Impressions: Product Parallels with Kim's Convenience

Disclaimer: This post is not related to my employment with CBC and I am not paid to write this post. This post is a true reflection of my views on why Kim's convenience is a runaway hit. I still hope the creators can come back together and give this show a closure that all the fans are longing for.

There are many shows that my wife and I start watching but there are only a select few that catch our attention and we continue to complete the show. One such show that we watched was Kim's Convenience. As per me, an episode of this hit sitcom can give you energy on a draining day. There are various aspects of why this show is a success and I was able to see parallels and learning for product managers which can help them succeed. Here are my takeaways as a Product Manager from Kim's Convenience.

Keep It Simple: The primary reason for the success of this show was the creators of the show kept the show simple enough that the users had no trouble connecting with the show. The seamless flow of story helped the audience understand the value of the show without the need for re-emphasizing. In the digital world, a product is a success when the user can understand the flow without the intervention of a specialist. Keeping it simple is a not an herculean task. Think of a product from a customer's perspective, users should not require hand-holding to understand your product and the value it brings to them.

Building Strong Persona(s): The show had a father, mother, son, daughter, friend(s), and a boss and each one of them has a strong characters. Some key tips for building a strong character includes Building characters by describing their attributes and what they do with those attributes, Focus on why they are important, Show their motivation and also include their strengths and weaknesses. This ensured that the audience were able to relate with the show and consume the content with joy. Similarly, when a persona is built in the following sequence it will help stakeholders an opportunity to discuss critical features, develop a common understanding of the audience, build an informed design and creating more empathy and understanding of the product's users.

Key Steps in building a Persona:

1. Give them a fictional name
2. Give them title and build core responsibilities
3. Define their core characteristics
4. Provide more information around their demographics: Gender, Ethnicity, Age, and Education.
5. Their background and dependencies/constraints
6. What is the motivation behind them using our product, What is their objective?
7. What is stopping them from taking it a level up? Frustrations and pain-points

Would like to understand if there is a show that had a similar impact on you and probably even understand the perspective of my readers to understand why certain shows failed.