Product Momentum Podcast

What is an ethical product? In an industry whose mission is to build technology that does good in the world, you’d think that by now we’d have figured this one out. You know, develop a checklist of criteria that helps chip away at our assumptions and biases and answer questions like, “is what I am doing meaningful?” and “is what I am doing ethical?” Kasia Chmielinski can help with this task. In this episode of the Product Momentum Podcast, Sean and Paul welcome Kasia Chmielinski, co-founder of the Data Nutrition Project and technologist at McKinsey & Company in Healthcare Analytics. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, Kasia says, ethics are not black and white. They cannot be captured in a series of boxes that will be applicable in every situation. There are, however, processes and strategies to intentionally build an ethical product, they say. “We already have these processes,” they add, “but the intent behind them is usually monetary or financial – something about growth or ROI. If we modify our processes and strategies to instead think about the end-user, think about the potential harms, think about how people are going to use it, we’d probably have better products for people.” It’s all about trade-offs and balance, they add. It’s a significant challenge (pardon the understatement). We’re solving big, hairy, complex problems for an audience of users whose experiences and ethics are as varied as snowflakes. With so many combinations and permutations – and so many dependencies – it’s no wonder the question about meaning and ethics remains unanswered. Or has it? Have a listen to the pod as Kasia Chmielinski methodically tackles the question – precisely as you would expect a trained scientist would – but with an added sprinkling of optimistic philosophy that suggests their answer will help us all create better products and do more good in the world. [02:00]  Use your powers for good. There are a lot of tools you can create that can be used for good or evil. [03:02] The stories we tell should be true. But they can’t just be true. They have to be engaging, and appropriate for our audience. [04:06] The user story is less about storytelling. It’s more about having the right components of the story…and phrasing it in a way that’s going to get you budget and people and resources. [05:38] You can’t use a story to fix a bad product. [07:44] In the realm of machine learning and AI, we’re so focused on the outcome of these models that we’re not really thinking about all the inputs that shape the outcome. [11:05] Ethics are not black & white. And they can’t be captured in a series of checkboxes that answer the question: “Is what I am building ethical?” [11:56] Tools are agnostic. It’s the use case that makes the difference. So we need to have the conversations and make the observations that help understand the necessary tradeoffs and balance. [13:59] How are people using my product? And how did their use align with the moral compass we established to begin with? [15:56] Iterate toward better products over time. That should be a big part of what we do as product managers. [16:43] Keep your tech people really close. There are so many points at which you have to make decisions technically that also could seriously impact the product. [18:45] It’s important to think about where we get our energy. [20:31] When considering your next position…. Is it challenging technically? Is it interesting from a product management perspective? What are we trying to accomplish? How will it affect people? [22:24] The Data Nutrition Project. Just this little team of people who are mostly volunteering our time on nights and weekends because we want to make the world a better place. [23:10] The hardest thing about product management. You don’t have direct power over anything. [23:56] ‘CEO of the Product’. I think they tell us that as a joke. It’s like, “don’t you wish?” [24:23] Innovation. There are categories of innovation. And they’re all related by movement. Movement of an idea or a concept or a product in a direction that hasn’t been explored. Or movement further in a direction that has. [25:44] Source of inspiration. The most inspiring things come from hanging out with like a 13-year-old. Nothing will change your mind like hanging out with a kid. The post 44 / Is What I Am Building Ethical? appeared first on ITX Corp..

