business / General

Product Management & Sales – BFFs?

April 29, 2024 By Scott

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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Filed Under: Marketing, Product Management, Tech / Business / General

Staff Augmentation for Software Projects – Why and How

March 6, 2024 By Scott

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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Filed Under: Product Management, Tech / Business / General Tagged With: development contracting, staff augmentation

Killer Product Management – Mission and Safety Critical Applications – Part 1

June 30, 2022 By Scott

Introduction

The title isn’t a euphemism. This is about when product management decisions can do damage.

In Part 1 of this writeup, I’m going to define some of the challenges for Mission and Safety Critical applications as compared to typical development. If you want to skip right to more practical considerations for what to do about such things, go right to Part 2, with a checklist followed by explanations of the line items.

Over the years I’ve moved from consumer oriented products to B2B and B2B2C, most recently several years working on healthcare solutions. On this path, I’ve learned a lot about Safety Critical application issues. It’s stuck me that people who ‘grew up’ in such environments may have a lot of this knowledge through intrinsic experience. But for those transitioning to such areas or in startup mode who haven’t been there, (as was my path), it’s possible there’s knowledge gaps. What I often do when learning new things is take note in my own Wiki, and over time develop some degree of body of knowledge in a subject area. So my goal now is to share back what I’ve learned for those who may find it useful.

What’s the difference between “Mission Critical” or more extremely, “Safety Critical” vs. “typical” product management? Rather than try to formerly define it, let’s keep it simple. Safety Critical products are those that – for certain failure modes – can hurt or kill people. (Or cause significant property or environmental damage.) Often, they’re things that move in our environment; that is, actually do things. A basic compare and contrast might be an advertising delivery system for content vs. an insulin pump; failure of the first maybe means some lost money, whereas failure of the second… clear enough, right? Mission Critical – as distinct from Safety Critical – might mean less severe human consequences, but a ‘hard’ failure or challenge nonetheless. E.g., a failure in a basic regulatory compliance issue could result in anything from minor work stoppage or fines though potential criminal negligence. Or a failure of the software on a Mars Rover results in loss of the unit, associated waste and data loss. No one gets hurt or dies, but the mission is basically lost.

In short, these are not really applications where we want to “fail fast and learn.” These are apps that have somewhat more crisp “Minimum Viable Product“ standards when it comes to the “Viable” part.

The Short Version of Issues for Mission / Safety Critical Products

  • Mission and Safety Critical systems demand something beyond basic Agile Product / Project management approaches. (And this may include products in highly regulated areas as well.)
  • There is often a moral component that exists beyond other types of products / services.
  • More planning is required than for non-critical systems.
  • Agility may be more often impacted by external dependencies.
  • So called “Non-functional” requirements may become critical.
  • Risk assessments must be included as a core concern.
  • There’s a suggested checklist for Mission / Safety Critical Products in Part 2 of this writeup that you may find useful if you work on these types of products.

That’s it. You can stop reading now. But for fuller discussion of these points, please continue. Or skip to Part 2 for the just mentioned checklist items.

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Filed Under: Product Management, Tech / Business / General

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