With this story I want to explain a typical trap for product managers, which is solution driven planning. Solution driven planning is a scenario like the carpenter whose one implement is a hammer - everything will start to appear like a nail , although many things are far better created with screws. Whenever that occurs, the product manager has probably failed to carry out their role or the product manager has been overruled by a senior manager who is pursuing intuition. Whatever the case, such products are not often worthwhile.
When you are a product manager, you determine a market opening. A spot out there where money can be earned for the reason that there is an issue to address. In some cases, the opportunity enables you to utilize your current systems in a new market segment, but if you are actually looking to innovate, you should start from square one. In that scenario, it is crucial to put a detailed problem statement in place before you go down the path of defining the solution. This implies you must learn about the customer you are looking to address and understanding the problem you are trying to address for them from all sides, even those loosely connected to the problem. Only after that step is finished and the problem statement has been prepared and discussed with your team, should you proceed on the route of solution definition. Make sure to objectively examine every potential solution in reference to the problem statement, a measurement system like scoring might help.
You can keep your focus on the problem by being precise about what you are striving to address. A suggestion is to create a visual overview that is posted in the team workspace. It ought to provide the clarification of the opportunity area, the consumer needs and learnings. Throughout your solution assessment you'll probably seek some sort of consumer verification, as you gain insights, add them to the workspace.
Use your group workspace with the visual catalogs for all selections associated with features and/or feature testing. That will help anchor the team in the problem statement and help stay away from drifting away from the product vision.
It is challenging to ignore the attraction of solution based thought. A while ago, I was placed on a product that had been scoped as a solution early in the development cycle. We wanted to keep trying to improve the solution because we had to improve the conversion rate in the new product, which wasn't much better than the product it replaced. Instead we should have admitted earlier that it was not the most ideal solution for the consumer problem and we ought to have gone after a very different solution. However, we were so severely enchanted by the solution that had been specified that it took a lot of time and courage to recognize what was going on and to call for a pivot.
It is important to avoid cases like this for a variety of reasons: it may give the competition the time to out-compete you, it is a noticeable waste of money, flopped products might in a negative way affect the motivation of the personnel and typically flopped products bring about the unfavorable politics of locating a person to blame, which might adversely influence mood in the company.
When you are a product manager, you determine a market opening. A spot out there where money can be earned for the reason that there is an issue to address. In some cases, the opportunity enables you to utilize your current systems in a new market segment, but if you are actually looking to innovate, you should start from square one. In that scenario, it is crucial to put a detailed problem statement in place before you go down the path of defining the solution. This implies you must learn about the customer you are looking to address and understanding the problem you are trying to address for them from all sides, even those loosely connected to the problem. Only after that step is finished and the problem statement has been prepared and discussed with your team, should you proceed on the route of solution definition. Make sure to objectively examine every potential solution in reference to the problem statement, a measurement system like scoring might help.
You can keep your focus on the problem by being precise about what you are striving to address. A suggestion is to create a visual overview that is posted in the team workspace. It ought to provide the clarification of the opportunity area, the consumer needs and learnings. Throughout your solution assessment you'll probably seek some sort of consumer verification, as you gain insights, add them to the workspace.
Use your group workspace with the visual catalogs for all selections associated with features and/or feature testing. That will help anchor the team in the problem statement and help stay away from drifting away from the product vision.
It is challenging to ignore the attraction of solution based thought. A while ago, I was placed on a product that had been scoped as a solution early in the development cycle. We wanted to keep trying to improve the solution because we had to improve the conversion rate in the new product, which wasn't much better than the product it replaced. Instead we should have admitted earlier that it was not the most ideal solution for the consumer problem and we ought to have gone after a very different solution. However, we were so severely enchanted by the solution that had been specified that it took a lot of time and courage to recognize what was going on and to call for a pivot.
It is important to avoid cases like this for a variety of reasons: it may give the competition the time to out-compete you, it is a noticeable waste of money, flopped products might in a negative way affect the motivation of the personnel and typically flopped products bring about the unfavorable politics of locating a person to blame, which might adversely influence mood in the company.
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If you found this article helpful, you should also have a look at this article on Customer Problem led thinking in Product Management.
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