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Blog Articles
Viewing entries tagged with 'product discovery'
Product Discovery for Non-Technology Products
Article: Product Discovery for Non-Technology Products
I’m often asked whether or not the concepts that I advocate and write about are applicable to non-software products as well as the consumer and business internet services that I almost exclusively focus on. My answer has always been that I really didn’t know because in my career I have only built software technology products.
The Product Discovery Plan
In my last article, I discussed the situation where Product Discovery is essentially not discovery at all, but rather just a mad dash of just-in-time spec writing so that the engineers can be kept busy. I discussed how important it is that the date not be driving everything at the expense of the value of what will be created.
Product Discovery vs. Product Optimization
As readers of these articles know, I am a big fan of high-fidelity prototyping and user testing on current or prospective customers. These techniques form the basis of Product Discovery; it’s the key to discovering the minimum viable product – a product solution that is valuable, usable and feasible (see www.svpg.com/product-discovery/).
The Two-Week Rule
I need to interrupt my series of articles on product portfolio planning because over the past week I learned of three completely different companies that all had fairly disastrous product results for the same core reason: they delayed talking to customers until it was too late.
Lessons From Incubators
In the last couple articles I discussed product portfolio planning lessons we can learn from the Venture Capital industry. In this article I wanted to discuss a similar but different type of mechanism for managing product portfolio investments, known as business incubators.
The Seven Deadly Sins of Product Planning
Product planning is a big topic that many product organizations struggle with. It spans a range of activities including business strategy, product strategy, product roadmaps, portfolio management, opportunity assessments, project planning and tracking, and project oversight.
How To Kill Innovation
Last week I ran into two different software technology companies (neither in Silicon Valley) that had just recently brought in Six Sigma consultants. This caught me by surprise because it¹s been a very long time since I heard of a technology company even considering this. I'm hoping this was an anomaly, but in the spirit of "those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it," I thought it's important to discuss quality-centric methodologies like Six Sigma.
Getting Past The Gatekeepers
Readers of my articles know that I believe that the single most important thing that a product manager does is to get his ideas in front of real target users. This is where real learning happens, and this is where you can discover a product that customers love.
Pleasure is Not the Absence of Pain
This time of year always gets me thinking about the nature of great products. Recently I was forwarded an article on Apple and the caption of a photo of an iPhone had this great line "Pleasure is Not the Absence of Pain."
Product Discovery Diary
When product managers and designers move from the very linear, Waterfall-based processes, to the much more iterative and exploratory discovery-based process that I and others advocate, they sometimes take a little while to appreciate and adapt to the fast pace and rhythm of product discovery.