When considering what makes a great product designer we often make the mistake of lumping a wide range of skills under one role. This might make writing a job description easier but it makes it harder to focus on what needs to be done and how to get the best out of product design roles. Identifying the right skills for the right role, and aligning that with the product vision is of critical importance. In this workshop, we’ll be focusing on the day to day skills a designer needs to have to address the challenges in a world of ever-evolving products. What activities will you be participating in during this workshop? - Explore the evolving role of the product designer. - Understanding where your company sits on the product design and digital evolution scale, and what this means for you. - Learn how high-performing product teams align their product vision, strategy and priorities to deliver results. - Develop a model to reliably select the right priorities and metrics to measure the performance of your product design - Understanding how to use customer feedback to drive results and unblock obstacles. - Learn how to work with others on your team to navigate through the inevitable challenge of change. What will you take away from this workshop? Lifelong skills in understanding product design and how it fits into an organization. Flexible and versatile models for managing your path through fast-changing organizations and dynamic product environments. Product design management skills to build a stronger team whether you’re an individual contributor or a team leader. The knowledge that will help you find a better fit, or better role, in your current or future organization.

1. Product Design Strategy
Richard Banfield
Spring 2018

2. welcome

3. Why We’re Here
Prologue

4. Product organizations still use features
and plans as a substitute for coherent
product strategy. This is causing
frustration for product teams and
confusion for customers.
Problem

5. Customers want experiences, not features.
We believe that aligning and structuring
teams around customer’s experiences
results in a healthier product organization.
Hypothesis

6. What activities will you be
participating in during this workshop?

7. Explore the evolving role of product designer.
1.
team

8. Understanding where your company
sits on the product and digital evolution
scale, and what this means for you.
2.

9. Learn how high-performing product
teams align their product vision, strategy
and priorities to deliver results.
3.

10. Develop a model to reliably select the
right priorities and metrics to measure the
performance of your product design.
4.

11. Understanding how to use
customer feedback to drive results
and unblock obstacles.
5.

12. Learn how to work with others on
your team to navigate through the
inevitable challenge of change.
6.

13. You will leave with a greater understanding
of your value, your role and your influence
in the product organization.
Outcome

14. Context
Chapter One

17. User experience design.

22. BOS

27. EXPERIENCES
ONE YEAR
61 MAJOR EXPERIENCES

29. “…not around process but rather
organizing humans in a way that
allows us all the opportunity to remain
adaptable in a changing environment”
NATE WALKINGSHAW

30. TRUST

33. The key insight from
interviewing hundreds
of companies:
You can’t create
product leadership
from the bottom up.

35. The Product Organization
Chapter Two

36. “Top-down, command-and-control organizations
with billions of dollars and thousands of
employees are getting their butts kicked by small,
agile teams with only a handful of employees,
informal org structures and very little resources.”
True or False?

37. “Top-down, command-and-control organizations
with billions of dollars and thousands of
employees are getting their butts kicked by small,
agile teams with only a handful of employees,
informal org structures and very little resources.”
True or False?

39. The randomness of hand-crafting products
was replaced by a predictable approach.
Factories full of unskilled workers could
start making things with greater scale,
frequency and precision.
Command Model

40. Command Model

42. Individual skills networked into a cross-
functional group yield fast results. The
networked arrangement of teams makes it
easy to replace lost members or continue
without any supervision.
Team Model

43. Team Model

44. Do the advantages of the small unit
disappear when you grow?
Can Teams Scale?
6 minutes

45. Can Product Teams Scale?

46. Individual skills networked into a cross-
functional group yield fast results. The
networked arrangement of teams makes it
easy to replace lost members or continue
without any supervision.
Team Model

47. Command vs. Team
Commands set clear
‘North Star’ goals.
Optimization of assets,
accountability, long-term
planning and the
development of talent.
Teams and small units are
unmatched for their
agility of performance,
their ability to make non-
linear decisions and
innovate on the fly.

