My wife texted me the other day and asked me a question about whether a project for the home was expensive or complex? My response was an off handed comment that “The cost will reveal itself once the complexity is understood.” Since you don’t know everything up front, you can’t…
Your favorite song comes on the radio while you’re driving. You know the one. The one single song in all of music that makes everything seem ok. You reach down and crank it up. And to your surprise, your transmission is 200 feet behind you. This is one example of…
I don’t know exactly where the conversation is going when I speak with stakeholders. I have a general feel but their responses could take us in an entirely new direction that we never thought to explore. I usually start with “what drives your business” or “what makes people want to…
Face to Face With the Customer. You can send out as many surveys or do as many focus groups as you want, but you’ll never understand the aggravation your user community is feeling until you’re sitting next to them while they struggle to use your software. Sit with them. Don’t…
Let’s start off with what a Minimally Viable Product (MVP) is not – it’s not the least amount of stuff that can be done in a sprint. What it is intended to be is a learning tool, you’re supposed to be validating your hypothesis (or hypotheses) with an MVP. If…
I was fortunate to listen first-hand to Steve Blank explain, in no uncertain terms, that if he ever found his Marketing team in the office again, he’d fire them. Because the answers aren’t in the office, they’re “out there”. So go “out there” and find the answers. So many times…
One of the best lessons of product ownership I ever got was from a CEO who asked me “How did this get away from you?” My response was “Well, Marketing took it over…” He lost his shit over that response, and rightly so. The initial intent of the product got…
Building a solid product, or even building a solid product team, takes time. If you’re responsible for a product and you don’t understand this, it’s going to be a difficult time for both you and the team. Here’s an analogy. Races aren’t won on race day. They’re won or lost…
Value Proposition Design: How to Create Products and Services Customers Want (Strategyzer) by Alexander Osterwalder, Yves Pigneur, Gregory Bernarda, Alan Smith
Beyond the Obvious: Killer Questions That Spark Game-Changing Innovation by Phil McKinney