Getting Back to Basics: The Power of Effective Communication and Continuous Improvement

Nov 16, 2023

Thomas Fenrich, VP of Product Management at IKEA, discusses the importance of grounded AI, getting back to basics, impactful communication, testing internally first, and the power of small, fast releases. The podcast also touches on rapid-fire product ideas, AI robots in furniture assembly, IKEA's innovative strategies, course correction, and the significance of understanding customer needs. The speakers emphasize the role of effective communication, grounding AI in business context, and incremental releases.

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Introduction

00:00 • 2min

Rapid-fire product idea session

01:40 • 10min

AI Robots, IKEA's Innovation, and Customer Needs

12:04 • 4min

Importance of Course Correction and Effective Communication

16:01 • 18min

Insights on Grounding AI, Communication, and Incremental Release

33:34 • 3min

This episode features an interview with Thomas Fenrich, VP of Product Management at IKEA.

In this episode, Thomas shares with us:

Why AI needs to be grounded and purposeful
The importance of getting back to the fundamentals
Communicating with impact
The endless benefits of testing internally FIRST
The power of small, fast releases
And so much more!

Host takeaways:

Kyle:

AI needs to be grounded: AI isn’t the end all be all. We need to be asking ourselves, How does AI actually help us in our businesses? How is it helping the customer? The answers will provide us with focus and allow us to approach our products and customers more thoughtfully.
Go back to the fundamentals: When launching a new product, it’s important to go back to basics - who are we building it for? Why are we building it? Again, taking a step back to be intentional about what we’re doing helps us, our teams, AND our customers.
PMs should communicate with impact: Communication, and over-communication at that, is critical for how we talk about our products and making sure we’re delivering the right words and the right message to the right people.

Lukasz:

The latest and greatest is exciting: At this point, I’m pretty sure all engineers want to be working with AI. And why not, right? It’s the new, shiny toy providing much to be discovered. What we can do as leaders, is help channel the excitement of the new and useful by continuously learning about it, making sure we have proper bats so we can drive proper business.
Test internally first: When we’re testing new products, it’s wise to be sure we’re testing internally first. We don’t want to test on the consumer and have to back pedal. Let’s make sure our stuff works first.
Incremental releases that are small and fast: When we focus on releasing incremental changes fast, we have the opportunity to experiment easily and test things out. This requires minimal effort but can have a large impact. It allows our teams to move really quickly and respond to customers in better ways. This also builds a tremendous uptick in excitement about the product.

Segment Timestamps:

*(01:32) - Ship it or Skip it

*(03:47) - PM Power Moves

*(33:37) - Host Takeaways

Links:

Connect with Lukasz Weber & Kyle Kolich on LinkedIn
Learn more about Zuora

>> Connect with Lukasz Weber & Kyle Kolich

>> Learn more about Zuora