Product Momentum Podcast

A product’s vision communicates the change we want to bring to the world, Radhika Dutt says. It starts with why, but in the same breath also answers for whom. That’s why a great vision statement is outwardly focused. Product teams craft them not to declare our own goals and aspirations, but to focus attention and energy around the problems we want to solve for our users. In this episode of the Product Momentum Podcast, Radhika Dutt sits down with Sean and Paul to explain how vision-driven products not only clarify the why and for whom. But they also resist the common diseases that afflict product success. In the absence of a clear vision statement that is uniquely our own, we work without direction. We confuse activity with purposeful effort. And we deliver solutions to problems our users don’t have. But bringing vision and strategy isn’t enough. Product leaders and their teams need to translate vision and strategy into action. Radical Product Thinking, a movement co-founded by Radhika, provides a step-by-step approach to help teams build game-changing products. It guides teams through a process of applying sound vision, actionable strategy, and effective prioritization to prevent the ailments that end up killing products. What to listen for: [01:09]  Maintaining momentum through iteration. The right way to build products is through iteration, but we also need to limit the number of iterations by eliminating the unnecessary ones. [03:29]  The 2 extremes of Vision statements. One aims to disrupt, reinvent, or revolutionize. The other is focused on business objectives. [05:03]  Vision statements must be outwardly focused. Users don’t care about a company’s “best in class” aspirations. [05:36]  3 product diseases. Strategic swelling, obsessive sales disorder, pivotitis. [06:21]  Radical Product Thinking. It’s a response to repeatedly running into these same diseases no matter the size of the company or the industry you’re in. [07:58]  Follow your North Star. But don’t be afraid to step back and say, “Wait a minute; we’re following the wrong star.” [10:34]  Is there risk in being too tied to a vision? [13:00]  Use your vision as a filter. Does this feature I’m working on align with my vision? [14:07]  A strategy has to be flexible enough to allow you to adapt in the face of market realities. [16:25]  Anything can be a product. Based on the commonalities, even a government policy can be a product. [21:05]  Align your vision to where people want to go anyway. That way, the product isn’t forcing people to change. It’s adapting to what is going to be. [22:41]  Serving multiple personas in 2-sided markets. Use your North Star to determine where your true loyalty lies. [25:19]  How to prioritize a feature. A balance between helping me survive the quarter and fulfilling my vision. [27:37]  Business KPIs and Product KPIs. The Ying and Yang that helps you progress toward the vision while tracking your business success. [31:14]  Innovation. Changing people’s lives for the better. [32:00]  Accidental Villains. As you change one person’s life for the better, you’re changing someone else’s for the worse. [33:36]  Empathy. It’s not just about product managers showing empathy for their users. It has to happen across the whole organization. [34:05]  Organizational cactus. The internal friction that leads to the accumulation of vision debt. The post 27 / Product Success Starts with a Clear Vision appeared first on ITX Corp..

The difference between the best product companies and the rest is pretty stark. And you don’t have to wait until the end of the fiscal quarter to figure which is which. Those lagging indicators will tell you only what happened. Past tense. On the other hand, if you’re more interested in what will happen, begin by examining the level of empowerment within those companies. In this episode of the Product Momentum Podcast, Sean and Paul sit down with Marty Cagan, product thought leader, mentor, and founder of the Silicon Valley Product Group (SVPG), to discuss the power of empowerment. The job to be done by empowered teams, Marty says, is to solve the hard problems. Sounds simple, but the implications are enormous. So take heed, product people. Whether you’re new to the field or a seasoned product veteran, there’s something for you in our no-holds-barred conversation with Marty Cagan. What to listen for: Feature Teams, Product Teams, Delivery Teams (06:47). The differences between them and empowered teams are real, and significant. Empowered Teams (08:33). Like start-ups, they need to figure out the products customers are willing to buy (value) and whether those products can sustain a business (viability). Innovation (11:25). Solutions to hard problems that add value for our customers and our business. Role of the Product Manager (13:13). They have to go figure out something worth building. So they have a bigger responsibility on an empowered team. For New & Up-and-Coming Product Managers (16:32). What hiring managers are looking for is much more about how you think about solving problems, coming at it with a different perspective. The Best Single Source of Innovation (21:56). Marty’s comments may surprise you…though maybe not. Value of Developers (25:00). If you’re just using your developers to code, you’re only getting about half their value. The post 26 / Empowered Teams Build the Best Products appeared first on ITX Corp..

