Food for Thought #26: Product-Market Fit & Failure, MVP, Paper Prototyping, UX vs. Product Management
Age of Product’s Food for Thought of January 31st, 2016 covers: Failure after product-market fit, making sense of the minimum viable product, UX with paper prototyping — a hands-on guide, B2C startup success criteria, startup business models analyzed, three types of product management, the rivalry between UX & product management, delivery products with Scrum: failure & lessons learned on scaling agile organizations, and Sunday afternoon essay: “What World Are We Building?” .
Ziad Ismail (via Medium): Why Startups Fail after Product-Market Fit
Conventional wisdom is that if a team is “baseline competent and the product is fundamentally acceptable”, you will get to success after product-market fit. If that is the case, why do so many startups that achieve product-market fit struggle and fail? And why do all startups in some product categories fail?
Source: Medium: Why Startups Fail after Product-Market Fit
Author: Ziad Ismail
Henrik Kniberg: Making sense of MVP (Minimum Viable Product) — and why I prefer Earliest Testable/Usable/Lovable
And that (deep breath…) brings me to the topic of MVP — Minimum Viable Product. The underlying idea is great, but the term itself causes a lot of confusion and angst. I’ve met many customers that are like “No Way do I want an MVP delivery — that’s the last delivery I’ll get!” All too often teams deliver the so-called Minimum Viable Product, and then quickly get whisked away to the next project, leaving the customer with a buggy, unfinished product.
Source: Making sense of MVP (Minimum Viable Product) — and why I prefer Earliest Testable/Usable/Lovable
Author: Henrik Kniberg
Jerry Cao (via UXPin): Paper Prototyping: The 10-Minute Practical Guide
To this day, paper prototypes continue to be not only viable, but also widely used. In this article we’ll talk about when to use them, why they can help, and how to make one to suit your own needs.
Source: UXPin: Paper Prototyping: The 10-Minute Practical Guide
Author: Jerry Cao
robgo: Better, Cheaper, More Convenient
Most consumer transactional businesses offer some combination of three value propositions: Better, cheaper, more convenient. Most successful startup companies are very strong in one or two of these attributes relative to the existing alternatives. Some companies have all three.
Source: Better, Cheaper, More Convenient
Author: Rob Go
Please hit the “heart button” 💚 below, if you found this post useful–it would mean a lot to me!
Tomasz Tunguz: Chained Probabilities in Startup Business Models
Like a series of dominos, a startup’s success is a chain reaction. One small win leads to two other slightly bigger successes, which grow to four triumphs, then eight hits and so on until the company is a blockbuster. The first win might be witnessing a product capture the imagination of a random coffeedrinker at a local cafe. The second reaction might be closing the first paying customer. The third, hiring a top-notch executive.
Source: Chained Probabilities in Startup Business Models
Author: Tomasz Tunguz
Daniel Demetri (via Medium): 3 Types of Product Management
Firstly, what is Product Management? It’s oddly hard to get a straight answer to this question. Let alone a succinct one.
Source: Medium: 3 Types of Product Management
Author: Daniel Demetri
Melissa Perri: Changing the Conversation about Product Management vs. UX
If you had to pick one, would you rather be a Product Manager or UX Designer? I’m both. You can’t be both. We need to put you on the right team
Source: Changing the Conversation about Product Management vs. UX
Author: Melissa Perri
Pooja Wandile (via Scrum Alliance): Symptoms of a Struggling Scrum Project
There are certain symptoms that one can pinpoint when a team is struggling to deliver on its commitment. It is possible to control further damage if these symptoms are identified early and acted on in a timely manner. Following are the most visible symptoms that I come across.
Source: Scrum Alliance: Symptoms of a Struggling Scrum Project
Author: Pooja Wandile
(via Scrum Alliance): Large-Scale Agile at Ericsson
In this webinar, Paul discussed Ericsson’s journey as a world leader in implementing Agile at scale in large enterprise projects. “Self-managed teams are not just tiny curiosities,” writes Andrew Hill in the Financial Times. “They can scale up to handle complex cross-border work. Ericsson — hardly a fresh-faced start-up at nearly 140 years old — has given autonomy to 2,300 engineers in 110 teams, coordinated from Athlone, Ireland, to produce enterprise software for huge telecoms operators.” — See more at: https://www.scrumalliance.org/why-scrum/learning-consortium/learning-consortium-webinars/large-scale-agile-at-ericsson#sthash.wVuVue3E.dpuf
danah boyd (via Medium): What World Are We Building?
It’s easy to love or hate technology, to blame it for social ills or to imagine that it will fix what people cannot. But technology is made by people. In a society. And it has a tendency to mirror and magnify the issues that affect everyday life. The good, bad, and ugly.
Source: Medium: What World Are We Building?
Author: Danah Boyd
Please hit the “heart button” 💚 below, if you found this post useful–it would mean a lot to me!
Want more like this? Follow me on Twitter and read more on my Age of Product blog.
