As a Product Owner, your role involves:
- Taking accountability for the success of a product
- Prioritizing items on the product backlog
- Maximizing the value of the product
You are the key decision maker on what features and capabilities the final product will have. This means ensuring that the successful outcomes of both the customer and business are aligned and achieved in all aspects of the product implementation. And how do you define success for your customer? By understanding who the customer or user is, what needs they have, and then solving for the needs. All this, while meeting the objectives of the business. And this is where the challenge begins!
Often, we experience a trade-off between customer and business needs – and too often, business wins.
As Peter Drucker said way back in 1954: “There is only one valid purpose for a business, creating a customer.” It is simple! If we don’t meet the needs of our customers, we don’t have customers, and if we don’t have customers, we don’t have a business. If you live by this philosophy, there is suddenly no longer a trade-off.
How Outside In are you?
As a Product Owner, it is critical to start with understanding customer value and then direct the building of product features and capabilities to ensure that those needs are met. An effective Outside-In Product Owner recognises what customers think they want, and then uses insights gained through data, organisational observation and interactions to translate those into real needs and key customer outcomes. These become meaningful epics and user stories in the Agile world.
It’s about anticipating the next best thing, innovating around the needs that your customers didn’t even know they had and delivering a differentiated minimum viable product to market. Once you have delighted them with your insights, get feedback, refine and improve. Simple, right?
Right! There is a simple recipe you can follow to guarantee that you and your team are putting the customer at the heart of everything. Book a seat for the next Accredited Customer Experience Masters (ACXM) training course, and we will show you how.
The ACXM is a 4-day practical, relevant and interactive course coached by CX specialists to guide you towards the achievement of an internationally recognised certification. It really is a great way to learn, giving you practical tools and techniques in a proven, structured approach that enables real Outside-In thinking and integrates seamlessly into an agile world, leading to great products aimed at delighting customers.
To read more or enrol, visit: https://iqgroup.com.au/customer-experience-management-method-course/
Written by Lizette Akker & Kerry Thomas from IQbusiness South Africa
Read the original article here.
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