The third P of my inbound product management framework (Problem > Persona > Purpose > Product) is quintessential. Most often than not, I see product managers jump into the deep end of defining product features and specs after identifying the problem space & related personas. What is often forgotten is the "person" behind the "persona" has a "purpose" for using your product. How do you cater to that purpose to make your product successful?
Let me share my four career experiences where I learnt to appreciate the value of "Purpose":
My first job was that of a welding engineer in a big engineering company. I was on a crucial defense project which involved a great deal of welding knowledge and expertise. As a fresh graduate, the sense of elation is too small a word to describe the excitement in me. At the shop floor, while welding the seams on this project, I could hardly stop thinking of the numerous people who would be kept safe in it. These folks risk their lives for their country, and it would be more than a shame to know that a weld failed due to manufacturing defects, which cost them their life, and probably the country - a victory! The purpose of the personas using this product made me redefine engineering and testing in a deeply uncompromising manner.
Like many in my generation, we began to see software enabling traditional management processes. I was consulting on an ERP implementation. On-the-job training of the transformation was core to this implementation. Accounting employees were to be trained on making ledger entries in the software. While I was enthusiastically pressing keys and entering transactions, I realized my customer was very silent. He had been with the company for decades and knew his job exceptionally well. I saw his silence found a consort with some tears. He viewed this software as a means of replacing his expertise and eventually him. He had no motivation to use the software. Lesson learnt.. "Build purpose into the product". The product had to be built as a means of enhancing his career, not replacing it.
Years later, I was leading a team of product managers responsible for various business intelligence applications. We were building Financial Analytics. The first draft of functional specs showed balances of ledger and subledgers in various charts, with the variances highlighted. But did that serve the purpose? The purpose of using that product is for the person behind the persona to quickly tally the ledger with the subledger and go home to his/her family. An efficiency tool that helps reduce the time spent at accounting book closure. And balance variances need to be seen and assessed rather quickly. We had to design analytics that went to the root cause of the variance, scrutinize past learnings and highlight probable reasons for the mismatch in a priority order. Building the extra reports made the product the top seller.
Another lesson was while building a product that made the implementer successful. Many implementers had a deep sense of pride from very short implementation time elevating them into change advocates and leaders that aid increased adoption. We developed dashboards that help communicate the value from these implementations. I realized that making the persona successful through this product would automatically make our product successful.
The key - think about the persona using your product. What motivates the person? You will surely solve for the `problem space'. Approach the solution in a manner that fulfills the purpose of the persona. This is guaranteed to catapult product adoption. Remember when you expect your user to use your product, you are competing with numerous other priorities & purposes this user is likely to have for the same time he/she spends on your product. Make their time worth it. Build for "purpose" of the person behind your stated personas, and you will be on the path of building products with high adoption. #abhaypracticalAI #machinelearning #artificialintelligence
For more on my take, go to my blog: Postingpad - blogs and content for success in artificial intelligence
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