Enterprises collectively spend billions of dollars developing new products, but 95% of new products fail. Too often, teams end up building the wrong products, products that fail to meet customer needs or products that partially solve customer needs but are too complex to use. Working with larger B2B enterprises, we also often come across products that were decommissioned due to poor user experience and usability issues.
Developing successful products that customers find useful and meet their unique needs can be a game changer, especially in today’s pandemic environment with the new challenges and opportunities it brings. To do this requires a Product mindset and a systemic development model that are focused on truly understanding customer needs. While there are numerous frameworks for product development that are successful in a specific context, one-size-fits-all frameworks tend to fit organizations to the model rather than create a customized approach that is tailored to an organization’s unique DNA.
Introducing Product Genome
Product Genome is xScion’s holistic approach that views Product Management in a structured way with a focus on defining the customer problem space. It is a blueprint of a product’s value that provides a clear understanding of the problem a product addresses with a focus on discovering and meeting customer needs. The systematic approach and customer focus ensure that the most useful product is built in the most predictable and responsive manner reducing time-to-value.
Why Genome?
A genome is an organism’s complete set of DNA that contains the genetic information needed to build and maintain the organism. The genome has structure, redundancy and plasticity that make it a dynamic system. The DNA in a genome is both coded and uncoded. The coded DNA carries detailed instructions that define what an organism is and tells it how to grow and function over time. The uncoded DNA, which makes up roughly 90% of the total DNA, is more of a mystery. It was once thought of as “junk”, but in recent years evidence has emerged indicating that in the “junk” lie genes in waiting, called de novo genes, that give the organism the capacity to solve problems that have not yet been identified. Another way to put it is that the genome can adapt to survive and flourish in reaction to changes in environmental conditions.
The structure, redundancy and plasticity of the genome is what the Product Genome recreates. Product Genome represents a systematic and disciplined approach to Product Management that provides structure, a culture of collaboration between cross functional teams that provides redundancy and customer-centricity with constant feedback loops that provide plasticity. Like the genome in nature provides a blueprint for an organism that allows it to respond to changes in the environment, the Product Genome provides a blueprint for a product that is fully responsive to emergent customer needs and changing competitive environments.
Learn More
To learn more about Product Genome, xScion's systematic, customer-centric approach to Product Management, download our Product Genome eBook by Product Management expert Anant Dhavale.
