The Real Reasons Why Most Product Teams Struggle to Delight Users

Output fixation is only the tip of the iceberg. Banish it all with my quick, 5-step guide.

Have you ever been lost on a hike even though you have a map?

You turn the map in various ways, trying to match it to what you see in front of you. You try to make sense of the topographical lines. Nothing matches up. The sense of panic is real. You start moving fast, grasping at straws to find your way back to the path.

Is this any different from putting all faith in a product plan? Not really.

Your end goal is to delight users in a way that works for your business. A map (plan) alone won’t get you there. Keeping your head stuck in a plan might lead you off a cliff.

I’m not saying plans are useless.

But our current obsession with precision aiming and planning has gone too far.

Plans rarely lead us where we want or need to be.

It’s not just the plan that’s flawed. It’s also everything that goes into creating it.

Most companies are more obsessed with input than output.

You can think of target output as the scope, schedule, and budget. It’s our plan, our map. And following it without adapting to reality is the root cause of many failed products.

But blindly following the map is only the tip of the iceberg.

It’s the building of the map that wreaks the most havoc.

Here’s the sad truth: most companies are better map builders than product builders.

• Drawn out strategy, analysis, and design efforts without evidence.
• Extensive business cases to gain funding based on fictional returns.
• Yearly, quarterly, and monthly planning to predict the unpredictable.

The engine of map creation is vast and well-established.

What I see is entire departments that exist to feed the beast of map building. The process is heavy, meticulous, and precise. It is a serious time full of debate and extreme care for perfection.

But most of all, it’s a complete waste.

No amount of perfect aiming will help in product work.

You don’t know what will work until it does

So, why plan as if you know?

What about the end user?

Our aim is often not calibrated right.

We rely on our judgment to refine our aim. But our best intuition has a void: the perspective of the user.

The refinement of our aim should come from our end users. Users are those who benefit from what we produce. Yet, from what I see, many of today’s teams don’t know their users.

No user, no value.

Think about it.

How many teams have you seen toiling over an exquisite plan to meet stakeholder demands? I find this to be the prevailing case. Teams don’t even think about the user. Their purpose is to satisfy the stakeholder’s wishes.

Nothing makes sense in this approach.

Stakeholders aren’t your users. Stop treating them like they are. Your on-time, on-budget delivery of their requests won’t result in a valuable outcome or impact. The aiming is off.

Knowing your users dials in your aim to a target that matters.

My 5-Step Guide to Actually Focus on Outcomes Instead of Maps and Map Building

When I started my career, teams focused on outcomes by default.

We knew our users. My team and I would sit beside them to understand their needs. We would even try to do their job for a day to grasp their situation. My team, juiced up on user empathy, emerged solutions tailored to their exact needs. We walked with them every step of the way.

Then, things changed.

• Product Managers or Product Owners became customer proxies.
• Research teams took over the task of understanding the customer.
• Teams turned into order takers, building solutions dictated to them.

In short, product teams have become map readers and followers.

I want to get teams back to where I started. Putting teams in direct contact with users is a crucial step to make this happen.

We need to make learning from user insights a priority again.

Below you will find my 5-step guide to do this. I’m not claiming to have all the answers, but these steps have worked for me and my teams. And they are worth trying out in your context.

Ready? Let’s go.

Step 1: Admit you need to learn if you want to emerge the right path.

This is the hard part.

Humility doesn’t come easy in the business world. But admitting you don’t know opens the door for acting in a way in line with your product situation.

• You don’t know what you don’t know until it happens.
• You don’t know what will work for your customers until it does.
• You won’t know the best way to build it until you are building it.

This is your reality.

Remind yourself of your ignorance, especially when you feel certain that you do know.

Just repeat after me, “I don’t know.” Now, doesn’t that feel better?

Now that we have learning in focus, we need to plan in a way that allows it.

Step 2: Plan light, so you can adapt to the changing terrain.

Every instinct you have around planning is wrong.

Your mind tricks you into thinking a plan reduces the risk of failure. It tells you to perform careful planning far out into the future. And follow it to reach your destination safely.

Don’t fall for this false belief.

Instead, plan light so you can move light on your feet as the terrain shifts beneath you. Here’s how I do this:

1. Set micro goals: The smaller the goal the better. Think on the order of hours rather than days, weeks, months, quarters, or years. The shorter the goal, the lighter the plan. I love goals that are one hour or less.
2. Plan in detail only for the micro-goal: Avoid details on future goals. Plans go stale fast. So, focus on what’s in front of you. Create your plan just in time, immediately before you execute it.
3. Don’t stretch to do more: Trying to fit too much into a micro-goal is a form of over-planning. Make the goal reasonable so you can move at a sustainable pace to achieve it.

A significant benefit of planning light is you have less planning waste.

When things don’t go as planned, your plan is trash. Throwing out a detailed plan you slaved over is painful (this is why we tend to hold on to bad plans). If you spend less effort on the plan, you won’t mind tossing it when things don’t work out.

Plan light to adapt fast to changing circumstances.

Now that your planning is adaptable, you are ready to engage with your users.

Step 3: Bring your user along as your guide.

Product teams must know their users (firsthand).

• We must get rid of the proxies between teams and their users.
• We must understand our users’ needs to focus on what matters most.
• We must engage with our users before, during, and after solution delivery.

No longer can we rely on our own false beliefs about what users need.

Instead, we will now go to the source and bring them on the journey with us. How else can we ensure we have met their needs? I’ve found no other quicker path to user delight.

Engaging with your users is the only way to orient in the right direction.

User needs are your beacon.

But without inspection, you still could falter, which leads us to Step 4.

Step 4: Lift your head out of the map and look around.

Don’t fall off a cliff or get lost.

When each step is uncertain, you have to inspect after each step.

I’ve seen many teams plan light and engage with their users. But then, they neglect to zoom out and see the bigger picture. Keeping apprised of where you are against your target outcomes will ensure you don’t get lost in the forest.

Treat your desired outcomes like your compass, pointing you in the right direction.

See the forest, not only the trees.

At some point, you will notice your map ceases to be useful. It can’t keep up with the evidence. The final step will help with this.

Step 5: Heed evidence over the map.

Don’t be afraid to discard your map.

While light planning is useful up front, I’ve found maps become less useful with every step. Why? Because each step is you making your unique map to your destination.

Maps should fade in favor of evidence.

Evidence is your best guide. Don’t ignore it.

And don’t be afraid to let go of your initial plan. I don’t even bother to update it once I am in tune with the evidence. I listen to what the data tells me and take action on it.

The terrain and reality of your journey is a far superior guide.

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Stop treating planning like a craft you must master in product.

No plan survives once you start.

It comes down to a simple formula.

1. Admit and embrace learning.
2. Plan light and invite change.
3. Engage with your users.
4. Keep the end in mind.
5. Rely on evidence.

Users don’t delight in you following a plan. They delight when you deliver what they need, the way they need it, in the time that they need it. And you don’t get to this following a map created at the moment of highest ignorance (upfront).

In product, planning is useful but not sufficient. Plan light, move with your user, and adapt. Now, that’s a great plan.

Good luck out there on your terrain.

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