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H O W T O F O C U S Y O U R T E A M T O W O W C U S T O M E R S A N D M A K E M O R E AW E S O M E P R O D U C T S
T H E P R O D U C T B L U E P R I N T
S O U N D S G R E AT, R I G H T ?
Product management needs to juggle a lot of complexity, and each of these domains has a world of content and advice just a google away.
This presents a problem…
I DON’T KNOW
WHERE TO FOCUS
58% believe they don’t spend enough time on their product roadmap,
76% believe they don’t spend enough time talking to customers, and
80% believe they don’t spend enough time running product experiments.
67% of product teams feel that a lack of resources and internal politics are limiting their ability to focus on the activities that drive their product forward.
Source: Alpha UX 2017 Product Management Insights Report
( P E R C E P T I O N I S )
R E A L I T Y
Time is limited
Cash is limited
Opinions are many
Focus is hard
Pressure is growing
The riddle then is this:
Where do you apply your limited resources to get the most impact?
What we need to look for are the points of maximum leverage. ROI.
We love two methods for amplified impact: 1. Hire great people 2. Invest in transparent, repeatable processes
Both aim to increase organizational capabilities. In this deck, we’ll focus on #2.
For #1, there are a ton of useful resources out there, but one of our favorites on hiring great people is The Essential Guide for Hiring & Getting Hired by Lou Adler. Go read it. Twice.
The focus is often on tactics and execution, understandably. But then we lose the forest through the trees.
Assessing the bigger picture doesn’t need to be an endless academic exercise, and can quickly identify opportunities in your product operations.
W H AT D O W E M E A N B Y P R O D U C T O P E R AT I O N S ?
For those of you familiar with traditional operations, the focus is on alleviating bottlenecks, improving quality, and increasing throughput.
We view product operations in a similar light, as a critically connected network of human and technical processes:
the aggregated conditions that lead to the output of your goods & services.
In our work at productmaven, we’ve helped teams across theproduct spectrum, from strategy to execution to people.
In every case, we start with triage.
Only once we understand the landscape can we target the key activities that will enable the team to get the most out of their effort.
If product operations represents reality, a complex and changing array of conditions…
… then we need a way to organize the mess, a lens through which to make sense of it.
This is why we made the Product Blueprint.
The purpose of the Product Blueprint is to provide a structure and a
vocabulary with which a team can collectively discuss the organization’s
holistic effort to provide meaningful and fulfilling customer solutions.
Admittedly, there are a million ways to slice and dice this,
but half the battle is simply having a common touchstone forteam conversation and collaboration. Here is our version…
D I S C O V E R Y & P L A N N I N G
E X E C U T I O N G O - T O - M A R K E T
E N V I R O N M E N TO R G A N I Z AT I O N A L
D Y N A M I C S
T H E P R O D U C T B L U E P R I N T
E N V I R O N M E N TO R G A N I Z AT I O N A L
D Y N A M I C S
T H E P R O D U C T B L U E P R I N T
These two areas represent the foundational elements that mostoften allow the work of great product to come forth.
D I S C O V E R Y & P L A N N I N G
E X E C U T I O N G O - T O - M A R K E T
T H E P R O D U C T B L U E P R I N T
These three areas represent the full lifecycle of productand the many tools and techniques used throughout
C U S T O M E R U N D E R S TA N D I N G
M A R K E T E VA L U AT I O N
B U S I N E S S P L A N N I N G
P R O D U C T P L A N N I N G
P O R T F O L I O M A N A G E M E N T
D E V E L O P M E N T M E T H O D S
D E S I G N
B U I L D
R E L E A S E
F E E D B A C K L O O P
L A U N C H P L A N N I N G
M A R K E T I N G
S A L E S
C U LT U R E
C O L L A B O R AT I O N
VA L U E S
S T R U C T U R E
L E A D E R S H I P
R E S O U R C E S
C O M M U N I C AT I O N
We break these five areas into what we call ‘disciplines’ that represent the key types of work done in each.
N O T E
No single practice or policy will guarantee or prohibit ultimate success, but each represents an increasing likelihood that the conditions are present to make awesome products that will wow your customers.
