The Better Business Analysis Institute presence, the Better
Business Analysis podcast with Benjamin Walsh.
Hi everybody and welcome back to the Better Business Analysis
podcast with your host, Benjamin Walsh.
This week we continue on our BA Byte series because you like
them. We're, we are breaking down
important concepts for business analysts, product managers,
project managers and all your project professionals out there
in short actionable bites. Today we are diving specifically
into an area that I was pointed to a few weeks ago by a friend
who's actually a product manager and that topic is called radical
product thinking. And what is that?
That's a structured way to set a bold, purposeful vision for your
product. So specifically, we're going to
be talking about vision setting, and that's what the course was
about. But this actually forms a
larger, larger kind of framework for thinking about building
products and the general sense of products.
So instead of focusing on incremental product improvements
or letting the market feedback steer you off course, this
approach helps you craft a vision that shapes your product
and ensures that you are solving meaningful problems for people
that actually want to use your product.
We'll be using the radical vision template.
OK, it's a worksheet to walk through the steps that you need
to set a clear vision for your product.
And I've already applied this to our huge program of work.
So this is when you think about product, it doesn't necessarily
need to be a, you know, a product or an intangible
service. It could just simply be a vision
for your program. So by the end of this podcast
today, you'll know how to create a vision, a radical product
vision or just a radical vision that can align your entire team
around a long term impactful strategy.
So let's jump right in to radical vision template and
break it down step by step. And this template, you can do
the course. I'm, you know, I'm not promoting
it. I don't get any monetary value.
I just think it's a, a great learning that I've add to, I've
added to my BA toolkit here. And I think you can, if you're
ABA or, or you're a project manager or a product manager,
add this to your toolkit. It's a really good way of
setting vision. So imagine this as a PowerPoint
presentation, a Word template that you're breaking down, and
we're going to go step by step through the sections, OK?
You start your vision statement with a simple sentence and it
starts with today when and then you outline the customer segment
that you're talking about. And when I say customer segment,
I'm talking about the specific customer that you are focusing
on. OK, when you start off, you
might not be that great at this, but this is really specific.
You're talking about, I don't know, mothers of newborn babies
in America, for example, could be that you need to be really
specific. So the first step is to identify
your your customer segment, which goes into today when
customer segment and that's who your products going to be for.
Think about the specific group of people who are facing a
challenge that your product might help solve.
It is essential to be clear here, as I said, OK, So I'll
give you an example here today when remote workers in
Wellington, New Zealand, OK, So that's specifically talking
about a location and the area demographic.
And it's not just workers, it's talking about remote workers.
So in that case, when you're talking about remote workers,
your product will be aimed at remote workers who are juggling
most multiple responsibilities, trying to stay productive while
also managing their personal lives at home because they're at
home. Be specific, don't just say all
workers, OK? Think about a specific
demographic. So that's Step 1.
Today when customer segment Step 2, you can write this on a
separate line and you know, you can follow this through and stop
the podcast rewind and you can draw this down.
And by the end of this, it would be great to have one example
that you could use. So the next insertion point
here, Step 2 is want to desirable activity or outcome.
So today we're in customer segment first line want to they
want to achieve something. What is the target audience that
you're talking about? What do they want to achieve?
What is the desirable outcome from their perspective?
It's not about you. It's not about when my company
wants to make money from product or when I want to serve it is
what do they want to do? Don't give full down.
It's not it's, it's about them at this point, OK?
It's not about using your product.
It's about what goals or tasks they're trying to achieve.
You're not talking about your product right now.
So in that example, remote workers in Wellington want to
maintain a healthy work life balance and stay productive.
So that's what they want to achieve.
What is their goal? Do you get it?
Focus on the aspirations. This isn't about what they do.
This is why they do it OK Remote workers don't just want to be
productive. They want to feel accomplished
without sacrificing personal time.
You can be as long as you like here.
This is not like a normal slogan for a company.
So that's Step 2 want to desirable outcome step three.
Now on your third sentence, they have to current situation.
OK. So today when customer segment
want to achieve this goal outcome, they have to current
solutions, what do they currently have to do?
We're looking at how do they reach the goal today, OK, there
is a really rare occasion where you will find that there are no
alternatives. I do not believe it.
People achieve goals today. Do not fall into assault, false
sense of security. If you're an entrepreneur that
you've found a huge gap that no one has ever satisfied this
market, that means you're thinking too much about your
product. What is it that people do to
achieve a healthy worth like work life balance today?
Someone is achieving that today and won't be through technology
necessarily. OK, So what are they?
What existing solutions in the general sense, not just
technology, are they relying on and why aren't they enough?
So let's come to our remote workers example.
Today, when remote workers in Wellington, New Zealand want to
maintain a healthy work life balance and stay productive,
they have to use genetic generic, sorry, genetic generic
time tracking tools and personal reminders, which are not
tailored for remote worker remote work challenges.
