Optimal Product Decisions - Letting the Genie out of the Bottle

Global Marketing
Andre Piazza @AndreAtDell
http://linkd.in/andrepiazza

Why decisions matter today
more than ever?
• Pervasive
• Increased access to information
• Variety of options
• More stakeholders
• Pressure to decide faster
• Limited ability to make decisions on a daily basis
Optimal Product Decisions: Letting the Genie out of the Bottle @AndreAtDell 2

We make a variety of decisions
through life
Lifecycle
– Education
– Transportation
– Health
– Housing
Professional
– Career
– Employment
Financial
– Savings
– 401K
Lifestyle
– Family
– Romantic
Routine
– Do / don’t; go / no go
– Priorities
Civic
– Elections
– Jury Duty
– Military
24

What is a great decision?
• Achieve goals
• Aligned with beliefs, values
• Address (implicit, explicit) expectations from everyone
involved
… in various degrees. Hopefully as close to expectations as
possible.

Benefits of an intentional
approach to decisions
• Build value into products, faster
• Increase your ability to influence others
• Reduce stress
• Advance your career
• Ultimately, reclaim life

there’s more to this journey than
just avoiding bad behaviors
poor decisions
great decisions

5 tips for Optimal Product
Decisions
W
R
A
P
P

Decisions
Widen your options
Reality-test your assumptions
Attain emotional distance
Prepare for success (or failure)
Pursue a process

Decisions
options validate implicationschallenge sustainability

Widen your options
• Focus on creating alternatives
• Avoid a narrow frame

Widen your options
Avoid a narrow frame
FROM: Should I do < A >: yes or no?
Should I do < A > or < B >?
• are you solving the right problem?
• limited to 1 course of action
TO: What If I do < A > and < B >?
• creates options
• enables multi-tracking: multiple courses of action
ALTERNATIVE: What’s the best way to achieve <
goal >?

• Develop early warning systems
• Validated learning in MVPs
• Prototype early

Vote: choose to hear a story
from the career of
Bob Dylan David Bowie Van Halen

Van Halen’s contract in the 70s
demanded a bowl with no brown M&Ms
available backstage.
Penalty was forfeiture of the contract.
This ingenious early warning system
checked if venue would meet band’s
sound & safety requirements.
Early warning systems

Quantitative Feature Prioritization
Weighted average covering:
– Customer Impact
– Business Impact
– Cost, Ease and Timeline of implementation
– Competitive Impact

Qualitative Feature Prioritization
Kano Model Effect of Time: Decay of UX
3 categories:
- Dissatisfiers / Basic Needs Over time, delighters
- Satisfiers become satisfiers,
- Delighters which in turn become dissatisfiers
Satisfiers
Effect of Time

MVP concept
Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is the version of a product which
allows a team to collect the maximum amount of validated learning
about customers with the least effort.

Validating features in MVPs
• A/B Test (webpages)
• Usage reports
• Bug reports
• Collect feedback / suggestions natively in product
• User / Customer interviews
Surveys Web Analytics Customer
Feedback
In-person /
Lab
In-context
say do think feel
designer
tools
user
behavior

Prototype early
• Wireframes
• Mock-ups
• State diagrams

• Challenge your own biases
• Influence others
• Empathize with customer first
• Check the facts
• Understand competition

A word about the very nature of decisions
1. Decisions are primarily emotional processes
2. Illuminated by facts, experience, intuition,
knowledge
3. With the backdrop of circumstances
To improve your decision-making skills,
you need to learn to effectively
navigate each of these elements

"People seldom do what they
believe in.
They do what is convenient,
and then repent."
Bob Dylan

Challenge your own biases
Your Bob Dylan choice
Halo effect

Challenge your own biases Your David Bowie
choice
eCommerce and Retail
>>> Click HERE for more examples of Biases

>>> Click HERE to download cheat sheet

Information
overload
Lack of
meaning
Need to act
fast
What
should I
remember?

•Information overload sucks, so we aggressively filter.
Noise becomes signal.
•Lack of meaning is confusing, so we fill in the gaps.
Signal becomes a story.
•Need to act fast lest we lose our chance, so we jump to
conclusions.
Stories become decisions.
•This isn’t getting easier, so we try to remember the important
bits.
Decisions inform our mental models of the world.

