Talking Product

Episode 4 - How do you facilitate a mindset shift?

We use the term "mindset shift" a lot in the digital transformation space. But what does that term actually mean? How do you facilitate the shifting of a mindset?
In this session, Collin and I explore this idea of a mindset shift. We talk about why we feel it is such an important topic to examine if you hope to lead a succesful digital transformation. We put forward three “environmental conditions” that we believe are needed to create an environment within which a team or organization can examine their assumptions about digital product development. Only by bringing assumptions out into the open - i.e. the mindsets that are guiding people's thinking about digital product development, can a group find more efficient and more effective ways of working.

Episode 3 - Questions for working with uncertainty

In this episode, Collin and I work at unpacking this rather ambiguous idea of a “mindset shift”, which is so often used in digital transformations.
We explore how the types of questions people in leadership roles ask can help create a learning environment. Collin proposes that the types of questions people in leadership roles ask can impose a veneer of certainty onto product development, where in actuality, certainty does not exist. Collin offers lines of inquiry, which can help teams more effectively work with the uncertainty that is inherent in digital product development. 
We also explore some questions about budgets. Too often, we see digital product development projects kick off with rigid budgets, limited scenario planning, poorly defined desired outcomes (if any) and, ultimately, little financial rigour. Needless to say, these projects usually end in tears. Again, the veneer of certainty where certainty doesn’t exist often bites people in the end.
We are using Collin’s book Make Learn Change as a springboard for our conversation.
Please do send us feedback. We’d love to hear from you. And, a very big thank you to those who have been listening.

Episode 2 - Breaking apart the shorthand

In this episode, Collin and I continue to explore the relationship between making product, learning, and facilitating organisational change. We use Collin's book, Make Learn Change as the springboard for this discussion. 
In this episode Collin and I unpack some of the key beliefs that underpin Waterfall and Agile. Often we see Waterfall and Agile being juxtaposed against each other as different “methodologies”. In this episode, I argue that you will be better served looking at them as differing belief systems about product development and product delivery - beliefs that have validity to those who hold them.
Our feeling is that if you can develop a more refined language for articulating these differing belief systems, you will be better positioned to diagnosis where your organization is getting stuck in its own journey to becoming a more effective and more efficient digital product development company. You will also be better positioned to help your team and your organization navigate this rather ambiguous journey that is often simply termed as a “mindset” shift.
As in Episode 1, we continue to argue for the benefits of trying to make a thin slice of value to get into your customers hand, so that you can learn and adapt, where needed. We also revisit how oragnizations can use the obstacles they hit when trying to deliver a thin slice of value as the core focus of a digital or Agile transformation.

Episode 1 - A first look at Make Learn Change

In this first episode, Collin and I start to explore Collin's book Make Learn Change.
We discuss why a fair number of so-called “Agile transformations” simply don’t lead to meaningful improvements in a company’s ability to deliver high-value products faster to customers. We talk about the importance of creating tight feedback loops with customers and the need to bring out into the open the obstacles that are preventing teams from getting product into customers' hands fast.
Collin & I talk about the importance of creating tight feedback loops with customers and bringing out into the open the obstacles that are preventing your teams from getting product faster into customers' hands.