Ash Maurya is the author of “Running Lean: How to Iterate from Plan A to a Plan that Works.” Educated as an electrical engineer, he worked in software development before founding his first company, WiredReach. He is now the founder and CEO of Spark59, which equips entrepreneurs to succeed by providing tools, content and coaching.
I discovered his work when I was looking for additional information on the Business Model Canvas – a popular one-page approach to creating a business plan. I wanted a canvas to help me formulate a business model for a product and I discovered Ash’s Lean Canvas and Lean Stack tools that help entrepreneurs, startups, and product managers create products customers want.
Practices and Ideas for Product Managers, Developers, and Innovators
Highlights from the discussion include:
* When you are in Austin, TX, try Ash’s favorite breakfast tacos at Tacodeli.
* Try yoga for physical strength and mental focus.
* 3 stages of a startup that apply to product development
* The Artists are Starving: inspired by building something new, but have to eat, too. Need to find a sustainable business model.
* The Artists Have to Survive: product pivots can result in a sustainable business, but it may no longer be one that inspires its creators.
* The Entrepreneurs (no longer Artists) Must Find Purpose in their Customers: purpose and passion for the work that is creating products customers value.
* Entrepreneurship, as well as new product development, is not risky – these activities apply risk management techniques and control risk.
* The seed for the book “Running Lean” started after exploring the early works of Steve Blank and Eric Ries and the desire to test product concepts more quickly.
* A “Lean” approach is defined by Ash as one that maximizes quickly learning about the riskiest aspects in product concepts.
* Contrasted with Agile development approaches, that measures performance in terms of completed features, Lean is concerned with the value the product delivers to the customer.
* The core issue in product management is not “Can we build the product” but “Will customers care” if the product is built.
* The Lean approach involves running small fast experiments to test what customers want and what creates value.
* Properly conducted, customer interviews provide the information product managers need to understand the customer’s problem.
* Ethnography – being a fly on the wall observing customers – is also very effective to better understand the problem that needs to be solved.
* Ultimately customers don’t care about your solution, they care about their problems and how to solve them.
* Ash’s blog, Practice Trumps Theory, is full of valuable how-to information for product developers and managers. His next book will take shape on his blog before it is published.
* The Lean Canvas provides a one-page business model that works as well for startups as it does product managers. It consists of nine elements:
* Customer segments
* Channels
* Customer problems
* Solution
* Value proposition
* Revenue streams
* Cost structure
* Success metrics
* Unfair advantage
Special Bonus: Get a Lean Canvas Template and Ash’s
Chad McAllister, PhD - Helping Product Managers become Product Masters
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39:22
TEI 009: How a non-profit used an idea management system to create life-saving products–with Geoff Peters
https://productinnovationeducators.com/blog/tei-009-how-a-non-profit-used-an-idea-management-system-to-create-life-saving-productswith-product-marketing-director-geoff-peters/
Mon, 02 Mar 2015 12:55:16 +0000
https://www.productinnovationeducators.com/blog/?p=2546
Geoff Peters is one of the nicest and most professional product managers you could meet. I met him at a product management meeting where he described how a faith-based nonprofit, Compassion International, created their first new product in several decades, called Water of Life. Geoff is the Product Development Manager for Compassion International, where he […]
Geoff Peters is one of the nicest and most professional product managers you could meet. I met him at a product management meeting where he described how a faith-based nonprofit, Compassion International, created their first new product in several deca...
Geoff is the Product Development Manager for Compassion International, where he works daily to eliminate dozens of poverty-related health issues across 26 developing countries. Throughout his career in product management, he has worked extensively with thousands of church and non-profit leaders to research, develop and launch products and programs that engage US consumers in helping impoverished children and families.
Practices and Ideas for Product Managers, Developers, and Innovators
Highlights from the discussion include:
* Geoff started his career doing market segmentation, before learning about product management.
* He pursued and earned the New Product Development Professional (NPDP) certification from the Product Development and Management Association (PDMA) to discover what product management involves.
* The challenge the nonprofit faces is presenting opportunities in a way that people recognize the difference they can make in the world.
* The dual value chain of nonprofits means the needs to two customer groups (beneficiary and donor) must be simultaneously met with a single product.
* Field research with prospective customers of a new product is critical to success and provides ideas for new products as well as refinements to product concepts.
* Compassion’s dual value chain is providing value to a child living in poverty while also providing value to the donor who funds the work.
To begin creating an innovation capability, Compassion did three things:
* Implement a phase-gate methodology for managing new product development.
* Train key employees on the principles of new product development using the NPDP certification process.
* Create an ideation event that started with a 2-day innovation retreat.
Details on their ideation process:
* 2-day innovation retreat generated about 1200 ideas
* Ideas reviewed and synthesized, resulting in 35 product concepts
* Tested concepts externally with a new market (not existing donors) on the basis of importance and willingness to provide financial support
* Top 10 concepts were tested internally for feasibility and top 3 were pursued further
* Graphics and descriptions for each product were created and tested with focus groups of potential donors
* Product managers were assigned to run with the most promising concepts
Geoff developed the concept of providing safe drinking water, resulting in the Water of Life product, a simple and effective way equipping impoverished families to have clean water.
Innovation Quote
“Forget the former things, do not dwell on the past. See I’m doing a new thing. Now it springs up. Do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness, and streams in the wasteland.” Isaiah 43:18-19
Listen Now to the Interview
Raw Transcript
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