Product management brass tacks: What are you measuring?
Product management brass tacks: What are you measuring?
Published on June 17, 2022
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I’ve worked with a lot of companies, with a focus on … drumroll … growth. That growth usually comes from reigniting existing brands (incremental growth) or creating new ones (exponential growth).
As I’ve shifted from a traditional waterfall mindset to agile principles, I’ve noticed it’s really easy to fall back into traditional ways of thinking. My friend Brad Swanson from Agility 11 calls it Dark Scrum, as in the Sith way of using the Force instead of the Jedi way.
Now, I don’t think anyone purposely builds evil empires, but Dark Scrum in product development often arises from focusing on the wrong metrics. Here’s a comparison and contrast that might be helpful:
Traditional Metrics:
Active Users. How many users are happily using your product or service?
Customer Retention. How loyal are customers to repeatedly buying?
Net Promoter Score. What percentage would recommend your brand?
Cost to Acquire. How much does it cost to market to and onboard new customers?
Lifetime Value. How much revenue and profit does each customer bring?
Cost to Build. How much did it cost to launch a new product, feature or service?
These are perfectly fine for operations. Without them, your business would be unpredictable and you wouldn’t know the basics.
But they’re terrible metrics for new products or initiatives because they don’t help with understanding customers, i.e., the WHY. Like, “Why are active users declining?” “Why isn’t our NPS higher?” “Why do customers like our brand?” “Will customers use the new feature that we just built and launched?”
Remember: Agile thinking prioritizes individuals and interactions, working software, customer collaboration and responding to change.
That means if we want to move beyond using agile as simply a great software development platform, we have to measure success differently.
I love contrarians because they point out the stupid ineffectiveness of everyday group think. Gurus like Tom Chi and Marty Cagan suggest more important metrics like these for front-end innovation:
Time until value. How long does it take us to find a solution that customers think is important? Often we spend months on developing a new feature without knowing whether anyone cares. This measure drives us to move ideas in front of customers faster.
Key learnings per week. The team that learns fastest wins. If you can’t come up with what you learned, is what you’ve been working on important? This requires real conversations with real people. Avoid speculating. Bring data.
Time to learn. How long does it take between the time you develop a hypothesis to test and the time you observe a real experience with your product?
Moments of delight. How often in a given time period do you see customers go, “Wow!’ along with “This is what I’ve needed!” and “Of course – why didn’t I think of that?” Count these. Make videos and share them.
Experiments per week. How fast can you perform A/B tests (either against the existing feature or two competing new features) and learn what has value and what may not?
These focus on customers, the people we’re actually building stuff for. All the click data you can gather isn’t as important as having conversations with people about what they’re doing and how your product helps them live a better life – perhaps build a better planet.
Aspire for more than good enough.
Go for insanely great.
#innovation #product #management #leadership #agile #metrics
7 Secrets for
Aspiring Young People
7 Secrets for
Aspiring Young People
1. Be nice to everyone. Your reputation means everything, and your primary goal is to learn from others. You may need help someday from someone, so don't burn a bridge.
2. Don't expect anything. Earn it and be grateful. When you do get something for nothing, be exceedingly grateful and consider the balance of what you have given versus what you have received.
3. Be more interested in others than interesting to them. Listen more than speak. Don't demand attention or expect people to feed your need for self-esteem or validation. God loves you and you should love yourself. Let that be enough.
4. Get off your butt and work. You'll have to start at the bottom and prove yourself. Don't complain about not making enough money -- either work more hours or put yourself in a position to earn more hourly. If you feel you're not getting ahead, look at yourself in the mirror and ask yourself, "Am I practicing self-discipline and doing my best?" Adjust accordingly.
5. Strive for excellence. Be the best at whatever you do. This includes menial work and taking care of your own stuff. Clean the toilet better than anyone else. Respect yourself and keep your place clean and orderly. If you don't know how to do something, ask someone who does or just look it up on YouTube. Go to bed early and get up early. Successful people don't stay up until 3a.
6. Keep your spending footprint small and your saving footprint large. If you spend everything you make, you'll have nothing. Stop watching videos and playing games. Stop going out with your friends every night. Read #4 again.
7. Realize that there's only one reason to work for someone else: to learn enough to be your own boss and have others work for you. Don't be a slave. Take everything you can from any job you have. Scratch and claw to be independent. Carry no regrets. Dream big.
Copyright 2022 Barry R. McCann. Photo atttribution: Group selfie photo created by javi_indy - www.freepik.com
How's that working for you?
How's that working for you?
Every once in a while, something happens that triggers a flash of insight, one that's kind of no-brainer but seems like it's new again.
Here's one that hit me today .... But I'll start with a story.
A man walked into a car dealership, excited to buy a new car. He'd only had three new cars in his lifetime, and drove each of them until they couldn't run anymore. Unfortunately, those three cars only lasted about 150,000 miles.
Between the new cars, he bought old junkers that could get him through another winter, another year -- however long it took to save for that next new car. He didn't really like these used cars, but he put up with them while he saved for his next shiny new car.
Finally the day had arrived when he had enough saved to get that new car. He walked into the dealership and told the salesperson the model he wanted, every option and color. He also told him his car buying history.
The salesperson patiently listened, and, after the man was finished, he looked at him and said: "Buddy, I really need another sale today, but given what you've told me, I have to convince you that the car you've picked isn't for you. They just don't last."
The man was flabbergasted. He'd been saving for years for this make and model. How could the salesperson not want to sell him this car? Who did he think he was?!
Often we get our minds fixed on what we think need, and we plan a lot of our lives around those decisions. It's hard when someone asks the most basic of questions: "How did that work for you last time?"
We're reluctant to admit that perhaps our criteria and judgment may have not given us very good results. Examples: a career choice that doesn't suit our personality strengths; how we discipline our children; the choices we make about our health; the friends we choose to hang around; the romantic relationships we allow ourselves to fall into ....
Next time I'm thinking about a serious decision, I'm going to ask myself that tough question, "What did I do last time, and how did it work out?"
Maybe I'll think differently.
Maybe I'll choose differently, and get a better outcome.
How about you?
Copyright 2015 Barry R. McCann.
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