Product Isn’t Enough
Photo by Daniel Nijland on Unsplash
Think of the last time you had a great meal. What was it that made it special? If you’re like most, you’d describe the dish you ordered, or perhaps an especially tasty appetizer. Your description may even extend to the hip vibe of the restaurant.
Now consider a recent bad experience eating out. Again, the meal is the likely star of your review. The food might have been bland or overcooked, but you’d be just as likely to note the rude maître d, or how the tile floors made it too loud to have a conversation. Maybe you found the place too crowded or the prices too high for the quality. How good does the meal have to be to overcome a lost reservation for 6?
In the world of software, our product is the meal, and it garners much of the attention. However, we would be remiss to ignore all the other elements that make the experience wonderful or fall flat. Just as an absent minded waiter or a dirty restroom can ruin the restaurant for you — so too can a difficult checkout experience, complicated documentation, or hard to reach support send customers looking for alternatives.
Product teams obsess over the details of each feature, as they should. These details count, but as you zoom out, remember the customer has a broader experience of your company and your product. The experience around your product matters as much, and sometimes more, than the product you fashion. In our aforementioned review, the product sets the ceiling, and how it is experienced sets the floor. In light of a poor broader experience, it becomes clear that no matter how well crafted, your product isn’t enough.
This perspective has dramatic impacts on culture. It means that success is less a solo performance, and more an orchestration of talented musicians. Teammates now see the crucial importance of their role in the final experience for the customer. Products are a dance, not a piece of isolated technology. If this were a the oscars, we’d only have an award — best ensemble performance.
“Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships.” -Michael Jordan
Under this lens, we see that no team is more valuable than any other, not engineering, not support, not product, and not marketing. We win or lose together. Our tool exists within the customer’s experience and this requires everyone to play their role and play it well, inside and outside the core product team.
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