Now let’s see the details of these disciplines…
ENVIRONMENT
The human factors and interactions that definethe organization and determine its potential
‣ Culture comprises the human qualities and emotions that can allow for an honest and transparent approach to the team's mission.
‣ Collaboration refers to the quality and efficiency of human interactions, both internally and with external partners.
‣ Values are the organization's collective compass, including core components such as ethics, trust, mission, respect & customer service
ORGANIZATIONAL DYNAMICS
The ways in which the organization structures, coordinatesand enables its people and resources
‣ Structure looks at how the people are situated in an organization. It is specific to the business context, focusing on topics such as heirarchy, bandwidth and accountability.
‣ Leadership is the degree to which the people at the top of the org chart fully understand the potential of product in their organization and actively enable modern product practices.
‣ Resources cover the both the financial intent and capacity to fund successful product execution, and the knowledge and training necessary to enable it.
‣ Communication encompasses the transparent, broad and continual dissemination of goals, learnings and decisions.
PRODUCT DISCOVERY
Practices that reveal market opportunities and drive the strategy of product
‣ Customer understanding requires direct interaction with customers, using specific methods to gather both qualitative and quantiative data that will inform the entire product lifecycle.
‣ Market evaluation is the process of understanding the business context of a potential customer solution. Analysis of the target market landscape & competitive dynamics are used to identify areas of opportunity.
‣ Business planning includes a wide range of critical preparatory initiatives, from metrics and pricing to packaging and content.
‣ Product planning uses customer and market research to transform ideas into blueprints for desirable, feasible and viable solutions.
‣ Portfolio management is the oversight at an organizational level that ensures the breadth and specifics of individual products are and remain suitable for the overall vision and goals.
PRODUCT EXECUTION
Core processes to design, deliver and maintain the product
‣ Development methodologies can vary, but the key is using modern development stacks that are appropriate for the future of the organization and are capably supported by the engineering team.
‣ Design evolves the prototype from minimum viable product through full UI/UX design, including the architecture of the entire product experience. Much of this work is critically done before any engineering.
‣ Build lays down the foundation for engineering success: the translation of customer insights and the solution concept into specific user stories, requirements and testing plans.
‣ Release covers the processes and procedures that get product out the door on-time, bug-free and at or above customer expectations.
‣ Feedback loops gather information from customers, team members and external partners that can improve all aspects of product performance.
PRODUCT GO-TO-MARKET
The preparations and tactics that launch and support successful products
‣ Launch planning includes all of the efforts made to prepare both the product and the supporting staff for successful introduction of the product to market.
‣ Marketing includes the application of a meaningful value proposition to a strategy that educates and converts existing and new customers.
‣ Sales includes the organization's efforts to plan and manage the entire customer sales lifecycle, from lead to conversion to retention.
C U S T O M E R U N D E R S TA N D I N G
M A R K E T E VA L U AT I O N
B U S I N E S S P L A N N I N G
P R O D U C T P L A N N I N G
P O R T F O L I O M A N A G E M E N T
D E V E L O P M E N T M E T H O D S
D E S I G N
B U I L D
R E L E A S E
F E E D B A C K L O O P
L A U N C H P L A N N I N G
M A R K E T I N G
S A L E S
C U LT U R E
C O L L A B O R AT I O N
VA L U E S
S T R U C T U R E
L E A D E R S H I P
R E S O U R C E S
C O M M U N I C AT I O N
By considering these disciplines holistically as an interconnected network, you can begin allocate resources in a way that more efficiently addresses the current needs of your organization and will deliver superior return on effort.
T O B E C L E A R , T H E PURPOSE O F T H I S D E C K I S
T O A D V O C AT E F O R T H E P E R I O D I C A N D
D E L I B E R AT E A S S E S S M E N T
O F A N O R G A N I Z AT I O N ’ S E N T I R E P R O D U C T O P E R AT I O N S
Product is like a train, and product operations are the rails. Your product can only go places your organization is ready to take it.
We wish you luck in this endeavor!
If you sense opportunities to refocus your efforts but are not sure how to approach this with your team, check out more resources on our website: productmaven.co
Feedback is also appreciated as we
love to learn from great product teams.
[email protected] #productblueprint
T H A N K S F O R T H E P H O T O S :
P I X N I O 2 0 T H C E N T U R Y F O X C L K E R D C C O M I C S
