All about the act of creation within the product lifecycle
» Platform product management dials everything up to 11
» A successful platform is continually evolving in line with user needs and emerging tech
» Platform teams must recognise and respect the varying needs of their community of users
» On a typical dev project, the reality is around 2-3x the original estimate
» Trying to go faster when you’re already moving quickly has limited effect for a lot of effort
» With ROI, development estimates may be optimistic; revenue estimates are often more so
» Your organisation has an operating system — the way it works — even if it’s not consciously designed
This is a little post about some ways to convince a reluctant development team that experimentation is A Good Thing.
If one were to heft a half-brick down Old Street in London, there would be high probability of hitting someone currently engaged in building a minimum viable product (MVP) of some sort or another. There’s also almost as high a probability that they’re doing it wrong. Allow me to explain.
This week, we’ve been looking at two different lifecycles: the product lifecycle and the development lifecycle – cycles within cycles!
Now that I’ve started up a product management consultancy, I’ve found myself having to explain a bit more often than before what a product manager actually is. There are, of course, eminently more articulate and relevant descriptions available of what being a product manager means. But as it’s a Monday, and we’re all need more frivolity in our lives, I’ve come to the conclusion that product managers would make excellent dinner guests. Here’s why:
Over the last few weeks I’ve mostly been investigating the variety of tools available to help product managers at different stages of their product’s lifecycle. For me, the emphasis has been on speed and ease of use because my project is short-lived and I want to show some results.
We’re looking at the kinds of information that specific groups of people need to know during the lifecycle of your product and why they’re so interested in the first place.
Last time we covered the steps from idea through to convincing people to part with some cash to build it. Now we’re going to look at building it and onwards through launch to review.
Your developers may be happiest when they’re hacking gnarly code, leaving you to get on with engaging with the market, but this doesn’t mean you can ignore their need for context – the ‘why’ of their project.
