Comments on: Intelligent Design, it’s Not Just for Religion http://www.productbeautiful.com/2006/10/04/intelligent-design-its-not-just-for-religion/ Building Product Management from the Ground Up by Paul Young Thu, 26 Aug 2010 18:07:46 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Dany http://www.productbeautiful.com/2006/10/04/intelligent-design-its-not-just-for-religion/comment-page-1/#comment-1695 Dany Thu, 12 Mar 2009 20:21:09 +0000 http://www.productbeautiful.com/2006/10/04/intelligent-design-its-not-just-for-religion/#comment-1695 Is there a way to put this on a trial basis? Is there a way to put this on a trial basis?

]]> By: Stewart Rogers http://www.productbeautiful.com/2006/10/04/intelligent-design-its-not-just-for-religion/comment-page-1/#comment-7 Stewart Rogers Tue, 10 Oct 2006 22:00:37 +0000 http://www.productbeautiful.com/2006/10/04/intelligent-design-its-not-just-for-religion/#comment-7 OK. Fair enough as long as we answer “does that WORK for our market?” with facts and not opinions.

]]> By: Paul http://www.productbeautiful.com/2006/10/04/intelligent-design-its-not-just-for-religion/comment-page-1/#comment-6 Paul Mon, 09 Oct 2006 22:25:26 +0000 http://www.productbeautiful.com/2006/10/04/intelligent-design-its-not-just-for-religion/#comment-6 My view is that the PM is the ultimate arbiter of the product that leaves the factory. In the traditional PM approach we have learned through <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.productmarketing.com/productmarketing/" rel="nofollow">Pragmatic </a>(which, BTW, I believe is awesome), we are taught that through well written requirements, use cases, and personas the correct product will develop. I think it gets you 90-95% of the way there. I think the Intelligent Design PM needs to help push the last 5%. I'll use 2 examples, one from outside my industry and one from my daily life. First the video game industry. <a rel="nofollow" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shigeru_Miyamoto" rel="nofollow">Shigeru Miyamoto</a> was the developer of the original "Legend of Zelda" video game for Nintendo. His title was designer but I believe he was what we would call a Product Manager today (he had no programming experience when joining Nintendo). In the hyper-competitive gaming industry, he has been responsible for hits from Zelda to Mario to Donkey Kong. I believe he is an ID PM. ID because he knows what people want beyond the requirements - a passion that is embedded in the product deeper than any requirement can reach, and he knows what people do NOT want (another shoot 'em up). From my side, high-end consumer electronics, there are definitely non-functional requirements that can't be stated, and can't be constrained out. There is an unstated passion, or level of completeness that I can tell when I look at a final product if it is going to resonate with our customers. So Yes, it's a skill set/HR issue. Yes, I believe the PM is responsible for usability just as much as any other part of the product. We don't need to be UI experts but we need to look logically at a UI (or any other part of the product) and say "does that WORK for our market?" Since we're ultimately responsible for the product, I see it as the purview of the PM to kick back any aspect of the product to the functional group that made it with instructions to rework based on the PM's experience living in the market, e.g. "You don't have to be a cook to tell if the food is spoiled." My view is that the PM is the ultimate arbiter of the product that leaves the factory. In the traditional PM approach we have learned through Pragmatic (which, BTW, I believe is awesome), we are taught that through well written requirements, use cases, and personas the correct product will develop. I think it gets you 90-95% of the way there. I think the Intelligent Design PM needs to help push the last 5%. I’ll use 2 examples, one from outside my industry and one from my daily life.

First the video game industry. Shigeru Miyamoto was the developer of the original “Legend of Zelda” video game for Nintendo. His title was designer but I believe he was what we would call a Product Manager today (he had no programming experience when joining Nintendo). In the hyper-competitive gaming industry, he has been responsible for hits from Zelda to Mario to Donkey Kong. I believe he is an ID PM. ID because he knows what people want beyond the requirements – a passion that is embedded in the product deeper than any requirement can reach, and he knows what people do NOT want (another shoot ‘em up).

From my side, high-end consumer electronics, there are definitely non-functional requirements that can’t be stated, and can’t be constrained out. There is an unstated passion, or level of completeness that I can tell when I look at a final product if it is going to resonate with our customers.

So Yes, it’s a skill set/HR issue. Yes, I believe the PM is responsible for usability just as much as any other part of the product. We don’t need to be UI experts but we need to look logically at a UI (or any other part of the product) and say “does that WORK for our market?” Since we’re ultimately responsible for the product, I see it as the purview of the PM to kick back any aspect of the product to the functional group that made it with instructions to rework based on the PM’s experience living in the market, e.g. “You don’t have to be a cook to tell if the food is spoiled.”

]]> By: Stewart Rogers http://www.productbeautiful.com/2006/10/04/intelligent-design-its-not-just-for-religion/comment-page-1/#comment-5 Stewart Rogers Sat, 07 Oct 2006 16:14:17 +0000 http://www.productbeautiful.com/2006/10/04/intelligent-design-its-not-just-for-religion/#comment-5 Hi, I must admit I am a little confused about this gap between requirements and solution. Is this not an HR gap / development skill-set issue? Is the Product Manager reponsible for usability? Is product design one of our job requirements? I must admit, I know nothing about product design. I know what I like in a UI but that is just my opinion. Should design not correspond to your personas? Hi, I must admit I am a little confused about this gap between requirements and solution. Is this not an HR gap / development skill-set issue? Is the Product Manager reponsible for usability? Is product design one of our job requirements? I must admit, I know nothing about product design. I know what I like in a UI but that is just my opinion. Should design not correspond to your personas?

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