RAFFIAPALM

Resources for product teams from industry experts.

Incubation can be particularly helpful after hearing other people’s ideas. You may not think of new ideas right away, but odds are, your brain is still working on it in the background. So, if you get stuck, sleep on it. Tomorrow will likely bring fresh ideas. Another common way of getting unstuck is to look to analogous products for inspiration.

For many product teams, this means competitive research. You should draw inspiration from your competitors, but look broader than that. Many innovative ideas come from unrelated domains.

— Continuous Discovery Habits: Discover Products that Create Customer Value and Business Value by Teresa Torres

Source: Amazon Kindle

Related Stories and Excerpts:

  1. Mental Models: The SCAMPER Method The SCAMPER method is one of the easiest yet most effective strategies for finding solutions to problems and sparking creative thinking. Think of this mental model as akin to opening a faucet that introduces water to seven pipes, and each of those pipes channels to a unique pot of earth. Each pot has the potential to bring forth new growth once the seeds in it are watered. Note that the SCAMPER method doesn’t require that you move in a sequential flow of steps. You can use it in any order or sequence and jump among the different techniques. Substitute: […]
  2. Opportunities framed from your company’s perspective: Product teams think about their product and business all day every day. It’s easy to get stuck thinking from your company’s perspective rather than your customers’ perspective. However, if we want to be truly human-centered, solving customer needs while creating value for the business, we need to frame opportunities from our customers’ perspective. No customer would ever say, “I wish I had more streaming entertainment subscriptions.” But they might say, “I want access to more compelling content.” Review each opportunity on your tree and ask, “Have we heard this in interviews?” If you […]
  3. Good teams have product, design, and engineering sit side by side, and they embrace the give and take between the functionality, the user experience, and the enabling technology. Good teams get their inspiration and product ideas from their vision and objectives, from observing customers’ struggle, from analyzing the data customers generate from using their product, and from constantly seeking to apply new technology to solve real problems. Good teams understand who each of their key stakeholders are, they understand the constraints that these stakeholders operate in, and they are committed to inventing solutions that work not just for users […]
  4. When trying to influence others, having a conceptual framework and a way of presenting it that sticks in people’s minds is very helpful, especially when you are talking to people unfamiliar with the concept. This framework is also effective in conveying the important point that diversity, equity, and inclusion are not merely about principles and wanting to do good, but about translating those principles into action—putting people and processes in place that are crucial for developing inclusive products. — Building For Everyone: Expand Your Market With Design Practices From Google’s Product Inclusion Team by Annie Jean-Baptiste Source: Amazon Kindle […]
  5. Work for goals that you and your organization are excited about and think about how your tasks connect to those goals. If you’re focused on the goal, excited about achieving it, and recognize that doing some undesirable tasks to achieve the goal is required, you will have the right perspective and will be appropriately motivated. If you’re not excited about the goal that you’re working for, stop working for it. Personally, I like visualizing exciting new and beautiful things that I want to make into realities. The excitement of visualizing these ideas and my desire to build them out […]

In:

Topics: , , , , , ,