Innovation is a key skill for product managers, but it also comes with many challenges and pitfalls. How can you avoid the most common mistakes that product managers make when driving innovation? In this article, you will learn about six of them and how to overcome them.
One of the biggest mistakes product managers make when driving innovation is to assume that they know what the customers want and need, without testing their assumptions with real data and feedback. This can lead to building products that are not aligned with the market demand, or that solve the wrong problems. To avoid this mistake, product managers should use various methods of customer validation, such as interviews, surveys, prototypes, experiments, and analytics, to validate their problem-solution fit and product-market fit.
Forgetting the Customer: Mistake: Ignoring what customers really want and need. Impact: We end up building stuff that nobody really cares about. Tech Over People: Mistake: Getting dazzled by cool tech rather than solving actual problems. Impact: We create fancy gadgets that nobody finds useful. Change Hesitation: Mistake: Resisting change like it's the plague. Impact: Stuck in the past, missing out on awesome new opportunities. Solo Mission: Mistake: Trying to be a lone ranger instead of working with everyone. Impact: We miss out on diverse ideas, and everyone feels left out. Market Blindness: Mistake: Launching stuff without understanding what's happening out there. Impact: We're like a blindfolded archer – aiming but hitting nothing.
Yes, you need some validation. People think about innovation as something somebody in some way thinks that is a brilliant, magical, in a "eureka!" moment solution and that customers will see and think "How could I live without this for so long?". No, folks, it is not that way. Innovative products take (some) time to understand your customer, their needs, their problems and, with empathy, think about how to solve it. It's all about helping people, at the end of the day,
Product managers often stumble on innovation by sticking too closely to conventional thinking, neglecting to truly understand user needs, and becoming too attached to their own ideas. They may also fail to foster a culture of experimentation and risk-taking within their teams, leading to missed opportunities for groundbreaking ideas. Additionally, focusing solely on short-term gains can hinder long-term innovation strategies. Lastly, overlooking the importance of collaboration across departments can limit the scope of innovative solutions. Innovation thrives on openness, adaptability, and a deep understanding of both market trends and user feedback.
Two large mistakes that PM's can make are a) being too narrow focused and b) not providing clear communication / expectations. a) If you are too focused on one thing and have a narrow scope, it is hard to see the big picture. Instead of a small update that can help a small group of customers, what change would be needed to increase revenue by 10x or 20x? It may not be realistic but I always ask this question first to help define my scope of work. b) Without clear communication or expectations, the roadmap can become blurry and be easily skewed. Set clear expectations with deadlines and define your scope so that others know exactly what is needed. I will make a detailed scope for my team and a broad overview for the executives.
Assuming customer needs without validation can derail innovation, leading to products that miss market demands. Product managers must embrace customer validation techniques—interviews, surveys, prototypes, experiments, and analytics—to ensure their offerings truly meet user needs and fit the market. This approach helps align products with actual demand, enhancing relevance and success.
Another common mistake product managers make when driving innovation is to focus too much on the features and functionalities of their products, rather than on the value and outcomes they deliver to the customers. This can result in feature creep, complexity, and waste, as well as losing sight of the core value proposition and the customer journey. To avoid this mistake, product managers should prioritize the features that are most critical and impactful for the customers, and use lean and agile principles to deliver them iteratively and incrementally.
A common mistake is to ideate a list of features. Instead of defining solutions in feature lists, focus on thoroughly defining problems your users and business wish to solve. This will help you understand the "why" of your product strategy and make the "what" of feature prioritization much more streamlined.
If you're a product manager, undoubtedly you already worked with one of those managers who think you are a "feature maker". All they want is a "new feature"! But this always leads you to the number of new releases. If you're not achieving a client's needs, then what you're doing? Always bring the data to your manager to make sure they know that new features don't mean success. Clients being happy and using the product must be your metric!
Real innovation goes beyond simply adding new features. It's about solving customer problems and creating a better and frictionless user experience. Focus on simplifying the product to make it more user-friendly. While aesthetics are important, prioritize features that address real customer needs based on data and feedback.
Focusing excessively on features over customer value can lead to complex products that fail to meet core user needs, resulting in feature creep and wasted resources. Product managers should concentrate on delivering key features that provide real value, simplifying the user experience, and ensuring alignment with customer expectations. By adopting lean and agile methodologies, features can be developed and released iteratively, allowing for continuous feedback and adjustments. This approach ensures that products remain relevant and valuable, fostering a stronger connection with the intended audience and enhancing overall product success.
I would like to use WhatsApp and Telegram as an example here. Technically, Telegram has way more features than WhatsApp. This is because, Telegram focus on features than usability. However, consumers prefer the simplicity and value they derive from WhatsApp!
