In light of the security issues on The Guardian Jobs, and the risk that users of this site could be facing, Should the Guardian or Madex pay the £12 one year subsciption for CIFAS for those effected? Vote Here:
Guardian Jobs Hacked - Email Notification Also Not Secure
With the news that the Guardian Jobs Website had been hacked a couple of days ago, it appears that the email that they sent to tell everyone that they'd been hacked, also posed a security risk as reported by ThatDanny. Basically if anyone had an original email that was notifying users about the breach, then they could potentially obtain at least some of the email addresses of effected by the security breach.
Now a couple of days into the security breach, and with some users worried about the potential financial consequences, I'm left wondering why the mainstream news has yet to pick up and report on this story (as of Sunday 8am GMT). I know there will be a few product managers at The Guardian running around trying to resolve the problem, but it seems their PR managers are also working overtime too!
- Updated - As of 11.08am GMT the BBC pubished this story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8324630.stm
Now a couple of days into the security breach, and with some users worried about the potential financial consequences, I'm left wondering why the mainstream news has yet to pick up and report on this story (as of Sunday 8am GMT). I know there will be a few product managers at The Guardian running around trying to resolve the problem, but it seems their PR managers are also working overtime too!
- Updated - As of 11.08am GMT the BBC pubished this story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8324630.stm
Guardian Jobs And Madgex Hacked
So what makes a Jobs boards data so valuable? Well, if you think about it, what more information could potential fraudsters want than what can be found on a CV? Think of basic data that exists on a CV:
- Name
- Address
- Email Address
- Phone Numbers
- Work History
- Salary details
- Personal details
- Professional qualifications
Actually just about everything other than your blood type and bank details. With this in mind, surely jobs boards, and particularly third party jobs boards should be as hot on security as online banking is required to be. I've yet to hear whether it is only the Guardian's version of the Madgex software or whether other Madgex customers have been effected, but one thing is for sure, jobs seekers should chose their jobs boards carefully.
And as for other players in this market: Watch out for the scramble to improve site security and advertise the fact. If, like me, you've used the Guardian jobs site before, it's recommended that you take precautionary actions such as changing your regular passwords. The full email from the Guardian can be seen below:
-----------------------------------------------
24 October 2009
Security breach - Guardian Jobs
Dear xxxxxxxxxx,
We learned yesterday evening that the Guardian Jobs website has been targeted by a sophisticated and deliberate hack, which has breached the security of the data on the site. You have used the site to make one or more job applications and we believe your personal data, relating to those applications, may have been accessed.
We are absolutely committed to the privacy of our users, and would like to assure you that we are treating this situation with the utmost seriousness. The matter has been reported to the police, who are now undertaking a full investigation through the police central e-crime unit at New Scotland Yard.
The supplier who runs the site has identified the manner in which it was hacked and taken steps to prevent a recurrence.
We have no reason to believe that any financial or bank data was compromised in this incident. However the police advise that those whose personal data may have been stolen in this way should take a number of precautionary measures. These are outlined below:
1) Contact your creditors, even if they have not been affected, so that they can monitor your accounts to ensure they remain protected.
2) Contact a credit reference agency: Callcredit, Equifax or Experian provide suggested steps to resolve the situation and prevent it happening again.
3) Contact CIFAS protective registration: If you think you have been a victim of identity theft you should consider subscribing to CIFAS. This places a notice on your credit file indicating that your name and address may be used to perpetrate identity fraud.
In addition the following websites are sources of useful information:
www.met.police.uk/fraudalert/
http://www.stop-idfraud.co.uk/
http://www.banksafeonline.org.uk/
http://www.getsafeonline.org/
We will continue to work with the police whilst the investigation is carried out. Please refer to the following page for updates:
jobs.guardian.co.uk/securityupdate.html
Please do not reply to this e-mail.
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Interview With A Pure Product Manager
Listen to my interview with Derek Morrison, Senior Product Manager at Yahoo!
Derek and I worked together until recently.
Derek and I worked together until recently.
Evolution Vs Revolution
The product management function is in most cases a function of necessity. In all previous organisations I’ve worked for Product Management as a function was instigated by the problems it was trying to solve. The thing about organisational evolution, is that it repeats itself. The same problems occur time and time again. So what happens when you already know how the evolution process ends - Should you choose evolution or revolution? Let’s take an example:
Company X has a group of business people, and a group of technologists. They have 4 problems and each occurs after the other:
1. The technical department are getting beat up every day, they’re receiving multiple requests from different stakeholders, and are working flat out to meet the demands. Despite this on the weekly conference calls all the business owners from around the world beat up on technology. Then the organisation decides that they need a group of people between the business and technology to simplify communication and undertake stakeholder management. They create product managers.
2. Communication is better now, but the company realises that their products are being delivered late and over budget. As a result they empower the product management function to manage the delivery of the products rather than just decide what products are built. This was previously the role of the development managers.
3. Products are now being delivered on time and on budget but they are not actualising the expected revenue benefits. To solve the problem they increase the size of product management and empower them to deal with actualisation of product benefits by liaising with the sales and marketing teams. The P&L’s still remain with the business owners.
4. Finally they’re delivering products that are on time, on budget, and actualising their ROI estimates. However, they’ve realised that they are always a step behind the market, they’re followers, but they actually want to become leaders. So they further empower their product management department to manage innovation, and idea creation work themes.
In the space of this evolution, Product Management as a function went from: Non Existence to Mini CEO. Now, let’s read the first problem again: The technical department are getting beat up every day, they’re receiving multiple requests from different stakeholders, and are working flat out to meet the demands. Despite this on the weekly conference calls all the business owners from around the world beat up on technology. Then the organisation decides that they need a group of people between the business and technology to simplify communication and undertake stakeholder management. They create product managers.
If the answer to this problem had been: Create a product management department to manage communication, stakeholders, delivery, costs, benefit realisation, innovation – in essence create mini CEO’s, then the organisation would not have fully bought into the change. The reason for this is that the solution solves problems that don’t yet exists. It almost definitely would have caused more conflict than benefit.
Roles and organisations evolve to meet the challenges they face. If man had evolved in a single step from insects, he’d have become extinct as quickly has he was created, because the problem this revolution was trying to solve did not exist yet. So when it comes to evolution or revolution of products, roles, organisational structure – I say; Evolve to meet the challenges you face today and in some cases tomorrow. Next week’s challenges will decide your next evolution.
