Product Momentum Podcast

The success rate of new software products varies, depending on the criteria we used to define success. But a common statistic is unflattering: about 70% of new software releases fails to meet their initial expectations or goals. In this episode of Product Momentum – and in his new book, LAUNCH Code – James Whitman explains this phenomenon, describes the factors that contribute to such high failure rates, and presents research-based remedies we can deploy to reverse the trend. Too often in product development, we become so focused on heads-down requirements building that the act of launching the product feels like an afterthought. And to many, it’s become a lost art. James says that success requires a companywide, comprehensive plan for managing internal handoffs and bringing clients deeply into product development and launch. The development-to-sale process offers “many rakes to step on,” James says. And even the most well-intended teams make mistakes, often manifested in these critical areas: Client Listening. We tend to sample only our most favored clients; we limit discovery efforts to a specific segment of our market; and too often we wrongly assume that internal team members possess the domain knowledge to speak on behalf of the client. James underscores the critical role of continuous client listening and says that that every sales interaction is an opportunity for market research. “Maintaining a dialogue with clients both before and after the market launch is crucial for refining the product and addressing client needs effectively.” The Product-to-Sales Handoff. Software launches start with innovation and product design, followed by value-added activities within the product function, James says. But then there’s this completely separate activity that happens over here in Sales. The gap between those functions is where many products fail to launch. The best organizations integrate these activities into a holistic approach where sales and product teams work closely together rather than operating in silos. The Sales Cabinet. There’s a solid collective understanding that we should listen to our clients and that we should work collaboratively with our colleagues. But why don’t these things happen in the real world? James introduces the concept of a “sales cabinet,” a group of trusted senior sales representatives who provide early feedback on product ideas and help profile new offerings. Be sure to catch the entire episode with James Whitman to deepen your understanding of the LAUNCH process: Listen, Assess, Unify, Navigate, Control, and Hone. The post 148 / 3 Remedies that Boost Product Launch Success, with James Whitman appeared first on ITX Corp..

What percentage of your software product launches have been successful? If you answered, “about 50%,” you’re ahead of the curve, says Itamar Gilad. Itamar is a product leadership coach and author who also held senior product management and engineering roles at Microsoft and Google, where he worked at YouTube and led parts of Gmail. In today’s conversation, Itamar looks back on his early career that – he readily admits – includes ‘not that many big wins.’ As he explains, “The engineer in me kept whispering, ‘you don’t really know. You’re just faking it.’ And the results spoke for themselves.” It was then, while still at Google, that Itamar realized the power of discovery and user research. What he called, “all these good things that we now take for granted.” Once he embedded these techniques into his work, his perspective changed, and he started to consider a new product leadership playbook. What he came up with has replaced the traditional Plan and Execute model “that may have worked in the 20th century,” with an outcome- and evidence-based intuitive approach. “We used to believe that if we spend enough time creating the perfect top-level plan, and build a set of cascading plans, and then execute well on these plans, we will achieve greatness,” Itamar says. “It simply doesn’t work that way.” Even ideas from the most visionary leaders were informed by research and evidence, hypothesis and testing, he adds. In his book, Evidence Guided, Itamar presents an actionable model for bringing evidence-guided development into our organizations. Nested within Itamar’s larger framework are the GIST model, which leads to the ICE model, which then leads to the Confidence Meter. In this conversation, Itamar explains the role each model plays in specific detail and provides easy access to them. Be sure to catch our entire episode with Itamar Gilad and consider this famous quote from the late British statistician George E. P. Box: “All models are wrong, but some are useful.” The post 147 / ‘Useful Models’ That Boost Product Launch Success, with Itamar Gilad appeared first on ITX Corp..

Denise Tilles, a Product Operations expert and co-author of a pivotal book on the subject, dives deep into how Product Ops can revolutionize decision-making for product managers. She outlines the three key pillars of Product Ops: business insights, customer feedback, and streamlined processes. Denise emphasizes the importance of balancing quantitative and qualitative data to drive effective product strategies. Her insights on fostering a curious and adaptable culture within teams highlight how to empower product managers with the tools they need to succeed.

