With great ideation comes great responsibility
With great ideation comes great responsibilityIt’s great fun to come up with a lot of different ideas that your product team can build. But when you practice that sort of ideation without guardrails, you can end up sending your team off on a wild quest to build a lot of things that no one wants. So step away from those sticky notes and Sharpies until you’re sure you’re trying to solve a problem worth solving. Meanwhile, in product news, a startup accelerator slows down, AT&T learns what happens when you “let it fly” and AI apps are everywhere and they’re even completing your sentences. Ideation thinking prompts. As a facilitator during any ideation session, Ashley Ann walks a fine line between when to leave things vague and open so that creativity can abound, and when to give people some practical handholds so they can keep ideating. Ashley shares the questions she uses to frame those sessions and create guardrails. For instance, “How might we make a better vase?” will generate very different ideas from “How might we help people enjoy flowers?” Product innovation: Stop inventing cool sh*t your customers don’t want! Innovation is one of the most important endeavors of modern times. It creates growth for organizations and entire economies, improves customers’ lives, and creates meaning and fulfillment for individuals and teams. But it is hard, and our success rates are mediocre to poor. We know from research and experience that too many organizations still waste their time inventing solutions for non-existent customer needs! Nathan Baird explores why organizations do this and what you can do to avoid falling into the same trap. Continues below... This Week’s VideoA discussion on ideas. Basecamp launches products that so many around the world use and love. But they do it with an unbelievably lean team, considering the scope and scale of their products. In this fireside chat from the Global edition of INDUSTRY: The Product Conference in 2017, Jason Fried uncovers some processes for ideation that he and his team use at Basecamp -- along with other takes on how they build product "The Basecamp Way." This video, and many more just like it, are available on our Member Hub. If you don’t have access to the Member Hub already, you can join the community today for free. You can't manage what you can't measure You can’t manage what you can’t measure. Such a great quote from W. Edwards Deming. (Actually, it wasn’t from Deming – that’s a lie.) But seriously, for Product Managers – this quote is certainly relevant, isn’t it? Especially these days when everything is moving at lightning speed and data is king. But why? Well, it's all about making the invisible, visible. Think about it. Every click, every swipe, every little action in your product is a goldmine of info. But if you're not tracking it, it's like it never even happened. That's where setting up the right metrics comes into play. It's like having a GPS for your product's journey, guiding you through the twists and turns of user behavior and market trends, ensuring you're always on the most efficient path to success. But remember - not all metrics are created equal. It's easy to get sidetracked by flashy numbers that don't mean much for your bottom line. Admit it, you’ve probably used these “vanity metrics'' one way or the other at some point in your career, haven't you? (Don’t worry – we all have). That's why honing in on the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that truly matter for your specific product and your specific company is crucial. It's about finding the signal in the noise. Embracing a culture of measurement isn't just about being data-driven. It's about being smart, efficient, and, most importantly, keeping your product in tune with what your users want. Remember, in the world of product management, if you're not measuring, you're just guessing. And we didn’t need Deming to say that for it to be true. The complete guide to product ideation and discovery: Crafting user-centric excellence. Product ideation is generating, developing, and communicating new ideas. In contrast, product discovery refers to a method of deeply understanding customer needs and using this understanding to develop a successful product. Product ideation and product discovery are two vital phases in the journey of successful product development. The folks at Brew Studio dive into the intricacies of both processes, their key players, the role of data, and how they complement each other to create user-centric products. What innovation really means for product managers. Kent McDonald has a love/hate relationship with the term innovation. Kent loves the idea of taking creative approaches to build a competitive advantage with your product. He hates it when product teams innovate for the sake of innovating, especially when they work on parity products. So Kent explored what the proper use of innovation in product management should look like. Resources and news curated by Kent J. McDonald. |
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