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Banking 2.0 - Why CPOs Matter?

Prioritisation frameworks and roadmapping

<div class="">This post is based on <a class="ay hk" href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Loved-Rethink-Marketing-Products-Silicon/dp/1119703646" target="_blank" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" data-mce-href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Loved-Rethink-Marketing-Products-Silicon/dp/1119703646" style="font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-size: 18px;">Loved</a>, by Martina Lauchengco, with my personal comments and examples. </div><div class=""> </div><figure class="zv zw zx zy zz xz mf mg paragraph-image"><div class="aba abb by abc bm abd" role="button" data-mce-tabindex="0"><div class="mf mg akl"><picture><source srcset="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:640/format:webp/1*PIQVaU4yJLRlTxomq3yDCw.png 640w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:720/format:webp/1*PIQVaU4yJLRlTxomq3yDCw.png 720w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:750/format:webp/1*PIQVaU4yJLRlTxomq3yDCw.png 750w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:786/format:webp/1*PIQVaU4yJLRlTxomq3yDCw.png 786w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:828/format:webp/1*PIQVaU4yJLRlTxomq3yDCw.png 828w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1100/format:webp/1*PIQVaU4yJLRlTxomq3yDCw.png 1100w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1400/format:webp/1*PIQVaU4yJLRlTxomq3yDCw.png 1400w" type="image/webp" sizes="(min-resolution: 4dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 4) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (min-resolution: 3dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 67vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 3) and (max-width: 700px) 65vw, (min-resolution: 2.5dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2.5) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (min-resolution: 2dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px"><source srcset="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:640/1*PIQVaU4yJLRlTxomq3yDCw.png 640w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:720/1*PIQVaU4yJLRlTxomq3yDCw.png 720w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:750/1*PIQVaU4yJLRlTxomq3yDCw.png 750w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:786/1*PIQVaU4yJLRlTxomq3yDCw.png 786w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:828/1*PIQVaU4yJLRlTxomq3yDCw.png 828w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1100/1*PIQVaU4yJLRlTxomq3yDCw.png 1100w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1400/1*PIQVaU4yJLRlTxomq3yDCw.png 1400w" sizes="(min-resolution: 4dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 4) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (min-resolution: 3dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 67vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 3) and (max-width: 700px) 65vw, (min-resolution: 2.5dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2.5) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (min-resolution: 2dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" data-testid="og"><img class="bm ya yb c" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:700/1*PIQVaU4yJLRlTxomq3yDCw.png" alt="" width="700" height="468" loading="eager" data-mce-src="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:700/1*PIQVaU4yJLRlTxomq3yDCw.png"></picture></div></div><figcaption class="akm ju akn mf mg ako akp al b bl ag ai" data-selectable-paragraph=""></figcaption>The&nbsp;Product Marketer&nbsp;role is an essential part of digital product development. The Product Marketer works hand in hand with the Product Manager in building, growing, and maintaining the product.