48. Mutually Exclusive?

49. The Hybrid Organization
Chapter Three

50. Combines the best of the top-down
organization with the agility of the team model.
Hybrid Model

52. Strategic Ops
Product Ops
Tactical Ops

53. Executive
Product Leadership
Product Experience Teams

54. Executive
Product Leadership
Product Experience Teams

55. Working on your own, list the assumptions and
facts you have about your product team and
organization. One item per Post-it.
Instructions
6 minutes

56. Assumptions are statements,
communicated as if they are facts but
have no evidence to support them.
Assumptions

57. Instructions
Facts Assumptions

58. Which assumptions about our teams and
organizations are clouding our judgement
or making it harder to make changes?
What Can Hurt Us?
10 minutes

59. The Stages of Learning
Chapter Four

60. Stages of Learning
Unconscious
Incompetent
Conscious
Incompetent
Conscious
Competent
Unconscious
Competent
Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4
We don’t know
what we don’t
know. Bliss!
We know what
we don’t know.
Panic!
We have a
process but it’s
still an effort to
produce quality.
We do the right
thing without
thinking about it.
Source: Noel Burch

61. Stages of “UX” Learning
Unconscious
Incompetent
Conscious
Incompetent
Conscious
Competent
Unconscious
Competent
Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4
Occasional UX
or innovation
projects. No
dedicated
internal teams.
No metrics.
Silos of internal
UX & innovation
teams. Seeing
positive ROI on
small projects.
Integrated,
cross-functional
teams. Fluent in
UX. Measuring
ROI against
strategic goals.
Adapted by: Jared Spool
No customer
focused vision or
resources. Focus
is on business
and IT only.

62. Where on the continuum of
learning is your organization?
Evaluate
2 minutes

63. Unconscious
Incompetent
Conscious
Incompetent
Conscious
Competent
Unconscious
Competent
Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4

64. Where on the continuum of
learning is your team?
Evaluate
2 minutes

65. Unconscious
Incompetent
Conscious
Incompetent
Conscious
Competent
Unconscious
Competent
Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4
This might be the CEO

66. Where on the continuum of
learning are you?
Assess
2 minutes

67. Unconscious
Incompetent
Conscious
Incompetent
Conscious
Competent
Unconscious
Competent
Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4
How do you go from here to here?

68. Unconscious
Incompetent
Conscious
Incompetent
Conscious
Competent
Unconscious
Competent
Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4

69. What examples have you seen where
teams or companies have moved
from one stage to the next stage?
Real World
10 minutes

70. Vision & Strategy
Chapter Five

71. Write down your company’s
mission and vision.
Mission & Vision
3 minutes

72. A mission is essential but insufficient.
For teams to be effective they need
ownership over the product level vision
and implementation of that vision.
Mission vs. Product Vision

73. HOW?
CREATING PROGRESS THROUGH TECHNOLOGY
THAT LIFTS THE HUMAN CONDITION.

75. TO ACCELERATE THE WORLD’S
TRANSITION TO SUSTAINABLE ENERGY.

76. WTF?!?

77. “We choose to go to the moon in this
decade and do the other things, not because
they are easy, but because they are hard,
because that goal will serve to organize and
measure the best of our energies and skills”

78. Having an unattainable or aspirational
mission is very important. Having a very
tangible vision is the opposite. It must
be something you can almost see.
Mission vs. Vision

79. Good Product Vision
Objective
Future
Problem
Shared
Concrete
Timeless
It’s not about you.
Describes a better world.
Focuses on pain points.
Relevant to customers and teams.
Clear end state.
Agnostic of temp tech and trends.

80. Product Vision
Today, when __________________ want to
________________, they have to _________________.
This is unacceptable because ____________________.
We envision a world where _____________________.
We’re bringing this world about through ____________.
identified group
desirable outcome current option(s)
shortcomings of option(s)
shortcomings are resolved
approach

81. Today, when the sick, pregnant, dying and disabled, want to have a successful
birth, care, treatment and support, they have to, get insurance, follow the
rules and protocols, find providers that are covered and accessible, and find a
way to apply the diagnosis, while finding transportation, time off work, etc.
This is unacceptable because it is costly, disruptive and frequently harmful.
We envision a world where issues are predicted, interventions are delivered
where the patient is in control, there are fewer mistakes, fewer misses and
less harm, and problems are prevented and health promoted.
We’re bringing this world about by designing new business models and
market places, aggregating analysis and acting on information, which closes
the loop on better prediction and adjustments.
Example

