Product Momentum Podcast

What if there were a way to know that your product was going to win in the marketplace – and to know it even before you begin development? In this episode of the Product Momentum Podcast, Tony Ulwick – CEO of Strategyn and “father of the Jobs To Be Done framework” – joins Sean and Kyle Psaty, ITX’s VP of Marketing, to talk all things Jobs To Be Done (JTBD). Tony walks us along the process of innovation through the JTBD lens, offering a systematic way to deliver an innovative solution with every product release. Innovation, Tony says, is “coming up with a solution that addresses unmet needs.” When you talk to users, he adds, you’re better able to identify and address their needs. Then you can segment them to make sure you’re providing the right solutions to the right people. “Innovation doesn’t have to be a guessing game,” Tony Ulwick says. “Once we have those inputs, we have the necessary insights to make innovation predictable.” Listen in to catch all of Tony’s insights, including his thoughts on: When iteration is useful and when it is not Different types of jobs that products can accomplish (Jobs To Be Done) Other elements necessary for success Register now for Strategyn’s next webinar on Thursday, October 21, @1:30 pm ET. Tony hosts Sean to discuss how empowered teams unite behind a shared product vision. The post 70 / Making Innovation Predictable appeared first on ITX Corp..

Achieving product vision isn’t just about where we’re going, it’s also about where we begin the journey. A clear vision should also provide a path toward resolution of problems when they arise, Esther Derby says. Product teams should find their vision aspirational, yet relatable to their work and their values as humans. In this episode of the Product Momentum Podcast, Esther Derby joins Sean and ITX Innovation Lead Roberta Oare to discuss the leadership principles Esther has discovered in her career. Simple, but often overlooked, these principles help product leaders navigate the environment in which we work: how we define vision, the interpersonal dynamics on and between teams, and how we apply these principles to achieve sustainable transformation. Examining our environment is especially useful for product people, Esther adds. “Talk about how things emerge and what conditions are present that will allow for something to take hold and take off. How do we create the conditions that allow us to align deeply with our customers? What are the conditions that currently exist for them? How can we shift those conditions to allow our product to become an integral part of their lives?” Catch our entire conversation to hear Esther explain why – Working on teams is messy. Traditional job descriptions are not as well defined as we think. Organizational structures and incentives get in the way of inter-team cooperation. Working toward your vision is like planting a forest. The post 69 / Take Small Steps To Achieve Product Vision appeared first on ITX Corp..

For people who love their work as much as UX designers do, it can be easy to get “lost in the sauce,” tackling projects for the love of the craft as opposed to applying your craft to solving complex problems for the benefit of others. Scott Berkun describes how design thinking helps keep us centered on our customers’ needs. In this episode of the Product Momentum Podcast, Sean is joined by co-host Brian Loughner, a talented interaction designer at ITX, and guest Scott Berkun. For years, Scott has been a leader in the UX design space, having worked as an interaction designer and project manager at Microsoft and WordPress. Scott, Sean, and Brian tackle design-related concepts in this thought-provoking episode. Among them is a discussion centered around design thinking. Design thinking presents a double-edged sword, Scott says. On the one hand, it helps us understand what design is and designers do. But on the other, it tends to oversimplify and trivialize an extremely challenging role that requires immense talent and experience to perform well. What’s also cool about this pod is the way Scott takes time to examine some of the words we use in our space. Important, meaty words like design maturity, externalization, co-design, and design theatre among others. Trust and integrity play a role too, helping us understand the optimal environment for effective design. The post 68 / Design Thinking’s Double-Edged Sword appeared first on ITX Corp..

