The Importance of Product Goals
What do you want to be when you grow up? It is a question many of us were asked as children. It is also a question we need to ask when thinking about our products. A clear goal and set of outcomes serve as a framework to drive decisions as we build a product. It helps teams navigate ambiguity and obstacles in a constructive manner, so that they build the most impactful features for the customer.
In order to establish this framework, teams need to be able to answer to the following questions before development begins:
- What outcomes do we hope our product achieves both now and in the future?
- Why are these outcomes important?
- How will we measure success against these outcomes?
Imagine your company is tasked with building a racecar. The teams within that company will face numerous decisions on their journey, such as:
- Does the racecar need to be street legal?
- What kind of propulsion should it use (big V8, small and turbocharged, electric, jet engine)?
- How should the powertrain be configured (rear-wheel drive, all-wheel drive)?
- What size and type of tire should it utilize?
- How important are the brakes?
- What is the right balance between driver visibility and aerodynamics?
- What kind of styling should it have (futuristic vs retro, refined vs aggressive)
- etc…
To answer these questions, the teams in that company would need to know what they want the product to do now and where they hope to take it in the future. In other words, what outcome are they trying to achieve? Are they trying to build a racecar to win a quarter-mile drag race? Or maybe they are trying to set a land-speed record in the Utah salt flats. Perhaps they are trying to win the Baja 1000 in Mexico, in which case the racecar is really more of a race-truck. After the vehicle achieves one of those goals, what comes next? Does it get stored it in a museum, mass-produced, used in brand-marketing, etc…
It is only once the team has identified their desired outcomes that they can begin to successfully navigate the ambiguity surrounding propulsion, powertrain, tire, and brake options for their racecar. A racecar designed to win quarter-mile drag races will be very different from a car that is designed to win 24-hour endurance races. The former is all about straight-line acceleration and would produce design decisions like a big-supercharged V8 with all-wheel drive, the largest tires available, minimal driver visibility, and a parachute in addition to brakes. It will get 1 MPG and go through tires quickly, but in the end it only has to go one quarter of a mile to win. The latter is all about maintaining speed through corners. It will need to minimize weight and maximize the amount of miles it gets out of its tires and fuel, producing design decisions like a turbocharged V6 with rear-wheel drive, sticky tires, and brakes that can withstand a lot of heat. After all, it has to go hundreds of miles in order to win.
At Ford, our team behind the Ford GT understood this way of thinking when they embarked on their product journey. Their outcomes were to:
- Win the 24 hours of Le Mans on the 50th anniversary of the first Ford GT win at Le Mans.
- Showcase the epitome of Ford’s design and engineering capabilities.
They knew that these outcomes were important to Ford’s brand image, and they could measure their success against these outcomes. Using these outcomes to drive their product development, they were able to design a purpose-built vehicle that both won the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and is heralded as a modern marvel of design and engineering.
As important as this way of thinking was to the Ford GT team, it is equally important to product teams at every company in every industry. All product teams should be setting, communicating, and aligning to outcomes. I want to challenge you to take a moment to think about your product, and what you want it to be when it grows up! What outcomes are you driving towards, why, and how will you measure your product against these outcomes?
