October 18, 2017

Take 3, Scene 28 – Do You Have a Productive Product Mindset? – with Massi Behbahani and Cindy Halim

In Take 3, Scene 28, we talk to Massi Behbahani and Cindy Halim about what they learned at the Mind The Product conference, why empathy matters when we’re building products, and what the future of the product space looks like.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS

  • Too often, product owners don’t have a relationship with the end users of their product. They don’t understand what the end users are doing or the problems that they have. Instead, they’re working closely with engineering and making their own assumptions, and they end up wasting time building solutions to the wrong problems.
  • Empathy helps you really understand the problems that your customers are trying to solve. If you can’t relate to your customer, and if you can’t really understand what their issues are, then you’re not going to be able to build the right product.
  • Empathizing isn’t just good for your customers – it’s good for business. If you don’t put in the time and effort to research customers in advance, you’re going to end up having to do it in the course of the actual project and you’re going to end up spending a lot more time and using a lot more resources to get to your endpoint….
  • …And the worst-case scenario is that your end point is the wrong end point, and the people that you’re actually building the product for are not going to use it.
  • It’s important to know the industry landscape and what’s going on with your competitors, but what your competitors are doing shouldn’t be the sole indicator of what you do with your product.
  • Your organization may need to have a cultural or mindset shift towards a more user-centric approach to solving problems.
  • When you’re trying to advocate for a user-centric practice within your organization, you can start by doing it on your own and eventually others will start to see the benefits.
  • If you’re an organization leader, you can start promoting creativity and innovation in your organization by focusing on learning – not certainty – and rewarding people for what they learn, not for doing always the right thing.

Resources:

ABOUT THE GUESTS

Massi Behbahani is a Strategic Product Manager with expertise in the media industry and a track record of success in managing large-scale launches and projects spanning multiple platforms, teams, geographies and constituents. She is recognized for delivering innovative digital products that ensure leading brand positioning in the market.

Cindy Halim is an extroverted, action-oriented product manager with a strong passion for solving problems and creating awesome user experiences that will delight customers and help grow the business.