Congratulations! You have a digital product team, which means you recognize the importance of digital product management. Before we dive into what you can do to make this team successful, let’s first align on what a “product” is.
Traditionally, products have been considered physical goods—cars, cell phones, furniture–things produced by people or machines in factories or workshops, etc. But thanks to the digital age, we now also have digital products— software applications, subscription services, e-books—things often (but not always) produced by software engineers or programmers. While many products can easily be classified as digital or physical, some are neither. Instead, they might better be described as services or experiences. Muddying the waters further, insurance has its own products–insurance products. These don’t fall squarely into any category and may be a combination of all of them.
It’s helpful, then, to think about products less in terms of what they are (digital or physical, etc.), but in terms of what they do. And what do all of the above have in common? What makes them products? They exist to fulfill a customer’s want, need, or desire. In short, they offer customers something of value. The centrality of the customer in this equation cannot be overstated.
Another thing to remember: good products are seldom born of a singular stroke of genius. Good products are designed, built, shaped, tested, refined, and optimized continuously over time. Good products take advantage of new and existing digital assets (physical products and services) to create seamless user experiences that increase business value.
Building products like this requires a dedicated, qualified team of product professionals to shepherd a product vision. In short, if you want to build great products, you are going to need a great product team.
So how do you ensure you have a great product team? Here are six tips to set up your product team for success.
1. Advocate for a product-centric culture within your organization
Introducing a product team is an important first step, but to be successful, your organization as a whole needs to recognize and understand the central role this team plays in the organization’s success. Often, organizations view a product team as just a customer research arm, as those responsible for keeping digital initiatives on time and within budget, or as an extension of the tech or the marketing team.
You (and your product team) must advocate for their place at the table and understand their critical role in building digital product experiences that achieve business targets and deliver customer value.
If your product team doesn’t have the authority to influence business strategy, then it will not be effective. Without this authority, the team will not be able to build successful products because they will constantly be trying to convince other teams and departments of their importance. Product teams need to own the product.
TIP: Autonomy is a defining trait of high-performing product teams. Find a way to push more power to your team.
2. Staff your team with the “right” skills, roles, and resources
It may seem obvious, but the right product team will have the right people on it. As discussed above, to perform at the highest levels, your product team must be viewed within your organization as knowledgeable, approachable, and open to feedback and suggestions. Staffing your team with the right combination of skills, roles, and resources is key to this effort.
To collaboratively drive customer and business outcomes, your product team should include a combination of project managers, product managers, UX/UI designers, software developers/engineers, QA specialists, and business analysts. Remember, building your digital product is a collaborative effort and requires lots of cross-team interactions.
3. Clearly define, align, and focus YOUR success around your customer
Building a good team comprised of the right people is just the beginning. Before your team can get to work, bringing everything to life with speed and success, they must align on the product vision, goals, and strategy.
Your product team must have a shared product vision. To build something, you need to be able to measure it; otherwise, you can’t improve upon it. Success lies at the intersection of customer and business value. Always start with the customer because ultimately their success will lead to business value.
What does the customer need from our product? A one-stop shop? A quote in 60 seconds? Peace of mind knowing someone can help?
Prioritizing customer values like these will lead to business value–-like an increased customer base, higher revenue, or average 4.8-star customer satisfaction.
It is all too easy to get distracted when building and launching products when competitors are launching features and experiences that are gaining traction in the marketplace, when your agencies are telling you to be more agile, when conferences feature 50 new technologies and APIs you must have.
“People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas.” – Steve Jobs, Apple
Focus on your product vision and the initiatives that deliver tangible customer (and business) value. Build and release those things. Don’t get distracted by what’s new or different. And don’t settle for something your tech team says isn’t a capability. Let your customer be your measurement of success.
4. Organize product delivery by customer-centric themes
If you find your product team is consistently handing off their work to another team to fulfill the customer experience, it is time to restructure and reskill the team to give it the authority to provide a more seamless experience and product for the end customer. This approach most likely requires breaking out of internal silos.
One of the greatest challenges product teams face (especially in insurance) is the slow-moving nature of organizational silos. These silos create inefficiencies — five teams could be working on very similar initiatives — over-inflating the cost to market and creating a disjointed customer experience within your organization’s product offerings.
Customer needs—not internal business silos–should always be the organizing principle behind what your product team does.
For example, most product teams are organized around a specific line of business or digital property, which often means they must hand off digital products and experiences to different teams to complete a full user experience. Instead, consider organizing your product teams by themes like these:
- Customer Type/Persona: homeowner, first-time visitor, small business owner
- Goal/Conversion: Make an online purchase, work with an expert, gain expertise
- Function: Communications, mobile optimization, video
5. Engage directly with customers for continuous improvement
To ensure you are building the right product at the right time for your customers; speak directly with them about what you want to build, enhance, or test. Remember, execution is everything.
Customers may want the product, but does it provide the right value at the right time for your customer?
Unfortunately but inevitably, product initiatives will sometimes miss the mark or sit on a shelf. However, engaging customers in the product development process will help define customer needs, timelines, and roadmaps. It will also help identify if the product, feature, or opportunity is a customer need that was just not executed well and needs refinement or if it needs to go back to the ideation drawing board.
To better align, try storyboarding the product journey with customers. This can help identify where you are in the development process. Inquire about what could help add value along the way and what tools they need to accomplish their goals with your organization’s offering.
on-demand webinar: Prioritizing your digital product roadmap
Learn how to create strategic alignment around business goals and customer needs
6. Balance immediate requirements with long-term objectives
It’s easy to get distracted by the immediate needs of your product — those one-off requests from sales, marketing, or other business areas to help with their conversion metrics. But addressing those requests, plus bugs and the product roadmap “quick wins” planned for the next release can end up taking a quarter — or even two — to complete. And the requests keep coming. So it’s important to balance short-term gains with longer-term strategy initiatives because if you aren’t innovating, you’re stagnating.
With a mature product, you must invest in innovation as part of your vision and strategy. Innovation does not necessarily mean net-new inventions or starting up an R&D team. Innovation could be about elevating your current product and/or attracting a new niche of customers. Innovation is what your product team wants to work on — a future state “North Star” to iterate towards. Consider where this product will be in three to five years. What will it look like, sound like, and mean for customers?
For tips on useful frameworks for prioritizing your product roadmap, check out this article I wrote on the topic.
TIP: Create a product board meeting
Book a recurring meeting with your top business stakeholders. Think of this as a product “board meeting” where the product team collaborates on the product vision and strategy with the board. These meetings can also be a great place to align on goals and success metrics. Once everyone is aligned on the vision, and it is documented, then the product team provides updates, shares customer insights, and gets business feedback. Simply having this time blocked on calendars can help to enforce proactive communication and collaboration.
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A well-managed product team can help your organization quickly deliver high-quality products to customers with great customer experiences. This doesn’t mean that you have to give up control of your business IT systems or the day-to-day operations of your business operations. Instead, invest in the right people and resources who have the expertise and the drive to build great products that are aligned with your business’s vision and targets. Finally, remember to always measure the success of your product team on their ability to deliver a great experience for your customers, as well as the speed of building and launching new products. If a team can deliver great experiences, build new products faster, and create more value for customers, that’s how you know you have a successful product team in place that will continue to deliver true value to your customers and your business.
