Enhancing Product Management and User Experience

At our second book club meeting, we covered the next four chapters of our first book, Continuous Discovery Habits. These chapters went over visualizing what we know, continuous interviewing, mapping the opportunity space and prioritizing opportunities rather than solutions. It was a lively discussion that included people from various departments and teams across the company. ? ??

These are the chapters we reviewed:? ?

Visualizing What We Know? ?

Our discussion leader shared an example where he used a visualization to outline a process in Kahua and identify opportunities for improvement. The group discussed the benefits of using drawings to understand systems and processes. It helps define a system, identify areas for improvement and pinpoint design challenges, such as moments when users think, "What do I do now?"? ?

We highlighted the importance of developing an understanding instead of jumping directly to a solution. We also noted that the author discussed the value of each contributor creating their own drawing first before sharing with the group, to ensure that different viewpoints were considered.? ?

Continuous Interviewing? ?

We reviewed the key points from this chapter, which included the idea that there is a difference between asking the customer for a solution vs seeking customer input to discover opportunities. Other key points were the value of interviewing at least one customer per week, involving the whole team in the interview and asking the customer to share their experiences rather than asking direct questions, with the idea that can reveal more opportunities to solve problems instead of focusing on pre-determined solution. ? ?

We discussed the process we use at Kahua and what opportunities exist to apply the points in the book to our own work. We reviewed an example of a post-interview snapshot that captured the key elements of context, insights and opportunities. ? ?

Mapping the Opportunity Space? ?

The ideas in this chapter included the idea that each gap in customer expectations is an opportunity and they are endless. The goal is not to address every opportunity, but to find and address the ones with the biggest impact on outcomes. Writing out opportunity trees allows us to deconstruct complex problems into smaller solvable ones and we should be careful of solutions disguised as opportunities. ? ?

We reviewed an opportunity tree that had been created and discussed how it related the desired business outcome and how to identify the opportunities that will have the biggest impact on outcomes.? ?

Prioritizing Opportunities, Not Solutions? ?

Our last chapter for discussion included the ideas that we should focus on one opportunity at a time, compare to find the best opportunity to work on, the factors to consider when reviewing opportunities to work on and that we should not be afraid to pivot as new information comes in. ? ?

We discussed the idea of identifying the opportunities at the right level of detail and not looking at too high a level. We also talked about communicating back with our customers and closing the loop on conversations about their requests. And finally, we wrapped up by talking about our key takeaways from the book so far.? ?

The conversation was a great example of Kahua’s commitment to its core values, in this case specifically Continuous Improvement and Customer Focus. It is amazing to work with such great people willing to engage in thoughtful discussions around these important concepts. I am looking forward to our next book club meeting!?

About the Author

Eileen Feeley is a Technical Writer at Kahua with a strong background in documentation and construction management software.? She has a degree in Civil Engineering from Cornell University.? Early in her career she worked at DPR Construction where she discovered her passion for software training.? She then joined Meridian Project Systems as a trainer for Prolog Manager, an early entrant in the construction management software space.? She later worked for Autotask, a PSA software for MSPs, honing her skills in developing documentation for business software. She joined Kahua in 2023.?