Information
overload
Lack of
meaning
Need to act
fast
What
should I
remember?
Noise
Signal
Stories
Decisions
Worldviews

Challenge someone else’s biases
WHAT: solution
WHY: narrative
MOTIVATIONS: goals beliefs values priorities
Tip: Elicit the deeper levels, and use that
information for persuasion and influence

20+ #ProdMgmt biases and pet peeves
PM skills:
• We can predict the future
• We can impersonate our customers
• Our idea is the best idea, our way is the best
way, our design is the best design
Features:
• If we build it, they will come
• We really have to make this backwards
compatible
• Custom work can be easily productized
Customers and UX:
• The customer with the failed usability test is
not representative
• The customer who loves the new feature is
representative
• The customer will eagerly adopt the new
feature
• Usability doesn’t really matter in the enterprise
• It’s easy, we don’t need any
FAQs/documentation
• It’s obvious, we don’t need user testing
Process and Resources:
• Our roadmaps will remain accurate for more
than a month
• No news from < cross-functional team > is
good news
• Doubling the team size will double the output
• Product complexity scales linearly with number
of personas serviced
• Developers disproportionately lack empathy
• It is “all about execution”
Sales:
• Sales understands how to sell the new feature
• We understand how to sell the new feature
• Sales doesn’t know what the customer wants
Marketplace and Competition:
• We know who our competitors will be in one
year
Source: John Cutler
>>> Click HERE for more #ProdMgmt biases

In building products, consider these
1. Anthropomorphism
2. Negativity bias
3. Loss aversion
4. Reciprocity
5. Peak-end effect
6. Cognitive dissonance
7. Goal gradient effect
8. Social proof

In building products, consider these
Cognitive Bias Description Implementation
Anthropomorphism We like things to be
consistent and human
UX and Design Principles
Negativity bias Greater recall of negative
experiences
5:1 Positive to Negative
trade-offs
Loss aversion FOMO is 1.5-2.5x than gains Freebie lost after
expiration. 30-day trials.
Reciprocity People feel indebted for
small gifts
Useful functionality or
unexpected UX delight
Peak-end effect When forming memories,
bias pro-peak and end
Get the user to a-ha
moment ASAP
Cognitive dissonance Stress when belief and
action mismatch
Notify user when
preferences attained
Goal gradient effect The closer to the goal, the
more effort put in
Show progress to
milestone
Social proof When in doubt, follow the
crowd
Testimonials, reviews,
ratings, endorsements

Empathize First
Brené Brown - The Power of Empathy (2:53)
David Wallace – This is Water (9:22)
Sheena Iyengar: The art of choosing (24:08)

Buyer / User Personas

Buyer’s Journey

Check the facts
Example: Performance Dashboards

• Fallback positions
• Contingencies
• Entry and exit strategies
• Learning from failure
• User onboarding
The First 90 Days: Proven
Strategies for Getting Up to
Speed Faster and Smarter
by Michael D. Watkins

Pursue a process
The higher…
• the stakes
• the length of the decision
• the number of people involved
… the more you need a process to decide
Ask HOW to understand:
- criteria
- sequence of steps
- define responsibilities
-duration

Pursue a process (cted.)
It doesn’t have to be like this…

Pursue a process (cted.)
In general: the simpler, the better
TIP: For simple yet ingenuous solutions, establish:
1. triggers
2. rules of engagement
3. team operating agreement
Process ensures transparency and alignment with
everyone involved
SAMPLE: Team Operating Agreement
results in a Product Team

Pursue a process - example
Sales qualification process
• Budget
• Authority
• Need
• Timeline
Marketing funnel

Product Management frameworks

Lean Startup framework

Design Principles
• Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines
• Google’s Material Design Guidelines
• IDEO’s Human-Centered Design

Pursue a process – Venture Capitalist
“I have struggled with the sell decisions over the course of
my career. I have held on way too long and watched a
stock literally go all the way to zero without selling it
(ouch). And I have made the even worse decision of selling
too soon and watching a stock go up 3-5x from where I
sold it.
So where I have landed on selling (decisions) is to make it
formulaic and systematic. We also let the people know
that is our policy so they are not surprised by it. It takes
the emotion out of the decision and it works better for us.”
@FredWilson
Source: http://avc.com/2016/10/selling/

Recap: our journey great
decisions, today
poor decisions
great decisions

Recap: 5 tips for Optimal
Product Decisions
Widen your options
Pursue a process

Recap: 5 tips for Optimal Product Decisions
Widen your options
• Focus on creating alternatives
• Avoid a narrow frame
• Develop early warning systems
• Validated learning in MVPs
• Prototype early
• Challenge your own biases
• Influence others
• Empathize with customer first
• Check the facts
• Understand competition
• Fallback positions
• Contingencies
• Entry and exit strategies
• Learning from failure
Pursue a process
+ BONUS

Decisions
options validate implicationschallenge sustainability

Thank You
http://linkd.in/andrepiazza
@AndreAtDell
Linkedin.com/in/AndrePiazza
"The energy of a Sales maker, the brains of an Engineer"
Andre Piazza
Slideshare.net/Apiazza