82. Write a Product Vision to guide your
product team as it exists today.
Instructions
10 minutes

83. Product Vision
Today, when __________________ want to
________________, they have to _________________.
This is unacceptable because ____________________.
We envision a world where _____________________.
We’re bringing this world about through ____________.
identified group
desirable outcome current option(s)
shortcomings of option(s)
shortcomings are resolved
approach

84. Write a Product Vision to guide your
product team without any of the
constraints you experience today.
Instructions
10 minutes

85. Product Vision
Today, when __________________ want to
________________, they have to _________________.
This is unacceptable because ____________________.
We envision a world where _____________________.
We’re bringing this world about through ____________.
identified group
desirable outcome current option(s)
shortcomings of option(s)
shortcomings are resolved
approach

86. Combine the best of these Product
Visions into a single Product Vision.
Instructions
6 minutes

87. Product Vision
Today, when __________________ want to
________________, they have to _________________.
This is unacceptable because ____________________.
We envision a world where _____________________.
We’re bringing this world about through ____________.
customer segment
desirable outcome current option(s)
shortcomings of option(s)
shortcomings are resolved
approach

88. Executive
Product Leadership
Product Experience Teams

89. Product Vision can come from senior
leadership, but ownership,
implementation and the ability to change
the vision stays at the team level.
Who Owns Vision?

90. Mission
Product Vision & Strategy
Values & Metrics
??
1

91. Mission
Product Vision & Strategy
Values & Metrics
2

92. Structure As Strategy
Chapter Six

93. A fancy way of saying, “This is how we
will behave everyday in order to
achieve the vision we have agreed to,
even when things don’t go as planned”.
What Is Strategy?

94. How we behave and adapt is a
function of our group structure and
our understanding of our situation.
Structured For Adaption

95. MOMENTUM
TIME
“THIS IS GOING TO
BE GREAT.”
“WHOA, THAT TOOK MUCH
LONGER THAN EXPECTED”
“NOBODY SAID
IT WOULD BE
THIS HARD”
“HANG ON, THIS
ISN’T RIGHT.”
SCOTT BELSKY

96. MOMENTUM
TIME
SCOTT BELSKY
“THIS IS GOING TO
BE GREAT.”
“WHOA, THAT TOOK MUCH
LONGER THAN EXPECTED”
“NOBODY SAID
IT WOULD BE
THIS HARD” “CRAP”
“PHEW!”
“WHAT NOW?”
“YASS!”
“WTF!”
“$$$!”
“SERIOUSLY??”
“HANG ON, THIS
ISN’T RIGHT.”

97. MOMENTUM
TIME
“THIS IS GOING TO
BE GREAT.”
“NOBODY SAID
IT WOULD BE
THIS HARD”
“HANG ON, THIS
ISN’T RIGHT.”
“THINGS DIDN’T GO
AS PLANNED”

98. MOMENTUM
TIME
VISION

99. MOMENTUM
TIME
STRATEGY
VISION

101. Strategy: Structure + Understanding
Real Customer Pain Points
Experience Design
Capabilities
Logistics

102. The Product Strategy
Chapter Eight

103. The Big Questions
Real Pain Points: What are we solving?
Design the Experience: What’s the product?
Capabilities: Why can we deliver on this?
Logistics: How do we get it into their hands?

104. What validated problems will your
product solve for your customers?
Instructions
4 minutes

105. What will be the most important touch
points, the emotional journey and brand
promise of your product experience?
Instructions
8 minutes

106. What do you have that makes you ideal to
create this product? What tech, expertise,
partnerships exist? What’s missing?
Instructions
8 minutes

107. How will your product experience find its
way to your customers? How will you
support that? Who pays for it, and how?
Instructions
8 minutes

108. The Risks
What are the obstacles to product success?
These are Tech/Ops, Legal/Regulatory,
Financial, Personnel and Stakeholder risks.
In other words, can we sustain this product?