</figure>While the product&nbsp;manager&nbsp;focuses primarily on the&nbsp;product&nbsp;side of the equation, the product&nbsp;marketer&nbsp;focuses primarily on the&nbsp;market&nbsp;side, including the go-to-market strategy and product growth after the product launch.Product Marketer should be able to carry multiple hats:Ambassador: Connect customer and market insights.&nbsp;Providing market and customer insight into your Product team is your fundamental expertise.Strategist: Direct your product’s go-to market.&nbsp;Defining a clear product go-to-market plan with a strategy that aligns directly with business goals.Storyteller: shape how the world thinks about your product.&nbsp;Positioning is the place product occupies in people’s minds. It sets a context in which a product’s value becomes clear. Smart product-related messaging helps to remind a user at exactly the right time about the product's value.Evangelist: Enable others to tell the story.&nbsp;The range of work to make this happen includes providing sales and customer support teams with the right messages and tools to make them sound like genuine product advocates. Evangelist also means finding the most meaningful influencers that move your market and inspiring them with stories and evidence so they advocate for your product.The most common mistake in product marketing, that I have witnessed, is when all the product marketing activities are ending with product launch press releases and Storyteller and Evangelist roles are forgotten or left unattended.The product Marketer is responsible for answering fundamental questions essential for a product’s eventual success:<ul class=""><li id="0512" class="yc yd ud nw b ye yf yg yh yi yj yk yl za ym yn yo zb yp yq yr zc ys yt yu yv zd ze zf bp" data-selectable-paragraph="">Determining the best ways to reach the targeted customer</li><li id="cb1c" class="yc yd ud nw b ye zg yg yh yi zh yk yl za zi yn yo zb zj yq yr zc zk yt yu yv zd ze zf bp" data-selectable-paragraph="">How and when the customer will be able to learn your product exists</li><li id="bc5c" class="yc yd ud nw b ye zg yg yh yi zh yk yl za zi yn yo zb zj yq yr zc zk yt yu yv zd ze zf bp" data-selectable-paragraph="">How to position your product so that the customer knows how to think about your product</li><li id="acb1" class="yc yd ud nw b ye zg yg yh yi zh yk yl za zi yn yo zb zj yq yr zc zk yt yu yv zd ze zf bp" data-selectable-paragraph="">How to message the value so that it resonates with the customer’s underlying needs</li><li id="cade" class="yc yd ud nw b ye zg yg yh yi zh yk yl za zi yn yo zb zj yq yr zc zk yt yu yv zd ze zf bp" data-selectable-paragraph="">How the customer can evaluate your product</li><li id="faf0" class="yc yd ud nw b ye zg yg yh yi zh yk yl za zi yn yo zb zj yq yr zc zk yt yu yv zd ze zf bp" data-selectable-paragraph="">How the customer will make a buying decision</li><li id="6483" class="yc yd ud nw b ye zg yg yh yi zh yk yl za zi yn yo zb zj yq yr zc zk yt yu yv zd ze zf bp" data-selectable-paragraph="">If the customer loves your product, how they can tell their friends and colleagues how much they love it</li></ul><h3 id="11a4" class="zl zm ud al zn mw zo mx na nb zp nc nf ng zq nh nk nl zr nm np nq zs nr nu zt bp">To summarize</h3>It is a lot of literature written on Go-to-market product marketing strategies, but very few on how to achieve growth for existing products.The Product Marketer is often a missing piece in why excellent products never hit the market — clients just do not know about them and all the benefits from Product-led growth are left undiscovered.Try to get such an expert onboarded to your Product Team and you will be amazed at how focused product communication can help your existing product to grow.<h3 id="d471" class="zl zm ud al zn mw zo mx na nb zp nc nf ng zq nh nk nl zr nm np nq zs nr nu zt bp">P.S.</h3>And here is one great article about product marketing&nbsp;<a class="ay hk" href="https://ahrefs.com/blog/product-marketing/" target="_blank" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" data-mce-href="https://ahrefs.com/blog/product-marketing/">https://ahrefs.com/blog/product-marketing/</a>

