I asked 5 CPOs what a Product is. Here‘s what they said. (Part 2)Dear Reader, This is the sequel to last week’s newsletter. You can catch-up by re-reading it here. What is a Product? Arne Kittler, Product Org Consultant & Fractional Leader, ex-CPO at Facelift It can make sense to differentiate the external from the internal perspective even though they ideally lead to the same result. Let me explain: Externally, a product is a digital solution and/or service that is understood by the user to do one more jobs for them and help them achieve a certain outcome. A product can be marketed as such. Internally, larger organizations often refer to a more granular set of user-facing capabilities as products to reflect separate areas of responsibility that various cross-functional product teams may have. This internal perspective can be problematic if the different internal "products" don't correspond with what users perceive as the product: There's an increased risk of disfunctional silos, suboptimal solutions for the users and limitations in accountability the product teams with regards to go-to-market. This is why applying a meaningful org topology is important when deciding on how to cut the scope of teams in a multi-team setup. Lily Smith, CPO at BBC Maestro, The Product Experience Podcast Co-Host We have a simple product at BBC Maestro and our Product Managers own high level business goals of part the experience, rather than the end to end product. One PM is responsible for acquisition and the second is responsible for engagement and retention. Then we have a PM who owns the experience for our business customers which is end to end - from acquisition through to offboarding. The Product itself is essentially ‘the business of BBC Maestro’, and each PM owns a key objective of the business. So each PM creates a strategy, owns discovery and the roadmap for their business objective. Ravi Mehta, ex-CPO at Tinder, Product at Facebook A product is something that creates value for users — but we need to draw an important distinction about how a product creates value.
Consider two different cars: a family SUV and a luxury sports car. The SUV is a utility-focused product, and the luxury sports car is an entertainment-focused product. Product builders often assume that utility is more important than entertainment. But, not so in this case and many others. The SUV delivers more utility, yet the sports car is more valuable. Did you enjoy this one or have feedback? Do reply. It's motivating. I'm not a robot; I read and respond to every subscriber email I get (just ask around). If this newsletter isn't for you anymore, you can unsubscribe here. Thank you for Practicing Product, Tim PS: Part 2 of my "State of Discovery"-Poll is live on LinkedIn. This time, it's about the lead time to insights. New In-Person Workshop Dates AnnouncedI'm excited to bring my beloved in-person workshops back to Berlin in January 2025. You can choose between 1-day workshops on Product Strategy, Product OKRs, or Product Discovery OR get the full 3-day experience for you or your team.
(early bird pricing available) What did you think of this week's newsletter? 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. |
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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...