What does it mean to be an influential product manager? In short, it means doing the job well. Easier said than done, right? The product manager is the one role in the organization who seems to own all the responsibility for getting things done, but none of the authority to actually do it. And that’s why influence is the key to success, and Ken Sandy wrote the book on influence in the PM role. In this episode of the Product Momentum Podcast, Sean and Paul welcome Ken Sandy. His book The Influential Product Manager: How to Lead and Launch Successful Technology Products is a comprehensive primer for both seasoned PMs and newcomers. And as a lecturer at UC Berkeley, he pioneered and now teaches the first product management course offered in the Engineering school – choosing to ‘light a candle rather than curse the darkness.’ There’s no aspect of our conversation with Ken Sandy that you’ll want to miss. He covers a lot of ground: behaving like a product manager; conquering self-doubt; understanding the power of trust; and finding your place within the 2×2 matrix of product manager ‘mindsets.’ You’re won’t be great in each of these quadrants, Ken says, or even comfortable. “But you shouldn’t avoid them either. You want to get in there to make sure you’re practicing those techniques, getting better at them over time. Because if you don’t, no one else is going to do it for you or your product.” Remember, the product manager is the one individual in the organization that nobody else seems to work for. And who, it seems, works for everybody else. Listen in: [02:18] Influence as a key skill. How do I teach that? [03:32] Different flavors of product managers. What connects them is how they operate within their organization – through influence, not authority. [05:35] The four mindsets. Explorer, Analyst, Challenger, and Evangelist. [12:26] Context matters. Especially in the product space. [15:10] The art of saying ‘no.’ Nothing challenges PMs more than trying to prioritize competing initiatives. Saying ‘no’ to stuff. [17:04] The prioritization methodology. You are empowered as a product manager to make the prioritization decisions about the product and the business. Don’t do that in isolation. [18:52] Goals and evaluation criteria. If you can’t agree on the goals, you’ve got no chance on anything else. [20:13] Build trust before you need it. Don’t wait until that first moment of having to deal with an issue or asking a stakeholder to do something on your behalf. [22:34] Stakeholders are not always ‘senior leaders.’ Don’t overlook the broad spectrum of where you need to build those relationships. [23:55] Communication is a two-way street. If you’re asking for something every time you talk to a stakeholder, you’re in the ‘self-interested land.’ But if you’re asking them about their goals and how you can help, you’re in a much better territory. [25:18] Constructive conflict and psychological safety allows for everyone to put their cards on the table and kind of get down to it. [29:10] Understanding bias. A very important skill for product leaders. The tools are getting much better. [30:22] Innovation. Bringing together people with different points of view and looking at problems in new ways. From there, being able to create solutions to those problems that may not have existed before. The post 43 / ProdMgmt101: The Influential Product Manager appeared first on ITX Corp..

Product work is rarely (ever?) as straightforward and ordered as we’d like. It’s important for us as product leaders to embrace this fact and to plan for the interdependencies among all the moving parts. Shaping puts a name to this important work, Ryan Singer describes. We get clarity of direction from the guardrails Shaping provides. At the same time, we draw greater autonomy and room for learning and growth. Shaping offers product manager a different kind of work; we should do more than write tickets. In this episode of the Product Momentum Podcast, Sean and Paul talk with Ryan Singer, Head of Product Strategy at Basecamp and author of Shape Up: Stop Running in Circles and Ship Work that Matters. Ryan has experience in all things software, giving him invaluable insights into what really works when designing products from start to finish. By doing the shaping work, he says, product managers enjoy a clearly defined vision for the product and create realistic constraints for the team to work within. Is Shaping the game-changer product managers have been looking for? Maybe. It isn’t waterfall. And it’s not pure Agile. But it might have a profound impact on the clarity to your direction and the anxiety level of your team. Be sure to listen in to catch Ryan’s unique takes on the nature of work and creating meaningful products. [2:20] Business challenges have changed. Now, we focus on defining progress rather than reacting to clients’ changing requests. [4:04] Product strategy. Defining the big things that differentiate your offering from others based on those who use it. [5:46] Don’t delegate strategy. Too many leaders delegate important design and product decisions. [8:52] Shaping provides vision without micromanagement or a lack of leadership. [11:41] Redefine your work. Shaping gives a name to important work that isn’t coding, design, or writing tickets. [12:59] Embrace constraints. Scarce resources create an environment that motivates us to make tradeoffs and collaborate differently. [17:29] Reduce risk. Do prototyping and figure out interdependencies before committing to a project that might take more time than anticipated. [21:19] Don’t be afraid to kill projects. If it were worth doing, you’d have done it. Set deadlines and constraints and stick to them. [24:05] Output vs. outcome. Be intentional about the product rather than focusing on deploying new features that may not be important to users. [24:20] What’s wrong? Diagnose problems from performance, shaping, betting, and building by clearly defining these processes. [27:55] The value of learning. Create an environment where the team is able to understand the big picture and how moving parts interact. [29:50] Take ‘management’ from the product manager, and move it to the team by creating realistic constraints. [37:02] Swimming in unknowns. The main work of the R&D phase. [38:02] Cleanup mode. Designate time for tying up loose ends. [42:39] Innovation. Doing something new that’s useful. The post 42 / Shaping: A Different Kind of Product Work appeared first on ITX Corp..

