Age of Product’s Food for Thought of May 15th, 2016 covers the Kodak moment, failing to innovate and its tragic consequences, how great teams build great products, why empathy is essential for product success, how to employ JTBD in the right manner, and encourages to download a free UX research methodology guide.
We also explore how to get the right candidates for user tests, whether scaling agile with SAFe is an evil thing, that radical transparency is key to agile success, what agile KPIs need to be tracked, and what communication skills make you a good leader.
Last, but least, we learn about 12 innovation imperatives, why blockchain unbundles trust, and that less probably is not always more.
Essential Reads
: 12 Innovation Imperatives
Brian on how to breathe life into a company’s culture to compete for the future, and how to avoid the Kodak moment and have innovation strangled by a culture of mediocrity.
(via Andreessen Horowitz): Banking on the Blockchain
William, author of the “Business Blockchain, ”on the emerging peer-to-peer economy, unbundling trust, in this podcast on the bitcoin blockchain.
(via The Atlantic): More Is More: Why the Paradox of Choice Might Be a Myth
Derek on why the wide spread assumption, that overwhelming people with options — whether in TVs or delicious jams — can make them less likely to make a decision, may actually be wrong.
Product, Lean & the Kodak Moment
: Avoiding Innovation: Lessons from Kodak
Melissa with the insider story on the Kodak moment: How Kodak failed to innovate despite being presented with all the options and having every technology available to become a digital photography disruptor.
: Marty Cagan - Great Product Team, Successful Product
Marty of Silicon Valley Product Group at Craft Conference 2016 on what it takes to create great product teams and consequently great products in
(via Zühlke): Empathise with your users or you won’t solve their problems
Maurice sketches best practices of user experience design in the enterprise and why empathy with your customers should be at the heart of it.
and (via Intercom): Podcast: Bob Moesta on Jobs-to-be-Done
Des interviews Bob Moesta, one of the principal architects of the Jobs-to-be-Done framework for innovation, providing seven takeaways, how JTBD can spur your innovation potential.
(via Andreessen Horowitz): On Corporate Venturing & Setting Up ‘Innovation Outposts’ in the Valley
Evangelos of Synapse Partners on how large companies – using the case of IBM and Watson/ AI —can and should use Silicon Valley (and other innovation clusters) to utilize startup-driven innovation, and to keep up with and address disruption in their industries.
(via User Testing Blog): Free eBook: The UX Research Methodology Guidebook
UserTesting.com provides a free ebook for anyone who’s ready to get started testing, but would like a little guidance on how to approach a study, when to run it, and how to interpret the results.
This part of the Lean User Tests series focuses on acquiring the right candidates for the interviews, answering questions like:
- How many applicants are required to fill an interview slot?
- How to reach out to prospective candidates among your user base?
- How to set up the application form?
Source:
Agile & Scrum
(via Scrum Expert): Is Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) evil?
Henrik of Crisp, Spotify and Lego in a video based on his experience of doing the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) at Lego with about 15-20 teams for 9 months and counting.
(via Zalando Technology): How Radical Agility Helped us Stay on Track
Max on Zalando’s Radical Agility methodology, which governed by a set of simple, clear principles to guide the decisions that teams need to make, from an engineer’s point of view.
: Lessons for Software Teams: Minimum Viable Product
Umer on transferring the Lean Startup concept of the “minimum viable product” to software engineering, and thus how to align product design with development.
(via Notion): Why Every Team Needs Quantitative Goals
Nikki argues that success metrics — or: key performance indicators (KPIs) — are required for engineering, product management, customer service, and marketing.
(via First Round Capital): The Science of Speaking is the Art of Being Heard
Khalid, cofounder of Reboot.io, on communication as a leadership skill in general, and on how it is influenced by the central component of a human’s operating system — the reptilian brain — in particular.