Case Study: Agile adoption
Reality-Test / Prepare for Success, Failure
CONDITIONS FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE
Market
Environment
Customer preferences and solution options
change frequently.
Market conditions are stable and predictable.
Customer
Involvement
Close collaboration and rapid feedback are
feasible.
Customers know better what they want as
the process progresses.
Requirements are clear at the outset and will
remain stable.
Customers are unavailable for constant
collaboration.
Innovation
Type
Problems are complex, solutions are
unknown, and the scope isn’t clearly
defined. Product specifications may change.
Creative breakthroughs and time to market
are important.
Cross-functional collaboration is vital.
Similar work has been done before, and
innovators believe the solutions are clear.
Detailed specifications and work plans can be
forecast with confidence and should be
adhered to. Problems can be solved
sequentially in functional silos.
Modularity of
Work
Incremental developments have value, and
customers can use them.
Work can be broken into parts and
conducted in rapid, iterative cycles.
Late changes are manageable.
Customers cannot start testing parts of the
product until everything is complete.
Late changes are expensive or impossible.
Impact of
Interim
Mistakes
They provide valuable learning. They may be catastrophic.
SOURCE BAIN & COMPANY
FROM “EMBRACING AGILE,” MAY 2016
https://hbr.org/2016/05/embracing-agile © HBR.ORG

Case Study: Agile adoption
Widen Options / Prepare for Success / Pursue a Process
SCRUM KANBAN LEAN DEVELOPMENT
Guiding Principles Empower creative, cross-functional
teams
Visualize workflows and limit work in
process
Eliminate waste from the system as a
whole
Favorable Conditions for
Adoption
Creative cultures with high levels of trust
and collaboration, or
Radical innovation teams that want to
change their working environment
Process-oriented cultures that prefer
evolutionary improvements with few
prescribed practices
Process-oriented cultures that prefer
evolutionary improvements with
overarching values but no prescribed
practices
Approach to Cultural Change Quickly adopt minimally prescribed
practices, even if they differ substantially
from those in the rest of the
organization
Master prescribed practices and then
adapt them through experimentation
Respect current structures and
processes
Increase visibility into workflows
Encourage gradual, collaborative
changes
Respect current structures and
processes
Stress agile values throughout the
organization while minimizing
organizational resistance
Advantages Facilitates radical breakthroughs while
(unlike skunkworks) retaining the
benefits of operating as part of the
parent organization
Delivers the most valuable innovations
earliest
Rapidly increases team happiness
Builds general management skills
Avoids clashes with the parent
organization’s culture
Maximizes the contributions of team
members through flexible team
structures and work cycles
Facilitates rapid responses to urgent
issues through flexible work cycles
Optimizes the system as a whole and
engages the entire organization
Provides the ultimate flexibility in
customizing work practices
Challenges Leaders may struggle to prioritize
initiatives and relinquish control to self-
managing teams
New matrix-management skills are
required to coordinate dozens or
hundreds of multi-disciplinary teams
Fixed iteration times may not be suitable
for some problems (especially those that
arise on a daily basis)
Some team members may be
underutilized in certain sprint cycles
Practitioners must figure out how best
to apply most agile values and principles
Wide variation in practices can
complicate the prioritization of
initiatives and coordination among
teams
When initiatives don’t succeed, it can be
hard to determine whether teams
selected the wrong tools or used the
right tools in the wrong ways
Novices trying to change behaviors may
find the lack of prescriptive
methodologies frustrating
Evolutionary improvements can make
radical breakthroughs less likely and
major improvements less rapid
Leaders need to make the grind of
continuously eliminating waste feel
inspirational and fun
SOURCE DARRELL K. RIGBY, JEFF SUTHERLAND, AND HIROTAKA TAKEUCHI
FROM “EMBRACING AGILE,” APRIL 2016
https://hbr.org/2016/05/embracing-agile © HBR.ORG

BONUS
Convenience: enemy of greatness, friend of mediocrity
CONVENIENCE has multiple aspects:
1. ignorance
2. (bad) habit
3. immediate availability
3. need of consensus
4. forcing compromise
5. comfort
6. passivity
TIPS:
• challenge yourself
• embrace creative tension
• seek out emotional labor
• do the hard part first

BONUS
The Paradox of Convenience
CONVENIENCE has the potential to skew decisions toward poor.
Nonetheless, as Product Managers, an incredible way of creating value
and improving satisfaction is delivering convenience to users.
TIP: be aware of convenience when making your own decisions AND
learn to deliver convenience all day long.

Bibliography
Decisive – How to make
better choices in life and
work
by Chip & Dan Heath
BUYER PERSONAS
by Adele Revella
Embracing Agile
by Darrell K. RigbyJeff
SutherlandHirotaka Takeuchi
Enchantment
by Guy Kawasaki

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