“Radical Product Thinking” by R. Dutt was published in 2021 by Barrett-Koehler Publishers. The book provides a systematic methodology for building visionary, game-changing products.
It guides readers through the five key elements of the methodology, including vision, strategy, prioritization, execution and measurement, and culture. The author argues that using radical product thinking can help overcome common product development roadblocks and produce truly innovative and successful products.
Why We Need Radical Product Thinking
An iteration-led approach can move financial KPI up and to the right, but it doesn’t guarantee that you’ll build game-changing products.
In an iteration-led model, iteration defines where you go. In a vision-driven approach, iteration helps you refine how you get to your destination.
Radical Product Thinking helps you build vision-driven products that help you create the change you envision.
Spread the Vision
Once you have a clear vision, it’s time to spread your vision.
Get buy-in from the team by co-creating your vision using the Radical Vision Statement template.
Help your team internalize the vision by observing users’ frustrations with the status quo and seeing how your solution will make their lives better.
Cultivate visionaries by empowering every team in your organization to craft a vision statement that aligns with the organization’s vision. Show individuals how their work contributes toward the team’s and organization’s vision.
Effective prioritizing
To prioritize effectively, use the two-by-two rubric with axes of vision fit and survival.
Evaluate initiatives based on their impact on progress and risk:
- Ideal quadrant: low risk, progress towards vision
- Investing in the Vision: high risk, progress towards vision
- Building Vision Debt: low risk, survival-focused
- Danger! quadrant: high risk, not aligned with vision.
Digital Pollution: The Collateral Damage to Society
Digital pollution is the collateral damage to society from unregulated tech growth, just as environmental pollution is the damage from unregulated industrial growth.
We may be tempted to think that just a few tech giants create digital pollution. In reality, unintended consequences and digital pollution are pervasive.
Digital pollution frays the fabric of society in five major ways:
- Fueling inequality
- Hijacking attention
- Creating ideological polarization
- Eroding privacy
- Eroding the information ecosystem
Product Diseases: When Good Products Go Bad Part 2
- Locked-In Syndrome means overly committing to a specific technology or approach because it has been successful in the past.
- Pivotitis means changing direction whenever things get tough and leads to exhausted, confused, and demoralized teams.
- Narcissus Complex means focusing on your own goals and needs to such an extent that you lose focus on the change you’re trying to bring about.
These diseases can be cured by starting with a clear vision and systematically translating it into your everyday activities.
Ethics: The Hippocratic Oath of Product
Building a product is like being a doctor: you have a responsibility for the well-being of your users.
The Prisoner’s Dilemma shows the choice between maximizing individual gain or building responsibly. Choosing the former leads to digital pollution.
To avoid this outcome, we need to consider a holistic approach that includes the three Is:
- Intimidation/Consequences: Regulations to discourage bad behavior
- Incentives: External motivation to encourage building responsibly
- Inspiration: Awareness of how we affect society, tapping into our hardwired desire to maximize our collective well-being
Vision: Envisioning Change
Crafting a compelling vision is the first step to envisioning the change you want to bring to the world.
A good vision is
- Centered on the problem you want to see solved in the world.
- A tangible end state you can visualize.
- Meaningful to you and the people you intend to impact.
The four questions
Product strategy is how to turn vision into a plan.
Comprehensive strategy answers four questions: RDCL (pronounced as ‘Radical’)
- Real pain points: what triggers product use, validated through verification and value
- Design: functionality that solves pain, interface and identity
- Capabilities: tangible and intangible resources to deliver solution
- Logistics: delivery, pricing, support, revenue, cost model, training plan.
RPT philosophy
Here are the three pillars of the RPT philosophy:
- Think of your product as your mechanism for creating change.
- Imagine the change you want to bring to the world before engineering your product.
- Create change by connecting your vision to your day-to-day activities.
Radical Product Thinking gives you direction; Lean and Agile give you speed. Together, you get speed plus direction (i.e., velocity).
In the RPT way, anything can be your product if it is your constantly improving mechanism to create the change you want to bring about.
Product Diseases: When Good Products Go Bad
- Hero syndrome strikes when we focus on external recognition instead of creating the change that inspires us.
- Strategic Swelling means building a wide range of capabilities without having the focus to develop any individual capability to a breakthrough level.
- Obsessive Sales Disorder means borrowing against the long-term vision to close short-term deals.
- Hypermetricemia is focusing excessively on measurable outcomes to determine success, irrespective of whether those are the right things to measure.
Culture is a product
In radical product thinking, culture is viewed as a product that creates a motivating environment.
The RPT rubric assesses work along two dimensions: satisfaction and urgency. The four quadrants are: meaningful work, heroism, organizational cactus, and soul-sucking. The goal is to increase meaningful work and decrease danger zones.
To address issues, use the RDCL strategy. People of color may have larger danger quadrants. Creating psychological safety by modeling fallibility, direct communication, and accessibility is key.
