Making: multi-part series (non-technical) on describing the essential elements of taking your product to market successfully.

Created by the Author

In my previous post, I addressed the following: vision, decompose, user, journey map, solutions, priorities, and tradeoffs. In this post, I will describe making.

My purpose in illustrating making is to demonstrate the interplay between user experience (UX), AI, and product management.

Consider CARMA:

1. Clarify user needs

2. Add features and test continuously

3. Recognize and itemize all stakeholder needs

4. Make certain all stakeholders recognize your features

5. Apply AI to continuously provide value

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1. Clarify user needs

Design thinking may be employed to understand and clarify user needs. Learn about the approach to journey mapping: I did a more specific introduction to journey maps in a previous post as reference. Simply, the vision is to create value first for the users. This approach aids in refining ideas, outlining potential solutions, evaluating tradeoffs, testing assumptions, selecting and proposing prototypes, and documenting results and lessons gained.

We permit and enable possibilities that magnify meaningful user input, which may eventually lead to a superior product or service experience by connecting directly with those the product will influence.

When defining the problem, consider asking the following question, “What do users need that isn’t being met?” while coming up with fresh product ideas, product improvements, or design concepts. This stage also aids in identifying prospective solutions and gaps in present products, as well as assessing market dynamics and your organization’s place within it.

2. Add features and test continuously

Create, from ideas to concepts: brainstorm everything from minor enhancements (such as making a button more ergonomic) to entirely new product designs. Everything is conceivable once you know what user needs are unmet. Try including everyone who will be impacted by whatever ideas you come up with, including other stakeholders like engineers/developers, and marketing professionals, among others.

Consider the following hypothetical solutions: when you have some amazing ideas for how to solve the problem or meet unmet user needs, it is essential to assess them. Do they have any impact? Is it necessary to modify existing solutions? What are the financial ramifications; does this strategy fit within the constraints of the budget? If a given idea appears promising after careful consideration, proceed with prototyping and testing.

Features must be continually introduced throughout the lifespan for products to fulfill market demands. Without frequent testing, it becomes increasingly difficult for users and teams to identify if features are beneficial. Aside from continually introducing new features, teams should verify whether existing ones operate as intended by monitoring how users engage with the product’s design.

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3. Recognize and itemize all stakeholder needs

Product management requires the development of a product that fulfills the demands of all stakeholders. Of course, stakeholder needs differ based on the product lifecycle stage. Still, there are certain common elements across all stages: a desirable product should be easy to use, fulfill (at least) user expectations, and work as promised.

As a product manager, you should identify which stakeholder groups will use your product and their specific concerns. Stakeholder demands may also be found through various resources, such as market research approaches. For example, consider the following product lifecycle stakeholders: users, development teams, leadership, and investors.

Users are those who will actually use the product. They are looking for a product that is simple to use and satisfies their needs or expectations. Development teams should have a firm grasp of user requirements to design a fantastic product. Leadership will consider the larger picture and ensure that the project continues on track, on time, and budget; they will also consider how the finished product will benefit both users and stockholders (as applicable).

Finally, investors (if appropriate) contribute financially in various ways but may not be as active in day-to-day operations. Their primary concern is whether or not your team can generate a return on their investment (ROI).

4. Make certain all stakeholders recognize your features

Some tips for managing stakeholder awareness in a product lifecycle include the following: communicating feature and capability updates regularly and working collaboratively with other teams within your organization; being clear about how new features or capabilities will affect users; and ensuring screenshots, prototypes, and videos of newly developed features are easily accessible. In addition, before implementing requested changes/features across teams, create wireframes and diagrams to represent them.

Consider routinely conveying feature and capability updates: keeping stakeholders up to speed on the newest product features and functionality is critical to ensuring they have visibility to all accessible information. To accomplish these, consider approaches through frequent blog entries, email newsletters, or social media channels where pertinent announcements can be rapidly and readily conveyed. Furthermore, providing interested users with beta access to upcoming new products may help them get a head start. Finally, allowing input from early users of these upgrades, if feasible, will increase stakeholder understanding of the changes.

Consider working cooperatively with other teams within your organization: working closely with other departments (e.g., sales and marketing) is often encouraged for everyone engaged in producing a product to have an up-to-date grasp of its many features and capabilities. For example, if modifications to user contacts or data collecting methods are suggested, prioritizing cooperation amongst various teams throughout development creates clear objectives while avoiding disputes throughout the implementation/testing phases.

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5. Apply AI to continuously provide value

AI principles, methods, and approaches may be highly beneficial in product management across the product lifecycle. For example, AI could help improve decision-making processes, automate manual tasks or processes that would otherwise take a long time to complete accurately and effectively, better align products with user needs or desires, or understand users’ behaviors over time to tailor future offerings or evolutions of current ones at various points throughout this process.

There are several potential advantages to incorporating AI into product management practices at various stages of the lifecycle. However, attaining such integration necessitates careful planning and execution; unforeseen effects may arise rather than anticipated objectives if done poorly. It is therefore critical to establish not just an overarching plan detailing how AI will be employed within the organization but also detailed rules specifying when and how its principles should be implemented at each stage of development, from concept generation through the market entrance.

The AI strategy may easily promote alignment between corporate goals and user experience while minimizing unintended side effects on pricing, innovation (due diligence required before introducing new algorithms), and usability.

Parting Thoughts

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As part of this multi-part series, here is my other post:

Anil Tilbe