109. Assembling The Parts
Map the Real Pain Points, Design, Capabilities
and Logistics against the greatest risks.
This requires us doing two things:
Developing a Sustainability Statement
and
Mapping the risks against our Product Vision.

110. Sustainability
Currently, the greatest risk to our product’s existent is
that ______________ . If this happens, we won’t be able
to continue because ________________. This will most
likely come true if _________________. Factors that
help us mitigate that risk are ____________________.
consequences of risk
factors that amplify risk
factors that decrease risk
greatest risk

111. Sustainability
Good vision fit but
likely unsustainable
Good vision fit
and sustainable
Poor vision fit
& unsustainable
Building vision debt
but sustainable

112. Write your own sustainability statement.
Instructions
8 minutes

113. Sustainability
Currently, the greatest risk to our product’s existent is
that ______________ . If this happens, we won’t be able
to continue because ________________. This will most
likely come true if _________________. Factors that
help us mitigate that risk are ____________________.
consequences of risk
factors that amplify risk
factors that decrease risk
greatest risk

114. Review all the elements of the Real Pain
Points, Design, Capabilities and Logistics,
so you can map them against the risk.
Instructions
8 Minutes

115. Sustainability
Good vision fit but
likely unsustainable
Good vision fit
and sustainable
Poor vision fit
& unsustainable
Building vision debt
but sustainable

116. A Better Human Interface
Chapter Seven

117. People Before Process
MEN WANTED
for hazardous journey, small wages,
bitter cold, long months of complete
darkness, constant danger, safe
return doubtful, honor and
recognition in case of success.
Ernest Shackleton 4 Burlington st.

118. Ultimate Empathy
Collective consciousness, collective
conscience, or collective conscious is the
set of shared beliefs, ideas and moral
attitudes which operate as a unifying force
within an organization.

119. Structured For Speed

120. Product Experience Team
Walkingshaw created autonomous cross-
functional, co-located teams, which they
call, Product Experience Teams, they were
able to develop an environment where the
teams would have power over their actions
as they stepped towards that bigger mission.

121. Product Experience Team

122. Engineer
Domain Expert
Researcher
Developer
Product Manager
UI Designer
UX Strategist
Product Experience Team

123. Seek a high degree of diversity in skills,
background and experience. Why? It
generates “creative tension”. Easier to
identify weaknesses and assess skills.
Faster decision making. More velocity.
Team Diversity

124. Silos vs. PXTs

125. Silos vs. PXTs
Mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive Imperfect but shared

126. Product Experience Team
Domain Expert

127. Guides & Guardrails
Vision
Strategy
Priorities
Metrics
Values
Behavior

128. Vision
Strategy
Priorities
Metrics
Values
Behavior
“Why are we doing this?”
“What do we need to do to achieve that?”
“What do we do first?”
“How do we know we’re being successful?”
“What agreements make us better?”
“What actions demonstrate understanding?”
Guides & Guardrails

129. MOMENTUM
TIME
STRATEGY
VISION

130. Values
KNOW EACH OTHER’S WORLD
LIVE IN REALITY
EMBRACE SCIENTIFIC THINKING
LEAD WITH HUMILITY
BE VULNERABLE
RESPECT EACH OTHER

131. Product Vision
Product Strategy
Priorities
Metrics
Values
Behavior
Mission
Vision

132. Product Vision
Product Strategy
Priorities
Metrics
Values
Behavior
Mission
Vision

135. Product Strategy
Priorities
Metrics
Mission
Vision

136. Product Vision
Product Strategy
Priorities
Metrics
Values
Behavior
Mission
Vision
1

137. Product Vision
Product Strategy
Priorities
Metrics
Values
Behavior
Mission
Vision
1
2

138. Shared Consciousness
Intraday Daily Weekly Quarterly
Company Wide
Executive Leaders
Product Leaders
Product Team
Slack & email
Slack & email
Co-located,
Slack & email
Team Stand-ups
Task Team +
Slack & email
Lunches &
Town Halls
Experience
Team Meeting
CPO + CEO
Demo Day
All Hands
Meeting
Offsite
Offsite
Offsite
Co-located,
Slack & email
Co-located,
Slack & email
Co-located,
Slack & email

