Arjun April 6, 2021

What Problems Should Technology Solve Next?

Listen to this podcast by Adam Bader on “This is Product Management” with Anuraag Verma. For me, this is one of the best among the others in the series so far. I like the way how Adam relates Product Managers to Problem Managers and how he talks about the importance of psychology in solving real problems over perceived ones and to what extent you should be using that privilege. I like his empathy toward users.

If you don’t have time, listen to the last 10 min of the audio at least starting at 29:00s. He talks about why so many products fail and physiologically how big companies are hacking and exploiting (to the roof) natural human behaviour to their own advantage.

I am glad Adam Bader brought this up in the end. Technology needs to focus on real-world problems such as Transportation, Sustainable development, Climate Change, Healthcare, Poverty, etc. Too much focus on smartphones, connecting people digitally, and building apps that do not solve problems must stop. He talks about Space Tourism. Personally, I do not think space tourism is the world’s current problem. It is more of a want for riches than a need.

Podcast Link is here: http://tun.in/tlcege

#productmanagement #technology #innovation #product #podcasts

Arjun February 11, 2021

Why, Who, How and What

If “Why” is the goal you want to achieve along with a value metric to validate the business objective and the “Who” is the actor performing the act, you can identify “How” you can achieve this impact. Once the impact is identified, you can come up with “What” is needed. This is your deliverable. The resulting impact map allows you to compare the various options and measure the outcome.

Each deliverable in turn can be broken down into tangible Product Backlog items, in the form of user stories, for example. Given that the goal, the actor, and the deliverable are established, defining the Product Backlog items is more straightforward.

An Excerpt From:

“The Profesional Product Owner” – By Don McGreal and Rolph Jocham

"Here's to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes... the ones who see things differently -- they're not fond of rules... You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can't do is ignore them because they change things... they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do."Steve Jobs, Apple