For product people, a big part of the job is understanding not only what motivates our users, but also the systems they are tied to – and how those two things tie together. As it turns out, the bond that connects them is formed by the tools we build and the best practices we develop around them. We know these things thanks to digital anthropologists like Ali Colleen Neff, Ph.D., who joins Sean for this episode of the Product Momentum Podcast. To Ali, the role of digital anthropologist is to “think through with other product leaders what it means to make the tools and what it means to introduce them to cultures and systems.” Her research helps us understand the impact our products have on the individuals who use them and the systems in which they operate. “The tools we build serve as an extension of ourselves,” Ali Colleen Neff says. They enable us to achieve in ways that we wouldn’t be able to otherwise. But, she warns (citing media studies leader, Marshall McCluhan), the tools we build to address one problem can simultaneously foreclose other ideas. Among Ali’s favorite research methods is directed storytelling, which helps us understand individuals’ thought and decision-making processes. Humans make up culture, so understanding individual stories is key to understanding culture. Tune in to catch some thought-provoking examples from Ali’s research. You’ll also hear: Journey mapping as a tool to understand user engagement at all stages How to earn trust from customers The importance of collaboration between engineers and social scientists Key elements of successful teams that Ali has observed The post 67 / Innovation Through Digital Anthropology appeared first on ITX Corp..

What job are product leaders really paid to do? When you boil it all down, leaders are paid to deliver results. Quantitative, which many believe are more easily measured. And qualitative, which invites the notion of organizational culture: much more difficult to measure, but more important in today’s world than ever before, Chalmers Brothers claims. In this episode of the Product Momentum Podcast, Sean chats with Chalmers Brothers, who for the past three decades has served as author, speaker, and certified leadership coach for executives in some of the world’s best-known companies. “I have had more conversations with leaders in the past 5 years about the conscious – not haphazard or accidental – creation of culture as a competitive advantage than I’ve had in the first 30 years of my career combined,” he says. “Something is going on.” That something starts with the effective use of language. Language creates and generates, Chalmers adds. It defines culture, creating a context that enables effective conversation. “With language, we make visible that which was previously invisible.” Tune in to hear more on this topic from Chalmers Brothers, including how: Time management is really commitment management. Effective conversation can help you manage your commitments. Key elements of leadership lie within the context of innovation. The post 65 / The Creation of Culture as a Competitive Advantage appeared first on ITX Corp..

There is an ongoing evolution in organizations toward an emphasis on the customer experience with your product versus a steady delivery of flashy new features. The former focuses on outcomes, known by Marc Abraham as “product mindset.” The latter embraces outputs, perhaps better known as “feature bloat” or “experience rot.” In this episode of the Product Momentum Podcast, Sean is joined by Marc Abraham, Head of Product – Engagement at London-based ASOS, and the author of two books, My Product Management Toolkit and Managing Product = Managing Tension. He compares evolutions in product teams in the US and abroad in terms of the product mindset. Teams that boast a product mindset, Marc says, focus their energies around the 4 C’s: creativity, curiosity, clarity, and customer. “These elements are not unique to the domain of the product manager,” he adds. “But once you’ve got those four elements of the mindset, you’re really onto something in terms of creating that kind of customer-centric product culture organizations are looking for.” Listen to the full episode to hear more from Marc, including: The power of “W-H-Y” – the ultimate essence of being a good product person Embracing tension in product management in a constructive way Using a shared language for engagement within and outside of your organization The post 66 / Key Elements that Foster the Product Mindset appeared first on ITX Corp..

Product leaders need to be astute prioritizers. That means we have to say no – a lot. To the sales rep begging us to build “the next big thing.” And to the customer account rep pleading for a flashy new feature. The response from Keith Frankel to these cries for help is, “Make your case. Tell me why. Show me the user feedback for why we should reprioritize our long-term roadmap.” In this episode of the Product Momentum Podcast, Sean checks in with Keith Frankel, co-founder and CEO at Parlor.io. Parlor is a widely popular feedback management system for SaaS teams. Gathering and analyzing user feedback is key, Keith explains. As a product leader at HubSpot and chief product officer at educational technology startup called Firecracker, Keith recalls telling his reps, “I will prioritize anything that you can prove to me will have a material impact on this business, but I just cannot chase after every shiny new object.” Sound familiar? Faced with competing business cases and insufficient budget to do both (or either), Keith and his team created Parlor – a product designed for product people. It engages users at multiple levels and serves as a “tie-breaker” of sorts that drives decision-making wisdom through customer insights that align product and customer-facing teams. Listen in to get Keith’s inside scoop on a super-interesting experiment he’s running that completely rethinks the role of internal meetings and their impact on workplace productivity in a remote-first environment. Finally, be sure to catch Keith’s three paths to innovation. Cool stuff, indeed. The post 64 / Managing User Feedback to Prioritize Your Product Roadmap appeared first on ITX Corp..