Why product team needs a product marketer?

This post is based on&nbsp;<a class="ay hk" href="https://www.amazon.de/-/en/Marty-Cagan/dp/1119387507/" target="_blank" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" data-mce-href="https://www.amazon.de/-/en/Marty-Cagan/dp/1119387507/">Inspired</a>, by Marty Cagan, with my personal comments and examples.<figure class="zv zw zx zy zz xz mf mg paragraph-image"><div class="aba abb by abc bm abd" role="button" data-mce-tabindex="0"><div class="mf mg akq"><picture><source srcset="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:640/format:webp/1*0XB-lAUdJJWT6LqAOaV5AA.png 640w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:720/format:webp/1*0XB-lAUdJJWT6LqAOaV5AA.png 720w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:750/format:webp/1*0XB-lAUdJJWT6LqAOaV5AA.png 750w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:786/format:webp/1*0XB-lAUdJJWT6LqAOaV5AA.png 786w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:828/format:webp/1*0XB-lAUdJJWT6LqAOaV5AA.png 828w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1100/format:webp/1*0XB-lAUdJJWT6LqAOaV5AA.png 1100w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1400/format:webp/1*0XB-lAUdJJWT6LqAOaV5AA.png 1400w" type="image/webp" sizes="(min-resolution: 4dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 4) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (min-resolution: 3dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 67vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 3) and (max-width: 700px) 65vw, (min-resolution: 2.5dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2.5) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (min-resolution: 2dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px"><source srcset="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:640/1*0XB-lAUdJJWT6LqAOaV5AA.png 640w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:720/1*0XB-lAUdJJWT6LqAOaV5AA.png 720w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:750/1*0XB-lAUdJJWT6LqAOaV5AA.png 750w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:786/1*0XB-lAUdJJWT6LqAOaV5AA.png 786w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:828/1*0XB-lAUdJJWT6LqAOaV5AA.png 828w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1100/1*0XB-lAUdJJWT6LqAOaV5AA.png 1100w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1400/1*0XB-lAUdJJWT6LqAOaV5AA.png 1400w" sizes="(min-resolution: 4dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 4) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (min-resolution: 3dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 67vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 3) and (max-width: 700px) 65vw, (min-resolution: 2.5dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2.5) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (min-resolution: 2dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" data-testid="og"><img class="bm ya yb c" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:700/1*0XB-lAUdJJWT6LqAOaV5AA.png" alt="" width="700" height="224" loading="eager" data-mce-src="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:700/1*0XB-lAUdJJWT6LqAOaV5AA.png"></picture></div></div></figure>One of the essential skills (you can read more on PM skills&nbsp;<a class="ay hk" href="https://medium.com/@olgalustsik_70181/productpower008-pm-skillset-754377e5face" rel="noopener" data-mce-href="https://medium.com/@olgalustsik_70181/productpower008-pm-skillset-754377e5face">here</a>) of a Product Manager is to know and use various&nbsp;product discovery testing techniques&nbsp;in order to evaluate and assess&nbsp;4 primary risks.&nbsp;The product&nbsp;discovery phase is conducted&nbsp;before&nbsp;any actual development will start. The risks I am talking about are the following:<ul class=""><li id="78da" class="yc yd ud nw b ye yf yg yh yi yj yk yl za ym yn yo zb yp yq yr zc ys yt yu yv zd ze zf bp" data-selectable-paragraph="">usability&nbsp;risk — can the user figure out how to use this?</li><li id="8f3a" class="yc yd ud nw b ye zg yg yh yi zh yk yl za zi yn yo zb zj yq yr zc zk yt yu yv zd ze zf bp" data-selectable-paragraph="">value&nbsp;risk — will the user or customer choose to use or buy this?</li><li id="4e00" class="yc yd ud nw b ye zg yg yh yi zh yk yl za zi yn yo zb zj yq yr zc zk yt yu yv zd ze zf bp" data-selectable-paragraph="">feasibility&nbsp;risk — can we build this?