If you have any views on this post feel free to comment.
Company X has a group of business people, and a group of technologists. They have 4 problems and each occurs after the other:
1. The technical department are getting beat up every day, they’re receiving multiple requests from different stakeholders, and are working flat out to meet the demands. Despite this on the weekly conference calls all the business owners from around the world beat up on technology. Then the organisation decides that they need a group of people between the business and technology to simplify communication and undertake stakeholder management. They create product managers.
2. Communication is better now, but the company realises that their products are being delivered late and over budget. As a result they empower the product management function to manage the delivery of the products rather than just decide what products are built. This was previously the role of the development managers.
3. Products are now being delivered on time and on budget but they are not actualising the expected revenue benefits. To solve the problem they increase the size of product management and empower them to deal with actualisation of product benefits by liaising with the sales and marketing teams. The P&L’s still remain with the business owners.
4. Finally they’re delivering products that are on time, on budget, and actualising their ROI estimates. However, they’ve realised that they are always a step behind the market, they’re followers, but they actually want to become leaders. So they further empower their product management department to manage innovation, and idea creation work themes.
In the space of this evolution, Product Management as a function went from: Non Existence to Mini CEO. Now, let’s read the first problem again: The technical department are getting beat up every day, they’re receiving multiple requests from different stakeholders, and are working flat out to meet the demands. Despite this on the weekly conference calls all the business owners from around the world beat up on technology. Then the organisation decides that they need a group of people between the business and technology to simplify communication and undertake stakeholder management. They create product managers.
If the answer to this problem had been: Create a product management department to manage communication, stakeholders, delivery, costs, benefit realisation, innovation – in essence create mini CEO’s, then the organisation would not have fully bought into the change. The reason for this is that the solution solves problems that don’t yet exists. It almost definitely would have caused more conflict than benefit.
Roles and organisations evolve to meet the challenges they face. If man had evolved in a single step from insects, he’d have become extinct as quickly has he was created, because the problem this revolution was trying to solve did not exist yet. So when it comes to evolution or revolution of products, roles, organisational structure – I say; Evolve to meet the challenges you face today and in some cases tomorrow. Next week’s challenges will decide your next evolution.
If you have any views on this post feel free to comment.
Idea Management Vs Innovation Management
Recently I've had a few different conversations, offline and online about the process for creating a culture of innovation I've previously posted on. A comment from the ever insightful Stewart Rogers got me to thinking. He wrote: "..... this smells a lot like idea management vs. innovation. Thoughts?" Well, as ever, I have plenty of thoughts. To further contextualise this post, as I've been going through the exercise of helping implement this process within my current organisation. By going through this process a few things have come up which are similar to Stewart's point. The aim of this post is to answer a single question:
Is this really an idea management process?
Well, the short answer is yes, it does include a large element of idea management. However, I feel that it has to have this element as without it, creating a culture of innovation is more difficult. The process is based on a few key facets, and one of those is that feedback and reward encourages a culture of innovation, rather than having a one off innovation exercise. The element of the process which deals with idea management is really important to ensure that those ideas go through appropriate elaboration and to ensure that the results of those elaborations are fed back to the originator of the idea - thus helping to create a culture that rewards and encourages innovation. But the most important elements are; to capture the idea's in the first place, to reduce the entry barriers for ideas to be considered from any source of an organisation, to create a critical mass of ideas so that within that pile of ideas there are nuggets of innovation gold. This leads me onto another point, something that came out of a recent innovation group meeting. A very senior member of the organisation mentioned: "I really want to get to the big nuggets of gold". He was right, the big nuggets of innovation gold are the end reward for creating a culture of innovation, but I must be clear, that is the END REWARD for this process. To get to that end reward we have to go through the process of creating that innovation lead culture. Let's use a metaphor: Thousands of men dig through mountains in the Ivory Coast in search of diamonds. To find a single diamond they have to go through hundreds of tonnes of rock. Sometimes within the tonnes of rock they won't find a diamond, but a ruby (don't know if that's true or not, but you get the point). Now the ruby is still valuable, not as valuable as the diamond, but in search of the diamond he found the ruby. The key point is this: If we didn't go through all the rocks we'd never find the diamonds or the rubies and if the mountains didn't exist at all, then there would be no chance what so ever of finding anything of value. The process of creating a culture of innovation is actually a process of creating a large pile of rocks. Within those rocks at some point you'll find a diamond, and in your search for diamonds you're bound to come across a few rubies. Therefore to find the diamonds (innovation), you have to be able to successfully manage rocks and rubies (ideas).
The full 'Creating a Culture of Innovation' series is below:
Introduction - Creating A Culture of Innovation
Pt1 - Capturing Ideas
Pt2 - Review and Eliminate Ideas
Pt3 - Validating Ideas
Pt4 - Final Decision
Pt 5 - Implementation
Pt1 - Capturing Ideas
Pt2 - Review and Eliminate Ideas
Pt3 - Validating Ideas
Pt4 - Final Decision
Pt 5 - Implementation
I'd also like to direct you to a few excellent post which were produced By Derek Morrison of All About Product Management:
If you have any views on this post feel free to leave a comment.
Product Benchmarking For Dummies
If you look up benchmarking strategic analysis online there are thousands of resources to help you. What I’m going to go through isn’t a benchmarking analysis in it’s strictest form – If you’ve ever had to do a full organisational benchmarking analysis, you’ll know it’s not much fun. What I’ll go through in this post is a basic product benchmarking template I use. Its purposes are:
Firstly select your competitors and list the key common functions. So if you are a Jobs platform, you’d say your main competitor is Monster.com and that the key functions are; searching for a job, posting a job, applying for a job, registering to the site, uploading your CV etc. The overview sheet of your workbook will look something like this:
Then take each function one at a time and benchmark vs. your own product. Any given function will look something like this:
- To give a high level overview of which competitors value propositions are more compelling than your own
- Which features to focus on when doing customer interviews, or creating your road map.
There are some disadvantages with this method, notably that it is subjective. To help get around this I tend to use my buyer personas as a guide to the mindset of the end users of my product and try to get into their frame of mind.