139. Design a calendar of communication
for your team and company that would
increase shared consciousness.
Instructions
8 minutes

140. Work with your team to develop a set of
values and establish a shared language for
how to describe frequently occurring
problems and bottlenecks.
Homework
On your own time

141. Connecting The Dots
Chapter Nine

142. Alignment is not a new idea. Strategic visions
are not new. Team structures are not new.
What’s new is that product teams are taking
ownership of their vision and execution,
which gets them better support for resource
requests from the larger org.
Groundbreaking?

143. Engineer
Domain Expert
Researcher
Developer
Product Manager
UI Designer
UX Strategist
Product Experience Team

144. Product Vision
Today, when __________________ want to
________________, they have to _________________.
This is unacceptable because ____________________.
We envision a world where _____________________.
We’re bringing this world about through ____________.
customer segment
desirable outcome current option(s)
shortcomings of option(s)
shortcomings are resolved
approach

145. Product Strategy
Vision
Strategy
Priorities
Metrics
Values
Behavior
“Why are we doing this?”
“What do we need to do to achieve that?”
“What do we do first?”
“How do we know we’re being successful?”
“What agreements make us better?”
“What actions demonstrate understanding?”

146. MOMENTUM
TIME
STRATEGY
VISION

147. CUSTOMER SEGMENT
PRODUCT
CONTENT
EXPERIENCE
GEOGRAPHY
CHANNEL
VALUE CHAIN
NEW BUSINESS
MILITARY
GOVERNMENT
HEALTHCARE
EDUCATION
BUSINESS
CHANNELS
ASSESSMENTS
ANALYTICS
DASHBOARD
COURSES
NOVICE
PROFICIENT
PRO
VETERAN
LEGEND
WWWMARKET3RD PARTYSOCIAL INTERNAL

148. CUSTOMER SEGMENT
PRODUCT
CONTENT
EXPERIENCE
GEOGRAPHY
CHANNEL
VALUE CHAIN
NEW BUSINESS
MILITARY
GOVERNMENT
HEALTHCARE
EDUCATION
BUSINESS
CHANNELS
ASSESSMENTS
ANALYTICS
DASHBOARD
COURSES
NOVICE
PROFICIENT
PRO
VETERAN
LEGEND
WWWMARKET3RD PARTYSOCIAL INTERNAL

149. Team Now Next Later
Integrated Roadmap
Initiatives

151. Group the strategic items in the
sustainability matrix under initiatives and
assign to responsible team members.
Homework
On your own time

152. Unconscious
Incompetent
Conscious
Incompetent
Conscious
Competent
Unconscious
Competent
Product Vision
Product Strategy
Priorities
Metrics
None or
Company Mission
Obsessive Sales
Disorder
None or Reactive
Dept. P&L
Product Focused
Scrum-Theatre
Rigid Strategy
Service or
Product P&L
Problem
Centered
Thematic
Roadmap
Aligned with
Capabilities
Unit Economics
Customer
Focused
Seamless
Feedback
Integration
Universally
Integrated
Hypothesis
Driven Metrics
Stage 4Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3
Stage vs. Strategy

153. Analyze where you, your team and your
organization are on the learning continuum
and design an appropriate learning strategy.
Homework
On your own time

154. Activities Hypotheses Key Metrics Lessons
Execution
Roadmap
Milestones
Now
Next
Later

155. With your team, decide the actions to be
taken, the expected results, how you’ll
measure and learn from the result.
Homework
On your own time

156. MARTIN ERIKSSON
“It’s not the steps, it’s
the mindset”

157. Radical Product

159. richard@freshtilledsoil.com
@rmbanfield
@freshtilledsoil
#designsprint

160. richard@freshtilledsoil.com
@rmbanfield
www.productleadershipbook.com
www.radicalproduct.com
thank you