What do you do if your product decisions are not effective?

Step 0: Say it was not effective and own the failure. Identify it as a mistake, a miscalculation, a complete oversight, or a kowtowing to stakeholders or a minority of users. All of the steps afterwards are normal product discovery and implementation procedures. Shift gears, reassess, redefine, rescope, replan. But standing on top of a mountain of failure and saying "we hiked the wrong hill..." is the best way to get everyone aligned to moving in the new direction. It's no fun, and downright soul-crushing at times, but no problem can be addressed without first confronting its brutal facts.

Before making any product decisions, it's essential to conduct market research to understand the target market's needs and preferences. This research may include surveys, focus groups, and analysing of competitor products to determine what features are essential to the customer and how they differ from current offerings in the market. For example, let's say a team is developing a mobile app for a fitness-tracking product. The team may conduct market research to understand the target market's needs and preferences. The team may also analyse competitor products to understand what features are currently available in the market and how they differ from what customers are looking for.

As someone in the product trenches, realizing a decision you made isn't quite landing can be a punch to the gut. We pour our hearts into understanding users, crafting solutions, and steering the product roadmap. But hey, even the best-laid plans go astray sometimes. Here's what helps me bounce back when product decisions miss the mark: Embrace the "Learn Loop." This isn't a failure, it's a learning opportunity! Gather data, talk to users, and see where things went off track. Was it a faulty assumption, an unmet need, or just bad timing? Be Transparent (Especially with Yourself). Don't sugarcoat it. Acknowledge the impact of the decision and be upfront with stakeholders. But also, be honest with yourself.

- Analyze why the product is failing or not performing. - Gathering feedback from users - Market research - Collaborate with your team to identify areas for improvement - Iterate on your product, making adjustments based on the insights you've gained. - Flexibility and adaptability are key in product development.

Fail Fast! Acknowledge the decision was not the correct one. Create a space that allows team members, customers, etc to provide honest feedback. And take the next steps to get back on track.

I like to provide an example from the hospitality industry. After a guest checks out, the hotel send them an email thanking them for their stay and asking them to fill out a short survey about their experience. This survey includes questions about their satisfaction with the room, amenities, staff friendliness, and any suggestions for improvement. Also by monitoring online review platforms such as TripAdvisor and Google Reviews to see what guests are saying about their experiences. Hotel will take note of both positive and negative feedback and use it to make necessary service or product improvements.

From my experience, there are occasions when product decisions can go wrong. It maybe because of 1. improper target audience during surveys/research. If insufficient number of target persona participated in the surveys, the inputs may not have been adequate. 2. Product/market research was cut short due to lack of staffing or urgency to launch the product fast. 3. It was an experimental product and it was unknown how/which customers will adopt it Whatever the situation maybe, it is important to put learning steps during the early/alpha/beta release , course correct along the way so that during GA(General Availability), the product is well accepted in the market.

Gathering feedback is crucial when addressing ineffective product decisions. Start by using surveys and interviews to directly capture user experiences and identify dissatisfaction areas. Analyze customer support data to uncover common complaints and user challenges. Engage with internal stakeholders from sales, marketing, and customer service for a broader perspective on product performance. Monitor social media and forums for unfiltered user feedback. By utilizing these feedback sources, you'll gain a well-rounded understanding of necessary product adjustments, ensuring your response is informed and effective.

In my perspective, gathering feedback can help us to assure that the fundamental problems that we recognize are true in whole process of product discovery.

Gathering feedback from all relevant stakeholders is essential in evaluating the impact of a product decision and ensuring that future decisions are well-informed. It is important to be open to both positive and negative feedback, as this will help in making more informed decisions moving forward. Stakeholders insights are crucial as they can provide a different perspective and highlight any potential issues that may have been overlooked. In short -- If positive : It can confirm that the decision was successful. -- And if negative: It can highlight areas for improvements

An example comes to mind of a product we launched that was not performing. We were confident through our research that we were meeting a valuable unmet need. We did further consumer research and found the way were explaining the consumer benefits was not resonating. We changed the way we were marketing features and benefits and the product took off.

