Monday, May 11, 2015
Simon Cast, ProdPad: Considering Context in Your Product
When you think critically about product management you start to notice how there are many products that are actually solutions looking for a problem. The Segway springs to my mind, and perhaps you can think of some others. Some of these ‘solutions’ will find a niche, but more often they will fail, at a huge cost in terms of both resources and time.
Before you begin to build your product it’s crucial that you, as a product manager, think about context. If you want to avoid product failure you need to ask yourself:
When you’re thinking about problems you need to understand that they don’t exist in isolation. They exist within an environment and before going further, you need to understand that environment. This is the context in which the problem exists. It’s important to think critically about the context of the problem, and you might find these questions a good starting point:
For instance, it wouldn’t make sense to build an app that requires a credit card when the people with the problem that you are solving with the app don’t even have bank accounts.
Understanding the problem and the context of the problem are good first steps in good Product Management practice. From here you need to look into how your manage the cycle, backlog and roadmap.
Simon will cover more on this in the keynote on Wednesday so join us then – and don’t forget to pick up one of our Handy Guides for Product People! If you can’t wait head over to the ProdPad blog to read useful product management tips, tricks and articles on best practice.
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Author: Simon Cast, ProdPad
Photo: Prodpad.com
Before you begin to build your product it’s crucial that you, as a product manager, think about context. If you want to avoid product failure you need to ask yourself:
- What problem are you solving?
- Is this problem worth solving
- Is the time right? Is there sufficient market demand to justify this development?
- Can it be done at the right price?
When you’re thinking about problems you need to understand that they don’t exist in isolation. They exist within an environment and before going further, you need to understand that environment. This is the context in which the problem exists. It’s important to think critically about the context of the problem, and you might find these questions a good starting point:
- Where does the problem occur?
- When does it occur?
- Who does it occur for?
For instance, it wouldn’t make sense to build an app that requires a credit card when the people with the problem that you are solving with the app don’t even have bank accounts.
Understanding the problem and the context of the problem are good first steps in good Product Management practice. From here you need to look into how your manage the cycle, backlog and roadmap.
Simon will cover more on this in the keynote on Wednesday so join us then – and don’t forget to pick up one of our Handy Guides for Product People! If you can’t wait head over to the ProdPad blog to read useful product management tips, tricks and articles on best practice.
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Author: Simon Cast, ProdPad
Photo: Prodpad.com
