Do You Know Your Product Soul?

My biggest all-time mentors is Drew Henry. We worked together when he was the SVP and GM of the Mobile Business Unit at SanDisk. Brilliant Marketer and sharp as a knife, Drew introduced me to the concept of Product Soul. 

Initially, it was weird to all of us at the product team and some folks thought it was a waste of time. But this became one of the most powerful tools for us in product management discipline. The product soul is a phrase (limit it to a sentence, or two at most) that captures the product’s essence. Given a typical technology product has hundreds of functional and technical requirements (stated in the MRD / PRD documents) it is extremely hard to express in a short and precise way what you want to build. I urge you to try and do it on a product you are working on now. You will be surprised how hard it is! 

Discussing the product’s soul happened again and again with each product we did. Arguing over the product’s soul forced us to boil it down to a single phrase that described exactly we wanted to build.  

You would like to cover the problem that the product is solving, who is it for and who is it not for. Some examples of phrases that are good to use as part of the soul (you can fill the blanks): "(your product name) is the highest performing (product category), targeting the high-end segment of...", or "(your product name) is the lowest cost (product category), provides good user experience for the mainstream segment as the best value for money alternative", or "(your product name) is the first product to enable users to (unique function) in a single (SW/Platform/App...)". You get the idea by now: what does it do, who is it for, and what set it apart from the competition, in the simplest and shortest form possible. Every word count!

But this is not just an exercise in crystallizing the value proposition of a product. What we have found even more valuable is that the product’s soul serves as a beacon along the way.

You have hurdles during the development process, and you should make trade-offs. You get new market insights ( young product managers would see it as changes in the market but most likely it is your understanding of the market that is changing...not the market itself). You get customers’ feedback and requirements along the development of the product. It is easy to fall into the trap of consecutive small logical decisions with an additive effect of the wrong result. We have found that when we make big decisions about a product, we do it in light of the product soul. Does adding this feature really serve the soul (or, it addresses one specific customer with a unique need)? does an increasing cost of the product is in line with the product soul?

The question whether customer feedback or even re-occurring feature requests should change the product scope and specifications is a tough one. If you know your product soul you are more likely to make the right decision.

Key takeaway: Define the product’s soul at the very beginning of a product definition. Use it as a beacon along the development cycle.