Firstly select your competitors and list the key common functions. So if you are a Jobs platform, you’d say your main competitor is Monster.com and that the key functions are; searching for a job, posting a job, applying for a job, registering to the site, uploading your CV etc. The overview sheet of your workbook will look something like this:
Then take each function one at a time and benchmark vs. your own product. Any given function will look something like this: In the middle is your product, and then each competitor is color coded so you can easily spot trends across functions. Then to the right is a description of why you reached the benchmarking decision that you did. If you like you can then create Radar diagrams to give a global view of all features benchmarks vs. your own.
Making benchmarking really complicated is surprisingly easy, and I know that there will be strategy purists out there reading this and spitting venom! I see things like this: What do I need? How can I get it? What I need is to be easily see and communicate to stakeholders how our competitors features match up against ours. And the easiest way for me to get this is to do a product benchmarking exercise.
If you have any views on this post feel free to leave a comment.
You can download the template here.
Competitive Analysis For Dummies
I've been in a number of meetings this year when I've said something like; "Just do a benchmarking analysis and come back to us with the results" and be faced with stonewall faces. I don't know what it is, maybe it's the word 'Competitive' maybe it's 'analysis' but whatever it is, for some unknown reason people think that competitive analysis is more complex than it actually is.I did a quick google search and things started to make sense. There are so many resources that over complicate competitive analysis, making it seem much more than it really is. The basic aim of any competitive analysis is to give insight where previously there was ambiguity (or just darkness in some cases). A recent presentation from one of my colleagues really put things into context for me: Competitive analysis is really easy, as long as you know what you're doing. He presented his ideas on this area in such a clear, concise, step-by-step way that actually, a 12 year old could have done a decent job of the work.
The difficult part of competitive analysis is not in the analysis itself, it's in the interpretation of the results. So, in this series of posts, I'll be going through some analysis tools, and with real examples and a step-by-step approach. I'll be starting with Benchmarking.
If you have any particular analysis tools that you'd like me to try and demystify please feel free to comment.
Innovation - A Simple Process
In this series of posts I've been going through the various steps in process of creating a culture of innovation within a product set, or organisation. This is a process I've used successfully in the past, and do so currently. The slide show below takes you through each of the key steps, but please take the time to read the related posts in order to fully understand the process.
It is extremely easy to understand, and for the most part common sense.
If you have any views on product management innovation, feel free to comment on this post or any of the related posts.
Quick Links:
Introduction - Creating A Culture of Innovation
Pt1 - Capturing Ideas
Pt2 - Review and Eliminate Ideas
Pt3 - Validating Ideas
Pt4 - Final Decision
Pt 5 - Implementation
It is extremely easy to understand, and for the most part common sense.
If you have any views on product management innovation, feel free to comment on this post or any of the related posts.
Quick Links:
Introduction - Creating A Culture of Innovation
Pt1 - Capturing Ideas
Pt2 - Review and Eliminate Ideas
Pt3 - Validating Ideas
Pt4 - Final Decision
Pt 5 - Implementation
Innovation Pt5: Innovation
The final part of the innovation process is to implement the idea, feedback and reward. Once the item has been added to the backlog, then the current measurements of the metrics that had been created in the review and validate phases should be measured. The item is then developed in the normal way (depending on your development methodology). Once the idea has been live for a pre-determined period of time, the new metric measurements are taken. These measurements are fed back into the innovation group so that the group can continuously learn from the product enhancements it agrees to.Finally, and most importantly, the originator of the idea is rewarded, and the process is evangelised throughout the company. This helps increase faith in the process as well as encouraging more and more people to submit their ideas.
This innovation process is one of many. As with many processes it will evolve to meet your own organisations needs at any given time, but as a starting point it helps to give structure to the ultimate aim: Creating a culture of innovation within your organisation.
Quick Links:
6 Reasons To Engage With The Product Management Community
As we shuffle along in our days at work, being bombarded with emails, phone calls, requests for demonstrations and our daily demands, the questions should be asked of this post- Why should I engage in the product management community? There are some key benefits to engaging with the community:- Product Management is a complex discipline: There are people around the globe who have been doing this for many years more than you. By engaging with them, you can learn from their experiences. The reality is that however many challenges you face today, thousands of product managers have faced and over come them in the past. Learn from them, and ultimately save yourself time and heartache.
- Not engaging is false economy: So every product manager has more work than he can handle, what's new there? The argument that there's not enough hours in the day to engage with the community is a paradox in itself. By engaging with the community, you'll learn more about the nature of the challenges you face, how to overcome them and how to prevent them happening in the future, ultimately saving time.
- The whole is greater than the sum of it's parts: There are always those in a community that share, and those that consume. I've been acutely aware that there are a large number of product management professionals who are willing to share their knowledge and do so on a regular basis. Through their, and your efforts, product management, as a discipline, can become greater than the sum of its parts.
- It's cathartic: Ok, we all have stressful days, but sometimes, when you're going through the daily strains and stresses, it's helpful to know that people have been going through the same stresses for years before you. Advice is always at hand within the community, after all most product managers have faced similar problems.
- Same problem, different perspective: What I find most useful in engaging with the product management community, are the differences in approach internationally, specifically from the US to the UK. I've posted in the past on my views in this area, but people like Stewart Rogers, Jim Holland, Chris Cummings and the On Product Management Team really help to give a different perspective.
- Your opinion is important: It doesn't matter if you've been in Product Management for 10 days or 10 years, engage with the community, and share your experiences. Ultimately you'll receive support and you'll be supporting others at the same time.
Not engaging with the Product Management community is false economy, so take the first steps today: Start a blog, engage in twitter, listen to the Pragmatic Webinars and most importantly of all, share your ideas!
If you have any views on engaging with the product managment community, feel free to comment on this post.
Innovation Pt4: Final Decision
By now there should be a fully formed idea which has been through the majority of the innovation process. Now all that remains before the idea goes into development is the final decision. There will be numerous things that need to be considered when making the final decision, but the most important ones are:- Road Map Review: What does building this idea do to the road map? At this point we need to make sure that the idea is still compatible with the road map and make any required changes to it.
- Organisational Changes: We also need to consider if there are any organisational changes that need to juxtapose the innovation idea. Do rate cards need changing? Are there additional staffing requirements, do teams need additional training?