Not every product management role is the same. Each requires a different skill set balance, a different temperament, and a different approach to problem solving, and Alicia Dixon knows this. Why is that? Because users are individuals. Unique individuals. And while we share basic needs, ranging from physiological to self-actualization, each of us draws satisfaction and delight in different ways and from different sources. Given all that, can there be such a thing as the perfect product leader – the superwoman or superman who knows everything there is to know about a product, technology, market, set of users, and the team who builds it? It seems the space too complicated for that to be possible, right? That’s precisely why, in this episode of the Product Momentum Podcast, Sean and Paul were so eager to speak with Alicia Dixon, senior product manager at Apartment List. Alicia brings a hands-on, no-nonsense approach to doing product.  And she speaks from a rich, wide-ranging experience. Alicia started in product as a technical designer in the fashion industry before bringing her perspective to software. Alicia comes from the “builder sense,” she says, “the wanting to make things, and getting a sense of joy out of seeing someone use or wear what I worked on.” No matter your industry, she adds, “You really have to put yourself in the shoes of [each unique user]. I took the same approach then as I’m doing in product now. You know, understanding the user, knowing what their problems are, and solving for those problems. There’s actually a continuity there.” Lean in for more of today’s pod to hear Alicia Dixon discuss how equity and inclusivity must be part of every product conversation. Catch her thoughts about whether product managers can remain relevant as the lines between specialties begin to blur. Her takes on these and other topics are seriously on point! [02:09] Product managers are high achievers and go-getters. It’s a common thread that connects us. [02:09] Job descriptions for products managers stink. Not every product management role is the same, and some roles need skills that others don’t. [03:58] Three steps to building better product teams. Be intentional about team needs. Take time to develop people. Target specific learning. [05:28]  Driving equity and inclusivity in the product space. If product people are to serve a diverse set of users, we must do more to reflect the composition of our markets. [06:56] Tangible benefits of addressing inequity. There’s definitely an economic side to addressing problems.  There’s a very real return on investment. [07:42] Portability of product skills. Making things, experiencing someone’s joy, connecting with users. [08:08] Empathy. My work is to understand the user, know their problems, and solving for those problems. [09:16] Diversity is empowering. Geography, socio-economic, experiences…all contribute to the perspectives we have and can bring to the table. [11:32] Are product managers still relevant? If we get to a place where all those specialties can talk to each other and everyone’s working toward a shared goal and not their individual KPI, product management could go away. [13:13] Flow. We’re living at the intersection of everything, and it’s very hard to stay in flow. [14:28] Leading big products vs. leading small products. The elements of your day-to-day are similar, but what changes is how much you roll up your sleeves to help out. [15:51] Ambition. The trait that (almost) all product managers share. [16:32] Product manager’s dilemma. Where do I want to go? When am I most happy? Why do I get up for work every day? Answer these and then define success for yourself. [19:09] Toxic intellectualization. The act of over-thinking and delaying action. [19:58] Using a framework to solve a challenge. I would bet that most successful teams didn’t start with the framework. They started with a, “let’s get something done,” mindset, and that’s what they worked toward. [20:53] PM’s future. As long as we continue to add value – making someone’s life easier, releasing a product that helps us save money or time, or creating a thing of beauty that can be appreciated – there’s a long horizon for product to continue. [22:06] Find your own intrinsic satisfaction. [23:07] Why there’s still no Product Management Book of Knowledge. Even though they spent years writing it, what they came up with didn’t resonate. It’s too big a question. [25:14] Innovation. The process of coming up with a new way to do an old thing. The post 41 / No Such Thing As The ‘Perfect’ Product Manager appeared first on ITX Corp..

