Product Practice #295 |
Dear Reader,
Many product teams perceive the focus on User Outcomes as arbitrary goal-setting and the opposite of serving users. And it‘s easy to understand why.
Many widely shared examples of User Outcomes out there read like this:
„Users buy more tickets“
„Customers use more integrations. “
„Returning shoppers add more items to their basket.“
A product leader recently approached me after a conference talk, sharing his team‘s concerns that Outcomes would just be repackaged business goals. Looking at the above examples, his team would be right. These read like how the company or business wants their customers to behave.
To make Outcomes (aka changes in human behavior) useful, you have to remember that they should describe changes in behavior that are useful to the audience you intend to serve, which requires a proven problem.
Useful Outcomes = Useful for the User
It‘s not enough if Outcomes describe „technically correct“ changes in behavior. Instead, there should be a clear connection between business-informed research intent and insights generated by qualitative and quantitative techniques.
Another way to approach this is to look at Outcomes as flipped user problems:
The simple question teams need to try and answer here is, „How would users whose problems got solved behave?“ This will then be the foundation for finding appropriate measures to set in your OKRs.
If you enjoyed this, you can share the essay on LinkedIn here.
That's (almost) all, Reader. If you enjoyed today's issue, please do reply (it helps with deliverability). If you didn't, you can unsubscribe here.
Thank you for Practicing Product,
Tim
PS: My friend Itamar released his long-awaited book "Evidence-Guided" last week. It's a practical synthesis of the principles taught by Itamar to help companies move away from opinions and towards more evidence. I highly recommend checking it out
Amazon USA: http://amazon.com/dp/B0CJCDP1H7
Amazon UK: http://amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CJCDP1H7
Amazon Germany: http://amazon.de/dp/B0CJCDP1H7
The Early Bird rates for my January 2024 workshops on Product Strategy, Product OKRs, and Product Discovery in Berlin expire on October 10. Secure your spot to make the most of your 2024 L&D budget.
Bundle options are available if you're interested in more than one workshop. For team packages, reply to this email for a custom quote.
GET YOUR TICKETS |
What did you think of this week's newsletter?
Click here if you only want to see what's behind each option
As a Product Management Coach, I guide Product Teams to measure the progress of their evidence-informed decisions.
I identify and share the patterns among better practices to connect the dots of Product Strategy, Product OKRs, and Product Discovery.
1 tip & 3 resources per week to improve your Strategy, OKRs, and Discovery practices in less than 5 minutes.
Product Practice #332 Why you don’t get Value from your Product Strategy READ ON HERBIG.CO PUBLISHED Sep 6, 2024 READING TIME 4 min & 26 sec Dear Reader, It’s tempting to focus the start of your strategy creation on a framework or by-the-book advice. Have you filled out the canvas? Cool! Does it meet all the "Good Strategy" criteria? Great—let’s move on. But that’s a pattern of Alibi Progress: prioritizing technical correctness over everyday value. Whenever Product Strategy feels like a tick...
Product Practice #331 What does it taketo talk to customers? READ ON HERBIG.CO PUBLISHED Aug 30, 2024 READING TIME 4 min & 29 sec Dear Reader, Together with my friends at Orbital (a company I advise), I recently ran a LinkedIn poll about user interview behaviors. My goal was to get a rough overview of how product teams approach preparing customer interactions. Here’s what I learned from the 320 total votes: Who schedules your customer interviews? Most (55%) of participants schedule interviews...
Product Practice #330 The Problem with 0-1 Metrics READ ON HERBIG.CO PUBLISHED Aug 23, 2024 READING TIME 3 min & 51 sec Dear Reader, Scaling Product Discovery requires more than just having teams talk to more users. In fact, just having teams interview more users without structure and some baseline education might do more harm than good. Here’s what I took away from training over 30 product trios at The StepStone Group: #1 Educate Cross-functional, wherever possible It doesn’t make sense to...