- Interdependence's: Finally we need to take a wider view of the organisation (depending on the size of the organisation you're working for). With this view we need to make sure that the change still fits with the organisational strategy, and start to communicate the amended road map around the organisation.
As I mentioned, there will be others. In my experience, of all items that make it to stage 4 more than 90% end up on the road map. If the work done in stages 1-3 have been done correctly, this should be quite an easy decision.
In the next post we'll be looking at implementing the idea, and how this process interacts with the Innovation Group and the wider organisation.
If you have any comments or recommended changes to this process please feel free to comment.
Quick Links:
Introduction - Creating A Culture of Innovation
Pt1 - Capturing Ideas
Pt2 - Review and Eliminate Ideas
Pt3 - Validating Ideas
Pt4 - Final Decision
Pt 5 - Implementation
Why PURIST Product Management?
OK, I've been asked a few times now; Why Purist Product Management? I guess the title reflects my own personal discontentment with how the role is sometimes perceived. I remember when I started in product management, and Pragmatic came over to the UK, it really helped me come to grips with the fact that it's not a technical role, but a role that facilities technology (the department). However, in the majority of the various incarnations I've come across product management, I've seen it be: too focused on sales, too focused on marketing, too focused on technology and even too focused on finance (!). For me, product management is the bridge that translates customer need into business benefit, business benefit into technical requirements, and technical issues into business language. It's a strategic role. It's a role that sits between marketing, sales and technology. It's a role that if it disappeared, would ultimately be filled by those departments. But often, I feel that organisations forget why they decided to have product managers in the first place. They forget the problem they were trying to solve to start with, and allow the role to morph into either a technology role, or a marketing role or a sales role. Product managers do themselves no favours either: A product manager who came from a marketing background tends to lean towards the marketing side of the role, likewise with product managers coming from a technical background. I notice an absolute divide internationally too. I think product management in the US is better understood than in the UK. They say that when America sneezes the UK gets a cold - When it comes to product management, the US has got the flu, and the UK's wearing face masks!
I've come from Sales, procurement and business development background, so my early months in product management were very sales focused, but as the role evolved, I evolved too. I don't have all the answers, and like all product managers I've got plenty to learn, and the best way to learn for me is to be an active member of the international product management community.
So why purist? Well, I love my job, I love my profession, I love doing what I do, and as with anything that you love, when you see it change beyond it's original purpose, then its saddening. I like product management as it's supposed to be; customer focused, inclusive, strategic, purist!
6 Tips for Awesome Presentations
I've spent much of my early career dreading presentations, being extremely nervous and then making a mess of them. Over time I managed to get to a point where I could successfully give a presentation without feeling too nervous. As the years moved on, and I moved upwards, I spent less time giving presentations, and more time listening too them. Then, after a bit of time analysing and reading around presentation styles, I became a 'good' presenter. So I'd define a good presenter, as someone who can successfully convince an audience of a course of action first time round. Someone who is confident when presenting, gets his message across, keeps the audience engaged and getting a round of applause!
Here are my 6 tips for giving awesome presentations:
Here are my 6 tips for giving awesome presentations:
- Just be Good: Accept this single, truth - Most presentations are rubbish. The base level at which a presentation is classed as good is where no mistakes are made. You don't have to be great, you don't have to be perfect, you just have to be good. Even if you aren't good, what are you really losing? Very little, as you in the company of most people!
- It's all about the opening: Be creative in your opening. Don't start with, "My names Abdelaziz Musa, and I'm going to talk about....." Its boring, everyone does it! Be creative.
- Have 1 message: Don't complicate your presentation with too many messages. Define what your key message is and be clear about how your presentation is going to deliver that message. If you're an extremely skilled presenter then you may be able to get away with 2 messages, any more than that and you'll risk losing the audience in complexity.
- Less than 15 words per slide: Yes, that's right! Less than 15 words per slide, no more, under any circumstances. The reality is this, people don't read slides. Even if they did, why not just send an email? It's easier. Slides should facilitate the message you're delivering vocally. So if you're saying, "Product management is the core of an organisation" Then don't write those words on the slide, what's the point, you've just said it? Have a picture of a core, or something that represents a core, or something that's representitive of your overall message.
- Body language: Keep your hands out you your pockets (especially men), it draws attention to the wrong area. Hands should be above the navel. Also use the space around you, if there's a lectern then there's no need to stand behind it. Walk around, keep the audience moving with you.
- Smile: Whatever happens, whatever breaks, however many times your computer crashes, smile! Smile as if it's supposed to be that way. Equally, don't apologies, people will switch off very quickly and it looks very unprofessional.
As I started writing this post, I've noticed that actually there's about 20 tips I could give, so I'll post again on this topic soon. The key message is this: Keep it simple, be confident, don't write too much on your slides.
Below you'll see some slides I presented to get a single message across. Can you guess what the message was? I'll give you a clue - it's to do with social networking....
Innovation Pt3: Validating Ideas
So far in the "creating a culture of innovation" series we've discussed; The overall process, capturing ideas and reviewing ideas. In this post I'll discuss the most important area of all: Validating ideas. The difference between a product manager and a purist product manager is defined partly by their interaction with customers. If a product is being built based entirely on internally driven analysis and never sees the customers eye before development, then it is an internally driven process. Purist Product Management is all about empowering the end user, making sure he drives the product, and not internally driven number crunchers!However, passing every idea by end users can be very difficult, so we do have to use internal analysis as a filtration method of getting to the product ideas we feel would really work. Once we're at this stage, we need to validate these ideas with customers. There are numerous ways that we can do this, but I'll go through a few of my favourites:
- Usability testing: At this stage, there is no product, but there should be mock-ups or even a prototype. If you have the luxury of having an internal usability team then use them! Have them look over the idea, and give their advice on how the product should look and feel. This isn't strictly customer interaction, but it's still useful to do. I'd certainly never use this method alone.
- Customer Reviews: Most people use one-2-one interviews when doing customer reviews, which is completely valid. However at this stage we need as much feedback as possible. In the past I've used customer panels to review products which are at this stage. The advantage of this is that we can gain a lot more information with much less time investment. However, the type of business environment you work in will partly define whether is a good idea to have multiple customers in the same room at the same time or not. The focus of the interview should be validating that the problem that the product is trying to solve actually exists. Once this is confirmed its about validating that the product will solve the problem.
