A product we use every day that needs great improvement

There seem to be roadworks everywhere in the UK at all times, it’s frustrating, and I’m sure there must be a better way to handle roadworks, or maybe not….

As I think more about this, I believe they should be thinking of roads as products and drivers as the customers of that product. Here are the problems with the product, as I see them, and how it’s managed:

• Scope of change: The scope of change happening at any given moment seems to be vast with 10’s of miles of the product changed at once. Given this is a physical product and change equates to disruption.
• Ability to make the change: Even though they set the scope of change to be vast, they only usually can work on a small bit at a time. Causing frustration for your customers
• Cost: This causes high cost and waste for the customers not only in money as they pay for this product but also in time, with time being something people can’t earn more of this is very disappointing.

Here are some of my suggestions for moving from thinking of this as a Project to realising it’s a product and improving it for your customers:

• Small Increments: Break down the changes to the product into smaller increments that allow for the reduction in disruption as well as enhancing the ability to deliver the whole increment and get it into customers hands sooner.
• Continuous Learning: If you are building a ‘Smart Motorway’ and it takes you 5–10 years, how smart will be by the time it’s finished? Get it into use as quickly as possible and learn and evolve from that continuously.
• Customer Understanding: Get to know your customers. In this case, they pay for the product, so spend the time to find out what they truly want from it not what you are telling them they will get.

Of course, I am sure there are other considerations I don’t know about; however, I believe if there were a shift in the thinking towards a product approach, everyone would be happier.

Of course, there is way more I could discuss here, but that would take a long time, although I’m sure flow optimisation would be a great perspective to look through… Maybe another day but in the meantime, let us try to put the #customerfirst