Technology must serve people

“Technology changes all the time; human nature hardly ever.” - Evgeny Morozov, The Net Delusion

As a young product manager, I was most concerned about my lack of a technical background. I graduated with a political science degree, and computing was something that I picked up, rather than studied. I purchased thick computer science books and forced myself to read through them. It wasn't a bad thing to learn about technology, even if I couldn't really understand the real-world application of the concepts yet. It's just that this training missed the point: the best, longest-lasting innovation deals with people. Or more specifically, the human understanding of and interaction with technology within a cultural context.

As I grew into my role, I became comfortable with the technology of my products. I began to understand a shorthand for the time and effort it took development teams to enhance a part of a product. I also understood how to create a backlog and ruthlessly prioritize based on my opinion of the wishes of current buyers and users. I became like most product managers: I liked my technology, and I liked to find incremental improvements. I made products a little bit better with each release.

But something felt wrong. I also was responsible for the launch with each release. The launch is a sort of marketing campaign, and as such, it required something to be newsworthy. With an incremental approach, a release stares back at you like a bucket of bolts: nothing stands out and nothing seems particularly useful. Only the most skilled can turn bug fixes and arcane improvements into a headline.

Of course, you can have a bucket-of-bolts release; there is nothing inherently wrong with choosing to release small improvements if the release is part of your strategy or an Agile way of working. When you have a larger arc to what you release, you know what news you want to make, and you may decide to downplay a technical release to make room for the larger story.

The problem is that creeping incrementalism isn't a strategy (unless you're really fast). Most likely, you're defining your problem space too narrowly. More specifically, you are concerned with the pain voiced by the loudest existing users (often admins), who are focused on the workings of existing software and addressing old issues.

Find something fundamentally true about people

One of the best ways to halt creeping incrementalism is to find the fundamental human appeal. Here's a hint: it's probably not what you think it is. And it's probably built on some base desire.

An entertaining example is the Carousel Pitch from Mad Men. Clayton Christensen noted that people buy McDonald's milkshakes to deal with the boredom of a commute, not because if taste.

Later in my career, I helped create a market called Sales Enablement. Sales Enablement technology helped sellers have better sales conversations. It became clear that salespeople have a time management problem: consultative sales cycles are long and time consuming. Salespeople need to close deals every quarter. Our innovation had to be driven based on feelings surrounding convenience and efficiency. We had to provide just-in-time situational training, admin-free tracking, mobile meeting prep, email access to experts, and so on.

Daniel Kahneman's Thinking, Fast and Slow and Charles Duhigg’s The Power of Habit are popular in software circles because they break down human behavior into insightful patterns. Kahneman helps us understand the surprising nature of impulse while Duhigg helps us develop habits.

Regardless of the technique you use, never assume that anybody wants to use your product or technology. Look deeper for the emotion that drives behavior. Look for the true innovation by insisting on focusing on people.