- Polls: For some smaller developments it may not be cost effective to use a panel, but it is still very important to get some feedback from the customer. I've used polls in the past, with varying degree's of success. A poll will give you an indicative view of whether a customer likes or dislikes your product, but the interaction is only 1 way, so there's no feedback on how it could be improved further. Therefore I'd only use polls on small developments, or as a first step in validation of larger developments. For information on how to conduct effective polls click here.
Once the product has been successfully validated, a final decision has to be made. This decision is made by the innovation group with all information to hand.
In the next innovation post, I'll discuss the 4th process: Final Decision. If you have any comments or recommended changes to this process please feel free to comment.
Quick Links:
Introduction - Creating A Culture of Innovation
Pt1 - Capturing Ideas
Pt2 - Review and Eliminate Ideas
Pt3 - Validating Ideas
Pt4 - Final Decision
Pt 5 - Implementation
Innovation Pt2: Review and Eliminate Ideas
So far in the innovation series I've covered the overall process I've used in the past for creating a culture of innovation, and the first area of that process: Capturing ideas. In this post I'll cover the next phase, which is a process to review and eliminate ideas.This area of the process relies on 2 key assumptions:
1 - Organisational instinct is strong. By having an instinctive review of an innovative idea, with the right people undertaking that review, and with the right level of detail for the idea, it is likely that the Innovation Group can successfully decipher ideas that just won't be of enough benefit to pursue.
2 - That every idea needs elaborating, and that the process of elaboration alone will show that many ideas will offer little or no benefit to the end user.
Reviewing and Eliminating ideas requires each idea to go through 3 gates (how waterfall!):
Gate 1
The process begins with the innovation backlog created by capturing the requirements in the part 1. The innovation group reviews each item on the backlog against the vision statement, and the product road map. The group then discusses the idea and makes a decision to either; not pursue the idea, or to move the idea onto further elaboration.
If the decision is not to pursue the idea, then the originator of the idea is informed, with valid reasons as to why this idea will not be taken forward. This is really important so that there is quick feedback for each product idea. A common pitfall of many innovation processes is that no credit or feedback is given to the originator of the idea. My process attempts to address this by giving continuous feedback, and therefore encouraging further ideas from the organisation.
Gate 2
If the decision is to pursue the idea, then the originator of the idea, along with their Innovation Group representative are requested to elaborate the idea, potentially with mock ups and metric projections where applicable. The group then reviews these elaborated ideas further and decides whether to pursue or otherwise. Again, if the decision is not to pursue the idea, then the originator must be informed.
Gate 3
Most product ideas will stop at gate 2. However, larger product ideas (i.e. ones that require either business process change, large technology changes, or brand new products) go through a further elaboration. During this elaboration the idea has to have actual metric projections, business process modelling where applicable and an estimated cost projection. Again, with this information the innovation group will decide whether to pursue the idea or otherwise.
Through experience, most idea's wont make it past gate 1 (about 60%) but by the time you get to gate 3 (or 2 where applicable) you're left with about 15-20% of the original number of ideas. Once an idea is at this stage, it has to be validated both internally, and by externally (by customers).
In the next innovation post, I'll discuss the 3rd process: Validating the idea's. If you have any comments or recommended changes to this process please feel free to comment.
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5 Ways To Reduce Stress At Product Launch
I'm going through a couple of product launches over the next few weeks, which is not ideal, but that's the way things have panned out. Oddly, the 2 products couldn't be more different, both in terms of business benefit, and the actual launch program itself. Having thought about it a bit, I think there are some key differences which are making one product launch significantly less stressful that the other. Here are 5 tips for making product launches as stressful as a stroll in the park:
- Get your ducks in a row: Product launch requires multiple teams to be working in harmony in a given time frame. As early as possible, make sure that all the relevant parties are booked out for the launch.
- Give clear instructions: Make sure that you're giving very clear instructions about what is required from each and every resources. Equally important is to make sure that they know what is required of them, and that you repeat this information often.
- Trust your team: Over management of product launches can be counter productive. Once you're convinced that everyone knows what they are doing, let them get on with it, and give as much encouragement as possible. Also make sure that everyone is aware that any impediments to the launch should be escalated to you as soon as possible
- Get fresh eyes: If you've worked on a product for a number of months, then this is a good time to get a fresh set of eyes to look over the product. This should be above and beyond the normal user experience testing.
- Celebrate the wins: As product manager, it's your responsibility to make sure that you shout about the product once it's launched, and where it is a replacement product that you compare and contrast old vs. new. Doing this, gives everyone involved a clear view of what all the hard work was for.
Have you got any ideas to make product launches less stressful? Leave and comment and share them with the community.
Innovation Pt1: Capturing Ideas
In the last post, Creating A Culture of Innovation, I went through a process which I've used in the past to help foster and promote innovation as part of the product management process. In this post I'll be detailing some of the methods that can be used to capture ideas, and feed them into the innovation group.Employees
Within the innovation group should be representation from all major departments in the organisation. Their role is to collate ideas from within their teams and bring them to the innovation group. The key in capturing ideas from the employee base, is to make it easy for them to post ideas to a central place. This can be done with a centralised inbox, a separate area on the companies intranet or within formal meetings where they can bring up their ideas. It also has to be quick. The aim is to reduce entry barriers for each idea as much as possible, so it should be acceptable in the 'Capture' phase to have a 1 line idea, without the need to fill out a long winded form. It is the responsibility of each member of the innovation group to; make idea sharing part of day to day culture, make it easy for employees to put forward their ideas, to never reject an idea without bringing it to the innovation group.
Win / Loss Analyses
From a personal perspective, I'd be more accurately describing this as a 'Loss Analysis'. A win / loss analysis is when product management visits a client after the sales team have completed the sales process. If that client has not opted to go with your product, then this is the ideal time to get some good feedback as to why. A typical win / loss interview starts with; "I'm sorry you decided not to take our product, but thanks for taking the time to see me. What I'd like to achieve from this meeting is to understand what changes to our product would have made you choose us above our competitors. I'm not here to sell you anything....." By taking this approach, we're actually asking the client to say not only what was wrong with our product, but what was right with our competitors. The ideas that come out of these sessions can be fed directly into the innovation group.