  Strong leadership and eager collaboration serve as the hallmarks in the long list of contributions made by ITX veterans and Vice Presidents Nancy Neumann and Lisa Young, the company’s most recent additions to its Board of Directors. In this special edition of the Product Momentum Podcast, Sean and Paul welcome fellow ITX leaders Lisa and Nancy to better understand the secret to their decades of success. Individually, they are responsible for establishing, growing, and retaining ITX’s global Delivery and User Experience organizations, respectively. Together, they share in each other’s challenges and successes, building a collective product team that delivers client value and improves users’ lives. “We look for people who have the right core technical competencies,” Nancy says, “but we also want people who are a fit for the work we do and how we do it.” Nancy and Lisa believe in ‘hiring hard, managing easy.’ “What’s really important,” Lisa adds, “is that we encourage the growth of our people, helping them to feel related to each other. So that’s the collaboration we have…and it stems from the leadership team’s capacity for caring. It’s what makes people very sticky to ITX.” Listen in to catch more leadership insights about hiring, mentoring for growth, and empowering teams toward autonomy. [02:36] Access to experts in every department is key to our ‘special sauce.’ We work with our teams to break down the silos that divide us, which makes us much more collaborative. [03:51] We’re a collective product team. When we need expertise outside the team, it’s easy to reach out because we’re not just one team of one particular specialty. [04:48] It’s all about the people. Teams of people working with people to build software products that improve people’s lives. [05:10] Hiring hard, managing easy. Candidates need to have the core technical competencies that every manager is looking for. But we look for the person that is a fit for the work we do – and how we do it. [05:40] Passion and curiosity. We need people who have a passion for technology and are curious around where it has been, where it is today, and where it is going. That’s what’s going to drive innovation in digital product design. [06:16] Context. Putting together all the threads that make up a user in a way that we’re able to walk in their shoes and build empathy so that we understand the experience we’re delivering to them. [07:49] Finding the right fit. Our culture is so important. New hires need to be a good fit for our culture and our values. [09:51] There’s no ‘I’ in ‘Team.’ If we find great individual contributors that love shining on their own, that’s really not what we’re about. [11:53] Capacity for caring and management continuity. It makes people very ‘sticky’ to ITX. [12:48] ITX designers don’t ‘push pixels.’ We give our designers ownership of their work and turn them loose, empowering them to participate in our client’s work and in internal initiatives as well. [14:13] Relatedness, Competence, Autonomy. Self-Determination Theory personified. [16:37] Our job is to make people’s jobs easier. We have to get what we’re doing out into people’s hands to find out what’s working, what’s not working. And be prepared to respond to change really fast. [17:39] Heartfelt congratulations. We can’t think of two more qualified individuals to serve on ITX’s board of directors; and we’re excited to see how your fresh perspective helps ITX craft and realize its long-term vision. The post Special Edition / Delivery + UX = Client Value appeared first on ITX Corp..