These tools, for example, help manage tasks, but they don't
provide a comprehensive solution to the work life balance
problem, which is often, you know, the root of these people's
problem. So the key tip here is that
you're, you're digging deep into the workarounds.
That's a compromises even that users are making.
So that's step three. They have to what are the
current solutions and and workarounds and manual what are
they doing? And Step 4.
This is unacceptable. Unacceptable because and then
you list the shortcomings of the most popular current solutions.
OK, this is unacceptable because shortcoming of current solutions
and I'll give you an example. Go straight into our remote
workers. This is unacceptable because
these tools do not offer personal guidance for balancing
productivity and well-being leading to burnout.
OK, this is really important here.
This brings us to like the most critical path, part and path of
the vision setting statement. Is the current situation
unacceptable? That and unacceptable is a is is
a strong word, what with existing solutions.
This is where you explain why something needs to change.
So in this example, burnout is a huge issue for remote workers
because they like the tools that help them both manage personal
and work time effectively and relationships.
So the key tip here is this should be passionate.
This should be about passion. This is your opportunity to say
what's unacceptable pain points in the language we use
sometimes, OK. And this of course is where your
opportunity is for your product or your solution to address
these needs. But it has to be unacceptable
for that user. You have to have known that that
customer segment, for example, finds this unacceptable or and
they're compromising. Unacceptable is a big challenge.
And if you don't, if you don't have good reasons why this pain
point, this area or these current solutions aren't
unacceptable. Not just not great or have bad
UI, that's not good enough. Unacceptable is a threshold.
And if you don't meet that threshold, you won't get any
customers because unacceptable means that there is such a gap
that people are willing to pay for it.
So just think about that in the back of your head #5 OK.
And #5 after we've explained that this is unacceptable
because of these shortcomings #5 is we envision a world where
shortcomings are resolved. OK, so you're now explaining the
world after those shortcomings, the unacceptable behavioural
situation, have been resolved. You're not talking about product
features here, you're leading into it, but you're talking
about it from the perspective of the customer segment.
So whether our remote workers, let's jump into, we envision a
world where remote workers and Wellington, New Zealand can
seamlessly switch between work and personal life without
feeling overburdened using tools that support both productivity
and well-being. Now that's important because
you're talking about tools, You're not talking about
features here. You're not saying we envision a
world where there's one website where you go to that does this,
that and the other. This is generic and it's talking
about the shortcomings. It's not talking about your
technology at this point. So the key tip here is painting
a picture of the ideal world. If your product succeeds, what
change would make for your users?
So it's one step removed from your actual product.
It's more the the purpose of your product's existence.
The key tip is dream big. Dream big.
This is a vision, and it should be inspiring to your team and
users and to your customers. It's a vision for your customers
too. This vision statement, as we'll
get to the end of it very soon, is for you internally and for
your customers, OK? And for your marketing teams to
make it punchy in terms of slogans and whatnot, OK?
So don't limit yourself on this point #5 we envision a world
where don't limit yourself to incremental improvement.
Think transformative change. You only introduce a new
capability slash product service if you are aiming at transfer
transformational time. No amount of agility or
continuous improvements going to get you there.
Number six, the final bit, we're bringing about this world
through and then your broad technology approach or approach
doesn't necessarily be a technology solution.
It could be a business case, it could be a policy change, for
example, it could be a business process.
It could be a forming of organization.
And in some cases, of course, it's an IT product.
So this bit is finally where we outline how we are going to
bring this vision to life. This is not still not about
listing product features, OK, We're not.
This is not what this is about. This is higher level.
This is about your approach or your technology that will solve
the problem and create this new world.
So we bring back to our remote worker examples, we could say
we're bringing about this world through AI driven Productivity
Tools that schedule well-being breaks and provide personalized
work life balance recommendations, OK?
So what we're really saying is our approach leverages AI to
help remote workers manage their time in a healthy, sustainable
way, focusing on productivity and well-being simultaneously.
So those were defined too. The key tip here is about the
broad approach, OK, the philosophy that guides your
product, it's the, it's the principles, it's needs to be
wrapped around what you've already put in your statement.
So step six that we've just covered is we're bringing this
world about through. I think I might have got there
backwards last time, but it's step 6, we're bringing this
world about through. And then your broad approach,
you know your principal, your broad Technology Strategy.
So that's it. There are 6 parts to that.
I'm going to remind you what they were today.
When customer segment want to complete an outcome, a finish,
you know, complete a goal, they have to current situation.
This is unacceptable because of the shortcomings of these
current situations and solutions.
We envision a world where these shortcomings are resolved.
We're bringing this world about through broad technology
approach. So you can listen to this again
and you can write those down. OK, and I'll post those onto the
Spotify description so you can copy them.
You can put them in a template and you can fold them through.
I encourage you to do the Radical Product Thinking course.
That's a free one, the vision setting one, and there are
others. And you can get certified in
this whole area and try it out on your next project.
I hope you enjoyed and you learned something this week and
I'll see you next week.