“An important factor in communication is listening to what isn’t mentioned.” — Peter Drucker
I typically go on walks as these are the occasions I do my greatest pondering. It’s also good train whenever you dwell close to a mountain. Though it’s often distracting when you find yourself pondering whereas doing all your greatest to make it up a 45-degree hill that appears to go on eternally.
On a current stroll, overheating because it’s summer season in Atlanta, I listened to a podcast from McKinsey about digital and the way corporations can compete within the age of AI. Regardless of the content material being geared towards the C Suite, one thing I’m nonetheless figuring out if I need to attain, there was a quick diversion on constructing profitable AI merchandise.
YES! McKinsey used the phrase product in a dialog about digital and AI. I’ve arrived.
And whereas they did spend a sizzling minute speaking about product, that’s inappropriate.
Regardless of the warmth melting my mind, one phrase stood out. CONTEXT — and the necessity to have huge image context when constructing an AI-first or digital product.
You would possibly say, “duh,” what’s so particular about that? Isn’t that apparent?
Sure and no. It relies on the way you outline context. Usually, phrases like ‘enterprise’ context or ‘market’ context get thrown round. I’ve been responsible of this myself. Generally even utilizing it in a passive-aggressive method.
However what does context actually imply? And why is McKinsey, the world’s premier administration consulting agency, speaking about it?
Good query.
Once I returned from my stroll, I scribbled “CONTEXT?” in my pocket book. There’s something magical about scribbling, doodling, and writing in a pocket book. On this case, I wrote a word to discover CONTEXT after my calm down, some water, and a bathe.
Once I returned to it later, I began with good previous psychological gymnastics quite than turning to Google, Bing, CHATGPT, or another magical AI software. Why did this phrase follow me? And why was its which means eluding me?
I may look it up within the dictionary (eyes rolling). Wait, that’s a strong begin.
In line with Webster, context is 1) the components of a discourse that encompass a phrase or passage and may throw gentle on its which means -or- 2) the interrelated circumstances by which one thing exists or happens.
Okay, possibly not so useful. However a couple of extra phrases caught out — “can throw gentle on its which means” and “interrelated circumstances.”
After which one thing popped into my head — an end-to-end ecosystem.
Hmm. That’s it! In product administration, we deal with an issue. That perplexing problem a person has. Sadly, we frequently take a look at the issue in isolation with out wanting on the interrelated circumstances that illuminate the issue’s which means.
Whereas it’s true your person must be heart stage, they’re on a stage with different actors, with influencers, with motion happening round them and a narrative unfolding.
Due to this fact, to construct a very superb product, you’ll want to perceive how that product matches within the end-to-end stream surrounding it — the ecosystem.
Responsible as charged. I’ve lower corners earlier than in terms of actually understanding the end-to-end stream, the ecosystem by which a product I constructed exists.
And that is the place most merchandise break — enterprise and shopper, skilled and private. They break as a result of they don’t match within the firm’s methods of working, the division’s course of, the individual’s day, the stream of life, you identify it.
Within the bustling streets of Mumbai, India, Sati completed an extended day at work. Sati was desperate to get residence however dreading the considered navigating by way of the town’s infamous visitors. At that second, he took out his cellphone and opened the Uber app, a service he often utilized in San Francisco. However there was one thing completely different; hmm, he thought… the choice to pay in money? Intrigued, he chosen the choice and confirmed his trip.
Uber, an organization born within the tech-savvy surroundings of Silicon Valley, initially tailor-made its companies for a market comfy with digital funds and craving comfort. As everyone knows, the app was a success, and the corporate set its sights on international growth. However as they rapidly realized, what labored in San Francisco wouldn’t work in every single place.
Again to India — As Uber entered markets like India, the corporate confronted new challenges. Bank cards and digital funds had been much less broadly utilized in India than in america.
In the event that they hadn’t paused and sought to grasp this huge image, the context, the outcomes may have been disastrous for Uber’s growth plans. As an alternative, they tailored. Introducing a money fee choice within the app was a should for a lot of Indians like Sati.
As they expanded additional, they at all times sought to grasp the native context, their riders’ lives, and the market circumstances.
