Avoid These Common Anti-Patterns

As you work to instrument your product and understand the impact of your product changes on your desired outcomes, avoid these common anti-patterns.

Getting stuck trying to measure everything. By far the most common mistake teams make when instrumenting their product is that they turn it into a massive waterfall project, in which they think they can define all of their needs upfront. Instead, start small. Instrument what you need to evaluate this week’s assumption tests. From there, work toward measuring the impact of your product changes on your product outcome. And with time, work to strengthen the connection between your product outcome and your business outcome.

Hyperfocusing on your assumption tests and forgetting to walk the lines of your opportunity solution tree. It’s exhilarating when our solutions start to work. It feels good when customers engage with what we build. But sadly, satisfying a customer need is not our only job. We need to remember that our goal is to satisfy customer needs while creating value for our business. We are constrained by driving our desired outcome. This is what allows us to create viable products, and viable products allow us to continue to serve our customers. So, when you find a compelling solution, remember to walk the lines of your opportunity solution tree. Desirability isn’t enough. Viability is the key to long-term success.

Forgetting to test the connection between your product outcome and your business outcome. Unfortunately, it’s not enough to drive product outcomes. The connection between our product outcome and our business outcome is a theory that needs to be tested. As you build a history of driving a product outcome, you need to remember to evaluate if driving the product outcome is, in turn, driving the business outcome. It’s what keeps our businesses thriving, allowing us to continue to serve our customers.