Product Momentum Podcast

The recent acceleration of artificial intelligence into the product + design space may spark more answers than questions. But the questions that persist are big ones. In this episode of Product Momentum, Aaron Usiskin, Director of UX/UI Enterprise Incubation and Enablement at Zelis, explores this philosophical head-scratcher: with AI/ML, are we at risk of losing the humanity from our human-centered design practice? Aaron guides host Paul Gebel and guest co-host Brian Loughner, a Lead UX Designer at ITX, through his multi-level response. “There are so many ways that AI and ML have already streamlined our process as designers and UXers,” Aaron says, “that we shouldn’t step away from it. We really should embrace it even more than we do today.” At the same time, he concedes, “AI is based only on the things that people have done on a website or a mobile app. Plus, it’s really hard to understand how one person or a group of people are going to use your system, regardless of how much research or AI you do. “If you really want to understand people, you have to be among them. You have to be learning with them, interacting with them, communicating with them, interviewing them. And when you’re interviewing them, it’s not writing down their answers. It’s looking into their eyes, understanding the facial recognition of what they’re doing.” There’s no AI that’s going to be able to tell you if someone’s paying attention, he adds. “I don’t think it’s ever going to take away the humanistic factor of design out of it.” We’re looking to a future that combines the power of AI with the fundamentals of human-centered design. Thank goodness; that sounds like a winning combination. Be sure to catch the entire conversation with Aaron Usiskin: learn how to apply AI/ML to streamline the design process – but only after you have the fundamentals of user experience in place. Join Jesse James Garrett, Rich Mironov, and Radhika Dutt at ITX’s Product + Design Conference, June 22-23 in Rochester, NY. Final 3 speakers to be announced soon. Learn more. The post 108 / The Human Reality of User Experience, with Aaron Usiskin appeared first on ITX Corp..

The journey of Kax Uson from employee #1 at an e-commerce start-up in the Philippines to Head of Product at Adevinta looks familiar to the path so many product managers have taken. At every turn, she’s learned the processes and tools that come with the role – and then unlearned the ones that became a burden to her effectiveness in it. In this episode of Product Momentum, Kax guides us along her journey and offers a primer on what it means to be a successful product manager in the 21st century. “When users look at the products we build,” she says, “they don’t care whether it was built using Kanban or Scrum or Waterfall. Our users see only the product and feel the experience we’ve delivered for them. The process that we use to get there is not relevant.” There’s a lot of focus in the product space on ‘getting these things right versus actually getting things done.’ The outputs over the outcomes, Kax adds. “Things to do. Rules to follow as product managers. When really, that’s just a very small part of how to build products. I feel that we’re favoring more these tools and these frameworks, rather than learning how to work with people in order to build good products. “Our contribution [as PMs] to product building is very intangible. Our role is to bring people together, to rise through the uncertainty and make sense of things, so that other people can actually understand what’s going on and bring trust inside the room. That’s a skill that you cannot learn from school, or any camp probably…it’s a skill that you learn by practice and by getting feedback and failing in some cases. Be sure to catch the entire pod conversation with Kax Uson; so many more nuggets to share. Is this a reunion of Product Momentum alumni? Not quite. It’s ITX’s Product + Design Conference 2023. June 22-23 in Rochester, NY. Featuring Radhika Dutt, Jesse James Garrett, Rich Mironov – additional speakers coming soon! Learn more. The post 107 / A Lesson in Product Management: Outcomes > Outputs, with Kax Uson appeared first on ITX Corp..

Product and UX professionals want their product to be ‘the next big thing.’ Right? But Google’s Neha Bansal reminds us that designing a product with everyone in mind ignores the adage, “aim small, miss small.” Instead, Neha recommends narrowing your target market to what Andrew Chen calls atomic networks. “The broader your market, the harder it is to find product-market fit,” Neha says. “Starting small allows you to analyze the root cause when something isn’t working; when you have a small base of users – an atomic network – you can pick up the phone and ask about what you can do better.” Neha Bansal is a product leader, angel investor, and mentor to dozens of startups. She currently heads Merchant Growth and Monetization for Google’s B2B commerce business. In this episode, Neha and Paul discuss Chen’s The Cold Start Problem and how product leaders can apply the atomic network mindset to find product-market fit. Atomic networks help you gain traction and work through problems, Neha explains. When you know your audience intimately, it is easier to connect with them and work through the barriers and frustrations they are experiencing. Neha describes this as turning ‘zero’ moments into ‘magic’ moments. Catch the entire episode to hear Neha describe how Facebook, Uber, and Bank of America identified and expanded their atomic networks first to find product-market fit on their way to becoming household names. Neha also shares key metrics that will let you know when you’ve discovered your own. Jesse James Garrett and Rich Mironov to keynote at ITX Product + Design Conference 2023. June 22-23, in Rochester, NY. Early-bird tickets available until April 21. Learn more! The post 106 / Using Atomic Networks to Find Product-Market Fit, with Neha Bansal appeared first on ITX Corp..

