The PI of Product Making – a Philosophical Approach

With so many tools and techniques in place, why launching a great product is difficult? Marketing or selling, or monetizing a product is a different ball game. However, creating something is not easy; it is a daunting task. It is said that more than 90% of products fail in one way or other, and more than 80% of products don't meet the initial set of features or core goals or what they were supposed to deliver. Why is creating something difficult, and it leads to failure in most cases? It was a daunting question for me for several years as I tried several things on my own and failed miserably. One thing was clear that mere passion and hard-work were not enough to build something amazing. There must be something else, and many of us go through that same pain when creating something new.

Ultimately the reason for failure boils down to the following in my experience.

Reasons for failure:

1. Not solving a problem very well.
2. Lack of research
3. Lack of skills
4. Unable to create a plan and follow through (planning and execution)
5. Lack of resourcefulness
6. Logistics and operational issues
7. Regulations and law

These are attributing reasons for failure, but the theme of failure is even simpler. And there are just two reasons - People and Information. They are the PI of product making.

All the reasons for failure have a combination of People and Information components. People bring emotions (passion and everything else), inspirations, beliefs, good (or bad) will, skills, etc. The information enables them to do everything they need to do. We might have super-focused people, but a lack of information about your country of business regulations or legal compliance aspects can lead to massive failure if your product touches any of the legal boundaries. Lack of skills is also about having the right people on the team. Logical and operational issues may seem out of anyone's control, but it is not. If you have enough information about what to expect and with the right intuition (people factor), logical/operational issues can either be avoided or solved. Even sales & marketing is a game of information; information about the market requirements, competitors, ideal customers, leads, etc.

If People and Information are the keys to either success or failure, then we need to manage these two themes better than anything else.

Planning, designing, processes, frameworks, execution, etc., are the basics of product making, and we are not going to discuss that here. In my experience, three fundamental shifts to improve or strengthen the PI of product making areas are as follows.

1.  Changing the perspective
2. Enhancing the dimension
3. Creating a plot or story

Changing the perspective: 

• Changing the perspective means changing how we look at things and detaching ourselves from understanding things to get a higher perspective. The Earth was assumed to be a big flat surface, and people used to fear sailing in the seas as they assumed to fall off the edge of the flat Earth. When we changed our perspective by detaching ourselves from the surface and looked at the Earth from outer space, everything got changed. Look at the long-haul sailing/transport, flights, satellite communications, and space research possible after the understanding and perspective change from flat to spherical Earth.

How it applies to the "people" theme?

• We need to change our perspective by asking the right questions about what problem we are solving; how we can better meet our customers/users better.
• Team members can be trained to change their perspective by challenging the status quo. New perspectives will fetch new and better solutions.

At the end of the day, whatever you do - it is all about people. Some are your team members or associates, some are your investors, some are your supporters, and many are/will be your customers. Changing perspective will make you discover new horizons.

How it applies to the "information" theme?

• If you can't measure something, you can't control that, which ultimately leads to failure. Deploying sound systems or methodologies to collect and review data is very important. Meaningful data is known as information. Key data indicators could be number of productive hours spent, number of modules developed per day, cash flow or revenue numbers, number of defects, tracking to the plan, several issues and what they are, KPIs, and information about customer reception MVPs, customer research/surveys, etc.
• The idea is to hunt for information and the more collected/reviewed about your product in the early stages.
• Laws and regulations are essential to be understood, and information should be researched and consumed by everyone on the product team irrespective of their roles. Some information may not be used immediately but gives perspectives in the future.

If stuck on problems and issues, then gather data to change perspectives. Learn to unlearn to solve new problems and unblock blockers.

How to change the perspective? Three easy ways.

Question your understanding, knowledge, and experience

• Example - Let's say you are very excited about your POS product and think, "all the restaurants in Canada will need my POS product." Ask yourself, "could that assumption be wrong?" "Are restaurants going to buy what I am creating, or they would need something more or something else?". Let's say you think, "developers are not up to the mark, and they are not capable of developing this product." Ask yourself, "could it be a case that they are struggling with a bad design, and it's not a developer problem at all?"

Emotions to create motion

• The most powerful thing about the human race's progress is not the human brain but human emotions. The brain can become a mechanical tool for survival, and emotions lead the way by creating emotions to what we do. Our emotions will probably keep us moving on the right path and enable us to make the right decisions that might seem illogical at times to the brain.
• Emotions have a certain level of energy and attach the wings to thoughts and ideas. Try the "feeling exercise," which is merely going back to memory and visualizing future positive events related to your goals and feel it in your body. When we really feel the problem with positive emotions (hopefulness, trust, love, etc.) then attaching negative emotions (fear, hatred, anger, etc.), things will automatically change.

Get detached and be an observer.

• This is a beneficial technique that will yield amazing insights to shift your perspective. Just think you are someone outside of the situation and look at things from an outsider's perspective.
• Getting detached is very useful to truly see what is going on and what is around to find better solutions, results, and gain a deep understanding of something (literally anything).

