Key Insights
1. Focus on Outcomes, Not Outputs
Modern product development is about achieving real results by solving customer problems and meeting business goals, rather than just delivering features.
2. Develop Well-Functioning Teams
Success hinges on building teams that collaborate effectively and enjoy their work. Ensure each team includes Product Management, Design, and Tech expertise.
But this is usually much easier said than done, right? So let's take a look at how to achieve this not just in theory, but also in practice.
Areas to Focus On
1. Collaborative Team Dynamics
Cultivate teams that work well together and have fun. A balanced team with competencies in Product Management, Design, and Tech is crucial. Successfully building and nurturing these types of teams will reduce the need for unnecessary processes and admin, which is vital for scalability of your product organisation.
And here is where Alexander Danson's first hand experience comes into place. He said: “On a number of occasions we’ve seen examples where the number of people managing the process and handling the admin outnumber the number of people delivering direct value to the customers. You should aim to invert this ratio as soon as you re-evaluate your teams and notice this pattern in your business.”
2. Engage with Users
Regular, direct interaction with users is essential to understand their needs and validate solutions. Being aligned with the needs of customers is the most effective way to achieve competitive advantage.
Johannes Alvarsson also shares his first hand experience on this matter, saying: “Regular interactions with users gives the team first-hand information. This is not a solo mission; design, tech and product are all present when interacting with users resulting in alignment. And this means no solo user advocate, but a whole team of users advocates! This is crucial to get informed about the user's situation and get real value in the work we do.”.
3. Meaningful Metrics
Identify key metrics that your product team can measure and influence. These metrics should be significant to the business and actionable by your team. Ensuring your product team’s goals are aligned with the organisation’s goals will help you to successfully attain long term ROI.
Alexander Danson shared his first hand experience here: “When I was working with a team focused on decreasing unnecessary calls to customer service, they were measuring adoption rates of self-service tools as their product team metrics. They linked this product goal to the business outcome of a higher percentage of calls answered within the SLA. Customer service was at capacity so the total number of answered calls was constant, so a higher percentage of answered calls meant a lower number of incoming calls in total. Eventually, the company was able to reduce costs whilst ensuring all customers got the help they needed, maintaining customer satisfaction. What we saw was that not only did engagement and productivity in the team go through the roof, but the team was getting a lot of attention from the organisation as a whole due to demonstrating how their product development was linked to strategic business outcomes in this way. This led to further open communication and collaboration beyond the team’s borders, as well as a ripple effect on other teams who began to take a similar approach.”
Practical Improvements You Can Implement Today
1. Involve Tech Early
Bring technical team members into early discussions about what to build. Leverage their problem-solving capabilities from the start.
2. Start User Interactions
Initiate regular user interactions. Aim for at least one user interview per week involving multiple team members.
Johannes Alvarsson suggests: “A great starting point is to engage with users through interviews. Don’t wait for ‘the perfect moment’ – decide what you want to learn and start simple. Avoid suggestions or comparisons of suggestions when conversing with users. Instead, practise asking open-ended questions in the area you’ve decided you want to explore. Bring a variation of multiple team members when interacting with users so that the whole team gets first hand information.”.
3. Define and Measure Key Metrics
Choose a meaningful metric for your team to focus on. Track its progress and understand how your work impacts this metric.
Alexander Danson suggestions: “A common mistake I’ve seen is taking a metric that is impacted by too many things, ie. it’s too broad and there’s no way to trace it back to the impact of your team’s efforts, or something that is too trivial for people in the business to care about. You’re looking for a metric that represents a change in user behaviour which we can then link to a broader business outcome. A good example in an e-commerce setting is trying to increase the number of customers choosing to log-in in the checkout, based on the assumption that your company has seen a higher conversion rate for customers who choose to log-in. The product team’s metric would be the number or proportion of customers choosing to log-in, and it would be linked to the broader business outcome of fewer checkout drop-offs or higher conversion rates.”
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Expert Insights
Alexander Danson, Product Manager at tretton37, emphasised:
"It's about solving business problems and meeting real customer needs, not just about delivering features."
David Preutz, Full Stack Developer at tretton37, highlighted:
"Involve the entire team in problem-solving. Developers are natural problem solvers and should be part of these discussions from the beginning."
Johannes Alvarsson, Lead Product Designer at tretton37, shared:
"Having fun together and being aligned on goals are crucial. Teams that enjoy their work and understand their purpose are more productive."
Conclusion
Product development doesn’t have to be a daunting, complex process.
By adopting practical, agile approaches and focusing on real customer problems, developing well-functioning teams, and engaging in meaningful user interactions, you can achieve tangible results.
Simplifying product development is not only possible but also essential for your business’s success.
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