Even before analysing the data it is essential that the team is aligned on the right North Star metric and other key driving metrics. Only when the hypothesis are clearly presented and evaluated can the impact be truly measured

Data is important yet let's remember that junk in, junk out. Are you collecting the right meaningful data. Analyse data by product category and the RIGHT product categories. Often it is not done.

Dive deep into the numbers to chart your course. Data can pinpoint where engagement drops or features get overlooked. It’s your reality check, offering solid ground to stand on when making those crucial product decisions. Think of it as the story behind the story, revealing the plot twists in user behavior and the financial subplot of your choices. Follow where the data leads, and let those insights be the hero of your product’s story.

To support product decisions with data, I would gather information from different sources like user feedback, A/B testing results, and market research. For example, if we're deciding on a new feature, I'd look at how similar features have performed in tests or what users have requested in surveys. This data helps make decisions that are more likely to succeed and meet our customers' needs.

Confirmation bias is hard to avoid in my experience. Brainstorming with distinct perspectives can lead to amazing solutions and approach. Keep an open mind with a group of diverse, collaborative minds.

Brainstorm solutions by convening cross-functional teams to generate ideas, identify root causes, and explore potential solutions to address ineffective product decisions. Encourage open communication, creativity, and collaboration among team members to generate diverse perspectives and innovative solutions. Utilize brainstorming techniques such as mind mapping, SWOT analysis, and idea generation exercises to spark creativity and generate actionable solutions. Evaluate and prioritize proposed solutions based on feasibility, impact, and alignment with business goals, and implement iterative improvements to enhance product effectiveness.

With a clear understanding of the market needs and product goals, the team can brainstorm ideas for the product. This stage may include ideation sessions, where team members can propose different concepts for the product. The goal is to come up with a diverse range of ideas that align with the product goals and meet the market's needs. Brainstorming also encourages creativity and innovation within the team, as members can build upon each other's ideas to generate even more possibilities. Once the team has generated a list of potential product ideas, they can evaluate them based on factors such as feasibility, viability, and desirability to determine which concepts are worth pursuing further.

In my experience validating Brainstorming ideas is key to not making another mistake by choosing a solution by appearance only simulating the Idea using all data you have and making as much as you can prospective validation is main target for going a head with any new idea

Be prepared to facilitate an open discussion about the business’s goals and use them to guide the conversation. I’ve used this to level up brainstorming sessions with technical teams, who are eager to share a variety of solutions, but want to stay aligned and confidently deliver the right solution.

Experimention hands down! Don’t pretend to know the future. ?? Instead of shipping full fledged solutions that take months to develop, only to fall flat after the launch, try to come up with smaller experiments and benchmark your results. Let’s say you found that X metric is low, now you want to drive it up. Brainstorm the various ways you can affect it, shortlist 2-3 ideas, then come up with micro MVPs around them (the key is it shouldn’t take you more than a couple of weeks time to build them). Launch these experiments on your control group(s) (segment your customers hard, it’s crucial) and then measure the results. Data will speak volumes about what actually works not what you think would. Double down on what works!

start by making small tweaks. Think of it like cooking— you don't want to dump in a whole bottle of sauce without tasting it first, right? One way to do this is through A/B testing, where you compare two versions of something to see which one performs better - like trying on two different outfits to see which one suits best. Another way is pilot program, roll out your changes to a small group of users first. You'll want to keep a close eye on the results. Track key metrics like user engagement, conversion rates, and customer satisfaction scores. Also listen to what your users are saying. Based on what you learn, tweak your experiments and try again. Fine-tuning until you hit the sweet spot.

