We Go Further When We Go Together

“Let’s all do our own thing and hope for the best,” said no leader ever but that’s exactly what you see in many companies when it comes to their digital strategy and unsurprisingly it’s likely the biggest reason why those companies struggle to retain talent and deliver great digital experiences for their customers.

Mobile apps are like human babies, they need constant care, feeding, monitoring, and support. They need a steady flow of new challenges to learn, and they need engagement from others to grow. So, just as it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a connected group of collaborators to create a successful mobile app.

Lost in the Labyrinth

At Rightpoint we’re fortunate to have the chance to see the inner workings of all types of organizations across a wide range of industries when we’re engaged to help with their digital experiences. Often, we end up working right in the middle of several business units, typically IT and Marketing, but sometimes Product, Sales and Finance are in the mix, depending on the type of business and the application we’re helping develop. It is the rare exception where these different groups are truly aligned to a purpose and have a healthy collaboration established.

It’s not hard to understand why. The folks within these groups are not malevolent forces of chaos bent on world domination, though that’s how they may feel about each other in more toxic corporate cultures. The simple truth, in most circumstances, is that it’s the game that’s broken, not the players. The players are just following the rules that were established long before they were hired. Obviously, the rules were never intentionally crafted or communicated through a Powerpoint or a Company All Hands. The rules we’re talking about here are anti-patterns, the result of a thousand minor disagreements, miscommunications, and misinterpretations of what truly matters for the company. Over time, these anti-patterns harden into a concrete labyrinth from which no idea, no matter how good can escape.

It is accurate to describe these broken organizations as a labyrinth because the players inside can’t see the way out, only the choice that’s immediately in front of them.

When Rightpoint parachutes in, we have the advantage of a bird’s eye view and can see with objectivity the elaborate and impenetrable walls that have been built. Often, people stuck in these hedgerows are smart, highly motivated individuals who understand the problem clearly, but are powerless to change things. Regardless of how things got that way, the first step toward fixing them is surprisingly simple.

Bring it In

In any Labyrinth, no matter how intricate, there is a central courtyard where all paths terminate. For companies trapped in the labyrinth of their own corporate culture, the way out is actually the way in. When we’re successful working with clients, we’re able to guide the folks toiling away in the outer reaches of the labyrinth within their own business units into the center where they can gather in a circle and not just see one another but more importantly, see the customers they are trying to serve. While delightful, a metaphor only gets us so far. Let’s look at a practical example.

Mobile is a Lot to Get Right

In many corporate structures, it’s IT who’s been charged with owning the mobile app. It makes sense. A mobile app is a very technical thing. But it’s more than a bunch of code compiled into a binary file. Today it’s often THE primary funnel a business has for acquiring, serving, and supporting their customers. It must be compelling. It must be elegantly designed. It must represent the primary offering that keeps a company in business. It must be fast. It must be 100% accurate. It must always work from any place at any time of day, sometimes in any part of the world. It must constantly evolve with the needs of customers and the technological platforms it’s built upon. And one last thing, if it doesn’t do all these things, customers will leave a one-star review in the app store, delete it, and never come back. No pressure.

No wonder IT is so grumpy all the time. Over the hedgerows of the labyrinth, they hear marketing shouting about something called a value prop and designers imploring about the weight of typography. There are plenty more voices too, some louder than others calling for conversion metrics, customer sentiment capture, and agile practices. It’s easy to see how the walls just get higher, the mobile baby gets neglected, employees quit, customers leave, revenue drops, and C-Suites become revolving doors. Mobile apps are complicated, and they can’t thrive without true collaboration.

Enter Product Thinking

Once we lead this cacophony of voices from the far reaches of the corporate labyrinth to the meeting table at the center, we have a conversation about how things can change. How, you ask? By beginning to think about the mobile app as a product that can only be successful when IT, Marketing, Creative, Sales, etc. can come together with a unified vision and goals that are grounded in serving customer needs.

It’s at this point that there’s an eye-opening opportunity in the conversation to hear everyone’s opinion about what their customers’ needs are. In most cases, everyone regardless of their role in the organization has a piece of the puzzle, but it can’t really be put together yet. The piece that’s usually missing is the actual voice of the customer. It’s an easy mistake to think that you are the user/customer, so you know best, but it’s an expensive mistake. Customers are always changing and adapting to changes in the world, new technologies, inflation, and pandemics.

Many organizations don’t want to slow down to do user research or maybe they don’t want to pay for it. They would rather use the money on development. Again, it’s another expensive mistake to make. The investment of good research will always pay dividends when you release a new version of your mobile app that is informed by insights from your customers.

Product Managers are Drivers Who Ask for Directions

Understanding customer needs is the foundation for becoming product-led when it comes to your mobile app but there is much more to it. The best way to become product-led is to hire a great product manager. But the role of Product Management is often misunderstood and there are about as many different definitions of it as there are organizations who hire for the role.

As a manager of product managers, I think a lot about the role and what its real value is. I’ve learned 95% of what I know about product management from the product managers I’ve managed because I ask a lot of questions. The fundamental value of a good Product Manager is the ability to ask a lot of questions. They are curious guides who know they don’t have all the answers but must ask the right questions and listen closely. Great product managers are also gifted communicators and consensus builders who refuse to let politics, process, or protocol get in the way of the right solution which is always the result of superior collaboration.

Staying Out of the Labyrinth

Just because you’ve changed some things, you can’t expect old habits to just go away forever. The best tools for keeping the walls from going up again in your organization are:

• Transparency — show your work and insist on a culture where everyone does the same
• Inclusion — invite everyone’s input and feedback regardless of their title
• Customer Needs — kept in mind, this will never steer your organization wrong
• Business Goals — kept in mind, focus everyone on what matters and what doesn’t
• Ego-Free — the best ideas are just as good when they’re not yours

If you can leverage these tools and incorporate them into your mobile product team’s culture so they become the norm, everything will begin to improve. Your people will be happier and more motivated. Your customers will be happier because you’re listening to them. Management will be happier because business is improving.

Want help with your mobile app? The Rightpoint Digital Product team would love to learn more about the challenges your facing. Please reach out so we can set up a chat.