Digital Product Management
Using innovation and iteration in lean startup mode.
An effective digital product manager focuses on creating less software with more value. One way to create an effective product-market fit this is through lean startup mode, which focuses the software development that tests for user motivation (i.e. does the client want what we have?) rather than frequently testing the relationship between motivation and usability.
Design Thinking
Think of products as solutions to problems. When you are designing or creating features, anchor that development to the problems. The excitement around building a solution can be a distraction if the initial challenges identified fade into the background of the product conversation.
Design thinking around different features can be organized into small, testable actions or tasks for development to examine personas and problem scenarios. A time box, or 1 week sprint to cover the design phases is popular with digital product managers. Design sprint steps include the following:
- Idea generation
- Hypothesis development
- Experimental design
- Experimentation
- Decision making: pivot or persevere
The Hook Framework is a method to manage the habits of variable reward and investment.
- What is the internal trigger?
- What is the external trigger?
- What is the simplest behavior that the customer can do in anticipation of the reward?
Avoid the fallacy of favoring output versus outcomes. For example, the product KPIs are not just about the number of features you want to add, but about the value that a client will be able to realize. Creating false value threatens the potential of a product death cycle.
Enterprise Clients & Customization
Anchor feature design and ideation in the client’s problem rather than the solution. Front-load the development of value features to demonstrate the client business case.
Once the customization has been design, be sure to train the end users to create indoctrination and need finding habits. To push for continued success, review everything with the client and make potential modifications as needed.
Next, focus on client retention through the three growth engines: Paid (focus on growth, engagement, monetization), Sticky and Viral.
Product Process
As a product manager, be sure to iterate purposefully with agile. Assume that teams self organize — set up the prerequisites (design standards / architecture/requirements) and let go of managing the minutiae.
Follow the AIDOR trajectory when thinking about the customer journey: attention, interest, desire, action, onboarding and retention. Feature bugs as identified by clients are not always about statistical significance. Dive in and take a closer look! It’s critical not to become too removed from the customer. If you as the digital product manager feel that is the case, take a customer service call or reach out directly for an interview.
Using Scaled agile framework along with Steve Blank’s technique in the four steps to the epiphany: customer discovery, customer validation, customer creation and company building.
Minimum Viable Product (MVP) Types
There are a few common MVP types used to asses customer satisfaction. Once an MVP is in place, using an agile approach to modifications can save time and money as well, such as through a fake feature test. For sample: include a coming soon link on a website to see how many clicks the links generates. When using this approach, there is not as much of a need to use statistical significance in the decision-making process.
- Concierge MVP: this is a prototype (designed for usability, not for motivation). It can be more manual or handcrafted, so long as it is something that the client can interact with in a session to gather feedback. When asking the customers questions, use socratic (or non-leading) questioning to identify customer priorities.
- Wizard of Oz: infomercial, fake product, video/media example. This can also be thought of as a proxy product, in which wireframes or another form of mockup to demonstrate the product with user groups or potential clients.
- Sales MVP: Google ads words, lead with the problem and then mirror the language used by customers during interviews, try selling with a discount for early adopters
Horizons of growth
Within horizon 1, idea generation is critical to understand the customer. Information can be gather through a variety of formats, including but not limited to: subject interviews, reverse hackathons, customer comments, consulting + support, open innovation and disruption catalysts. Use the 70 / 20 / 10 rule when allocating resources.
Business Model Types
What drives your business? Cowan identifies different business segments that successful companies expand upon when developing new products.
- Infrastructure: utilizes a large asset to provide value to customers.
- Scope: offering a variety of products or services for a specific type of customer.
- Product: creates something unique, proprietary and value-driven for the customer.
Data Science in Product Management
Data scientist roles are descriptive, diagnostic, prescriptive or predictive. Using data to make design and business decisions throughout the product lifecycle process is essential for success.
