It’s A Long Winding Road When Building A Great Product

A Product teams primary focus is to build a product that solves its user’s most significant problems, which also generates a successful and repeatable business model. To develop a great product you first need to know where you are, where you want to get to, and how you’ll go about getting there. If these are unknown, you’ll end up driving off a cliff.

Imagine driving on a scenic high mountain road. Beautiful, breathtaking views. Fun to drive on. But they are not for the faint of heart. You have to pay close attention to your speed, regularly wipe the sweat from your brow, and loosen your grip on the wheel to allow blood to flow. You want the drive to be over. But wait, aren’t we suppose to enjoy this ride? Isn’t our goal to reach the summit and take in the stunning views along the way?

There are no shortcuts to that view at the top of the mountain. The same goes for building a great product, it’s a long winding road, and you need to pay attention not to drive off a cliff.

• Where are we going and what mountain should we climb? Everything starts with a clear Vision and Strategy; it’s your North Star. You need to know what direction your company is going in for the next several years and understand why.
• There are many roads we can travel to the summit, but which way should we venture first? Understand where you currently are. You have a Vision, now figure out how to reach it. Dig deep into your current user flows and identify the areas you can have the most significant impact. Start simple and expand, Pirate Metrics are a great place to start.
• You want to reach the top but first focus on the road in front of you. Once you have identified where you want to focus and improve, set your goals. Loop back to the Vision for where you want to be in several years and compare that to the current state. Break the difference into phases and set your immediate goal.
• Stop to take photos and hear from others about what they experienced and saw on their travels. Talk to your users! Get a better understanding of why they decided to start using your product, how they are using it, and why they might have stopped using it. Listen to them, learn from them, understand them, and empathize!
• Don’t journey alone. Adventures are more fun with friends! Brainstorm and evaluate ideas as a team. Use your immediate goal as guardrails for the discussions. Source ideas from everyone that understands the goal and problem space. Pursue the ideas that make sense and help achieve your goal, push back on the ones that don’t.
• Be adventurous, use that four-wheel drive and experiment taking the road less traveled. Take the top ideas and release them rapidly through experiments and validated learning. Measure how well each makes progress towards your goal and the Vision. Again, talk to and learn from your users as they use them, even if they are not using them.
• Found an idea that made significant progress towards your goal and resonated with your users? Excellent, you’ve reached the first of many peaks! Take your learnings and continue to iterate on that idea or pursue the next. You need to keep working towards your goal and Vision; there are many mountains to go up.

It can be a long drive, longer than you may expect, yet it will be worth it. There are no shortcuts to the top. Some roads you travel on won’t be the right ones. You will experience a lot of missed turns, speed bumps, and other hazards. Take all the time you need to learn along the way and take in the views. Building great product is an adventure in fun!

Hello, World! Thank you for reading my first post on Medium. One of my goals for 2018 is to share my thoughts more, to get them out of my head and on to paper. I want to continue to both learn and share some great views on User Research, Product Management, Design and being more mindful. Help me grow and learn by starting conversations, let me know what you think and want to learn/hear a bit more. Happy New Year!

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