</li><li id="4a24" class="yc yd ud nw b ye zg yg yh yi zh yk yl za zi yn yo zb zj yq yr zc zk yt yu yv zd ze zf bp" data-selectable-paragraph="">viability&nbsp;risk — is this solution viable for our business?</li></ul>"Product discovery is a technique that is used to quickly separate the good ideas from the bad as we work to try to solve the business problems assigned to us". Marty Cagan<h3 id="6e13" class="alb zm ud al zn aht alc ahu na ahw ald ahx nf ajm ale ajn ajo ajp alf ajq ajr ajs alg ajt aju alh bp">Usability testing</h3>This technique is the oldest one and have been existing for many years.There are a lot of online tools that can help you to facilitate these tests (for example&nbsp;<a class="ay hk" href="https://www.usertesting.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" data-mce-href="https://www.usertesting.com/">usertesting.com</a>), or you can do all the user test phases yourself.In order to run a user test, you need:<ol class=""><li id="ee07" class="yc yd ud nw b ye yf yg yh yi yj yk yl za ym yn yo zb yp yq yr zc ys yt yu yv ali ze zf bp" data-selectable-paragraph="">Audience&nbsp;— you have to recruit users to participate in the testing. You can use your dataset of existing users, you can advertise participation in social media, you can find users in professional events/conferences, or you can use online platforms that already have an audience, from which you can pick a user target profile that you need.</li><li id="644c" class="yc yd ud nw b ye zg yg yh yi zh yk yl za zi yn yo zb zj yq yr zc zk yt yu yv ali ze zf bp" data-selectable-paragraph="">Prepare&nbsp;the test — you can ask users to test feature that is already available online, or you can ask users to test a high-fidelity prototype. For both cases you have to prepare a set of tasks, that you want a user to test — a flow, a usecase, or some set of questions to be answered/found.</li><li id="701f" class="yc yd ud nw b ye zg yg yh yi zh yk yl za zi yn yo zb zj yq yr zc zk yt yu yv ali ze zf bp" data-selectable-paragraph="">Performing&nbsp;the test — test can be done onsite, or online via video. You would like to see a screen of a user — how he navigates on that, where he clicks, how he scrolls. The user should also make oral comments on what he sees, what he expects to see, and what is his reaction and thoughts. There are three important cases you are looking for: (1) the user got through the task with no problem at all and no help; (2) the user struggled and moaned a bit, but eventually got through it;(3) he got so frustrated he gave up.</li><li id="2757" class="yc yd ud nw b ye zg yg yh yi zh yk yl za zi yn yo zb zj yq yr zc zk yt yu yv ali ze zf bp" data-selectable-paragraph="">Participating&nbsp;in the test — it is important that the Product Manager, designer, and engineer from the team — all of them will participate in user interviews.&nbsp;The magic often happens when engineer is present, so I also encourage that participation whenever possible. I remember the tests that we were performing with my product team and how frustrated the engineer once was — he was so angry at the customer who did not understand the navigation and was clicking on the wrong button over and over again. After the second user fell into the same loop, the engineer got the point —&nbsp;if the flow was logical only to the engineer, and not to the user, then there is something wrong with flow logic :)</li><li id="4335" class="yc yd ud nw b ye zg yg yh yi zh yk yl za zi yn yo zb zj yq yr zc zk yt yu yv ali ze zf bp" data-selectable-paragraph="">Summarize&nbsp;the test — after the tests are done, some summary should be written down, including the hypothesis, link to the object under test, size of the user group, and findings from the exercise. It is great is this summary will be shared with another part of the product team and with other product teams —&nbsp;the more we know how our customer behaves,&nbsp;the better we build&nbsp;different aspects of our product.