Open APIs are sets of rules that enable systems to freely communicate with each other. They allow companies to “tap into the wisdom of the crowd,” Marshall Van Alstyne explains, shifting the burden of value creation to external sources. “You want people you don’t know to bring you ideas you don’t have,” he adds. In this episode of Product Momentum, Sean is joined by guest host Nathan Shapiro, Head of Platform Strategy and User Experience at Paychex. Together, they draw out Marshall’s expert insights on the correlation between a firm’s open APIs and the progressive growth of its financial performance over time. Marshall is a Professor of Information Economics at Boston University and co-author of the international bestseller, Platform Revolution. Firms that open their architecture and APIs expand their ecosystem and ignite an interoperability within it, thereby creating a network effect – a phenomenon by which the value a user derives from a good or service depends on the number of users of compatible products. The key, Marshall adds, is to position your firm to “command the center” of your ecosystem. “Individuals tend to gain influence or power in proportion to the degree of centrality within their network,” he says. “We found exactly the same thing for firms. The more focal you are, the more central you are in your ecosystem, the greater your increase in market capitalization.” But, he cautions, opening your data is not without risk. Bad actors exist everywhere. So your firm needs to open for a reason, all the while weighing the pros and cons of sharing your data externally. One of those reasons, Marshall adds, is to “invert the firm,” a mindset that leverages APIS and enables you to share the production of value beyond your own employees. Marshall van Alstyne is one of the world’s foremost experts on network business models. Be sure to catch the entire podcast to capture all his insights. The post 105 / Innovation Through Open APIs: Shifting the Locus of Value Creation, with Marshall Van Alstyne appeared first on ITX Corp..

UX Design isn’t about building beautiful products for the sake of beauty itself, says Jon Daiello. We’re building something that solves people’s problems. “Design isn’t here to just manufacture,” Jon adds. “It’s here to help us understand what we should manufacture. That’s one of the big distinctions.” In this episode of the Product Momentum Podcast, Sean and Paul chat with Jon Daiello. Jon is a UX Design Manager at Paychex, where he encourages his designers to “have your head in the clouds and your feet in the mud.” Think of design as “a long-term investment,” he says, like retirement planning. “You don’t start a job and have your retirement built on day one. Design is like that; you’re looking into the future and asking, ‘What is my goal? Where do I want to go? What do I want this thing to be in the end?’ Design can really help you kind of tease out what that future could look like.” Over time, within the team’s Agile process, you’re choosing the most important pieces to deliver, Jon adds. So the business case is understanding that Agile practices are not in competition with design; but that they’re inside the process and baked in in a way that works with design. Catch the entire conversation to hear Jon’s practical tips for answering the ultimate question: what are we actually solving for? Get as many people involved as possible; workshops help. Be creative with time you have available – even just an hour here or there can be productive. Creativity blocked? Change your workspace. Try a different design medium. Simple design tools like paper & pencil help express design ideas quickly and cheaply. Early bird pricing is now available as the ITX Product + Design Conference returns. Save the date: June 22-23 in Rochester, NY. Learn more. The post 104 / Building the Business Case for UX Design, with Jon Daiello appeared first on ITX Corp..

Dr. Nesrine Changuel credits innate curiosity and a personal motivation for unlocking new knowledge as the catalyst that has brought her to Nokia, Microsoft, Spotify, and now Google. Her career journey has been thoughtful and deliberate, first as a researcher and later a transition to product management. Nesrine explains how a growth mindset encourages learning – and the confidence that comes with it – that allows us to break out of our comfort zones to grow as individuals and product leaders. The key to success, Nesrine adds, is never forgetting what the problem is. “Fall in love more with the problem than the solution,” she says. One way to achieve this mindset is to have a very clear product discovery roadmap that is distinct from your execution roadmap. The discovery roadmap outlines a list of problems – not solutions. It leans on her experience as a researcher, generating incredible value validation that includes lots of time engaging with users to understand their challenges and pain points. And it’s work that brings together the product trio: product manager, UX researcher, and engineering to deliver products that improve users’ lives. Be sure to listen to the entire pod; capture in minutes some of the vital nuggets Nesrine Changuel has picked up as her career continues to unfold, including: Failing fast during product discovery: taking educated risks, validating them through regular, rapid feedback. The power of iteration: the ability to stop, inspect, and adjust. Avoiding the Scrum Fall Trap. Using data to distinguish between what users say they want and what users actually do. Product Collective’s Mike Belsito returns to emcee the 2023 ITX Product + Design Conference. Save the date: June 22-23, 2023 in Rochester, NY. Learn more. The post 103 / A Product Manager’s Journey through Discovery, with Nesrine Changuel appeared first on ITX Corp..

