Build What’s Next: Digital Product Perspectives
The process of developing digital products and experiences can be a daunting task organizations often find themselves wondering if they are solving the right problems the right way hoping the result is what the end user needs. That’s why our team at Method has decided to launch Build What’s Next: Digital Product Perspectives.
Every week, we’ll explore ways to connect technology with humanity for a simpler digital future. Together, we’ll examine digital products and experiences, strategic design and product development strategies to help us challenge our ideas and move forward.
Build What’s Next: Digital Product Perspectives
Unobstructed Wandering: Defining Product Strategy in the Enterprise
In this episode of Build What's Next: Digital Product Perspectives, host Josh Lucas continues his insightful discussion with Jason Rome and Robert Neer. They explore:
• The concept of "unobstructed wandering" in product discovery and how to turn observations into actionable strategies
• The challenges and best practices of implementing OKRs in product organizations
• The importance of business fluency for product managers and how to develop it
• The evolving role of product managers in 2024 and beyond
• Practical tips for product managers to stay connected with their users and market trends
Jason Rome is the SVP of Digital Strategy and Customer Experience at Method, bringing years of experience in digital strategy and product management. Robert Neer is an Executive in Residence of the Product Management Leadership Accelerator at the University of Washington, with a wealth of knowledge in product leadership and customer-focused problem-solving.
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Episode Resources:
• Jason on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-rome-275b2014
• Robert on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertneer
• Method Website: https://www.method.com
• Josh on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josh-lucas-7844401b
Episode Highlights:
• [00:00:26] The Concept of Unobstructed Wandering in Product Discovery
• [03:49] Techniques for Effective Product Strategy Definition
• [06:10] Implementing OKRs in Product Organizations
• [13:13] Aligning OKRs with Business Value and Product Team Impact
• [15:10] Developing Business Fluency for Product Managers
• [17:35] The Evolving Role of Product Managers in 2024
• [19:15] Practical Tips for Product Discovery and Market Understanding
Quotes:
• "I do like this term unobstructed wandering because, you know, I do believe in hypothesis-driven research. But, you know, I find CX and UX to be this thing that once you see it, you can't unsee it and you just live it everywhere you go and you see opportunities for better UX." --- Jason Rome
• "I like OKRs. But one of the dangers when something gets so well codified as a framework is it's really easy to implement without understanding why you're implementing it or what you hope to accomplish or what you're trying to change by putting it in place." --- Robert Neer
• "Product-oriented thinking and development and problem-solving are critical for any business that believes technology is core to how it will actually build value." --- Robert Neer
• "There are a lot of opportunities to use interesting tools to make that part of your job easier. In which case I then ask, So what do you do with the rest of your time now? And are you equipped to actually go do product discovery and customer discovery and solve those problems and generate the value when the hands-on keyboards time that you take today could be reduced pretty dramatically with some tooling?" --- Robert Neer