Uber’s context-driven strategy continued past fee strategies. In cities stricken by visitors jams, Uber launched motorcycle taxis as a faster, extra environment friendly technique of transport. In areas the place security was a heightened concern, Uber carried out options like “RideCheck” to make sure the well-being of each drivers and passengers.
By taking note of the native context by which it operated, Uber may supply a service that felt each international and customized. This strategy elevated person adoption and ensured compliance with native laws, thereby lowering the danger of authorized problems.
As Sati stepped out of his Uber, money in hand to pay the motive force, he couldn’t assist however admire the comfort he had simply skilled. It was a small however vital reminder that even in a world pushed by know-how, understanding the human context is essential to product success.
Word: I’ve loosely mapped this story to info about when Uber entered the Indian market, creating characters and wrapping a story round it.
So, as you assemble your story, contemplate the context round your customers once they use the product. Context is the set of bodily circumstances and occasions that encompass your person. As an illustration, your person accessing your product from a desktop at residence or a smartphone in a grocery store is a part of the context. This context can also be vital to share as a part of the roadmap.
Think about for a second you had been advised to drive someplace however not given the context of why or how. You had been merely handed a set of discreet increments to piece collectively right into a journey. When you may attain the vacation spot, and that’s an enormous if, are you able to think about your journey being pleasant and/or environment friendly for you or your passengers? Completely not; it might be stuffed with stress and delays. But piecing collectively discrete increments is strictly what we ask groups to do with roadmaps.
So, with out exception, your job as a product supervisor is to allow your staff to see the entire journey and put themselves within the person’s footwear by way of the roadmap.
Listed below are a couple of steps you possibly can take to collect the best context:
- Take a look at the panorama and doc it. This contains the stream by which the product exists, the ecosystem by which it operates, the end-to-end person journey by which it is going to be used, and the market by which it’ll exist. Do a radical evaluation and share the outcomes with the staff. The extra they perceive why, how, and the place the product matches, the higher their end result will likely be.
- Work by way of an train I prefer to name ‘what would change if…’. Ask what would change within the panorama in case your product entered? How would your person’s life look completely different? Pay specific consideration to the impacts on the panorama round your product and the stream it interrupts. Then, write down how you’ll mitigate any adverse impacts as context for the staff constructing the product.
- Conduct person analysis. Ask the usual questions after which ask the ‘what would change if’ inquiries to get on the coronary heart of the product influence throughout the stream of the person’s day. Suppose by way of along with your staff how you’ll reduce disruption and make the product match seamlessly within the person’s day.
- Perceive the enterprise context. How will this product influence my firm and help its technique? It’s additionally vital to your staff to grasp the influence and penalties the product can have to your firm. Will it improve name quantity? Will it require assets to be added to the client success staff?
- Develop a change plan with an goal for web zero influence. Everytime you ask an individual, person, or firm to undertake your product, your aim ought to be for it to slide into their stream seamlessly. To enter with out interruption. Attaining this requires forethought by the staff constructing the product, vital planning, and energy by the staff launching and supporting it.
- Create suggestions loops. Regardless that you’ll make investments the time upfront to collect the context as enter to the product improvement course of, you’ll miss issues. Be sure you develop a plan to collect suggestions so as to add to the context for the staff to complement the product improvement course of.
One thing vital hit me on that stroll. Person issues exist in an ecosystem that have to be balanced as soon as your product is part of it.
In nature, you possibly can’t introduce a brand new species to an present ecosystem with out cautious planning. And even then, there’s a excessive, virtually sure danger of some disruption to the steadiness.
When creating your product, you, subsequently, want to grasp the person’s downside deeply but additionally the context surrounding it. The stream. The ecosystem by which the product will function and the steadiness your product can not disrupt.
The story of Uber in India and past highlights the significance of context to product improvement and adaptation. You clearly can’t deal with the person’s downside to be solved and generalize. Understanding the larger image and the surroundings by which the product will likely be used is essential. It’s good to get into the person’s world, expertise their stream, and deal with minimal disruption. Context allows you to do precisely that.
Ultimately, it’s not nearly constructing merchandise; it’s about constructing experiences. And to create significant experiences, we should embrace context’s energy and significance. So, make clear that which surrounds the place your product will exist in your person’s stream and plan to adapt.