Stakeholder Product Review Interviews
It is THE core aspect of the purist product manager that he makes sure that his customers drive his product. However, it shouldn't be overlooked that there are internal customers too. Each quarter I try to meet with the key internal stakeholders and undertake a product review interview. This is a session which allows them to tell you what they like and dislike about the product, what their stakeholders are saying, what would make their life easier, what would enhance their product. There are particular times when I'd conduct more Product Review Interviews, particularly when someone new comes to the organisation. New people in a company is fertile ground for the Product Manager's Innovation drive. As people come to a new organisation, they come with their existing mindsets from their previous company. Having regular interviews with these people can be of great benefit in drawing out new ideas.
Social Media
At my current company we use Yammer. For those of you who have not come across yammer in the past, it's like Twitter but for internal company use. It's a great way to communication progress on projects, or recent quick wins, Yammer, and tools like Yammer really help the product manager keep in touch with their stakeholders. It's also a great way of capturing off the cuff ideas. The idea of the innovation process is to capture ideas where ever they are, and as soon as they are thought of, and Yammer helps greatly in this aim. Capturing the 'at the desk' spare of the moment ideas is very difficult, but tools like Yammer really help make it easier.
There are of course hundreds of ways to collect ideas from within your organisation, and the tools or methods you use really depend on what you're comfortable with, your companies size, structure and existing culture. The key aim is this: Capture ideas where ever they are, and as soon as they're thought of. Once you're done this the rest of the process will support and promote this culture.
In the next post I'll discuss how we can begin to review and sort these ideas into a meaningful order.
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A Typical Product Management Problem
I was at a course a few years ago, and just found the slide deck whilst clearing out my desktop. It made me giggle :)
Introduction: Creating A Culture of Innovation
Creating a culture of innovation is a long term process, which requires dedication as well as commitment from the wider organisation. However, as a product manager, if you are able to create a culture of innovation within your organisation, the benefits can be huge. In this series of posts, I'll be talking through a process which I've used in multiple organisations to great effect.The Process
The process itself involves capturing, reviewing, validating, deciding and implementing product ideas. It is also a cyclical process which has outputs at every stage. The aim of the process is to create perpetual innovative ideas from the organisation by giving continuous feedback on all innovative ideas, and rewarding ideas that go to build phase. However, it is critical to note - Most of the process is about creating hypotheses, not backlog items. In the end, however innovative an idea, it always needs to be validated by customers. Each step in the process has its own processes associated with it, so in future posts I'll focus on each of the 5 steps.
The Innovation Group
The innovation group has to be a collection of leaders from various functional areas within the organisation. They are the structure that decides on which ideas to push forward to the next stage of the process, and which ones are discarded. They also play another vital role: To be the spokes person for their functional area, and to drive the culture of innovation through their teams and departments.
The instincts of an organisation get stronger with time. A key aim in creating a culture of innovation is capturing the "coffee break" ideas in a formal way. This is done by assigning a functional leader who represents the idea in the innovation group, and creating multiple communication channels for ideas to be fed into the group. Ideas are also captured through product interviews, competitive analysis and win/loss analyses.
Once ideas are captured, they are reviewed by the innovation group. The first review is an instinctive review, then the idea is elaborated, then the idea is given a complete presentation. At each of these stages an idea can be rejected.
If an idea passes phase 2, the it moves into validation phase. This is firstly a validation based on precedent, then validation based on customer interaction. At this stage an idea is delivered to a customer and their opinions are collated.
If the idea passes the validation stage then it's time to make a decision on whether the idea should be delivered. This decision is based around how complex the solution is, whether the innovation team believes in the data collected from customers, and whether the idea will offer relatively more benefit than ideas that are on the current road map.
Finally, ideas that pass step 4 move into implementation. The key during implementation is that during the process the metrics that the product idea will be driving are defined. So those metrics are measured, the product is developed, the new performance is measured and the results are passed back to the innovation group.
The Feedback Loop
From experience less than 4% of ideas that are fed into an innovation group reach stage 5. Therefore it is critical that there is a robust feedback and communication loop. Whenever a product idea is rejected, the originator of the idea has to be informed with the reasons why that idea was rejected. Ideas that go through the whole process are communicated and 'shouted about' throughout the organisation, and the originator of the idea is rewarded.
As I mentioned, during future posts, I'll be elaborating on each step and what is involved in creating a robust process for creating a culture of innovation.
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Guerilla Competitive Analysis
Recently I was asked about some competitive analysis tools that I use and which tools are most important when elaborating on product enhancements. My favoured method of competitive analysis is to pose as a buyer of a competitor's tools. Typically what I'd do is chose a competitor who's product is currently most like where I want my product to be (not necessarily the market leader) and then get in contact with them as a potential client.Getting around the logistics
1 - Most sales people will immediately offer to come and visit your premises to discuss the product further. This is the best way but is only really practical if you have a department that could feasibly use the product they are offering.
2 - If you prefer you can offer to visit them at their premises. This is really useful, because there are additional resources the sales person can call upon as and when questions arise.
3 - Alternatively you can request a remote demonstration which most companies are now able to do with Webex or something similar
What are the benefits
1 - The key benefit is that your competitor has already gone through the elaboration phase of their product so you can see what your product is going to look like
2 - It also enables to you identify gaps in the product that is being demonstrated which allows you to find a niche where your product can excel
3 - You also get the opportunity to ask what is on their product road map, so not only what your product has to compete with now, but what it has to compete with in the future
A few risks to be aware of
1 - Don't copy bad products - You have to be aware that although the sales person will sell the product very effectively, it may not in itself meet the customer needs
2 - There's no substitute for customer interaction - This method can only help to guide you as to what your competitor is doing. You still have to validate your product road map with your customers
3 - Don't do it too often - If you do this with every competitor, then soon enough they'll start to catch on. Don't be fooled into believing competitors don't talk, they do!
A final word about ethics: There has to be a line of judgement which some product managers will not cross. Personally I have no problem using this method of competitive analysis, because I feel it is in the best interests of the product, and ultimately in the best interests of the customer. You do however have to be aware of any Copyright infringements that you may breach in building your ultimate product.
Reality TV Shows and Product Management
I read this great post on "American Idol and New Product Development" at the OnProductmanagement blog (well worth a read for any budding PM's). He makes some valid points around the potential success or otherwise of product launches and how in essence an American Idol winner is a product who's success or failure rate is the same as any product.