The simple act of storytelling helps the audience believe that the story is actually happening to them. Whether you’re pitching a product idea to a group of users or to your team, the well-told story resonates, and Mark Cruth proves this. It identifies the key players. It describes the conflict. And as the plot unfolds, it delivers the  narrative and dialogue that best describes their journeys. And the story’s climax reveals how the conflict is resolved. In this episode of the Product Momentum Podcast, Sean and Paul catch up with Mark Cruth, part-time storyteller and full-time Enterprise Solutions Architect at Atlassian. When product managers weave just the right narrative, Mark says, we help our teams connect the dots between themselves and the experience they’re creating for users. We help them understand who they are, who their users are, what their mission is, and how they add value to the organization’s larger ambitions. In other words, we Weave in their Why. Tune in to the pod as Mark Cruth weaves his own engaging narrative about the power of storytelling. [02:17] The difference between user stories and storytelling. [03:29] Knowing your persona(s). [03:55] Anti-patterns – e.g., does our product serve only one persona? [06:57] Storytelling is how we talk to people, how we sell them on our ideas. [07:53] Oxytocin, dopamine, and cortisol. [10:25] Use the backlog to tell the story of your product’s evolution. [11:26] Value stream mapping the product backlog to describe your user’s journey as a narrative. [12:29] How the story plays out in product, we can build a better experience. [14:59] Integrate a team of teams to weave the story together. [17:06] Rapid prototyping to potential users. [18:21] Build advocacy by sharing the product story with users and the product team; both benefit by knowing what the next stage will be. [20:54] Communicating value. “Hey, we contribute to this part of the journey.” [21:45] Product Manager tip #1: Ask your teams to create their own canvas; talk about who they are, who their customers are, what their mission is, how they add value. [24:47] Product Manager tip #2. Ask yourself: When we implement this, what do we expect to happen? Make it a quantitative metric…and then measure it over time. [30:20] Connect the dots from the organization’s strategic level down to each individual user story. [31:36] What’s the why? Stories have a way of helping organizations discover their why and communicating it to their teams. [33:11] Innovation. Innovation is something that we do all the time. It’s allowing ourselves to let go of our preconceived notions and think differently. Thinking differently, that’s innovation. The post 40 / How A Well-Told Story ‘Weaves In Your Why’ appeared first on ITX Corp..

As product builders, we use data science and behavioral science to help us design software solutions that line up with our users’ initial intent. Data science helps us understand who’s likely to take some action. Behavioral science looks at the factors that drive us to take action in the first place. With so many inputs influencing our decision-making process, it’s hard to know where to start. Nate Andorsky makes this process easier. In this episode of the Product Momentum Podcast, Sean and Paul welcome Nate Andorsky, CEO of Creative Science and author of Decoding The Why. His many contributions to our space appear at the intersection of human behavior and the ways in which it can improve human outcomes. Nate recommends taking a behavior-first approach to solving product design challenges. “Zero in on the behavior you’re trying to change and work backward from there,” he says. “Oftentimes when we build products, we get into this habit of thinking solution first.” We collect all sorts of information about users from focus groups, surveys, and in-person interviews. Much of it lands in two big buckets: what people say and what people do. All that is great. But too often the say and the do don’t line up. So as product leaders we need to continue our discovery process to better understand the “Why?” Tune in to the pod as Nate shares insights around his concept of “say data, do data, and why data.” The why data explains the subconscious factors that are actually driving user behavior, the types of things your users aren’t even aware of themselves. Once you understand that, Nate Andorsky adds, you have a foundation and a decision-making framework to create amazing products that make a positive impact in the lives of others. [02:28] Behavioral science vs. Data science. Behavioral science looks at what factors drive us to take action? Data science looks at who’s likely to do what. [03:06] The $64,000 Question. How do product builders get people to do that thing. That’s where behavioral science layers back in. [03:47] How to institute change in a product ecosystem. Zero in on the behavior that you’re trying to change and then work backward from there. [05:09] Say data. Do data. Why data. Decode the WHY to understand the subconscious behaviors that drive user behavior. [06:36] The 15-year delay. Academic research precedes implementation by about 15 years. [07:17] The need for sophisticated individuals. It takes a sophisticated individual to understand how to convert academic theory into product solutions. [09:16] Hyperbolic discounting and present bias. How we think about our products doesn’t always align with how our users feel in the moment. [13:39] The ethics of product design. Use your powers for good; that is, design product solutions in ways that line up with users’ initial intent. [16:06] How do product managers discover the delta between say-do data and extrapolate the why? [18:25] Top 2 behavioral economics heuristics. The identifiable victim/beneficiary effect and the power of storytelling. [20:24] Personalities and behaviors. Behavior might not be driven by one’s personality, but even more so by one’s environment. [21:34] Digital experiences as motivators and organizers of behavior. Hopefully, behaviors we want to see in the world. [22:35] The value of personas. They’re definitely informative. But they’re neither industry specific nor individual specific. They’re human specific. [25:22] Advice to generate new ideas. It comes with experience and getting your hands dirty. [25:56] The biggest breakthroughs come with a new intervention or a new design that is pieced together from four or five different things that we’ve seen work. [26:51] Add fuel, remove friction. Avoid swimming against the current. Share a path with your users that matches the narrative they want for themselves. [27:59] Innovation. It’s the cross-discipline of different studies and ideas. Innovation is when you start to break down the silos that separate these disciplines and understand how they all fit together. The post 39 / Behavioral Science and Product Design appeared first on ITX Corp..