</li></ol><h3 id="d23e" class="alb zm ud al zn aht alc ahu na ahw ald ahx nf ajm alj ajn ajo ajp alk ajq ajr ajs all ajt aju alh bp">Value Testing</h3>Customers will buy our product only if they perceive real value.Having the same features as our competitors have is not enough for a client to do a switch and become our client. the product should be&nbsp;substantially better&nbsp;in order to motivate clients to take the whole hassle of moving and switching from their old solution.Demand Testing&nbsp;is one of the categories of Value testing. There are some easily implementable techniques to test, is there any actual demand for e new feature, or product, or price plan? Before you will actually be spending time and effort on developing those, try to estimate the demand by&nbsp;fake door demand test (landing page demand test).The idea is that you put a button or menu item into the user experience flow exactly where we believe it should be on the screen. When the user clicks on the button, instead of leading to the new feature/product client will see a special page, that explains the experiment. The explanation will say that company is testing the demand for such feature/product and seeking customers to talk about this. You can also offer clients to sign up and become the first user-testing group of new feature/product in the future.With the proper analytics installed on the explanation page, you will be able to test the demand for feature/product as well as to collect a potential list of usertesting reference group.Qualitative Value Testing&nbsp;is a test that is performed after the user has concluded the user testing of the product flow (described above). The questions should be asked to understand&nbsp;if the user would be willing to pay for a product, even if you have no intention of charging them for it. You can also ask a series of questions to understand if the user would be willing to pay their reputation — how likely they’d be to recommend the product to their friends or on social media.Quantitative Value Testing&nbsp;is all about collecting evidence from a live usage environment for our prototype. The best way to do that is to use discovery A/B testing, where 1% of all users will see instead of regular product flow live-data prototype. Prototype live usage should be closely monitored and measured, in order to draw conclusions based on the hard numeric evidence on how clients feel about the new feature.<h3 id="84ce" class="alb zm ud al zn aht alc ahu na ahw ald ahx nf ajm alj ajn ajo ajp alk ajq ajr ajs all ajt aju alh bp">Feasibility Testing</h3>While assessing feasibility,&nbsp;developers&nbsp;try to answer the questions regarding the&nbsp;complexity of implementation: how the solution should be built? what skills are needed for this? Is there needed architectural changes to be applied? Will the performance be acceptable? Do we have necessary infrastructure to test and run?Technology is evolving very fast — things we did not imagine could be doable 10 years ago, are everyday life now.Another aspect of ever-changing technology is, that engineers have to have tie to learn and investigate new technology. There cannot be sprint-after sprint, task after task without a time to lean, test and discover new versions, new ideas, new technologies.<h3 id="1fac" class="alb zm ud al zn aht alc ahu na ahw ald ahx nf ajm alj ajn ajo ajp alk ajq ajr ajs all ajt aju alh bp">Business Viability Testing</h3>It is not enough for a product to be loved by clients and implementable by engineers.&nbsp;The solution must also work for your business.Building a business is always hard. You must have a business model that’s viable. The costs to produce, market and sell your product must be sufficiently less than the revenue your product generates. You must operate within the laws of the countries you sell in. You must hold up your end of business agreements and partnerships. Your product must fit within the brand promise of your company’s other offerings.<blockquote class="akr">This is what really meant by being the CEO of the product.</blockquote>It is a tendency to forget about future maintenance costs for a product, when testing business viability — the cost of future customer support, regulatory and management reporting, back-office automation of maintenance processes, unhappy customer flows — they all will require a lot of effort, time and money to solve. Unfortunately these expenses are often not taken into account when analysing business viability for a new product of feature.<h3 id="5803" class="alb zm ud al zn aht alc ahu na ahw ald ahx nf ajm alj ajn ajo ajp alk ajq ajr ajs all ajt aju alh bp">Conclusion</h3>Creating new product (that customers see valuable and that bring your company profits) is a hard exercise that need preparation and analyses. It should be always a&nbsp;balance between agile fast movement and deep thorough analyses.&nbsp;I hope you will find it :)