Patricia Reiners, a distinguished UX innovator and host of the Future of UX podcast, explores crucial intersections of user experience and AI. She emphasizes how while AI excels in speed and data analysis, it lacks the essential human traits of creativity, empathy, and complex decision-making. Patricia advocates for ongoing learning to adapt to AI's role in UX, stresses the importance of ethical considerations in product design, and shares insights from the upcoming Rochester conference, fostering a collaborative community for designers.

Ryan Rumsey, CEO of Second Wave Dive and founder of Chief Design Officer School, shares insights from his impactful keynote at the 2024 ITX Product + Design Conference. He highlights the people challenges in product building, asserting that personal experiences shape these dynamics. Rumsey emphasizes redefining success through emotional connections, shifting focus from traditional metrics. He advocates for the importance of power and influence in design roles, urging a more human-centric approach to creativity and teamwork for true value delivery.

John Maeda, VP of Engineering at Microsoft, discusses creativity as the foundation of wealth and the importance of taking risks in innovation. He explores how AI can enhance human potential and drive us towards a better future. The podcast delves into the mindset of risk-versed individuals who constantly strive for innovation, as well as the vast opportunities AI presents for the future.

In this episode of Product Momentum, Christian Idiodi shares insights gathered over his 20-year career as a product leader, leaning especially on the significance of human skills and highlighting the importance of product sense in product management. Christian Idiodi is a partner at Silicon Valley Product Group and co-author of TRANSFORMED, with Marty Cagan and partners at SVPG. He recently joined co-hosts Paul Gebel and ITX Product Manager Dan Sharp for a conversation exploring the two sides of product sense and why its human component is essential to product success in the context of today’s AI-focused world. Informed Decision-Making + Intuition Product sense combines informed decision-making with intuition that great product managers develop over time, Christian says. “It’s about having an intuitive feel for what makes a product valuable, which requires a deep understanding of your users and how they experience it.” Product Sense Is ‘Not Some Magical Gift’ But it’s not some magical gift that we’re born with, he adds. Product sense involves synthesizing data, everything from user feedback to market trends, and making quick, effective decisions that align with both user needs and business goals.“People who have product sense have worked hard to practice and fine-tune it,” Christian explains. The Essence of Product Management In this way, product sense lies at the very heart of product management: solving real problems for real users rather than focusing solely on commercial success. Companies lose their way, Christian says, by shifting their focus from helping people to extracting value from them. Product sense helps us maintain a balance between making customers happy and generating revenue for the business. This episode marks Christian Idiodi’s second visit with Product Momentum. Check out his initial conversation with the team, Product Problems Are People Problems. Marty Cagan and his partners at Silicon Valley Product Group, wrote INSPIRED, EMPOWERED, and (most recently) TRANSFORMED for product managers and teams; product leaders; and C-suite executives, respectively. Be sure to listen to the entire episode, as Christian explains how each book aligns with purpose to these audience segments. You can also catch our episode with Christian Idiodi in video on the Product Momentum YouTube Channel! The post 142 / Christian Idiodi, on Product Sense: Integrating Data and Intuition appeared first on ITX Corp..

