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?
Your Platform is Your Product!!!
Principles
Mindful Design
Foundation Principles
- Design emerges from inner state
- Solutions flow from clarity of mind
- Ethics guide innovation
Human Characteristics
State Management
Daily Practice
- Start with breathwork to centre focus
- Set clear intention for design work
- Schedule regular mindfulness breaks
Creative Flow
- Alternate between deep work and reflection
- Document insights during calm states
- Use physical movement to unlock mental blocks
Design Process
Discovery Phase
- Begin with self-awareness check
- Define ethical boundaries
- Identify core user needs beyond metrics
Development Cycle
- Build-Measure-Learn with conscience
- Test against both metrics and values
- Iterate based on holistic feedback
Decision Framework
| Aspect | Question | Consideration |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | Why does this matter? | Long-term impact |
| Ethics | Should we build this? | Societal benefit |
| Execution | How to build responsibly? | Sustainable approach |
Implementation Guide
Team Alignment
- Start meetings with mindfulness moment
- Create psychological safety
- Encourage authentic feedback
Quality Checks
- Does it serve genuine needs?
- Is it ethically sound?
- Does it promote user wellbeing?
Success Metrics
Balance Sheet
- Quantitative: Standard KPIs
- Qualitative: User wellbeing
- Ethical: Societal impact
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 that drive 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.
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:
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?"
Production
- 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.
Demand
- 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
System Thinking
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:
- Where are the gaps in your operations?
- What are you trying to achieve? Why?
- What are you actually doing and why?
- What are root cause problems disrupting flow?
- What is the opportunity cost? (Action vs Inaction)
- What are potential gains vs risks?
- How should you prioritize and size your bets?
Tools and Resources
Persuasion assets to build trust and credibility.
Links
- Get into Product Management
- Outcome Driven Development
- Thoughtbot Product Playbook
- Product-Market fit
What is the most important question you could ask yourself to make progress?