As product people we can play a pivotal role in creating a product culture and instilling a product mindset. This talk covers the 'what and why' of product culture, and provides tools to create such a culture.

1. How to create a
product culture?
You can do this!
@maa1ProductTank Amsterdam, Feb ‘17

2. What is product culture?
Customer understanding
Value proposition
Business model & position @maa1

3. @maa1
Product culture components:
Shared vision, mission & values
Product mindset
Customer centric
Clear goals
Great people
Continuous learning

4. What I found on my 1st day:
Very successful business
‘Build it and they will come’
What is UX or product!? @maa1

5. @maa1
Asking “why?”
That’s where product
culture starts

6. @maa1
Leading without authority
Developers want Agile
Stakeholders want Gantt charts
People living in ‘peace time’
Safe to experiment and fail?

7. Don’t be a bulldozer!
@maa1

8. Pick your battles!
@maa1

9. Start small but
targeted:
Product vision
Mission statement
Manifesto
OKRs
Data
Customers
@maa1

10. Our product vision:
“Making international
growth simple”
@maa1

11. For (target customer)
Who (statement of the need or opportunity)
The (product name) is a (product category)
That (key benefit, compelling reason to buy)
Unlike (primary competitive alternative)
Our product (statement of primary differentiation)
Mission statement:
Which problems are we solving NOW?
@maa1

12. Hilton Hotels example:
Vision / Mission / Values @maa1

13. Aspirational
Long term
This is what
we are doing
NOW
Embody these values in
everything we do
Hire and fire accordingly
@maa1

14. Values underpinning a
product culture:
Curious
Courageous
Inventive
Open
Experiment
Learn
@maa1

15. Our team values and principles:
@maa1

16. “IT mindset”
Scale and execution
Doing what “the business”
wants
@maa1

17. “Product mindset”
It’s about the customer
stupid!
Constant innovation
@maa1@maa1

18. @maa1
How do we become more
customer centric?
5 customers every fortnight
Team based user research
‘Exposure Hours’
Feel what users feel
‘Product Retrospectives’
@maa1

19. People:
Hire and fire for the right
values and behaviours
‘Product Janitors’
@maa1

20. @maa1
Netflix aren’t afraid to
hire and fire

21. @maa1
Clear goals:
“Acquire better,
process better”

22. Individual OKRs for “Acquire
better, process better”
@maa1
Objective 4 - Improve on core metrics constantly and iteratively
Results:
1. Ensure that those clients who complete the registration form become 6 out of
every 10 by the end of December ’17.
2. Create a bespoke onboarding experience for our Asian clients, and increase
registration completion to 60% by end of December ’17 from 40% currently.
3. Work toward reducing the onboarding error rate by 10% globally by end of
June ’17.

23. Continuous learning:
Measurable
Data driven hypotheses
Full transparency
@maa1

24. @maa1
Iterative improvements and
innovation

25. You can drive product culture!
1. Create and share your product vision
2. Bring the customer into the building and share!
3. Facilitate product retrospectives
@maa1

26. https://www.kennorton.com/newsletter/2016-05-10-bringing-the-donuts.html
http://svpg.com/product-vs-it-mindset/
http://www.slideshare.net/RauwCC/social-media-week-rotterdam-wouter-de-bie-spotify
http://uxmag.com/articles/creating-a-shared-vision-that-works
http://blog.invisionapp.com/ux-principles-to-guide-your-product-design/
http://www.slideshare.net/reed2001/culture-1798664/23-Were_a_team_not_a
https://medium.com/@maa1/my-product-management-toolkit-16-how-not-to-become-a-
product-janitor-330db290334a#.39kz0xe7z
Links for further learning
@maa1

27. Slide 2 - http://www.mindtheproduct.com/2011/10/what-exactly-is-a-product-manager/
Slide 3 - http://www.theboardgamefamily.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/LEGOs.jpg
Slide 4 - http://sustainablejill.com/the-importance-of-good-focus/magnifying-glass/
Slide 5 - https://parabolasales.com/2016/07/24/why-do-we-do-it-this-way/
Slide 6 - http://www.clipartbest.com/warning-signs-danger
Slide 7 - https://hostted.com/bulldozer-clipart/
Slide 8 - https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/35/Battle_of_New_Orleans.jpg
Slide 9 - http://www.business2community.com/online-marketing/do-you-want-to-succeed-online-start-
small-01292881
Slide 10 - https://plus.google.com/+worldfirst/videos
Slide 12/13 - http://www.hiltonworldwide.com/about/mission/
Slide 14 - https://thefinancialbrand.com/4410/banks-core-values/
Slide 16 - http://www.touchfinancial.co.uk/scaling-up-your-business/
Slide 17 - http://www.atlascorps.org/blog/?p=13712
Slide 18 - http://agilesyndicate.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/inspect-and-adapt-your-retrospective.html
Slide 19 - https://www.lego.com/en-gb/minifigures/characters/
janitor-4e9937bd82524499bdd36f44705f08c3
Slide 20 - http://www.slideshare.net/reed2001/culture-1798664/23-Were_a_team_not_a
Slide 21 - http://x-seed.in/customer-acquisition-cost-the-masked-killer/
Slide 23 - http://www.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk/p/keep-quiet-and-let-the-data-speak/
Slide 25 - http://www.driversedguru.com/drivers-ed-training-exercises/stage-1/stage-1-steering-methods/
Image credits
@maa1