It is essential to test changes prior to full-scale implementation in order to reduce risk and obtain important information about how well suggested solutions work. We are able to evaluate how changes function in a controlled environment by building prototypes or running A/B testing. This methodology reduces the likelihood of sustaining inefficient choices and furnishes tangible insights to guide our product strategy. Testing acts as a safety measure, guaranteeing that we're heading in the right direction and making judgments based on verifiable facts rather than conjecture.

Testing helps identify any issues or bugs that may have been missed during development and ensures that the product functions correctly. Gathering feedback from users is also crucial, as it helps the team understand how the product is being used and identify areas for improvement.

To test changes effectively, start by setting clear goals for improvement. Use a diverse group of testers, including existing customers and people new to your product, to avoid bias. Design tests like A/B testing, using tools like Optimizely or Google Optimize. Collect and analyze data to see if changes are effective. Learn from each test to decide whether to adopt, tweak, or drop the change. If successful, roll out the change more widely. This careful approach ensures decisions are based on robust data.

The truth is that a lot of product teams are operating in the darkness and in a lot of cases don’t have enough data and inputs to make the best decision from the first try. This is where agility comes into play. Being able to iterate quickly and improve the solution on the fly gives product teams a little bit of sunshine ??

Iterating quickly is the key. Mistakes happen. What matters is how quickly you realize, accept and improvise. Don't get into unnecessary commitment with what you built. Focus on what you want to achieve. And don't be scared of making more mistakes. Try smaller iterations if you are resource constrained. Good luck

Testing helps identify any issues or bugs that may have been missed during development and ensures that the product functions correctly. Gathering feedback from users is also crucial, as it helps the team understand how the product is being used and identify areas for improvement. This feedback can then be used to refine the product and make necessary changes to ensure that it meets customer needs. Iteration involves repeating the testing and feedback process until the product meets the requirements to achieve the desired outcomes.

Iterating quickly (with a smile!) is critical to a PM. Engage customers, engage across teams and ultimately look at the assumptions you made about product/feature/modification and what you would do differently next time!

Keeping an ear to the ground is key to iterating quickly. We've invested in efforts to cultivate a strong Facebook following in a group, as well as with a user base which is encouraged to send us an email to our support address. We track all of the feedback and use it to rapidly make changes with the help of our development team. We are able to do so because we are using an agile framework in our project management software.

You learn as much as you can and you try again. There are no magic tricks and no shortcuts. Also, pay attention to how short your feedback loop. The shorter it is the faster you learn.

A good logic is to make a quick experiment and understand what is the impact. The first step is to make sure you are creating a small lovable product and this is far better than MVP in order to get positive feedback loop. Overall, understanding why to build, what to build and how to build is crucial. Even more crucial is how to talk about the value and how to sell as the buying decisions are driven by the image of your creation. Important starting point before building anything is to consider the why part: Market insights, customer feedback and evaluating usage is crucial for why. What to build should be boosted with innovation and CX. Building it right is all about skillful engineering and great design. What do you think?

While trying to enter an evolving category in a new market, like I launched a sustainable storage solutions brand "Rangvarukh" in Jan 2019 in India, the potential buyers were reluctant to make a purchase due to the following reasons: 1. Didn't see a need for buying organisers as it sounded like a very western concept and Marie Kondo was unheard of. 2. Sustainability is a theoretical concept and doesn't mean much to the end consumer unless they have incorporated it in their daily routine already 3. Due to the limited batch production, use of sustainable materials & testing for harmful chemicals, product MRP skyrocketed and consumers do not want something so pricey that they haven't seen a celeb already using or talking about.

Some of the other reasons why this can happen are - thinking myopic - deferring the problems to later phases without having a baseline to solve them - succumbing to pressure from cross functional teams and accept something you can’t deliver - assuming others experience and opinions are better than yours - unable to think outside the box - etc. When you spot such problems, don’t shy away from them. Go ahead and inform your manager (or manager’s manager), explain the situation and find out to see for any mitigation opportunities. Think that such acts not only save your career but the reputation of your product, company’s image and company’s relationship with customers. Learn from such experiences and grow.