The Build Trap
Melissa Perri
@lissijean
Produx Labs

@lissijean

@lissijean
Everyone’s doing the SAFety Dance
@lissijean

What is all this shit?
@lissijean

@lissijean
Copier
Printer
Scanner
Fax
Stapler
Magician
Satan

@lissijean

@lissijean
We keep adding to the backlog
and never take away.

@lissijean
“We need to train
our Product Owners”

@lissijean

What is all this shit?
@lissijean#LAScot16

@lissijean
The
Build Trap
@lissijean

@lissijean@lissijean
How did
we get
here?

@lissijean
Agile
processes
don’t have
a brain.
@lissijean

@lissijean
“Scrum doesn’t focus on
delivering just any increment
of business value; it focuses
on delivering the highest
priority business value as
defined by the customer
(Product Owner).”
The
Product
Owner
Agile Project
Management with Scrum
Ken Schwaber, 2004

@lissijean

@lissijean
Agile is not enough.
We need more…

@lissijean
We need
Product Management

@lissijean
We treat Product Strategy as a plan.
PROBLEM

@lissijean
Ingredients and
recipes shipped
to your door.

@lissijean
What is your
product strategy?

@lissijean
“I want a document with every
field you intend to put on the
site and the content strategy
so I can build a back end.”

@lissijean
Most Product
Strategies
are wish lists
of features.

@lissijean
Most
Roadmaps
are gantt
charts.

@lissijean
Creating new products
is full of uncertainty.

@lissijean
Product strategy
emerges
from experimentation.

@lissijean
Product Strategy is a system,
made up of visions, goals,
constraints, and where we are
now that results in desired
business and customer outcomes.

@lissijean
UNIFIED FIELD THEORY
Bill Costantino
& Mike Rother
@lissijean

@lissijean@lissijean

@lissijean@lissijean

@lissijean@lissijean

@lissijean@lissijean

@lissijean@lissijean

@lissijean@lissijean

@lissijean@lissijean

@lissijean
What is your
product strategy?

@lissijean
Ingredients and
recipes shipped
to your door.

5 years FDS a top dinner option for the target market.
double acquisition Dec 2016

@lissijean
Product leaders provide
vision, goals, and guardrails.
@lissijean

@lissijean
“The price is too high,
we should lower it.”
“The photos are not enticing.”
“We need to rebrand the sign
up funnel to the new design.”
“We should be offering
sign up gifts.”
“They cannot try it for free!”

@lissijean
Increase
conversion rate
by X%

5 years FDS a top dinner option for the target market.
double acquisition Dec 2016
increase conversion rate across all
platforms by X% by end of Q2.
conversion rate is Y% on desktop
and X% on mobile.

@lissijean
Company
Goal,
Product KPI,
Future state.
What are
users
doing now?
What’s the
first
little goal?
User Research,
Product
Experiments
Product Kata
1 2 3 4
Planning Experimenting
A scientific, systematic way to build better products.

@lissijean
Obstacle:
We don’t understand why
people are leaving.
@lissijean

@lissijean
Learned:
The top reasons people are leaving.
@lissijean
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
Reason
Can't Find Menu What's in the box? The price is too high I want more plan options I am vegan

@lissijean
Obstacle:
People cannot find the menu.
@lissijean

@lissijean

@lissijean

@lissijean
FAQS HELPFDS

@lissijean
FDS FDS

@lissijean

@lissijean
LEARNING reduces uncertainty.

@lissijean
EXPERIMENTING
IS THE
NEW BLACK
@lissijean

@lissijean
If users engage
with the site more,
then they will buy
more insurance
policies.
HYPOTHESIS
Pop ups that lead
users to insurance
policies.
Success = clicking
TEST

Jim, Exec Mgr for
Business Line
Great,
let’s build these
three features.

@lissijean

@lissijean
Experiment
Theater

@lissijean
I want a refund.

@lissijean
Measuring success on outputs.
PROBLEM

Jim, Exec Mgr for
Business Line

@lissijean
We build and
launch with no
measures of
success.
@lissijean

@lissijean@lissijean

@lissijean
Outcomes
over
Output

@lissijean
Jeff Patton
60%
Valley of MehAwful Awesome!
SUCCESS OF PRODUCTS

@lissijean
Jeff Patton
60%
Valley of MehFailure Success
SUCCESS FOR BIG COMPANIES

@lissijean
Jeff Patton
Failure Success
SUCCESS FOR STARTUPS

@lissijean
Lack of focus on the real customer.
PROBLEM

@lissijean
Problem
Customers don’t
have custom
dashboards.

@lissijean
Problem
Customers don’t
have custom
dashboards.
Solution
Custom
dashboards.

@lissijean
Customers’ problems
are not lack of
your product’s features.

@lissijean
Customers’ problems
are not
YOUR PROBLEMS.

@lissijean
“As a user I want to
engage with the site
but it’s boring.”

@lissijean

YOU ARE
BIASED.
@lissijean#LAScot16

@lissijean
TALK TO YOUR USERS.
DIRECTLY.

@lissijean

@lissijean
Jeff Patton & Giff Constable
Confidence
Investment

@lissijean
Jeff Patton & Giff Constable
Confidence
Investment

@lissijean

@lissijean
Your colleagues are
not your customers.
(unless you are building internal tools)

@lissijean
We built a mobile app before
and it was successful last time.
But, Melissa, users don’t
know what they want.

@lissijean
Solving big problems for
customers creates
big value for businesses.
@lissijean

@lissijean
DISCOVERY
DELIVERY

How did
we get
here?
@lissijean

@lissijean

@lissijean

@lissijean

@lissijean
We built a mobile app before
and it was successful last time.
They just don’t
understand Agile.

@lissijean

@lissijean
We built a mobile app before
and it was successful last time.
Do we even need
Product Owners?

@lissijean

@lissijean
We need product people
who know how to make
valuable software by
recognizing uncertainty.

@lissijean
Agile is not
enough to get out
of the Build Trap.

@lissijean

@lissijean#LAScot16

@lissijean
What are you going to
do about it?

Melissa Perri
melissa@produxlabs.com
produxlabs.com
melissaperri.com
@lissijean
Melissa Perri
CEO, ProdUX Labs
melissa@produxlabs.com
melissaperri.com
produxlabs.com
@lissijean