Attaining so-called “genius status” – Mozart, Steve Jobs, Einstein spring to mind – seems untouchable to us mere mortals. Or is it. As product people, we have more genius within us than we give ourselves credit for, Shawn Livermore says. In this episode of the Product Momentum Podcast, Sean and Matt are joined by Shawn Livermore. The author of Average Joe: Be the Silicon Valley Tech Genius and software architect/consultant with more than 20 years’ experience in our space, Shawn shares strategies the rest of us non-Mensa’s can use to create successful products. Our best ideas often come to us in seemingly mundane moments, like on our morning commute or while taking a shower, Shawn explains. During these times of “mindless activity,” our minds are free to harness the latent creativity that exists just beneath the surface of our normal, everyday activities. Innovation often comes to us as a “progressive daily trickle,” and by structuring it, anyone can come up with genius ideas, he adds. Genius may well be within our grasp, but we also need to give ourselves permission to fail. Thomas Edison once famously said, “I have not failed 10,000 times; I’ve successfully found 10,000 ways that will not work.” It’s all about perspective, right? Like Edison, even icons in the tech industry have stumbled through some not-so-great product ideas. But by documenting our thought processes and sharing them, we signal to others that we are thinkers who are highly capable. Shawn’s words to the wise: “Never underestimate a nerd with a good story.” Tune in to the whole episode to catch more of Shawn’s stories and tap into his genius. The post 63 / Unlock Your Inner Genius appeared first on ITX Corp..

We don’t have to know what the word archetype means to recognize how it connects our brand with our users. Brand archetypes help us choose the right words, assemble them in the right order, and communicate the experience our users expect, Margie Agin explains. Our brand is how our products speak to the world. In this episode of the Product Momentum Podcast, Sean is joined by Margie Agin, award-winning marketer and founder/chief strategist at Centerboard Marketing. Margie works with B2B companies to identify and communicate key aspects of their brand and drive action. “We use brand archetypes to reflect our product’s personality,” Margie offers. “It’s expressing your company, which includes your product, as a human – not just as technology,” she adds. “And when you do that, it makes you more relatable as a company, building trust and closing the gap between your brand and your customers.” For B2B technology companies that aren’t consumer facing, finding the human elements of your brand can be more challenging. Are you the Hero? Jester? Or maybe your product brand speaks as a Pioneer, Explorer, Lover, or Sage. Listen in as Margie shares valuable tips that make this task easier, including gathering people with different experiences with your product to identify and validate how it interacts with users. The post 62 / Brand Archetypes Help Our Products Speak to the World appeared first on ITX Corp..

Maybe more than anything else, product people want good, honest, relevant feedback about their products. And their go-to source for the straight-up truth? Moms and best friends. They’re the ones who’ll give you the sort of “big-picture feedback you’re desperate for.” And the best part is they know enough not to give advice you didn’t ask for. This is the “mom test,” Rob Fitzpatrick explains. In this episode of the Product Momentum Podcast, author-entrepreneur Rob Fitzpatrick joins Sean and ITX product strategist Matt Bush to discuss how best to do product discovery and get answers to these questions: “How do I get people to talk to me? How do I know if I have enough feedback? How do I figure out if I’m building the right thing?” In his book, The Mom Test, Rob writes, “It’s not everyone else’s responsibility to tell you the truth; it’s your responsibility to go out and find it.” Coupled with his personal rule – i.e., to build products only for customers I actually want to be friends with – and you’ve got a recipe for product success. Even more than that, though, you’ve got a blueprint for research, discovery, and engagement that leads to better products and more interesting stuff to work on. Listen in to catch more of Rob’s “how to’s” on user engagement and workshopping: How (and where) to initiate the perfect learning conversation How keen focus on your MVA will help you build your MVP How to recognize compliments as the red flags that you’ve started asking bad questions How to match the 5 teaching formats with the type of content you’re teaching The post 61 / Simple Steps for High-Touch User Engagement appeared first on ITX Corp..