Whatever we think we know about our users doesn’t always hold true when we release our products into the wild. Faced with compressed cycle times and pressure to release something, product managers sometimes fall in love with a product only later to discover we were among the few who did. Our mistake isn’t being passionate about the feature or solution; our mistake is failing to first measure our users’ response to it, Ash Maurya says. In this episode of the Product Momentum Podcast, Sean and Paul welcome Ash Maurya, founder and CEO of LEANSTACK and creator of Lean Canvas, a popular business modeling tool. “It’s about bringing in the customer voice,” Ash says, “and gathering the right qualitative and quantitative metrics – starting with qualitative.” It’s the easier place to start, Ash continues. “With qualitative, we get to see patterns and learn the big themes – what I call ‘the signals and the noise.’ Validate qualitatively, but then verify quantitatively because otherwise you can get a lot of false positives.” Throughout the pod, Ash shares insights about how product teams can close the gap between pre-launch conjecture and post-launch reality. By bringing the customer into a Discovery phase conversation where probing and listening are front and center, we’re able to sharpen our focus, test theories through experimentation, and create new experiences based on customer voice. Product leaders come to understand their customers in a deeper context. When we engage them beyond the functional nature of their challenge, we’re more likely to understand the problem they’re trying to solve at a truly emotional level. With that depth of appreciation, we can create impactful product design. Be sure to catch the entire podcast conversation to hear Ash Maurya share the following: [01:44] A big movement putting product at the center. In some ways, it’s always been there, there’s just a new awareness of it. [03:40] The first order of business. Are we building something that gets used? Are customers engaging with this? That’s where I like to start; everything else layers on top. [04:04] Qualitative metrics. Qualitative can give you a very strong signal one way or the other that you may be onto something. It’s very effective in finding problems. [05:39] Validation and verification. An interesting distinction in light of the role qualitative and quantitative research plays. [07:44] Jobs to be Done (and other frameworks). At first, I’m fascinated. But the thing that always troubles me is that it feels a bit like a magic trick. I see the result, but I don’t know how they got to it. [08:19] Hiring and firing products. Even as I look across disruptive products, for every product that you build, there’s already a product, an existing alternative, that you are replacing. [09:00] The bigger context. With every product, there’s the functional job, and there’s the emotional job. [09:00] The drill bit example. Why are you drilling the hole in the first place? [11:39] Understanding irrationality. How behavioral economics helps the marketer, innovator, and entrepreneur. [12:59] Quantitative metrics. The quantitative is where the data proves the thing working at scale. [12:59] Insight generation. That’s where all the interviewing and the qualitative learning comes into play. [14:15] New products are fundamentally about some kind of behavior change. [16:32] Habit loops and reward loops. As product folks, we sometimes have to add some kind of feedback loop that this product is working. [17:35] “Using a lean canvas does not a lean startup make.” The difference between a team following process because they were forced to – not using the tool for its intended purpose. [23:27] MVP and MVA. Build something smaller and then iterate and refine. The challenge is that today customers have no patience. Rightly so, because they have so many choices. [25:50] The strategy of preeminence. If you can articulate user problems better than they can, they transfer expertise to you and that starts a conversation. [27:40] The innovator’s bias. I want to build something cool and different and I don’t want to solve the obvious problems. [27:40] The secret about new problems. They come from old solutions. [29:38] The speed of learning. The only true, unfair advantage that you have. [32:42] Innovation. I contrast innovation and invention. I look at invention as a new way of doing things, and I look at innovation as taking that new way, technology, method to market. The post 37 / Validate and Verify the Customer Voice appeared first on ITX Corp..

