Project Vs Product Mindset

What’s the difference?

Project mindset has been the corner stone for design and delivery teams. Teams are given the solution to work, a time in which to complete and a set budget they must stick to. Let’s face it, time, scope and budget have been the standard and the only metrics for measuring success and progress.

A couple of key components are missing from this equation.

1)     Is the solution actually good?

2)    most importantly does it provide value to your customer?

Is it possible that you can hit all the business’ required metrics for success, yet end up with a solution that misses the needs of your customers?

The Project Mindset

When the relentless completion of projects is the measure of success, it is easy to lose sight of your customer.

  • They are temporary - They are designed to complete a specific goal that is set within the timeframe and budget defined in the original scope.

  • They are Structured - Measured by sets of predetermined milestones and steps that do not account for changes.

  • They are output-oriented - Success is measured by rate of completion, often without a clear view of the value they provide your company or customer.

The Product Mindset

This is the refocus of your teams to design, build and deliver solutions that will maximise value to your company and customers.

  • The solutions are ongoing. Your product must be seen to continuously adapt to the ever-changing demands of the market.

  • The solutions are strategically aligned. Your products are focused on the long term, they remain aligned to your strategy due to their adaptive nature.

  • The solutions are output oriented. They prioritise value to both customer and company. focused on strategic outcomes over a specific task.

What are the key components of the product mindset?

Product Team

·       Empowerment - your team with problems and the ability to create their own solutions.

·       Prioritise outcome over output – define what success looks like

·       Ownership – Give your team purpose and autonomy.

·       Encourage Collaboration – an open culture allows the challenging of ideas for a more diverse perspective.

Product Delivery

·       Small, frequent and uncoupled release – bring the focus to small iterative updates over monolithic releases.

·       Instrumentation – it is crucial you have the means to measure the new definition of success from customer data.

·       Monitoring – Observe your systems health for quality, performance, availability and safety.

·       Deployment Infrastructure – Ensure your products can be updates safely and efficiently without downtime.

Put your customer and stakeholders back at the heart of your strategy. Redefine and reorganise around your value streams to truly understand your customer needs.