A third common mistake product managers make when driving innovation is to communicate and collaborate poorly with their stakeholders, such as the developers, the designers, the executives, and the customers. This can lead to misunderstandings, conflicts, delays, and missed opportunities, as well as a lack of alignment and buy-in. To avoid this mistake, product managers should communicate and collaborate effectively with their stakeholders, by using clear and concise language, setting clear and realistic expectations, soliciting and incorporating feedback, and building trust and rapport.
No matter how brilliant product managers' ideas are with a lack of communication skills and collaboration those ideas will not be made possible. Poor communication and collaboration lead to conflicts and delays and this will negatively impact the product work. Great communication and collaboration skills are very essential for the success of a product management role.
Poor communication and collaboration in product management can create barriers to innovation, leading to misunderstandings and missed opportunities. Effective engagement with stakeholders—developers, designers, executives, and customers—is crucial. Clear, concise communication and realistic expectation setting foster alignment and buy-in. Incorporating feedback and building trust is essential for successful collaboration. Product managers should prioritise these practices to navigate challenges smoothly and drive product innovation forward efficiently.
A fourth common mistake product managers make when driving innovation is to resist change, either from themselves or from others. This can lead to stagnation, complacency, and irrelevance, as well as missing out on new opportunities and threats. To avoid this mistake, product managers should embrace change, by being open-minded, curious, and adaptable, and by fostering a culture of learning and experimentation.
Driving innovation is hard especially when organizations resist the change. Change of any type is difficult to navigate, it takes tons of persuasion to onboard stakeholders to you plan. Especially when applying innovation internally, end users are set in their ways which is difficult to break. Making champions for your cause internally eases a lot of this effort. Through experimentation and continuous learning, product managers can find success in reducing the reluctance towards innovation. Champions can be your advocates for your cause and drive adoption faster. You can put in hard facts, in terms of success metrics and expected outcomes in front of stakeholders to get their buy in for driving innovation
Resistance to change in product management can stifle innovation, leading to stagnation and missed opportunities. Embracing change is essential; being open-minded, curious, and adaptable allows for discovering new possibilities and anticipating market shifts. Cultivating a culture of learning and experimentation among teams encourages continuous improvement and resilience against emerging challenges. This proactive stance on change ensures that products remain relevant and competitive, driving sustainable growth and innovation.
A fifth common mistake product managers make when driving innovation is to lack a clear and compelling vision and strategy for their products. This can lead to confusion, inconsistency, and distraction, as well as a loss of direction and purpose. To avoid this mistake, product managers should define and communicate a clear and compelling vision and strategy for their products, by articulating the customer problem, the value proposition, the differentiation, the goals, and the roadmap.
A number of my failures led me to a key learning as I transitioned from Project Manager to Product Manager -> vision and strategy are critical. How can your users, investors and stakeholders get excited about "this thing" if they can't understand what "this thing" is supposed to become? I am a huge advocate of innovation, of trying new things, of disrupting the status quo. I have had the privilege of leading innovative products/services for the last 6 years. However without vision/strategy, you are just innovating for the sake of it. Products are very rarely everything for everyone. At best, no vision/strategy can lead to feature creep, at worst, an expensive product with no clear market or user, that doesn't solve a real problem.
Failing to communicate the vision and strategy effectively to a team can lead to confusion, lack of direction, and misalignment among team members. Without a clear understanding of the overall goals and direction of the product, team members may work on tasks that are not in line with the strategy, leading to wasted time and resources. Effective communication helps ensure that everyone is on the same page, working towards the same objectives, and ultimately driving innovationin the right direction.
A sixth common mistake product managers make when driving innovation is to ignore the competition, either by being unaware of them, or by dismissing them as irrelevant or inferior. This can lead to overconfidence, arrogance, and blind spots, as well as losing market share and competitive advantage. To avoid this mistake, product managers should monitor and analyze the competition, by identifying their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, and by using them as benchmarks and inspiration.
What are the most common mistakes product managers make when driving innovation? 1. Not spending enough time with customers. 2. Not spending enough time with customers. 3. Not spending enough time with customers.
For B2B products: 1. not investing in integration, as one product or SaaS service is a tiny bit into the customer environment. Integration is the most powerful flywheel for enterprise products. 2. copying too much competition while not doing precise research on which features are just checkboxes for RPFs and which ones would be commonly used by customers 3. not understanding the business processes or having an e2e picture of how customers use their products, which causes the creation of siloed solutions 4. selecting a pricing model that does not scale with customer usage or choosing too complex pricing can prevent product adoption
Ultimately innovation is about value. It is very common to confuse purely inventions (technology) with innovations (technology applied to create value). The disruption from innovation comes from the novelty of finding new ways of solving a problem or tackling an opportunity.