As I thought about this concept further, another important analogy came out - Not just from American Idol, but all Reality TV shows and Product Management. Achieving the final product is a process of investigation, confirmation, validate, investigation, confirmation etc etc. As it is with Talent shows. Lets take American Idol as the example and look at all of the 'potential products' that come to audition:
No Hoper's
The show always starts with absolute no hoper's, people who just can't sing, can't dance, have no charisma, and really have no chance of being a successful product. When we think about elaboration phases of product development, we all come across these products. Depending on how well tuned your organisational instinct is, then these are usually dismissed with a collective "NO"
1 voters
At some point before the adverts you get the 1 voters. 2 of the judges hated the act, but one loved him. Now this happens daily to a product manager, and his worth within is role is partly defined by how quickly these products are removed from the collective consciousness of the organisation. The product that is pushed by a single voice, is often the most dangerous, particularly if that voice is senior. However, more often than not, these products don't make the backlog, and even if they do, its a stretch item.
2 voters
In American Idol, it's when you get 2 judges voting to move the product onto the next round and 1 disagreeing that the story becomes interesting. These products are asked to prove themselves. Within product management we go about proving these products by elaborating, doing a proof of concept and discussing with potential users of the product. 2 voters have about as much chance of success as a product as 1 voters, but they are much more time consuming. Product managers have to devise ways to quickly validate or invalidate product ideas to ensure they stay firmly grounded in the strategic aspect of the role.
Unanimous votes
So, after a long day of judging, we get to the end of the show and everyone is tired. An over weight, scruff man walks out, and there is a collective sigh of "oh no". Then he sings and it's as though angels have starting whistling from the rooftops. Shock and awe! A product that has a real chance of succeeding has been found, and the program ends with a crescendo. Now, here's where the Purist Product Manager earns his buck. He has to take this raw, unelaborated product and do numerous things:
1 - He has to calm the company down. He has to explain that all product ideas start like this, all product ideas feel like they will make millions in seconds, but experience has shown us that in fact most do not.
2 - He has to prove that this is the real deal. This product will sell, it will meet a customer need, it will solve a customer problem, it will deliver on its expected revenue targets
3 - He has to engage he target audience, get them excited about the product, get their input, get them to play with the prototypes
After all this is done, as ONPM correctly mentions, the likelihood is that the product will not meet all expectations. It is the job of Product Management to mitigate product risk, by being realistic about a product's potential and ensuring that the end user is put at the heart of the product development at every stage. Now if you're a product manager and you're reading this thinking, "but everyone will hate me if I keep saying no to their ideas" then you should get one thing firmly in your mind - You're not their to be liked. Product Managers are not "Yes" people, they are pragmatic in their approach to delivering products that meet market needs.
As I thought about this concept further, another important analogy came out - Not just from American Idol, but all Reality TV shows and Product Management. Achieving the final product is a process of investigation, confirmation, validate, investigation, confirmation etc etc. As it is with Talent shows. Lets take American Idol as the example and look at all of the 'potential products' that come to audition:
No Hoper's
The show always starts with absolute no hoper's, people who just can't sing, can't dance, have no charisma, and really have no chance of being a successful product. When we think about elaboration phases of product development, we all come across these products. Depending on how well tuned your organisational instinct is, then these are usually dismissed with a collective "NO"
1 voters
At some point before the adverts you get the 1 voters. 2 of the judges hated the act, but one loved him. Now this happens daily to a product manager, and his worth within is role is partly defined by how quickly these products are removed from the collective consciousness of the organisation. The product that is pushed by a single voice, is often the most dangerous, particularly if that voice is senior. However, more often than not, these products don't make the backlog, and even if they do, its a stretch item.
2 voters
In American Idol, it's when you get 2 judges voting to move the product onto the next round and 1 disagreeing that the story becomes interesting. These products are asked to prove themselves. Within product management we go about proving these products by elaborating, doing a proof of concept and discussing with potential users of the product. 2 voters have about as much chance of success as a product as 1 voters, but they are much more time consuming. Product managers have to devise ways to quickly validate or invalidate product ideas to ensure they stay firmly grounded in the strategic aspect of the role.
Unanimous votes
So, after a long day of judging, we get to the end of the show and everyone is tired. An over weight, scruff man walks out, and there is a collective sigh of "oh no". Then he sings and it's as though angels have starting whistling from the rooftops. Shock and awe! A product that has a real chance of succeeding has been found, and the program ends with a crescendo. Now, here's where the Purist Product Manager earns his buck. He has to take this raw, unelaborated product and do numerous things:
1 - He has to calm the company down. He has to explain that all product ideas start like this, all product ideas feel like they will make millions in seconds, but experience has shown us that in fact most do not.
2 - He has to prove that this is the real deal. This product will sell, it will meet a customer need, it will solve a customer problem, it will deliver on its expected revenue targets
3 - He has to engage he target audience, get them excited about the product, get their input, get them to play with the prototypes
After all this is done, as ONPM correctly mentions, the likelihood is that the product will not meet all expectations. It is the job of Product Management to mitigate product risk, by being realistic about a product's potential and ensuring that the end user is put at the heart of the product development at every stage. Now if you're a product manager and you're reading this thinking, "but everyone will hate me if I keep saying no to their ideas" then you should get one thing firmly in your mind - You're not their to be liked. Product Managers are not "Yes" people, they are pragmatic in their approach to delivering products that meet market needs.
In House Usability Team: Priceless
Having spent much of my Product Management career desperately trying to convince superiors the value of usability budgets, to move to a company that has an in house usability team has been somewhat of a welcome shock!
In the Purist Product Management world, we’re building products that solve consumer problems (ala Pragmatic). So the ideal situation is that from inception to launch and beyond the customer is sat with the team developing the solutions. This is clearly impractical. Typically, the Purist Product Manager will spend time with his customers using current tools, and then define the customer problem, and product from this information (as well as competitive analysis, win/loss analysis and so on).
