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Product Development

Engineer solutions that make it impossible not to fall into a pit of success.

How can you navigate the idea maze to position yourself for enduring success?

Mantra

Your Platform is Your Product!!!

Principles​

Human Centred Design​

Intents to Outcomes​

Start with a clear picture of the end in mind, then work back to map the flow of value from intents through to necessary actions and expected outcomes.

  • Appreciate Value
  • Clear Purpose
  • Teamwork
  • Perspectives
  • Driving Forces
  • Set Expectations
  • Practice Good Habits
  • Ask Better Questions
  • Evolve Intentions

Business​

Engineer virtuous feedback loops to create flywheel effects that drives continuous growth.

Practice​

Test Assumptions:

  • At each stage, the focus is on identifying and testing assumptions to reduce risk.
  • The investment in an idea should increase as the risk of assumptions decreases.

Iterative Process:

  • The process is iterative, with ideas being tested and refined continuously.
  • The framework encourages a dynamic approach, allowing for adjustments based on new information.

Focus on Retention:

  • Retention is a critical metric for early-stage products.
  • High retention indicates a strong product-market fit and customer satisfaction.

Historical and Competitive Context:

  • Understanding the decisions made by competitors and the historical context of the problem space is crucial.
  • This helps in navigating the market and making informed decisions.

Framework​

Evolve a framework that set clear intentions on how you will deliver value, what you expect as reward, and how you will adapt to change.

Customer Journey​

Use reflective listening to capture stories that resonate with emotions.

  • Focus on the customer's context, task, and desired outcome
  • Conduct story-based customer interviews
  • Map the customer's full decision journey
  • Understand the three key motivations driving customer progress
  • Recognize that every decision has a cause, not a random walk
  • Shift from a selling mindset to a helping mindset

Expected Reward​

  • Positioning
  • Pricing
  • Constant and honest revision of cost and effort estimates is important to avoid over-investing in unviable ideas.
  • Dynamic cost assessment helps in making rational decisions throughout the development process.

Adapting to Change​

Identify critical decisions that a company needs to make to succeed.

  • React to AI opportunities and threats.
  • Must handle chaotic nature of product development.
  • Develop signals to understand and respond to the competitive landscape.

Planning​

The process of product development is broken down into several stages:

  1. Sketch
  2. Mock-up
  3. Research
  4. Program
  5. Product

Napkin Sketch​

  • Time Required: About a minute.
  • Key Questions:
    • What is the idea?
    • What problem does it solve?
    • Are there any obvious fatal flaws?
  • Methods:
    • Feedback from peers
    • Initial customer interviews
  • Output:
    • A basic sketch or idea with core assumptions listed.

Mock-up​

  • Time Required: One to two days.
  • Key Questions:
    • Does this solve the customer's problem?
    • Can an AI product with average performance solve this problem?
  • Methods:
    • In-depth qualitative interviews targeting specific customer segments.
  • Output:
    • A prototype of a single major use case.

Market Research​

  • Time Required: Three to four days.
  • Key Questions:
    • How big can this market be?
    • What is the history of the problem space?
  • Methods:
    • Estimation for market sizing
    • Bottom-up analysis
    • Research on competitors
  • Output:
    • Defensible rhetoric to answer to "Why now?"

Program​

  • Time Required: Variable (weeks to months).
  • Key Questions:
    • Are there any unseen fatal flaws?
    • Does projected revenue still exceed costs significantly?
  • Methods:
    • Writing end-to-end code
    • Revising cost estimates,
    • Addressing technical challenges.
  • Output:
    • Clean code for major use cases, a working prototype.

Product​

  • Key Questions:
    • Does retention exceed industry benchmarks?
    • How would users feel if they could no longer use the product?
  • Methods:
    • Qualitative interviews
    • Quantitative user data analysis
    • Focusing on retention metrics
  • Output:
    • A fully functional product
    • Simple go-to-market strategy

Outputs​

Persuasion assets to build trust and credibility.

Systems​

Use systems thinking to drive operational excellence through continuous experimentation and process re-engineering to maximize leverage. Engineer trade secrets into your platform to captures proprietary data that reinforce virtuous feedback loops.

  • Value System: what is valuable, why it is valuable, what is quantifiable value?
  • Belief System: how does the world work, what direction is the world moving in, predictions for the future?
  • Control System: platform and playbook for controlling direction and speed of change.

Review checklist:

  1. Where are the gaps in your operations?
  2. What are you trying to achieve? Why?
  3. What are you actually doing and why?
  4. What are root cause problems disrupting flow?
  5. What is the opportunity cost? (Action vs Inaction)
  6. What are potential gains vs risks?
  7. How should you prioritize and size your bets?

Attachments​

What is the most important question you could ask yourself to make progress?