Product Discovery methods

<div class="kq sf ua hm ub"><div class="n p"><div class="cz bm da db dc dd">This post is based on&nbsp;<a class="ay hk" href="https://www.amazon.de/-/en/Marty-Cagan/dp/1119387507/" target="_blank" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" data-mce-href="https://www.amazon.de/-/en/Marty-Cagan/dp/1119387507/">Inspired</a>, by Marty Cagan, with my personal comments and examples.All of you know examples of companies that started as fast-learning and innovative, and after a certain growth phase, innovation reaches the plateau and some kind of&nbsp;grey bureaucracy takes over.&nbsp;From my personal work experience in several such companies, I recall how frustrated I felt when I noticed that the innovation speed was going down and I was not able to influence it anyhow.<figure class="zv zw zx zy zz xz mf mg paragraph-image"><div class="mf mg alw"><picture><source srcset="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:640/format:webp/1*SbZFKz2ug9efXyhjsFlGog.png 640w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:720/format:webp/1*SbZFKz2ug9efXyhjsFlGog.png 720w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:750/format:webp/1*SbZFKz2ug9efXyhjsFlGog.png 750w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:786/format:webp/1*SbZFKz2ug9efXyhjsFlGog.png 786w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:828/format:webp/1*SbZFKz2ug9efXyhjsFlGog.png 828w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1100/format:webp/1*SbZFKz2ug9efXyhjsFlGog.png 1100w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1166/format:webp/1*SbZFKz2ug9efXyhjsFlGog.png 1166w" type="image/webp" sizes="(min-resolution: 4dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 4) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (min-resolution: 3dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 67vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 3) and (max-width: 700px) 65vw, (min-resolution: 2.5dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2.5) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (min-resolution: 2dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 583px"><source srcset="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:640/1*SbZFKz2ug9efXyhjsFlGog.png 640w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:720/1*SbZFKz2ug9efXyhjsFlGog.png 720w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:750/1*SbZFKz2ug9efXyhjsFlGog.png 750w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:786/1*SbZFKz2ug9efXyhjsFlGog.png 786w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:828/1*SbZFKz2ug9efXyhjsFlGog.png 828w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1100/1*SbZFKz2ug9efXyhjsFlGog.png 1100w, https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1166/1*SbZFKz2ug9efXyhjsFlGog.png 1166w" sizes="(min-resolution: 4dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 4) and (max-width: 700px) 50vw, (min-resolution: 3dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 67vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 3) and (max-width: 700px) 65vw, (min-resolution: 2.5dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2.5) and (max-width: 700px) 80vw, (min-resolution: 2dppx) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2) and (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 583px" data-testid="og"><img class="bm ya yb c" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:583/1*SbZFKz2ug9efXyhjsFlGog.png" alt="" width="583" height="343" loading="eager" data-mce-src="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:583/1*SbZFKz2ug9efXyhjsFlGog.png"></picture></div><figcaption class="akm ju akn mf mg ako akp al b bl ag ai" data-selectable-paragraph="">Loss of innovation can be frustrating not only to employees, but to founders and management members as well — they remember well the “old days”, when ideas were booming and flourishing and new things were happening quickly and promptly. </figcaption></figure>We know the examples of successful large organizations, that continuously positively surprise us with innovations in products, in processes, ways of working, and thinking — Amazon, Google, Spotify, Netflix, Figma.<blockquote class="akr">Losing the ability to innovate is absolutely and demonstrably not inevitable.</blockquote>Organizations that lose the ability to innovate at scale are inevitably missing one or more of the following attributes:Customer-centric Culture.&nbsp;Companies that do not have a&nbsp;focus on customers — and frequent and direct contact with them&nbsp;— lose this passion and critical source of inspiration. As I explained&nbsp;<a class="ay hk" href="https://medium.com/@olgalustsik_70181/productpower008-pm-skillset-754377e5face" rel="noopener" data-mce-href="https://medium.com/@olgalustsik_70181/productpower008-pm-skillset-754377e5face">here</a>, Product teams have to spend a lot of effort, skills and focus dealing with understanding their customers by using different channels (UX research, data analyses, direct client contacts, utilizing knowledge from internal customer support teams, etc).<blockquote class="akr">Customers are always beautifully, wonderfully dissatisfied, even when they report being happy and business is great. Even when they don’t yet know it, customers want something better, and your desire to delight customers will drive you to invent on their behalf. Jeff Bezos</blockquote>Compelling Product Vision. By the time companies reach scale, their original product vision is now largely realized, and the team is struggling to understand what’s next. I have written a post on the&nbsp;<a class="ay hk" href="https://medium.com/@olgalustsik_70181/productpower007-product-vision-and-strategy-277f50425529" rel="noopener" data-mce-href="https://medium.com/@olgalustsik_70181/productpower007-product-vision-and-strategy-277f50425529">Product vision</a>, if you are interested to learn in more detail.Focused Product Strategy.