From them to us
As Koa Health transitioned from Telefonica’s moonshot to an independent start-up, priorities changed fast and created some unbalance and broken dialog in between teams. A relationship that was hard to reframe was the one between the Product and the R&D teams.
Some of us joined when we were a moonshot. At the time we all got on board with the idea that we would explore concepts for the future. But the future quickly became the present, and for some sooner than for others. For the nature of our departments, the product team saw that present earlier than the R&D team, and the dialogue between departments was broken because we were in two different worlds. We (the product team), needed to turn a vision into a concrete product in a few months, and they (the R&D team) were still in the playground of future ideas. (yes, there was a lot of “us” and “them” talk).
It felt like we were the kid with the piano classes on a sunny Saturday, and we had to say no to our neighbour who suggested outdoor play. Let’s be real, piano classes are rewarding in the long run, but sometimes having an obligation just sucks! Especially if you are feeling you are missing out on something.
We worked at a very fast pace, trying to deliver a product that brought value to users and customers, with limited resources: a big challenge.
Product and R&D always had many ambitions in common, but we struggled to make it happen. One of these is personalisation: use AI to build a unique journey for every user by giving the right intervention at the right time to each of them. Even if it has always been at the front of our minds as a product differentiator, we have been struggling to make it happen at the depth we desired, because of the timing at hand and the above-mentioned teams' disconnect.
Three things needed to happen to change gears: the product to be more mature, the two teams to be in it together and have a common strategy and a coherent understanding of the challenge to solve.
Product maturity
A couple of simple facts: to build an AI-powered product you need data coming from the product. To have data you need people using the product. For people to use the product you have to build something valuable enough for people to use it.
There is no easy shortcut. You cannot just buy data coming from a different app, you cannot copy a different product that is not evidence-based to make it quicker. We needed the data to be related to our content and UX to be useful to the unique experience we wanted to build.
So, first thing first: we needed to build the product.
To make it happen, the product team had to play the bad cop (without any good cop being in the picture), saying several NOs and prioritising the necessary features to make the product standing.
Now, a few months later we have something that we are excited about, it works and people use it, and we naturally got to the point in which the product needs some added smartness to build further engagement and retention. We can finally tackle the challenge to give the right, personalised, unique guidance and to navigate users across the library of content that is constantly growing.
Teams glue
Many steps have been done to make this happen, conscious effort from many people on different teams, several alignment workshops, and infinite conversations.
In retrospect two steps were key:
1- Having a person from the R&D team being part of the product POD.
It started to feel like a “we” instead of an “us and them” when a person from the R&D team joined as an active member of the product POD — being part of the prioritisation of the objectives, having awareness on legal blockers, technical limitations and so on. This took away the weight of the product team having to act as the bad cop, and the sense of antagonism that covered previous conversations.
We started to build a common language and have a common sense of ownership. For example, we realized, planning for feature integration, that words like “easy” for us meant ½ to 1-day work, while for R&D it meant 1 to 2 months. This discovery was a great start as everyone was on the same page and understood the time at hand. From here we could push boundaries and brainstorm together on what the real MVP version of a feature could look like.
Another one we had to learn the hard way was the meaning of “ready”. What ready means when building a prototype is different than what it means for a product that runs in the wild. Working together (and after a few headaches with QA) has helped us redefine that meaning as well.
2- Initiating the data challenges, AKA, invite people to the table
The product team asked for support from the R&D team to analyze the data coming from the product to validate the hypothesis and understand people's behaviours within it. This really created momentum as it gives an invaluable piece of information to develop the product further as much as the opportunity for the research team to get to know the product.
This collaboration was key in the recent AB testing done for the content library of Foundations. As we designed a new layout and architecture, we decided to run an AB test because we were unable to define which proposed solution was stronger. Both of them had several pros and cons, and through UXR we couldn’t get a strong signal. On the other hand, thanks to the data analysis done on this testing we were able to identify the winning solution. I was amazed about the insights brought back as they were not only limited to the activity completion rate but covered less immediate information we hadn’t thought of. This was a strong signal that we are in this together. When people are motivated, they often bring something to the table that goes beyond the standard expected.
Aligning perspectives on personalisation
With the ground made fertile from previous collaborations, and the maturity of the product, I saw a spot for starting a new stream of work on the right foot. “Now” was the perfect time to talk about how to bring personalisation to the next level by aligning perspectives and defining common objectives. We had to make sure we had clarity on the long-term ambition and define the steps that we should (and can) take now to bring us closer to our solution.
To stop the “us and them” talk, the best place to start is at WE. We needed to start with shared ownership and co-creation, and to do so I found the perfect partner in crime from the R&D team working in the POD who, like me, was eager to make this work.
When starting something new, it is key not to start with your own preconceived ideas and push them into each other but instead to be collaborative from the get-go. Don’t get me wrong, I believe it is normal to have ideas. If you are working for a long time on a project, your brain produces ideas continuously, more so if you are passionate about what you do. The trick is being able to step back and welcome everyone to put their ideas on the table, with real curiosity about what the other brings. More often than not, ideas coming from different people enrich others and push others to think further.
In many years of running innovation processes, my attachment to ideas and the eagerness to stick my name on something disappeared. You realise that a great product is not a one-man-band matter. I find way more pleasure in being a catalyzer, driving the process to the right place, helping beautiful minds to coordinate and consent to a common direction.
With this in mind, we have been involving more people from Product and R&D in workshops and ideation sessions and we finally are at a point where we have a good pool of ideas for the short and long term that we are proud of.
Something to not underestimate is all the side conversations that happen to create synergies. We spent a lot of time trying to understand each other’s disciplines to be able to translate concepts into the course of action. Now we have clarity and agreement on what we want to build and how to go about it.
This is just the starting point and I am looking forward to seeing what this relationship brings.