Trust is the ultimate collaboration tool within teams. So says Stephen Covey, who joins Sean and Paul on this episode of the Product Momentum Podcast. In fact, trust is so vital that innovation cannot occur in its absence. Steven is the best-selling author of The Speed of Trust who has taught leadership around the world. Trust is the currency that inspires innovation, which Stephen sees as a “continuum of staying current and relevant with our product and service offerings.” It is the enabler, guiding teams from coordination to cooperation to collaboration. Innovation cannot be achieved by one person working alone. These are such simple statements, but important not to confuse simplicity with underlying truth. Creating a culture of trust takes time and intention. There are so many takeaways from our conversation with Stephen Covey; here are just a few – Discover the 5 ways Trust inspires Innovation. Product leaders need to speak the language of trust. We never used to talk this way, but today it’s what makes a leader credible. Trust is foundational to all great product development. This is as true for our product’s users as it is for the team working on it. Listen in to learn even more. The post 25 / 5 Ways That Trust Inspires Innovation appeared first on ITX Corp..

Product people chase innovation. Sometimes we grow frustrated by how much time it takes “to get there” and how many barriers to innovation stand in our way. We’ve been led to believe that sprinting as fast as we can toward innovation will help us catch that lightning in a bottle, all the while failing to consider that innovation is a long game. Jake Knapp, author of Sprint, provides a refreshing perspective on today’s episode of the Product Momentum Podcast. Imagine the irony, says Jake, who joins Sean and Paul for a conversation about innovation. The goal of the design sprint is not to help us move faster – at least not in the short term. It’s to get us to slow down. To pause, even for just a few days, by breaking down barriers to innovation and making time for one thing that really matters. Here are three key takeaways from our conversation with Jake Knapp: Be aware of the defaults in life that rob your attention, energy, and time. Ask yourself: “what keeps me up at night?” And then listen closely for the answer. Innovation is authentic and different and unique. It is the product of clarity in your mind and harmony in your heart. The post 24 / How to Overcome Barriers to Innovation appeared first on ITX Corp..

As a community, have we gotten better at product leadership? The answer depends on who we ask and what we use to measure performance. In this episode of the Product Momentum Podcast, Sean and Paul pose the question to Richard Banfield, VP of Design Transformation at InVision. “A lot depends how much you are able to distance yourself from the day-to-day work and take a bigger picture viewpoint,” he responds. “If you’re in the weeds every day, it’s hard to believe that we’re making progress because those daily challenges haven’t necessarily gone away. But if you take a step back and look at the entire industry, you can see we’ve got better at a bunch of things.” It can be easy to lose sight of this in the midst of the ever-increasing complexity in the tech space. How can product leaders ensure that they are getting better and keeping pace with the industry? Richard Banfield offers these tips in today’s episode: Taking tips from other fields, like Formula One racing and high-performance athletes Mastering the ‘hard skills’ – the soft skills that are difficult to master Defining how you make decisions in a team environment with shared principles and values Read the full blog post here The post 23 / The Product Leader’s Path To High Performance appeared first on ITX Corp..

For today’s product leaders, it’s not enough to have technical proficiency or apply the right techniques. These skills are necessary to be sure – vital even – but no longer sufficient by themselves. Effective product leaders deliver even more. To make and implement effective strategy decisions, product leaders need buy-in from key stakeholders. In a role that brings great responsibility but little direct authority, product managers need to build rapport throughout their ecosystem. With over 15 years of experience teaching product managers, Roman Pichler cites the importance of people skills in building rapport and becoming an effective leader. In this episode of the Product Momentum Podcast, product management expert and leadership consultant Roman Pichler joins Sean and Paul for a behind-the-scenes deep dive into the role the softer skills – specifically, empathy – play in effective software product management. Empathy, Roman says, means recognizing that the human aspect of our job is really at the core of it – no longer just a ‘nice to have.’ Empathy is the capacity we have to understand each other’s feelings and needs, perspectives, and interests, building rapport with those we work with every day. With rapport comes the trust required to influence the many people in our domain and involve them in delivering solutions for customers. The post 22 / Combining Empathy with Tech appeared first on ITX Corp..

