Why there is no silver bullet to product innovation, why cognitive media help deal with complexity, and how the Product Field works. (Book Reading at SXSW, March 2017)
EA MAR KET RES OUR CES VAL UE DRIVERS ENABLERS DISTRIBUTION GOALS USERS CUSTOMERS PRODUCTION MOTIVATIONS problem solution uniqueness alternatives When you draw the Product Field yourself, start from the in- side out, first delineating all areas and zones and then labelling them. The labels for the different aspects of your product innovation will be explained in the next chapter. You can either project the Field’s canvas onto Metaplan- sized paper, a flipchart or a large whiteboard, and use it to guide your drawing – or, maybe after a couple of sessions, just draw it freehand. Anyway, try to make it really big so it can take a lot of sticky notes, use thick (and good!) markers, keep the 5:3 ratio of Core and Context width and height, differentiate between Core, Context and Elements by using different label sizes and letter forms: lower-case sans-serif for Core, upper-case sans-serif for Context, upper-case serif and multiline for Elements. T H E PRODUC T F IEL D In practice 01 Frame Establish a shared understanding of product innovation. USING THE PRODUCT FIELD
MOTIVATIONS problem solution uniqueness alternatives The Product Field | 02 Map | In Practice ID EA MAR KET RES OUR CES ID EA MAR KET RES OUR CES VAL UE DISTRIBUTION When gathering data, it is useful to start with diverging (gathering as many facts and ideas as possible) before converging (narrowing them down by removing less important items). When working with a physical canvas, collect all aspects on colored sticky notes and map them onto the canvas. Using sticky notes makes diverging and converging easy. As a rule of thumb, you should be left with 3-4 consolidated sticky notes per area after converging. Mapping will happen in one of three situations: 1. The context is fixed and you’re looking for a product and value proposition fitting it. In that case, you should start by describing the context and then brainstorm the core. 2. The core is fixed and you’re looking for a fitting context. In that case, you should start by describing the core and then brainstorm the context. 3. Core and context are (more or less) fixed and you’re looking for gaps and weaknesses. In that case, you can can start describing your situation anywhere and in the process identify needs for clarification, compensation or change. To fill gaps and remove uncertainties in your mapping, you can use a range of collaborative and empirical methods that work either generically (e. g. Challenge Mapping) or address particular aspects (e.g. Customer Interviews). T H E PRODUC T F IEL D In practice 02 Map Gather facts and generate a shared big picture of your innovation.
innovation. USING THE PRODUCT FIELD ID EA MAR KET RES OUR CES DRIVERS ENABLERS GOALS USERS CUSTOMERS PRODUCTION MOTIVATIONS problem solution uniqueness alternatives The Product Field | 03 Check | In Practice VAL UE DISTRIBUTION When completing the validation templates, systematically try out all facts corresponding to an aspect. You should get at least one meaningful statement for each fact you are checking, and the statements you get should at least be loosely related to each other. If not, several things might have happened: If you get meaningful, but completely unrelated statements, you might have spotted a product convolution. If no statement makes sense, you have either identified an inconsistency or incompleteness in the description or a substantial mismatch or deficiency in the innovation itself. If you discover “orphan” facts that are missing their counter- parts, you have either detected a component alien to your product innovation, or identified some missing ones, either in the description of your innovation or in the innovation itself. To rework or complete your innovation’s description, analyze its deficiencies, and influence or change its components, use methods to gather data, generate ideas, validate assumptions, facilitate collaboration and support decision-making. T H E PRODUC T F IEL D In practice
innovation. USING THE PRODUCT FIELD ID EA MAR KET RES OUR CES The Product Field | 04 Find | In Practice DRIVERS ENABLERS DISTRIBUTION GOALS USERS CUSTOMERS PRODUCTION MOTIVATIONS solution uniqueness alternatives VAL UE T H E PRODUC T F IEL D In practice When working with a physical canvas, use dot voting to assign positive and negative votes to facts: let your team stick little colored dots on the consolidated sticky notes, green ones to represent positive aspects, red ones to represent negative ones. We found that using the following rules works best: Use 8 green dots for voting on the strengths of the context: 3 dots for the most important strength, 2 x 2 for the second-most important strengths and 1 for the third-most important one. Use 6 red dots for voting on the weaknesses of the context: 3 dots for the most important weakness, 2 for the second- most important weakness and 1 for the third-most important one. To generate force fields, you can use the Product Field app. The star charts can be calculated and drawn by hand. Once you have identified the strengths and weaknesses you need to address, you can use a host of tools and methods for working on them.
as a reference – not a workbook or a field guide – for product people working in complex contexts – not for lazy thinkers and buzzword aficionados A TOOL FOR COLLABORATIVE PRODUCT THINKING
(And thanks for bearing with us.) Klaus-Peter Frahm | @kpfrahm Wolfgang Wopperer-Beholz | @wowo101 http://read.productfield.com | @theproductfield A TOOL FOR COLLABORATIVE PRODUCT THINKING
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