Key Terms and Concepts

The three stages of a company:

• Startup: getting to product/market fit
• Growth stage: scaling to success
• Enterprise: consistent product innovation

Discovery & Delivery

Discovery A rapid series of experiments that enable us to discover solutions to the problems our team is tasked to solve. The results don’t scale -> prototype.

The thinking behind Discovery: “FAKE IT to build the right product”

Cadence: At Discovery we talk 10-30 iterations – per week!

Example video of the Nordstrom innovation lab showcasing Discovery (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NFH3VC6LNs)

Delivery Building shippable products that provide the necessary scale, performance, reliability, security, and accuracy for us to release, sell and support with confidence. The results do scale -> product.

The thinking behind Delivery: “MAKE IT to build the product right“

Cadence: At Delivery we see typically ½ – 1 iteration – per week.

Discovery and Delivery happen all the time in parallel (dual track agile). Discovery is rarely done by engineers, it’s usually done by Product Managers (PM) and Product Designers (PD). Engineers are busy with Delivery. PM and PD save 1 hour a day for Delivery. Engineers spend ½ hour a day for Discovery. The engineers spend time playing with the prototype, point to critical elements and think about ways to solve specific tasks in a better way.

The product vision is roughly 5 years out.

Objectives

Objectives are usually set using Objectives Key Results (OKR). A typical objective might be “fix international conversion rate”. See: https://www.agile-minds.com/product-vision-objectives-notes-on-how-to-create-tech-products-customers-love/

MVP

MVP = Minimum Viable Product (better: Test, Prototype). It is the smallest experiment we can devise to try out an idea or tackle a specific risk in product discovery (usually a prototype; never a product!)

Product Market Fit

The smallest delivered product that we can sell, that meets the needs of a specific market.

Innovation

Consistently delivering new sources of value to our users and customers – creating value

Optimization

A low-risk, minor improvement to existing product – capturing value

This blog post is part of a series. It summarizes my personal notes of the workshop held by Marty Cagan “How to Create Tech Products Customers Love” from 5th to 6th of June in 2019 in San Francisco.

• #1 Foreword
• #2 Introduction & Root Causes of Product Failures
• #3 Key Terms & Concepts
• #4 Product Teams & Product People
• #5 Product Vision & Objectives
• #6 Product Analytics
• #7 Product at Scale
• #8 Product Development Process
• #9 Product Discovery Principles
• #10 Product Discovery Techniques
• #11 Product Culture & Transformation