What are the most common challenges in evaluating your own work for product innovation?

Yup, confirmation bias has bitten us all. It's like wearing rose-coloured glasses for your own creation, making flaws invisible and amplifying strengths that might not even exist. But fear not, intrepid product makers! We're not stuck with this creative kryptonite. The antidote is just a test away. Just like we need teachers to point out our grammatical errors, testing serves as the objective tutor for your product. Practical tools like Maze are your testing superhero, wielding powerful weapons like usability scores and product metrics. They slice through the fog of bias, revealing what users truly think and do. With real data in hand, you can break free from your blind spots and focus on what truly matters: innovation.

Backup and check expectations, results, evaluations based on own work by third party feedback - colleagues, branch meetings, target customers, existing customers you built trust and share intimacy with. Third-party proof-of-concept is key to success

If you are suffering from attachment and biases towards your solution you'll benefit from a change in perspective. Your task is not the solution, but the solving the problem. The solution is a tool. You shouldn't be proud of a tool but of what you can do with it. So measure your design impact and iterate.

The best way to overcome bias and attached is to test your assumptions with a diverse set of real, target customers at every stage in the process. No idea is too early to test in some form or another using lean experiments. Lean experiments can be anything from eliciting reactions to a sketch on a piece of paper creating "Wizard of Oz" prototypes that simulate a fully formed experience. These test and learn techniques should allow you eradicate your bias at every stage of the process, as long as you're involving real customers. The value of any product or service is in it's ability to solve customer problems - not in the solution itself. So leave your ego at the door and focus on empathy. That's the best headstart you can give yourself!

Understand stakeholders is absolutely key to evaluation. Your product is nothing but sweat, blood and tears born out of passion which is paid for by money. You have to ask, physically ask, not theoretical reflection here, what sweat the customer is experiencing that will make them want your product. Where is their passion for purchase. You have to be brave enough to hear that it's not what you think makes your product great that counts but why the customer liked it. It could be something as trivial as the colour was blue and that's what made you stand out in the market. Accept it and learn what other pain points the customer is experiencing that you can solve for them. Developing a product can be a very lonely experience.

Start by starting should be the mantra of all product and innovation teams. The quickest way to understand scope and complexity is to identify and test your assumptions. Map out and prioritise your assumptions using metrics such as Desirability, Feasibility, & Viability. Your riskiest assumption will likely always be whether customers value having the problem solved that your product is solving. So find the quickest way to test that assumption, with the least investment. Every round of testing & experimentation will make your scope and roadmap clearer. One of the biggest obstructions to innovation is the need for all the answers up front - which will never be possible, so powerful storytelling is essential to navigate internal challenges.

Geralmente os escopos est?o mais misturados do que claros e 'cercados' dentro do contexto de times. Isso por si só já é complexo para administrar. Penso que se boas oportunidades est?o negligenciadas por que n?o tem 'dono' seja esse dono e fa?a acontecer. Garanta alinhamento, mas n?o deixe as boas oportunidades passarem por que n?o existem defini??es básicas definidas.

Ensuring quality and standards form the cornerstone of product innovation. I have observed the following challenges that can compromise adherence to these standards: - Time pressures can compromise in-depth testing and refinement, impacting overall quality. - Limited resources may hinder investment in quality assurance processes and technologies. - Evolving customer needs or market trends can prompt frequent changes. - Developing complex products or integrating multiple systems can challenge maintaining uniform quality. - Adhering to stringent industry standards and regulations adds complexity. Addressing these challenges demands a holistic approach, fostering a culture of quality throughout the product development lifecycle.

Importante pensar que qualidade está atrelado ao que funciona bem para o seu cliente e n?o necessariamente é o 'estado da arte'. Veja, entregar rápido e aprender é mais importante que entrega 'bem acabado', por que no final do dia, o produto nunca está 'acabado'.

Quality and standards is a balance. You have to hold yourself and your teams to account for delivering the highest possible quality to serve the customer need you're designing for. However, focus on releasing high quality product increments, rather than getting bogged down in documentation, or perfect code. These things are important, but they can wait in favour Minimum Loveable Releases. Tools are all well and good, but quality is a mindset that is about serving a customer need and driving value to the best of your ability within the current context. Time-boxing work using sprints is a good place to start, and being rigorous about your definition of done. But bottomline, put yourself in the customer shoes and ask "Is it good enough?".

All of the challenges described above are cultural. The best product-centric companies orient themselves around customer empathy, curiousity and self-reflection, and a relentless bias towards action. If you want to build this kind of organisation or mindset within your team, then you need to create the environment and systemic supports for these behaviours to thrive. That means psychological safety to fail and learn, product release over perfect process and a roadmapping and budgeting process that reflects these goals. You can't change culture without changing the enabling systems. So, learn to tell stories, influence stakeholders and shape the environment for your teams and an innovation mindset to thrive.

Does your product have a story? Is there something to discuss and share with others. Was your journey eventful or epic? Who did you meet on the way? Did they help or did they not see the potential? When you take a break from building your product, grab a coffee and reflect on your story. Start telling it to yourself, plan how you want it to go. Then understand the audience that you are going to tell this story to. You will sell your story long before you sell your product...

As a product leader, one of the most common challenges in evaluating our own work for product innovation is maintaining objectivity. It's easy to become emotionally invested in our ideas, leading to bias and overlooking potential flaws. Additionally, navigating the balance between staying true to our vision and being open to feedback from users and stakeholders can be tricky. Lastly, keeping up with rapidly evolving market trends and technologies while ensuring alignment with company goals adds another layer of complexity. Ultimately, mastering self-awareness and fostering a culture of continuous learning and adaptation are key to overcoming these challenges and driving meaningful innovation.

Seeing the forest through the trees. We often get so close to our own ideas that's nearly impossible to step back and evaluate them impartially. That's expected. If you *know* this, however, you can garner feedback from third parties to help determine the value of the ideas you're pursuing. Focus on defining the metrics and KPIs for success, and then force yourself ask the questions that will deliver on those metrics. Don't allow your emotions to cloud your judgement about the value of your idea. We all want our ideas to be amazing, but wanting and achieving aren't the same thing.