Product In the Garden

Starting something new is a lesson in vision, faith, and effort. Every time.

So it is with The Pollinator, this new digital rag from Solution Design Group’s Product function. You might ask, “Why is SDG starting a product newsletter? Aren’t they that outfit of coder geeks, clever designers, and humble tech delivery pros? Good people, yes, talented people, yes — but are they newsletter writers? Are they publishers?”

Let’s clear something up: nearly every modern organization is a publisher. You won’t succeed in many businesses in the year Twenty-Twenty-Three if you don’t develop professional-grade people, skills, and processes for writing and managing content and media.

As for the rationale of this newsletter: publishing a newsletter isn’t SDG’s goal here. This newsletter is but a hypothesis, a way of pursuing an outcome. By sharing reflections on contemporary issues in product thinking, we intend to improve the product skills of and promote better ways of working among our SDG product community. And we love building strong communities.

If you’re tuned into product-speak, that formulation — an outcome, not an output; better ways of working; concern for the needs of a community — probably sounds familiar.

That’s not a coincidence.

That’s product.

Yes, we’re approaching this newsletter much like we approach product when working with you, our clients and our community. You have a market; in that market you see a problem or an opportunity; you have an idea to to do something about it; you think your market might reward you if you deliver it. So you start working on that idea — but the first thing seems wrong. You can’t believe you wrote that sentence, sketched that flow, thenned that if, thought that thought. But still, you share it, scrap it, shape it: now you’re getting there. Someone likes it; someone read it; someone used it — someone bought it! Now you’re really getting there. Keep going.

That’s product: the relentless practice of ideating, making, finding, shaping, uncovering, and improving the thing that puts your mission into the world. Keep going.

So welcome to this first official issue of The Pollinator, SDG’s curated bulletin of reflections on product. At the moment, we believe each issue will feature an introductory essay from us, followed by perspectives on interesting product content we’ve encountered as we traverse the productsphere. The Pollinator is targeted to anyone currently or recently in a product consulting engagement with SDG, but anyone interested in the topic is encouraged to subscribe. Of course, as we learn more, this plan may change.

Once more we remind you: that’s product.

On to the Garden,

Around the Garden

We’re not worried about product management’s future

Check it Out: AirBNB and The Future of Product Management, Trisha Price, Pendo.

This summer there’s been a bit of a kerfuffle, a tumult, even a brouhaha about the nature and future of the job of product management. This started when the CEO of AirBNB, popular digital marketplace for couch-surfers and road-trippers worldwide, announced quite publicly they are “getting rid of the product management function.” (See here, and here, and here.) The ripples were felt across the productsphere. “Don’t executives understand us?,” lamented product managers everywhere. “Don’t designers appreciate us? Don’t marketers need us? Ah me, I feel so unvalued!”

Our perspective: product management isn’t going anywhere other than up, and fast. It isn’t even going away at AirBNB. Their CEO Brian Chesky — a designer by training and mindset — is a successful and inspiring leader, and he’s making choices that he believes are right for his business. But he didn’t mean that his products won’t be properly managed, as he clarified later. At his business, with his product, his users, his team, and his vision, he wants the people who manage the product to be more attuned to their market, and the people who design the product to be more attuned to their craft. So he is repositioning product managers to make their work a little less about the mechanics of making the product and a little more about the people the product is made for.

And funnily enough, that itself is a clear demonstration of the value of product thinking.

Gothelf Case Study on Product at Fender Guitars

Check it Out: How Product Management Saved Fender Guitars, Jeff Gothelf.

We love a good case study on the power of product management, like Jeff Gothelf’s recent write-up of Fender, the legendary maker of guitars. The basic business problem this case study addresses: "What would you do if you learned that 45% of your customers were first-time buyers of your product and 90% of those buyers gave up on your product within the first year?"

Here are a few of the many things we loved about Fender’s story, as told by Gothelf.

• The connection of user experience and engagement problems to business results. In this case, they recognized that 90% of first-time customers abandon the pursuit. There's huge upside if they can crack this problem.

• The research into who Fender’s target customer is. It's not guitar players, it's people who want to play the guitar. They also uncovered details about human factors that affect the guitar experience: intimidation, imposter syndrome, social dynamics, frustration.

• The connection of a revenue-generating physical product to great digital experiences. For Fender, revenue will still primarily come from selling physical products, but great digital experiences enable customer loyalty and lifetime engagement. This is especially relevant to the product work that SDG encounters — so many of our customers sell physical products or services that are supported and enabled by software. And that software is best managed as a product.

• Insights into pricing strategy. Their digital experiences are priced at a low annual subscription. They recognized that the value is in getting lifetime customers, and are willing to sacrifice direct revenue from digital to do so.

Are Entry-level Product Managers an Oxymoron?

Check it out: From Product Management Back to Strategy, Noa Ganot.

I’m a grizzled product veteran, with the beard color and the battle scars to show for it. I landed my first job as a “Product Manager, Interactive Media” in July of 2000, after several years in other digital roles in the Web’s early days. So it’s with that perspective that I appreciated this post from product coach and strategist Noa Ganot. Her thesis: product management is a senior-level job, and should be treated as such. She describes "walking a long way before you could enter product management" and reminds us that “junior product manager is an oxymoron.” I think I agree with her.

Make no mistake, I have a lot of faith in and respect for the contributions and perspectives of early-career teammates. I hope people of all ages and experience levels are reading these very words. At the same time, I think product management is inherently a position that benefits from some depth of experience. And I’d say the best preparation for managing a product is to participate in making a product as a member of a product team, which might be as a designer, developer, analyst, researcher, marketer, etc.

While the job of managing a product is inherently senior, a bit more gray than green, the habits of product thinking and the fundamentals of the product mindset are of course for anyone.

Outside the Box

Sometimes it helps to be reminded of the universe’s vastness and your own wee-ness. If you need help doing so, turn off the lights, clear your mind, and direct your gaze at https://stellarium-web.org/, a browser-based online planetarium. Cool tech, cool interface, and an all-around cool experience.

About The Pollinator

• The Pollinator is a free publication from the Product practice at Solution Design Group (SDG). Each issue is a curated digest of noteworthy content and articles from across the internet’s vast product community.

• Solution Design Group (SDG) is an employee-owned business and technology consulting company. From ideation to implementation, we help transform organizations through well-made and well-loved digital products. Utilizing our customer-centric approach, and our wide array of capabilities, we deliver innovative solutions that drive business growth and success for our customers.

• The Pollinator's editor is Jason Scherschligt, SDG's Head of Product. Please direct complaints, suggestions, and especially praise to Jason at [email protected].

• Why The Pollinator? Jason often says that as he works with leaders and teams across companies and industries, he feels like a honeybee in a garden, spending time on one flower, moving to another, collecting experiences and insights, and distributing them like pollen, so an entire garden blooms. How lovely.