&nbsp;One of the surest paths to product failure is to try to please everyone at once. It is a tendency to move towards the&nbsp;Roadmaps&nbsp;that are&nbsp;Features&nbsp;ordered from the business stakeholders and become “Feature&nbsp;teams”, rather than continue getting&nbsp;insights from the customers&nbsp;and continue being a “Empowered&nbsp;Product&nbsp;team”. I will soon write a post on&nbsp;Focus and Prioritization in Product strategy.Strong Product Managers. This is typically a major reason for the lack of product innovation. In smaller companies, the CEO or co-founders usually play PM role, but as a company grows bigger, you will need to have&nbsp;strong and capable product managers&nbsp;(see&nbsp;<a class="ay hk" href="https://medium.com/@olgalustsik_70181/productpower008-pm-skillset-754377e5face" rel="noopener" data-mce-href="https://medium.com/@olgalustsik_70181/productpower008-pm-skillset-754377e5face">PM skillset here</a>). I have seen companies where project managers, sales representatives, and customers support employees were appointed as Product Managers and they were expected to drive efficient and innovative product development from day one. It didn’t happen, I was not surprised. To become a senior PM, you have to have real practice for 3–7 years,&nbsp;it is not a skill you can obtain from a 2-day training course or by reading one book.Stable Product Teams.&nbsp;It takes time for a team to learn and get used to each other, especially if the team is diverse (<a class="ay hk" href="https://medium.com/@olgalustsik_70181/productpower004-why-diversity-matters-c70028fb734a" rel="noopener" data-mce-href="https://medium.com/@olgalustsik_70181/productpower004-why-diversity-matters-c70028fb734a">I have a blogpost on this topic as well</a>). If team members are constantly changing, it can disrupt the team atmosphere and dynamics. There is a big company in Estonia, that has a practice of shuffling their product teams every couple of months. They explain it with a need to share the knowledge between the teams and a need for sharing innovation. I think that it should be a&nbsp;balance there between potential stagnation and constant change-frustration.Engineers in discovery.&nbsp;This is an important key to innovation to have&nbsp;engineers to be involved in the product discovery phase and exposing them directly to customer pain.&nbsp;It can be achieved by involving (at least) a technical lead in the prototyping/discovery stage and customer meetups. This is an interesting topic and I have seen a lot of disbelief regarding this from business stakeholders (these IT guys do not know anything about the business, let them just code), as well as rejection from the dev teams members (just give us ready-made business requirements and we will code them, it is PMs/designer job to meet the clients).<blockquote class="akr">In order to make this happen, company should have a strong product culture, that needs to be nourished and built by a collaboration between CPO and CIO.</blockquote>Corporate Courage.&nbsp;As companies grow bigger, they usually become very risk-averse. As you have more live customers, it is more you can lose if things will go wrong. But the best technology-product companies know that&nbsp;the riskiest strategy of all is to stop taking the risks.&nbsp;You have to move in a smart way, but your mindset should still be willing to disrupt.Empowered Product Teams.&nbsp;As mentioned above, it is a tendency to move from the Empowered Product team into the Feature team, which receives orders from the management and business on what features and projects have to be delivered by a certain due date. It is radically different from the approach when a product team is given a PROBLEM to solve, and their job is to come up with the solution HOW to solve it. The empowered&nbsp;product team combines technology and design to solve real customer problems in a way that met the needs of the business.Product Mindset.&nbsp;In an&nbsp;IT-mindset&nbsp;organization, product teams exist to&nbsp;serve the needs of the business. In&nbsp;product-mindset&nbsp;organizations, the product teams exist to&nbsp;serve the company’s customers&nbsp;in ways that meet the needs of the business. I hope the difference is clear :)Time to Innovate.&nbsp;When your company is big and has a lot of products that need live operational support, it may happen that product teams deal a lot with maintenance tasks aka “keep the lights on” activities, such as dealing with technical debt and fixing bugs. Some of it is normal and healthy, but you have to make sure that it is still room for teams to deal with impactful and harder problems.</div></div></div><div class="n p ait fb lr alx" role="separator"> </div><div class="kq sf ua hm ub"><div class="n p"><div class="cz bm da db dc dd"><h3 id="0397" class="aks akt ud al aku akv alm aln alo alp alq yv ai">To conclude</h3>If you want your company to continue being innovative, do not lose these attributes. If you are a Product Manager, work on attributes that are in your power and try to explain to your management that other attributes need to be taken care of. If you are a CPO yourself — you know already what to do next :)</div></div></div><div class="n p ait fb lr alx" role="separator"> </div><div class="kq sf ua hm ub"><div class="n p"><div class="cz bm da db dc dd">Reference: My favorite books:&nbsp;<a class="ay hk" href="https://www.amazon.de/-/en/Marty-Cagan/dp/1119387507/" target="_blank" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" data-mce-href="https://www.amazon.de/-/en/Marty-Cagan/dp/1119387507/">Inspired</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a class="ay hk" href="https://www.amazon.de/-/en/gp/product/111969129X/" target="_blank" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" data-mce-href="https://www.amazon.de/-/en/gp/product/111969129X/">Empowered</a>, by Marty Cagan.</div></div></div>

Blog

Banking 2.0 - Why CPOs Matter?

Prioritisation frameworks and roadmapping

Why product team needs a product marketer?

Product Discovery methods

Innovation — where are you?

PM skillset