Imagine a colleague asks you to describe the software product manager role. Where would you begin? So few of us actually studied this stuff in college, and the field is evolving every day. How can we hope to explain it when we’re not even sure we’re doing it right? We deliver MVPs for MVAs. We set goals using OKRs and KPIs. And we apply a host of methodologies to build all this incredible software. But in the midst of all the jargon, it’s easy to lose sight of our greater purpose. This is where Johanna Rothman comes in to help. In this episode of the Product Momentum Podcast, Sean and Paul chat with Johanna Rothman. She is the author of 17 books and her advice is valued for its frankness and depth of expertise. Also known as the “Pragmatic Manager,” Johanna helps product leaders identify problems, recognize opportunities, and remove obstacles in their career development process. Though she has authored more than a dozen books on digital product management, Johanna sees software not as the end goal – but as the means by which we achieve that greater purpose – inspiring our teams to improve the world around us. Read our blog post here The post 21 / A Pragmatic Approach to Product Management appeared first on ITX Corp..

It’s ironic that companies comprised of teams that have embraced Agile methodologies can at the same time find themselves in search of organizational agility. With all the best intentions, proponents of Agile dutifully adhere to its prescribed set of principles. But then we suddenly find ourselves constrained by the same demons we had sought to escape. We seem to have lost our ability to experiment and learn, to adapt and grow, and to be resilient and flexible in the face of ambiguity. This is where Flow can come into play, Fin Goulding explains. In this 20th episode of the Product Momentum Podcast, Fin Goulding joins Sean and Paul as together they explore an increasing demand for a more business agile way of working. Through the evolving lens of Flow, Fin shares his insights based on a rich career as a C-level executive in large organizations, prolific author, and expert in the field of business and technical agility. Soft-spoken yet firm, he reminds us that, “agile is really a thing that you are; it’s not something that you buy.” Flow, he adds, helps us move away from a very rigid methodology into something that’s more of a philosophy, a way of being. Have a listen to find out how. The post 20 / Flow: Visualize the Possibilities appeared first on ITX Corp..

As organizations move inexorably to a team-based, agile methodology, how do individual contributors effectively demonstrate what they’re working on or what they’ve accomplished? If performance is measured based solely on the team’s deliverables, how do team leaders appropriately acknowledge each member’s contribution or target their professional development? Enter the notion of contributive design, as explained by Miguel Cardona. Contributive design fosters an environment in which team members collaborate as one, but also where they’re not necessarily dependent on others for their own outcomes. The involvement of each individual in the project is distinguishable, but not distinct. In this episode of ITX’s Product Momentum Podcast, hosts Sean and Paul welcome Miguel Cardona. He is a professor of design at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) and an artist. He is also the keynote speaker at ITX’s 2nd annual ITX UX 2019: Beyond the Pixels design conference. Miguel introduces us to the notion of contributive design and its far-reaching impact. In the classroom, contributive tools help him evaluate the performance of project teams while isolating the contributions of each student. Contributive design applies with equal significance in the workplace as we consider the modular nature of teams, design systems, and the user experience. Read our blog post here The post 19 / The Significance of Contributive Design appeared first on ITX Corp..

We’ve been working together in teams forever, right? After all, humans are social creatures. So it only makes sense that we would come together, organize around common objectives, and apply our energies and intellect to solve problems and deliver outcomes that move our world forward. If that is so, why do so many organizations simultaneously implement dubious structures and practices that conflict with their pursuit of high-performing teams? The answers may be more obvious than they seem, Christina Wodtke explains. In this episode, Sean and Paul catch up with Christina Wodtke – professor, speaker, and author of Radical Focus – to discuss techniques that help organizations create and sustain high-performing teams. Christina has admittedly made a career out of stating the unstated, exposing the proverbial elephant in the room. Whether it’s questioning the value of meetings and status reports or how companies conduct their hiring practices and performance reviews, Christina unabashedly critiques the ways in which those same organizations treat their most important asset – and in the same breath offers remedies that address them. Listen to the full episode to hear more from Christina, including: The role of managers on so-called “autonomous” teams Shaping and constantly re-evaluating rules of engagement for your team Creating psychological safety in a variety of environments The post 18 / Simple Steps to Achieve High Performance appeared first on ITX Corp..