What is the product manager’s prime directive? Most would argue we’re here to make the world a better place through the software products we create. But what do we do when we see product decisions being made that conflict with that directive, that cause us to manipulate users to our benefit instead of inspire them for the benefit of others? It’s the sort of question that makes you take a “look in the mirror.” And one that Product Momentum Podcast guest Michael Sacca posed in response to a deceptively simple one that Sean and Paul ask every guest: What’s a book that you recommend to others, one that has shaped your career or current thinking? We could not have anticipated Michael’s response: The Social History of the Machine Gun.  The John Ellis book describes how as a society we arrived at the machine gun as a form of deadly warfare. At every step in its evolution, Michael explained, product decisions were made to devise something that was more lethal than before. As VP of Product at Dribbble, Michael Sacca describes the work of product managers as having to make thousands of similar decisions every day of our professional lives. Though the context of our work is vastly different from weapons of warfare, we too define scope, select new features, and satisfy requirements as part of our daily routine. But do we ever consider whether any of it is really necessary. Is our work helping to serve the product manager’s prime directive – to make the world a better place? Michael’s assessment of Ellis’ machine gun example serves as a jarring reminder that the choices we make can have significant impact on the world around us. It’s also a reminder of how a product manager’s leadership and influence can shape the experience for our customers and their users. Michael Sacca put his own spin on the Shaping methodology (inspired by Ryan Singer’s book Shape Up) as a way to deliver impactful results for Dribbble. Listen in to hear more about how Shaping can help your team and organization to fulfill their prime directive. [03:21] Ship more meaningful work, faster. Start to time box the other way. Rather than requiring the team to tell me how long something’s going to take, we just gave them six weeks to figure out how to ship something meaningful. [04:26] Moving away from Agile, sort of. We’re not doing the usual Agile. We’re not going to stop and do a retro after 2 weeks. We’re not going to do grooming meetings. We’re not going to do any of that usual Agile stuff, because it didn’t give the team context. [04:48] Shaping the work to build a happier, more productive team. [06:18] The importance of building context. Our teams had a ticket, but they didn’t really know why we were doing what we were doing. Now all we do is give them a shaping document and they finalize the scope. [07:16] Before, everyone was scared to cut scope. Now we’ve been able to refine the process to where we’re always building the most important thing and not wasting time on features that probably wouldn’t matter anyway. [08:46] How to lose 70% of your team’s capability. [09:41] What goes into the shaping artifact. [11:43] “Inspiration is for amateurs.” – Chuck Close. [13:03] The Dribbblization of Design. I think it is a very human and natural concept to collaborate together, and I think what we do is collect that trending information and give it back to the design community. [14:58] Transforming product management from a cottage industry into a career that people now aspire to. [15:21] Product manager as the “CEO of the product”? I don’t think we ever really fulfilled that. [18:17] The constant evolution of product design. As humans, I think we’re always looking for something new. And that’s never going to change. [20:35] The art and science of working together, separately. [22:25] Shaping the space with 400 episodes of Rocketship.fm. What we’re trying to do is better understand the world around us as product managers. [25:49] The most common cause of product failure. Interestingly, when done well, it’s also the most common cause of product success. [27:41] Be aware of the influence we have as product managers. [28:42] What is Innovation. Put simply, it’s a milestone in evolutionary progress. [30:33] The book I always recommend to product people. The Social History of the Machine Gun, by John Ellis. It exemplifies what we have control of as product managers. The post 36 / Shaping the Product Manager’s Prime Directive appeared first on ITX Corp..