Enhancing the dimension: 

• Changing perspective is looking at the same things from different angles or positions, or contexts. However, enhancing the dimension is a leveled-up game. We see objects in three dimensions (like a 3D movie), and how it feels to add a fourth dimension as motion or smell at the movie theatres? Enhancing dimension means raising consciousness by employing additional ways to perceive. This could seem not easy at first but then becomes a second nature to enhance the dimension of everything we encounter.

How it applies to the "people" theme?

• When "attitude" is rewarded more than "aptitude," the dimensions of people's contribution starts to change. Not necessarily over-enthusiasm to be encouraged, but an attitude to learn and solve should be given priority over skills and experience.
• When people are encouraged to pursue their interests and learning, they unfold many possibilities beyond defined plans, tasks, and action items.
• Enhancing dimension for "people" theme could also mean to include or engage your customers (they are people too) as your partners in improving your products as ultimately you are building something for them. Ask them for feedback or employ other innovative ways of engagement.

How it applies to the "information" theme?

• You might be looking at your product backlog health and velocity etc., as key indicators. Still, maybe you can develop another indicator as "daily team mood" by employing a simple process and seeing how miraculously linked with your team's performance and what you can do to improve it on certain days and situations.

How to enhance dimension? Three easy ways.

Serve more and add more value.

• Remember, anything that serves more becomes more. Your product might be solving a problem of limited access to high-quality education/training. Still, if it also allows your customers to get advice/counseling on choosing a tech career path, that could be immensely valuable.

Remember, anything that serves more becomes more.

Employ evolution

• Evolution is a flywheel, and once set in motion, it will create unlimited forms without seemingly stopping. Whatever you are in life, don't be a complacent human. Employ an evolutionary mindset of people and information themes to explore new opportunities to serve your customers and gathering further information as you evolve to evolve. Evolution to people mindset can be done by training them that their roles and responsibilities will evolve and making sure it evolves.

Altered reward system

• Everything we do has a reward response attached to it; otherwise, we won't move an inch. Seeking rewards are deep-rooted or unconsciously attached, and we keep doing things, not realizing why we are doing that. Year-end appraisal, raise, bonus, and victory are conventional rewards.
• An example of an altered reward system would be - thinking of your business as a vehicle to make money to spend on charity activities like feeding the hungry and educating people in scarce economic conditions. If you can install this alternate reward in your mind rather than earn a good living and lifestyle, you may start getting unstopped inspirations.
• When you realize your failure will deprive someone else or maybe many people of living a much greater life with richer experiences, blind them from higher knowledge and happiness, you will choose better things in life. Your reward system has changed, and it's not about 'you' anymore. Most of the breakthroughs or even awakenings happen when we go beyond that 'me' and think of the reward system from a different place.
• Think about how your product can help others beyond your prominent customers to enhance the dimension of the work you are doing.

 Creating a plot or story: 

• Nothing attracts more like a good story. Good stories can get us into a trans-state like listening to music. Stories and music have nothing to do with our survival instincts, but our inclination towards them is really interesting. Creating a story and telling it well could be a significant game-changer if you want to make a difference in people's lives.
• Every story has a hero who struggles of some kind and after a series of ups, downs, chases, fights, laughs, cries, hates, loves, braveries, losses… and finally, he wins. You can create a storyline for your product, and your product should be ‘the hero’ in that story. It would help if you created a plot of your product's birth, how it grows, its struggles, improvements, and finally, its celebration. Creating a story about your product helps to launch your product successfully with a clear roadmap that anticipates rough spots and creates excellent marketing materials/concepts that you can use even after the launch.

How it applies to the "people" theme?

• Chances of people following a roadmap are more than a plan, as they know where they are going and what to expect in the path. Everyone likes certainty, and a roadmap is somehow more certain than a theoretical idea of 'project plans.' Creating a plot with a start and an end, and everything else that might come up during the execution keeps the focus and motivation to create something great. People win in familiar terrains. When you create a plot or a story for your product, you may foresee unknowns and equip your team with weapons to win. Laying out a great story associates peoples' emotions with the 'making of a great product.'

How it applies to the "information" theme?

• Creating a plot or story makes intuitive information available easily. When you have anticipated and unanticipated information available to you, you can employ countermeasures and methods to deal with unforeseen better.
• While creating a story about your product, you might encounter possible features or frameworks to be built for future markets, add-ons for new merger/acquisition possibilities, factors that may directly or indirectly get impacted audit or compliance or government requirements.
• Vision for the climax: When you create your product's journey and story, give special attention to the climax part of it; as every story starts and ends; your product's story will begin from development with a roadmap to launch and then how well it performs in the market and for how long it stays alive and then what happens at the end. This will give you an immense amount of information to be equipped with for the days to come, and you will know whether you will meet your product's vision one day or will go beyond.

All the very best to you, in case you are building/creating a product of some kind with an intent to make a difference. There are technologies or processes available to run/deliver a product or project; but, to create a soulful product that impacts many lives, these thoughts may be of some value to you. Thanks for reading!