Inclusion is for everyone, says guest Bernadette Smith, CEO of Equality Institute. And, she adds, it’s good for business. Companies that prioritize diversity, equity, and inclusion are more profitable than those that don’t. But the key piece of DEI best practices, she concludes, is inclusion. “In order to realize the financial benefits, we have to unleash psychological safety; we have to unleash inclusion.” In this episode, Bernadette joins Sean and Paul and shares her best practices for bringing an inclusive mindset to your organization, many of which are captured in her best-seller, Inclusive 360: Proven Solutions for an Equitable Organization. She “keeps it real” in this discussion and is not afraid to admit that she’s still learning, too. “We’re all on our own learning journey, whatever it happens to be or look like,” she says. “And when leaders model that, and share a sense of their own vulnerability, it gives other folks permission to do the same.” Bernadette presents the A-R-C Method, a framework for getting to connection before content – a mantra that drives better conversations among teams. With practice, this simple method can help you create a more inclusive environment where there is genuine learning among individuals from diverse backgrounds. Ask. Be curious. Learn more about another person’s perspective. Allow yourself to be vulnerable. Respect. Be present and attentive. Listen…actively. Trust will follow. Connect. We’re all on our own learning journey. Using the A-R-C method is one way to foster the inclusion that drives innovation. Catch the whole pod with Bernadette Smith, and bring a true DEI mindset to your organization. Save the date! The ITX Product + Design Conference is back. June 22-23, Rochester, NY. Learn more. The post 102 / Driving Innovation Through Inclusion, with Bernadette Smith appeared first on ITX Corp..

The Product Momentum Podcast team is taking a brief pause this week but be sure to enter our 100th Episode Book Giveaway. We hope you’re enjoying some R&R time as well. See you again in the New Year! The post Product Momentum Podcast – 100th Episode Book Giveaway appeared first on ITX Corp..

No product manager wants to build a bad version of their software. But sometimes that’s what it takes to accelerate the learning process. Well, maybe not a bad version. But an early, admittedly incomplete one. Something you can quickly get out in front of users, gather some feedback about, and iterate on. Today’s podcast guest, Candu co-Founder and CEO Jonathan Anderson, explains, “If you then decide to go down the development route, you’ll be so much smarter, so much further along the path of figuring out what the right thing to build is.” This concept of drafting is super-valuable, he adds, “but not because we know what the end product will look when we’re done. But because we don’t.” Candu provides no-code web tools for SaaS apps; at its core, no-code is like products for product people. It helps non-tech-savvy product managers bring even greater impact to their teams – a sort of counter-punch to the vexing “all the responsibility, none of the authority” PM mantra. “So often we think of building software a little bit like a sacred cow, something only a handful can do along a very prescriptive process.” Jonathan says. “Maybe it’s time to allow non-technical people – like product managers, growth teams, maybe even customer teams – to actually build some of these interfaces themselves.” No-code, low-code tools help transform passive, receive-only PMs just waiting for requirements to fall from on high into more engaged product builders. We’re better positioned to shift the development effort upstream and figure out where that cut-off is – when the “bad” version of our software is still good enough to ship. Be sure to catch the whole conversation with Jonathan Anderson; and don’t forget about our 100th Podcast Episode Book Giveaway. Enter for your chance to win! The post 101 / How No-Code Tools Accelerate the Learning Process, with Jonathan Anderson appeared first on ITX Corp..

When UX design guru Jesse James Garrett first started out, user experience as we know it today wasn’t even a thing. Yet he remains among the most prominent voices in digital product design. As both witness and catalyst for more than 20 years, Jesse’s work in this space triggered much of the UX evolution and inspired the cultural change we’re now experiencing within our organizations. The emergence of product and design leadership has accelerated the ‘professionalization’ of traditional roles and has empowered teams to deliver better products and user outcomes. As Jesse explains in this – the 100th episode of the Product Momentum Podcast – “The exciting thing is that many product leaders are finding the way to gain the empowerment and the support and the leverage to drive not just good product outcomes, but organizational outcomes that fundamentally shift the way these organizations approach and think about what they do.” Product leaders are forever balancing the technical realities of what it takes to deliver a good product with the market realities of the business model, the competitive landscape, and customer realities, he continues. “And what I’m seeing are product leaders turning to design as a way to deepen their expertise … around that customer piece of the equation,” Jesse adds. “The designers who are elevating into those more senior leadership roles are the ones who are able to frame design in terms of its ability to deliver value around user insight more than around delivery.” Sean and Paul chat with Jesse not to wax nostalgic about the early days of UX, but instead to discuss the growing influence that human-centered design is having on human-centered decision-making, which eventually brings about a human-centered culture within organizations. Listen in to hear more tips from Jesse James Garrett about strategic leadership and the role of design in delivering value in this 100th episode of Product Momentum. You can also watch our conversation with Jesse James Garrett on the Product Momentum YouTube channel! The post 100 / The Emergence of Product + Design Leadership, with Jesse James Garrett appeared first on ITX Corp..