A co-worker which happens to be a dear friend of mine, ask
the same questions over and over again: “Why can’t we built good product? And
when we launched the product, it sucks! why ? “
After taking some time to digest that particular question,
my mind wander to the very same statement that I used to make “We don’t have a
product owner!” let me rephrase that “We don’t have a product owner that work
by heart!” now the last statement is a bit harsh and a bit too high to achieve
(or maybe not), so I’ll tone down abit.. Now my statement is “We need a Product
Story teller! “
In Developing a product especially an IT Product, a product
development involves several parties, Product manager, Project manager,
Executor (Developers, Operators), and Business Person (marketing guy)
The Product Manager is usually the one who makes all the
decision, a product manager will assess the product opportunities and manage
how to build it.
The Project Manager will manage the timeline, coordinate
with all other parties and make sure they meet the deadline and no problem is unsolved
The Executor, do all the dirty works
And The Business Person does all the budgeting and marketing
activities, include promotion, etc
So if asked who in the organization represent the customer needs
and benefits usually we all point our finger to Product Manager or to Business
person, it comes to one of them.
Now, this is the problem
Who hold the product storyteller function ?, everyone in the
team should be able to tell what a story what the product is all about, but a
single person who act as the “All knowing about the product” is still very
needed in the team. The product storyteller function is not about analysis is
about combining all elements internal and external to one story, he/she speak
in big picture rather than detail, he/she ensure all product features are
working solely for the customer benefits in the language that is understood by
the customer, thus creating a valuable customer experience.
So let’s put this product storyteller function at the
Product manager, it seems like a good idea, but on the operational level,
product manager daily routine bogged down its big picture vision, product
manager is consumed in details, problem solving, product manager has no time
nor the resource to think big picture and speak on fully on behalf the
customer. Constant bombardment from technical and operation side will alter product
manager orientation from customer benefits to “just get it done on time”.
Product Manager has no time for curiosity, discovery and play that will lead to
superb customer experience
What if we put this product storyteller function in
the Business guy, business guy interact with the market therefore it must have
near perfect knowledge of what the market need and what the customer expect,
but business guy is always pre-occupied with financial numbers and projection,
and sometimes it is very painful and confusing to talk to technical person. To
understand the product you need to understand how it works, to understand how
it works you need to understand how it made, if the business guy is not logical
enough or the technical guy is not savvy enough in communicating its
idea/process, it could be very tiring process just to understand the product.
This is the reason why technical person often fight business
person, it’s lack of understanding and communication, Each side tells a
different story and there is no one combining those stories, no one is
persistently safe guarding 1 story, this is the role of Product Storyteller,
Product Storyteller should be positioned in the company to break down walls,
facilitate talks, discussion, coordination and collaboration, creating 1 story
that gives superb experience to customer.
The Product Storytellers function, must have that “embedded
will in its DNA” to relentlessly tell the story of the product to all areas in
the company or maybe even outside the company, the Product Storytellers is the
product evangelist, this is important because this practice will create a
unison story in the organization which will put everyone on the same understanding
page. The product Storyteller Passion will catch on to others, the passion will
get challenged, and the Product Storytellers will fight and iterate on the
product idea, creating a cycle of curiosity, discovery and play.
The Products Storytellers has to have a “T” shaped working characteristic,
it has deep knowledge of a specific item and has broad interest and knowledge
to other items, the "T" shaped working characteristic will enable the Product Storyteller to push collaboration between organization functions, he/she need to be able to communicate fluently with others and
most important it must have endless passion to the product.
So does this mean we need a specific position for the
product storyteller? I didn’t say that, we do know that we desperately need the
function, where you want to put it depends on your organization structure.
Have Fun searching that one passionate, resourceful, creative,
good storyteller guy as your product storyteller; p
