Ushering Modern Product into Archaic Industries
For industrial firms marketing B2B products looking to operate more like a modern product company, this intro may be of aid. There could be a whole book on this topic (and there sort of are), so this is just scratching the surface. It’s not necessary for all firms to emphasize product prowess, in fact it may be a competitive advantage to be marketing or sales driven (of which many industrial firms are). But if new entrants are constantly crowding the space or market share is declining, it may be time to consider an evolution.
I’ve made my case for why product development needs adaptation in industrial firms here, but the benefits can be summed up in one statement: ensure the thing you are building is the right thing to build. You essentially tackle risk up front instead of at the end of stage 3.
The methods and tools to achieve this outcome can be quite cumbersome to remember, but later on I will note some rapid prototyping tools and leave it to you for further exploration.
The first adaptation starts from the top
Senior leaders need to both recognize and agree that change is necessary, while also agreeing that the appetite for risk or potential mistakes is palatable. They must establish a culture of trust and the encouragement of failing fast (but well). Psychological safety is a priority such that idea generation and cognitive conflict thrives. This culminates into customs which support the best form of decision making; a bias minimizing process meant to generate multiple conflicting alternatives.
Senior leaders must craft nimble “product teams” led by a “mini-CEO”
This mini-CEO is usually called the product manager, and they are wholly responsible for the entire product lifecycle. Looking through the lens of historical firms, leaders will likely pull heavily from the R&D department as well as customer facing folks like field service techs, account managers, or application engineers. Lastly, you’ll need some engineers. Each team should consist of a mini-CEO, a couple customer facing folks, and between two to six engineers depending on how complex your product line is.
Teams are empowered and authorized to make their own decisions
Senior leaders are allowed to set cadenced OKRs such as quarterly, bi-annually, or annually. What they are NOT allowed to do is tell these teams how to obtain these objectives. For leaders uncomfortable with that autonomy, have an OKR be centered around a review of the evidence behind a suggested idea or rejected hypothesis.
Provide or invest in proper coaching to the selected candidates, especially the mini-CEOs
Different thought leaders in the space characterize and assign responsibility to members via different risk archetypes. Marty Cagan characterizes them as value, viability, feasibility, and usability. IDEO stipulates they are desirability, viability, and feasibility. No matter which categorization is chosen, tailored coaching must be provided to the following roles to quickly test assumptions:
Feasibility: Can we build the thing with our internal resources?
This role falls to the engineers, and some rapid prototyping tools that work in industrial settings are: believability assessments, digital twins, fake spec reviews with suppliers, and proof of concepts.
Value: Will customers buy the thing?
This role falls primarily to the mini-CEO with help from the customer facing folks. Some rapid prototyping tools are: fake order forms, Amazon’s future PR/FAQ, Kickstarter campaigns, and discovery interviews (done right).
Desirability, or the combination of viability (will the pricing structure and expected demand satisfy internal financial objectives?) and usability (will it be easy to use?)
These roles fall to the customer facing folks and the mini-CEO. Some rapid prototyping tools for viability are: demand curves and profit simulations using outcomes from the value tests. For usability, some are the Mom test, current to ideal user journeys, and persona empathy maps.
Tip: usability is the most underutilized area to capitalize on with industrial products
For the start of discovery or the “idea generation stage”, some tools are: hackathons, opportunity solution trees, design studios, discovery interviews, or the Holistic Product Framework.
Summary
Upon completion of any of these rapid prototyping tools, garnish feedback from the end users or dealers and make the decision to modify, stop, or continue down this idea’s path. The team will then have a constellation of evidence pointing to the best path forward, it’s up to the mini-CEO to hit the “Go” button (AKA once evidence is deemed adequate).
You must provide ongoing reminders and coaching to avoid falling back into a “solution first, problem next” mindset. Whether that’s town halls, newsletters, automated mass emails, the focus must always be continuous hypothesis testing of if you are remediating customer obstacles in a way that delights them and provides the best outcome for them, not the output of the best feature from your team.
