The 54th Edition - On How To Collaborate Better, Defining the Story of Your Value Proposition, Identifying Regrets & the 3-Step Dead-simple Strategy Definition
The 54th Edition - On How To Collaborate Better, Defining the Story of Your Value Proposition, Identifying Regrets & the 3-Step Dead-simple Strategy Definition
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📚 How To Collaborate Better
Before I joined my current team, I was used to doing everything myself, including research, prioritization, CX, and strategy.
Heck, I even jumped into JIRA quite often (not to write tickets, though).
But now, there is a person for every task on my team. There are almost too many people. Work started to feel super slow.
I’m used to working like a kindergartener. I need to know fast if something is going to work, and if not, I’ll discard it. That probably isn’t always the right approach, either.
To these people, my approach felt "childish." We needed "process." We needed a 12-month roadmap. They were high-performing, high-integrity people who were 10 years younger than me but worked like they were 10 years older than me.
Only when we started to get to know each other and understand the roles better did we allow some play into our work.
This quick thread explains what might have been happening: status management.
I hope this helps you and your organisation.
👀 The Best Value Proposition Explainer I’ve Seen In a While
How to create a strong value proposition for your product?
It feels simple, so often we blaze through it with some meme-like summary.
I bet you that if you’re picking up an existing product, you’ll have someone tell you during onboarding what the value prop is. They’ll say it so matter-of-factly that you’ll just take it on, without questioning it.
“Create value for X by doing Y.” Job done, everyone’s happy.
But a value prop is a proposition. You’re proposing it to the market.
You have to hear what the market has to say about it, and let it correct you.
This is a long video (I fast forwarded it to the key part) shows how a story about your market’s pains results in a very deep clarity about the real value you’re proposing to it.
You have to earn this story.
Here are the timestamps:
2:30 Value Proposition overview (1) Definition of proposition (2) Evaluatation of proposition (3) what do you want to Build 4:45 Approach (Problem -> Technology is more efficient) 10:48 4U's 26:35 Qualify the problem: BLAC & white 42:40 Mike Troiano - Discontinuous Innovations 57:55 Ash Ashutosh's approach to Value Proposition (Actifo)
✍️ Remember
“Focus on directions rather than destinations. Who knows their destiny? But maintain the right direction and you’ll arrive at where you want to go.”
"If you don’t get everything you want, think of the things you don’t get that you don’t want."
🧠 Consider
Jack Welch’s 3-Step Process For a Dead-Simple Yet Coherent Strategy:
Identifying Regrets: Here’s a simple activity. Look back at your last year’s-worth of work. Ask yourself (and the people you work with): what do you feel we’ve done “too much” of? Then, ask: what do we do “too little” of? These things are the setup for current/future regrets. Now, work to rebalance.
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Who's George?
I’m an underdog product manager.
In New Zealand, where I live, product management is still a fairly young field. I also came into it late via data science and UX. Even though I'm older than some people, I often feel like a beginner.
To become better at my craft, I learn and explore new ideas every week.
Then, on Sunday, I give you good, tried-and-true ideas to use on Monday.
How I can help you:
If you're a cross-functional leader learning about product management, I've put together my best actionable finds here: prodmgmt.world.
Get some direct advice via prodmgmt.help. Other people ask how to set priorities, how to do market validation, how to work with engineers, how to go from a service to a product, how to make a deep, coherent product strategy, and what books to read and courses to take on product topics.
See you next week.
— George.