All product is in one of 5 phases: Nonexistent, Failing, Frustrated, Seemingly Successful, or Transformable.
Let's work backwards
(a short thread....)
Let's work backwards
(a short thread....)
Transformable product is anything that could be done WAY better. You know it.
Psychologically, people high in Openness are more likely to have this mindset.
Psychologically, people high in Openness are more likely to have this mindset.
Seemingly Successful looks okay with KPIs.
This is your hippocampus telling you everything is okay. Move along. Nothing to see here. But it's setting you up for a fall in the future...
This is your hippocampus telling you everything is okay. Move along. Nothing to see here. But it's setting you up for a fall in the future...
Frustrated is lagging with KPIs and you know there's a problem where something used to work.
This is your amygdala detecting a threat and saying we need to fight or get out of here. Your dashboards are embarrassing your team, maybe threatening a promotion, bonus, or your job.
This is your amygdala detecting a threat and saying we need to fight or get out of here. Your dashboards are embarrassing your team, maybe threatening a promotion, bonus, or your job.
Failing product just isn't working.
This feels like depression. We often do nothing but let it die slowly so we can focus on other things. We need to trim this back or take radical action.
This feels like depression. We often do nothing but let it die slowly so we can focus on other things. We need to trim this back or take radical action.
For all of these, the PM org should default to a transformable mindset in EVERYTHING. We get this backwards when the fix for Frustrated and Failing product is to just get them back to Seemingly Successful. This creates a never-ending loop.
Most organizations only transform when they can build a clear business case for transformation. But this is the source of our issues: we need to default to transform and only do less when we can build a business case for exactly why we are mediocre hacks all of a sudden.
Then, we will have time to build the nonexistent product rather than always being stuck in the loop.