The gap normally occurs when the product is being build and is launched: We need to be able to validate that the product does in fact meet the customer needs both during the build and launch phases. Here’s where usability comes into play. Now, there are hundreds of methodologies and tools that can be used to get a usability review, but from personal experience, there is none more effective than the Focus Group – Typically it’s also the most expensive. So again, the focus group becomes relatively impractical during the build phase of a product, because of the costs involved. In my new company there is an in house usability team. Their job is to fight the customers corner (a battle which should be pretty easy if Purist Product Managers are running the product) during the build phase and organise the Focus Groups prior to launch. A job, which they do extremely well.
3 Reasons usability plans are important
1 – If you’re product is not being continuously evaluated and commented upon by your customers, then the risk of failure is high
2 – The granular level of detail that is required to analyse sales funnels and features that impact usability is so intense, that the typical product manager wouldn’t be able to do it alone
3 – Nobody likes to be told that their product doesn’t solve a market problem, but then again, is it not better to be told by users before the product is launched?
3 things Purist Product Managers should be aware of with usability
1 – Be prepared to be told you’re wrong. The only reason you do usability is to know how to make your product better
2 – Don’t dismiss the results as irrelevant: Otherwise why do usability in the first place? The customer is always right
3 – Build into your release and sprint budgets time to re-work your product based on usability feedback. This is particularly important when running a project with a fixed budget.
Re-working product inception presentations: £250
Re-defining release plans: £500
Re-building functionality: £9,500
Scrapping a product because it doesn’t meet the customers need: £36,000
In house usability team: PRICELESS
In the Purist Product Management world, we’re building products that solve consumer problems (ala Pragmatic). So the ideal situation is that from inception to launch and beyond the customer is sat with the team developing the solutions. This is clearly impractical. Typically, the Purist Product Manager will spend time with his customers using current tools, and then define the customer problem, and product from this information (as well as competitive analysis, win/loss analysis and so on).
The gap normally occurs when the product is being build and is launched: We need to be able to validate that the product does in fact meet the customer needs both during the build and launch phases. Here’s where usability comes into play. Now, there are hundreds of methodologies and tools that can be used to get a usability review, but from personal experience, there is none more effective than the Focus Group – Typically it’s also the most expensive. So again, the focus group becomes relatively impractical during the build phase of a product, because of the costs involved. In my new company there is an in house usability team. Their job is to fight the customers corner (a battle which should be pretty easy if Purist Product Managers are running the product) during the build phase and organise the Focus Groups prior to launch. A job, which they do extremely well.
3 Reasons usability plans are important
1 – If you’re product is not being continuously evaluated and commented upon by your customers, then the risk of failure is high
2 – The granular level of detail that is required to analyse sales funnels and features that impact usability is so intense, that the typical product manager wouldn’t be able to do it alone
3 – Nobody likes to be told that their product doesn’t solve a market problem, but then again, is it not better to be told by users before the product is launched?
3 things Purist Product Managers should be aware of with usability
1 – Be prepared to be told you’re wrong. The only reason you do usability is to know how to make your product better
2 – Don’t dismiss the results as irrelevant: Otherwise why do usability in the first place? The customer is always right
3 – Build into your release and sprint budgets time to re-work your product based on usability feedback. This is particularly important when running a project with a fixed budget.
Re-working product inception presentations: £250
Re-defining release plans: £500
Re-building functionality: £9,500
Scrapping a product because it doesn’t meet the customers need: £36,000
In house usability team: PRICELESS
What Product Managers Can Learn From MP's Expenses
So aside from the obvious: Be transparent in what you spend, there is another important lesson for product managers in the MP's expenses story. The lesson is actually not in the story but how the story was released. The Telegraph, who released the story, managed to dominate the headlines of every newspaper in the land for nearly 3 weeks - a feat which is extremely rare. If we consider the MP's expenses story as a product, then we can see how they managed to do this. They were able to:1 - Beat their competitors by releasing earlier and better: MP's had already agreed to release their expenses information under the freedom of information act. However, part of this release was not going to include their address information. The Telegraph, by means only known to them, got hold of the complete report, including address information, and began let the world know that they had this information. There were at least 3 days in the public consciousness where we knew this information would come out, and our collective 'id' couldn't wait to see every sordid detail.
2 - Incrementally release the product: However, we didn't see every sordid detail at once. The Telegraph masterfully released their product incrementally. Each increment was more surprising than the last; their product got better and better each day. Just as we all thought the saga was coming to an end, they released even more of their product. By taking this approach they were able to dominate front pages for nearly a month.
3 - Manage the product's death by releasing a new product in it's stead: Ultimately, they'd exhausted the product and all of the information was in the public domain. However, with absolute calculation, they had been able to create a new product. By timing their releases with local and European elections and a cabinet re-shuffle, they'd managed to create a product which not only they controlled, but the entire British nation contributed to. And the product name? National Election Now!
Purist Product Managers can learn from this and other outstanding product launches (iPod is the perfect example). If the aim is to dominate a market for a period of time, then there are some key steps which need to be taken:
- Create an atmosphere of excitement before the product launch
- Launch a product that can beat, but not annihilate your competitors
- Incrementally release IMPROVEMENTS to your products (if you're not making improvements, then all your efforts have gone to waste)
- Make sure you have a plan to replace your product with something bigger and better
Short On Funds High On Requirements
I recently did some consultancy for a small business who, with a relatively tiny budget, wanted to create a consumer focused website for their own consulting firm. In this situation, the Purist Product Manager has to think innovativly. The key was to be able to create a brand identity that both represented the organisational culture, as well as communicated the companies core compitencies. To achieve this goal I used 99designs.com. It's old hat now, but the majority of companies using 99designs are startups or SME's. I argue that being short on funds but high on user centric design requirements is a problem not only facing SME's but facing all companies. The internal costs for creating mock-ups can be huge, and the external market is competitive but nontheless not nearly as cost effective as 99designs can be.
When to use 99desgins:
1 - If you have ambiguous requirements and not really sure what kind of designs you need
2 - If you have limited funds but need lots of options to choose from
3 - If you have small or medium size projects (if you're looking for email templates, website design and corporate identity, then you're best off seeking a firm to partner with)
When not to use 99designs:
1 - If you want to keep the design and CSS creation within the same firm
2 - If you plan to make multiple changes in a short space of time
3 - If you require flexible branding that can be used in multple location or for multiple companies
Overall I'd recommend 99designs for any small projects and for any size of organisation. In fact, I do recommend it in my current company.
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