Mind This: A Huge Gap for Product Success.
t’s a cold grey wet spring day. It’s uninspiring for sure. But for Oregon, we’re kind of used to it.
Yet, the dreary spring weather is secondary to the work before us. For that, we think of winter, 18 months from now.
That’s right, our functional product team has gathered for a seasonal kickoff session. A key moment in our product creation process.
The outcome: define the product parameters to propel our business and hit our goals a year and a half from today.
What happens next is shocking.
Illustration by atinynut
The product manager places a fresh stack of product briefs on the table. We each excitedly flip through our copies only to realize…
They SUCK. Each can be summarized as “making something cool, iconic, and disruptive—for an active runner.”
Um, ok, I think. What does iconic mean? How can I measure success? Active runner? What the hell is that? How can we relate to a customer that, as defined, could be anyone?
Sadly, I’ve seen this scenario over and over. And it creates a huge gap for business success.
This gap is seen in the form of:
Bad briefs leading to poor stakeholder alignment
Missing or under-defined customer problems
Vague or non-existent insights
Solutions looking for a problem
But why should you care?
Change is here. The last decade’s tech revolution has leveled the playing field for premium businesses,erasing the advantage that once allowed some brands to demand higher margins and prices.
The barriers to entry are leveled too. Any company, no matter the size, can challenge the giants. Thanks to accessible, advanced techniques in manufacturing, your need to access huge factories diminishes. Hell, you can literally print a shoe!
And there’s AI. Which is not just about automation; it’s about ideas, data synthesis, and sifting through insights that were once beyond our reach.
The paradox, to differentiate we must close the clarity gap.
We need new frameworks for ensuring clarity, cohesion, and efficiency.
In today’s scenario, I reworked the briefs using a human-centered process. Which provided:
– Clarity on the problem
– Buy-in for stakeholders
– A roadmap for our integrated development
Illustration by Stan Smeets
When we invest in the process to find the needs of users, we inform a useful product brief (or agreement) that serves as a benchmark for team success.
There’s still a lot to unpack. But, simply put, let’s invest our time, energy, and resources in the few things that make a difference—to us, our customers, and our planet.
Whatever we do, let’s infuse it with care, with generosity, with empathy.
Mind the gap. A human-centered approach can clear it.