  In this episode of the Product Momentum Podcast, Sean and Paul welcome Christopher O’Donnell, Chief Product Officer at HubSpot. Their conversation kicks off with a discussion of Trust, closes with Christopher’s definition of Innovation, and checks nearly every box in the product manager playbook along the way. In a lively give-and-take that combines big ideas and “boots on the ground” pragmatism, Christopher O’Donnell explains how a product mindset, with clearly articulated goals and guardrails, brings a level of team autonomy that delivers product solutions and “delightful surprises.” Autonomous teams, he says, find better ways to solve problems than if leadership had simply given them their marching orders. “Creativity comes from the constraints,” Christopher adds. When we give people products to build and problems to solve – along with those goals and guardrails – we not only get better solutions; we get empowered, autonomous teams. “Let’s be clear. Autonomy is not chaos,” Christopher adds, “Autonomy is not doing whatever you want and optimizing for yourself or your team above the customer. Autonomy is the ability to make high-quality decisions without consulting a lot of people. But you don’t get that without the guardrails.” Above it all, Christopher O’Donnell reminds us of the human story attached to our work. “I don’t care what you build; every day and every interaction involves users of our software. They’re real people, with real people problems.” The ultimate goal of every product manager, he says, is to build the solution the world needs. Listen in to hear Christopher’s thoughts on these topics: [02:34] The Impact of Trust.  When you have organizational trust, you can attract really great people. You can retain really great people, and they will accomplish bigger, better things than what you could have told them to do. [03:40] Product ≠ Project. We don’t give people projects. We give people products, with clearly defined goals and guardrails. And they own the successes and failures along the way. [04:30] The Shift into Problems. Even better than giving people products is giving them problems. [05:29] Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic Motivation. Hire their hearts and their minds. [07:23] Titles do not matter. If it were totally up to me and I could start from scratch, everybody on our team would just have the title “Product.” [07:38] As a resource, there’s no limit to intrinsic motivation.     [11:07] Creativity comes from the constraints. In the same way that necessity is the mother of invention, creativity is borne from constraints. [12:52] Mainsail. Invoking Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. [15:26] A playbook, but not a process. It’s the mindset that things are not fixed in time, that we’re always here to adapt and learn. [16:16] Autonomy. What it is; what it is not. The autonomy is real. Teams are actually making decisions for themselves. [18:55] Size (of your release) matters. From a quality perspective, the larger your releases are, the harder they are to do in a really quality way. Smaller releases bring higher quality. [21:02] Demo in production, or it didn’t happen. [22:49] The problems Scrum solves. One is not being able to get to production and getting in front of customers. The second is getting hassled by everybody else at your company. Scrum is going to help you there. [29:09] Scrum is a valuable set of guardrails. [30:04] Building real empathy for your customers. Just how important is it? [31:40] Relax; all the front-line product managers are faking it. Product management is a game of incomplete information. [32:53] There’s always a human story. Users of software are people. And they have people problems. I don’t care what you build, there is a human story. [34:37] What skill set(s) product managers need to be successful.  Curiosity and truth-seeking, absolutely. [37:29] If the engineers lose faith, there is nothing I can do for you. If none of the teams is excited to work with you, you’re done. [38:36] It all boils down to interpersonal effectiveness. The growth mindset. Intrinsic motivation. Double down on that, and you can’t go wrong, whatever you work on. [38:51] Innovation. I think it’s one of two things. It’s either solving a problem that hasn’t been solved. Or solving a problem in a very different way. The post 35 / Building the Solutions the World Needs appeared first on ITX Corp..