"Doing the right things" vs "Doing things right"

When was the last time you as Product Manager experienced that your job became simpler?

No? right ... that's part of the fun of being a PM.

On one hand we all experience the increasing quality pressure to ensure that no mistakes are made when launching new products.

On the other hand we also experience increasing market pressure to develop new stuff, faster, to make sure we're constantly becoming more commercially relevant to our customers.

In other words PM is torn between "doing things right" for cost and quality reasons and "doing the right things" for market reasons.

Focusing on "doing things right" is currently a main focus for many senior managers due to the consequences of the tough times that forces us constantly into doing more with less resources and hence increases the likelihood of making mistakes. As Product Managers we are therefore challenged with checklists and reviews and other quality assurance tools to ensure that nothing goes wrong. These are all very important and valuable efforts and initiatives for any PM however it can only be a short term focus. At least as primary focus. As PM's we can never allow ourselves to forget our "commercial roots". We must ensure that we're applying all the new sophisticated quality assurance processes on the right initiatives. It should be obvious that we need to remember "doing the right things".

Because if we do not do "the right things" it becomes irrelevant that we're "doing things right"! (if you are to take just one sentence with you from this blog post - this is the one).

One tool that I've found is very helpful in defining what "the right thing" is, is to analyse not just your products as they are normally perceived, but to begin a structured analysis of the touchpoints a customer, or more precisely a "user", has with your product. Of course you're aware that you need to think carefully about the difference between "customer" and "user". In this respect "users" are the critical source of information.

By carefully analysing all the cases where your users "touches" your product you can gain valuable insight into the user experience. An insight that I have seen can sometimes even re-define what your product is!

The analyses should begin with the very first time your user hears about your product. At this first "touchpoint" an expectation is created in the users mind about what the product can do, what it can help her with and hence what the value is. From there the user experience moves on: getting more information, maybe asking for a quote, getting a proposal, issuing an order, getting an order confirmation, delivery, installation, daily operations (MAC - "Moves/Adds/Changes")), invoicing, fault handling etc. Finally, at the other end of the user life cycle, the user decides to migrate away from this product and on to something else. If you've been an effective PM (one that understands the user experience life cycle) you will know by then where the user is going. Hopefully to one of your new offerings.

This complete "end2end" view is defined as a collection of all the "touch points" a user has with your product during the complete user life cycle with this specific product. Understanding this end2end user experience should be second nature to all commercial PM's and is a valuable help in understanding what your product really is.

In a later post I'll show you one specific example of an "End2End" user experience model. Stay tuned.