Welcome to this special episode of Product Momentum, where four ITX leaders share their hands-on experience establishing (Upstate Product Meetup) and growing (Upstate UX Meetup, to nearly 600 members!) two Rochester-area communities of practice (CoP). Perhaps it was the recent conversations with Petra Wille and Jared Spool that inspired the idea for this up-close look at communities of practice. Or maybe we’re just eager to spread the word about our communities and support our colleagues. And, of course, it could be that we’re ramping up to host our upcoming Product + Design Conference, where the primary focus is always on bringing our communities together for learning and sharing knowledge. Whatever the reason, the underlying theme of today’s episode is this: work as a designer or product manager is challenging enough; none of us should feel we need to go it alone. So spend a few minutes with ITX CoP leaders Paul Gebel (VP of Delivery), Christina Halladay (Director of UX Design), Sean Murray (Director of Product Management), and Brian Loughner (Lead UX Designer) and catch their advice about how to find (or start from scratch) your own Product or UX community of practice. 5 Tips for Building + Growing a Community of Practice The community is about the members – first, foremost, always. The first question organizers should ask, Brian advises, is ‘What are you interested in?’ or, better yet, ‘what do you care about?’ Organizers should focus on serving their community, not their own agendas. Don’t be afraid to fail. Accept the fact that not everything will work out as you expect, Sean says. “That’s totally okay. As CoP leaders, our job is not to direct the community; it’s to facilitate the effort on their behalf based on the direction our members say they want to go.” CoP Size Doesn’t Matter. The CoP you launch or join doesn’t have to be large. “Upstate Product Meetup’s first gathering was like five people,” Sean says. “But it worked because the people who attended were there to talk about what they were doing as product managers – a topic we all shared and wanted to talk about.” Balance in-person and virtual events. When you first get going, start with in-person events, Brian says. Then, as your community matures, you can mix in virtual events to ease some of the logistical challenges. Provide a safe, inclusive environment. Attendees, especially first-timers, will be anxious. You can help relieve some of that social anxiety by doing the little things: provide directions and signage to help folks find your location, supply name tags and markers, show excitement about greeting your guests and introducing them to others, and stay positive. Communities of practice offer opportunities beyond honing your craft. Sure, you’ll have lots of opportunity to learn and to give back to others. But maybe the greatest discovery you’ll make is how to create real human experiences that foster enduring relationships among your community. The bottom line is this: Come with an open mind. Expect to make a connection. And remember: you have to play if you want to win. You can also watch our conversation with Paul, Christina, Sean, and Brian on the Product Momentum YouTube channel! The post 141 / How To Build a Community of Practice, with ITX Leaders in Product + UX appeared first on ITX Corp..

Rich Mironov, a veteran product manager, shares insights on aligning product strategy with business goals. He emphasizes speaking the language of business and translating use cases into financial cases. The podcast discusses integrating a money story with user stories, strategic prioritization, and seeking inspiration for product managers.

Back in episode 132 of Product Momentum, Janna Bastow talked about using AI tools to do much of the “grunt work” product managers and UX researchers do so that they can spend more time on the higher-value work that’s actually helping to transform product building. In this episode, John Haggerty and Prerna Singh go a bit deeper explaining how AIs can expedite – and simplify – those mundane, repetitive tasks to analyze qualitative data compiled from reams of user experience research. John and Prerna will conduct a pair of workshops at the ITX Product + Design Conference, in Rochester, NY on June 27-28. Leveraging AI for Customer Research John’s workshop will include a comprehensive overview of AI applications in product management, covering key topics like product feedback analysis, churn prediction and retention, risk assessment, competitive intelligence, etc. “AI is really good at doing things like sentiment analysis, topic modeling, named entity recognition,” he says. But it can be a lot to take in. “The best, fastest way to get familiar with AI is to just play with it. Just have fun, go out and use it, whatever it is.” Embracing the Data We Already Have Prerna’s workshop in Rochester will help attendees understand the data we already have — and how might we leverage it to make better customer decisions. Gathering customer research doesn’t need to be some extensive, intensive effort, she says, “but is really something that we should be doing on a continuous basis to make higher quality decisions.” Bias, Ethics, and AI Both John and Prerna stress the importance of understanding AI biases, ethics by design, and ensuring equity in training data. They also highlight the significance of “preserving human elements in user research,” such as non-verbal cues and emotional feedback, to maintain genuine human connections. Be sure to catch the entire episode to grab a few tips from John Haggerty about AI prompt engineering, and learn why Prerna Singh believes humans are becoming more comfortable responding to an AI researcher than to another person — and the new frontier of opportunity this creates. You can also watch our episode with John Haggerty and Prerna Singh on the Product Momentum YouTube Channel! The post 139 / User Experience Research: AI’s New Frontier, with John Haggerty & Prerna Singh appeared first on ITX Corp..