Philosophy of Product

Never do a public launch. There I said it.

Product exists because problems exist. Everything else is art.

The problem itself is the critical component. To be successful, a product must solve real problems or create real opportunity (which in itself can be defined as solving the problem of lack of opportunity).

Problems are everywhere. You find them where humans have created significant work arounds to self solve a problem because a solution is not readily available, or is not perceived to be readily available. You find them where current accepted solutions are entrenched due to availability and distribution, but no one is actually happy with the offering (think Taxis before Uber).

Problems are typically problem sets, with much nuance and flavor to the set of problems. Significant effort should be taken to understand the problems before endeavoring on a solution. Problems are the GPS of solutions. A misidentified problem will lead to misguided solution.

A product is made up of all things required to deliver the solution. It is a combination of software, hardware, people and process. The art of product is the ideation and discovery of the optimal combination of these elements. The science is the method of testing to determine which is the optimal method.

Product in its boiled down essence should be as lightweight as possible in pursuit of solutions to problems. A spoon is a solution to a problem, no software, no people, no process required.

Delight and design are a form of problem solving. They solve the problem of unmet desire for beautiful, delightful things.

Good products should make their humans feel like they have super powers. They should help humans become their idealized self.

Products are effective when they provide a solution to a problem where the motivation to take the action is greater than the challenge to take the action. If so, the product is “hired” for the job at hand.

Products can be "hired" to do all types of jobs. Every job has a core function (e.g. Help me get a job, help me get to the airport, help me engage my kids), and 100’s of job statements that meet functional, social and emotional needs correlated to that job. By mapping this space, you can understand and identify opportunities for innovation by simplifying steps, removing steps, doing steps with more impact, etc.

Depending on the nature of the product, a single “hire” can be successful, however there is great power in orienting the product around repeat use, if this is in the best interest of the human using the product.

Variable Reward can drive ongoing action, as human curiosity is a powerful force. For example, the brain is most active just before a social media feed loads, as its desire is heightened in anticipation of the reward.

Stored value can drive ongoing action, as the product gets valuable the more times you use it or configure it to your needs. This often serves as loading the trigger for future use as well, such as subscribing to a service that will then notify you when new widgets are available.

Products can solve problems in a myriad of ways, it is not a finite set. This follows Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, and a product can meet needs across that spectrum. It can be both based on survival, and aspirational within the same package. The value pyramid below is another way to represent this, with research showing good products meet ~10 of these needs. For example, a homebuyer can provide moving and self storage services, allowing the buyer to self actualize, and reducing anxiety related to the change of moving. In this instance, the human is hiring the product to solve multiple problems for them.

When onboarding a new human, time to value is critical. Motivation is a finite resource with a half life that a product must respect and conserve, particularly during onboarding. The experience of value is a dramatic ramp to motivation, and it sets the expectation for how the product will serve the human ongoing. Intense focus should be spent on shortening the time to value as much as possible.

How Products Become a Business

A product becomes a business when the value of using the product is high enough for value transfer between the human and the product owner, and the addressable market of humans is large enough for the product to provide sustained value transfer for the product owner.

Products follow the innovation curve, particularly nascent products in early development that have significant value, and problem sets that have an incumbent solution that must be displaced.

Innovators are interested in the bleeding edge. They want to be first in the door, and actually value when the product has some rough edges. They are willing to accept it in the name of 10x solutions to their problems, and if the product takes off they want to be early. They are interested in building with you and even shaping the nature of the solution set to their problem set.

Early Adopters are looking for a more formalized solution. They are open to jumping on early before the masses have experienced the product, but have lower tolerance for rough edges. They do not need the affirmation of the masses in order to make a decision, they can see a solid solution to their problem independently. They are also willing to contend with some feature gaps, understanding that a product has a road map and will be filled in over time.

The Early Majority is the beginning of mass market. At this point you have a dialed solution that is 10x better at solving the problem than the incumbent, you’ve ironed out all rough edges, you have convenience features that allow for easy onboarding or switching from the incumbent solution, and you have a track record to show you are a safe and effective solution. The Early Majority are directly influenced by Early Adopters, and look to them to synthesize new and acceptable solutions to problems.

The Late Majority often only moves due to economic requirements or social pressure. They adopt for similar utility reasons as the Early Majority.

Laggards are a portion of the addressable market that are never going to change. The only reason they are using a touchtone phone is because they no longer sell rotary phones.

Product Competencies

A successful product team is made up of four key competencies:

• The Synthesizer — The Synthesizer (or Product Owner) is tasked with taking in all the understanding of the problem, sourcing solutions from his or her team, then defining the path forward for the product.
• The Researcher — The Researcher is tasked with defining and measuring the nature of the problem set, then measuring the effectiveness and impact of the evolving solution.
• The Designer — The Designer is tasked with understanding the relationship with the problem and possible solutions, and designing the solutions to solve the problem.
• The Developer — The Developer is tasked with implementing solutions. An effective Developer is a part of defining the solution as well, providing context on trade offs and opportunities to solve the problem.

Product Rhythms

Product teams are fundamentally built around ongoing discovery to solutions to problems. Solutions must be strategically aligned to sustainable value for the business.

A product team should:

• Have regular conversations with humans using the product to understand their experience.
• Do ongoing testing of new solutions following the innovation curve, beginning with innovators in the customer base.
• Maintain a swim lane for quality of life and bug fixes that show ongoing care and concern for customers and solve small problems for the customer.
• Measure the impact of solutions ongoing to ensure customers are experiencing full value.
• Prune the product of features that are not in use, meaning they are not solving customer problems.
• Maintain an intimate understanding of the customer problem set and the effectiveness of the current solution to solve the problem.
• Maintain a Now, Next, Later Road Map that is reviewed monthly and shared out regularly. The Road Map should be Themes → Features, and easy to understand at a glance. Themes are problems to solve or opportunities to unlock, features are the “how”.

Personas

Personas are a way of identifying the humans with problems, and differentiating their demographics and problem sets.

Personas allow product teams to empathize with the needs of the humans involved, by literally giving them a persona, a story, that the solution set can be mapped to.

Personas are also handy shortcuts to describe who you are serving with a given portion of the solution.

Analytics

Cohorts allow you to understand the impact of features/releases.

In any conversion funnel, you have two groups to understand: those you are serving (e.g. complete the flow), and those you are not (those that abandon).

Frequency allows you to understand the amount of activities that’s occurring before a human takes the valuable action. If you can understand this number, you can target individuals that near this number and drive tipping point activities. You can also focus your flows around helping humans take these actions more easily.