Using Collaboration to Optimize Product Discovery with a Virtual Team
Working Remotely
Two-dimensional faces in boxes. That’s what most of the people I interact with look like.
I have been working virtually from a home office for ten years now. A former high school teacher, I made my transition to the online professional world when I started teaching math for a virtual public school in Washington state. Tossed into the virtual classroom on day one, the students had to teach me how to interact with the chat and content sharing tools in the unfamiliar system.
Things have changed since then.
I am now a product manager in the online learning industry. My online facilitation skills have improved (my students and colleagues are thankful for this, no doubt). Technology has evolved in ways that none of us could have predicted. But no change has had as significant of an impact on me as two recent additions to my personal toolbox. The real power of these tools became obvious to me because they came together at the same time.
Collaboration Software + Product Discovery
I called myself a fake product manager for a long time. There was a really long list of stuff that our company wanted to make, and I helped put the list in order. If you had a request, we would “get it prioritized.” Forget that it was item #243 on an even longer list. I was familiar with our users and our customers. Heck, I was one at one point. But I knew that “great” looked a lot different than what I was doing. I just didn’t know how to get there. I devoured content. I’m sure I caused a spike in Pacific Northwest search trends for “how to be a product manager?”
Our company implemented the Scaled Agile Framework. I started to feel a little better. Ideas started to click when I read the book SPRINT by Jake Knapp during a cross-country flight. As a former educator, the psychological components that he addressed were the most fascinating to me. It was inspiring. But still not enough.
Things really took off when we decided to implement product discovery teams. I read about discovery. Then I read some more. And then I read again. I was ready to launch my first team. I found my team members and scheduled a kick-off call for a Monday afternoon.
The Friday before, I logged into a day-long workshop on Facilitating Remote Design Sprints, hosted by Jay Melone from New Haircut. I won’t give away all of the spoilers from the session, but I will tell you that I spent Saturday and Sunday reworking my kick-off call plans. I learned that I could accept nothing less than taking what I discovered from that workshop to provide the best experience that I could for my discovery team. The introduction and application of Mural collaborative software was a GAME CHANGER. I spent Sunday on the phone with a colleague so that I could tell him all about the workshop and software, knowing that he could use it for his team as well.
In my current company, many employees are 100% remote and the rest of them often work at home. Collaboration tools are essential to our success. Our discovery team sessions are a combination of video conference plus real-time collaboration in our Mural boards.
We use preconfigured and custom templates to:
- Establish the agenda
- Communicate desired outcomes
- Capture individual thoughts and discussion notes
- Collect solution sketches and prototypes
- Document user feedback, and more
Our Mural boards are now a historical document of the evolution of all thoughts and ideas that led to the proposed solution. I can easily see every question, thought, and idea that I had during the whole process — mine are all on light pink digital sticky notes.
Discovery is About People
Discovery worked because it was about people. I have a wonderful team of knowledgeable and passionate people. When we realized that we had too many questions about what our users were trying to do, we invited them to join our calls. More people.
After those chats, our team reconvened to capture and organize our shared thoughts and reflections on those conversations. When we had a solution prototype to share with those customers, we added that feedback to our Mural boards too.
Successful business is centered around the value that it delivers to customers. Too often, it is easy to be gobbled up by task and to-do lists. Must prepare this agenda. Must publish this roadmap. The sense of accomplishment in finishing these tasks is fleeting and passes quickly.
I find that 100% of the times I interact with a customer, I leave the conversation refreshed and with new focus on our mission. What I love about the discovery and collaboration with mixed teams is that we all now have the opportunity to be refreshed with these conversations. At the same time, I understand that it can be intimidating to put yourself out there like that. What if they don’t want to talk to you? What if they are angry or upset about how your product works? What if they ask a question and you don’t know the answer? And the advice I would give is to just do it. Schedule the conversation. Trust in the benefits of real human interaction. The tools you use will catch up when you need them to do so.
In a recent prototype review session with a long-time customer/user, he said to us, “I can’t tell you how much I appreciate this conversation. It’s never been like this.” I have to agree and it feels the same for me.
So What’s Next?
I can’t help but wonder… what’s next? Does the novelty of new tools and processes wear off? Does excitement of preparing a new template become a laborious task that just has to get done so I’m prepared for the next project?
How do I keep myself and my team motivated to keep moving forward, always discovering and always learning? While excitement can be contagious, a reason I enjoy working at home is that viruses don’t travel through webcams. My colleague Damon and I recently started a LinkedIn Group to connect with other professionals about product discovery: Product Discovery Crüe. Please join us and help share in the motivation, learning, excitement, and accountability of doing what’s best for our users.
