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Think of your product as your mechanism for creating change: The change you are working to bring to the world isn’t necessarily through a high-tech product. It could be through the work of your nonprofit, the research you’re conducting, or the freelance services you’re offering. Any of these could be your product if it’s your mechanism to bring change. Consequently, you can apply the RPT approach to any product you’re building to create change more effectively.Envision the change you want to bring to the world before engineering your product: A product does not justify itself—it exists only to create your desired change and is successful only if it helps you achieve the end state you pictured. You can build the right product and evaluate it only if you know the impact you want to have. Without knowing the desired impact, it’s difficult to recognize and address the unintended consequences your product may have.Create change by connecting your vision to your day-to-day activities: A focus on execution feels satisfying—it feels like being on a galloping horse (even if it’s galloping in the wrong direction). The RPT approach helps you connect your vision for change to your day-to-day activities so you can engineer that change systematically.A clear vision drives a strategy, priorities, and execution.Iteration is helpful, but our iterations must be driven by a vision. We measure progress toward the vision to decide how to improve our next iteration.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.
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Chapter 1. Why we Need Radical Product Thinking
Note from Marcello: Tesla and Elon Mush are used as positive examples in this chapter. The book was written before we knew that Teslas catch on fire, and that Musk is a nazi fuck.
A vision-driven product begins with a clear picture of the change you want to bring to the world. This vision must then permeate every aspect of the product’s design.
Example: Tesla designed the Model 3 as a mechanism to create the change it wanted to bring to the world (accelerating the transition to electric cars by making them more affordable)—that’s Radical Product Thinking. This clear purpose was translated into every aspect of the car. One team designed a more efficient electric motor using the Hall effect; another designed a new magnet with varying polarities; another figured out a process to manufacture this innovative magnet. The connection across these roles and tactical activities is that the teams were all thinking about a radical product, driven by a common vision. As Munro summarized his view on the Model 3, “This car is totally different. This is not inching up. This is revolutionary.”
Tesla used iterations to refine how to get where it was going.
Local maxima are often tempting because they can help you optimize for your corner of the chessboard. They can help you maximize profitability and business goals in the near term.
Since the 1980s the ideology of shareholder primacy, where a company’s primary goal is to maximize shareholder value, has become entrenched in business culture.4 Academics argued that managers would best serve companies (and society) by working to maximize shareholder value. Often this means delivering financial results every quarter to meet shareholders’ expectations of profits and growth—you’re incentivized to optimize for just a few pieces on the chessboard.
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. Especially when Lean and Agile are used together, it creates the illusion that you don’t need to start with a clear vision—you could discover your vision along the way.
In discovering your vision along the way, your product can become a sailboat at sea without a North Star—you go wherever the currents and KPIs take you. As a business leader, you experience many strong forces pushing you in different directions. Your investors may see a trend that you’re not capitalizing on, a board member may share an idea (because he sat next to another CEO on a plane who “knew” just what your company should be doing), and different customers may be asking for different things. Without a clear vision and strategy to drive the ideas you test and iteratively improve, many good products go bad as they meander and lose their way. To be clear, this is not to dismiss Lean Startup. Lean and Agile are both excellent methodologies that I still use and highly recommend for feedback-driven execution. Lean and Agile give you speed, helping you get to your destination faster. However, they don’t tell you where you need to go.
Here are the three pillars of the RPT philosophy:
Differences between an iteration-led approach and RPT
Iteration-led
RPT
This approach works for an evolutionary product when you’re making small changes to an existing product or process.
RPT is needed for a game-changing product when you’re creating a transformative change.
The vision is driven by business goals.
The vision is driven by the change you want to see.
The vision changes based on iterations, and iterations determine where you need to go next.
The vision rarely changes—iterations help you refine
This approach helps you react to the situation you’re in to find local maxima. You optimize for a few pieces on the chessboard that are under attack.
RPT helps you pursue the global maximum purposefully. You know the end goal and you play the long game in finding the best move across the chessboard.
The resulting product can easily become bloated and unfocused over time, as common product diseases creep in.
The resulting product is more likely to stay true to its original vision and purpose. Product diseases are less likely.
This approach contributes to digital pollution as iterations may create unintended consequences in society.
This approach contributes to digital pollution as iterations may create unintended consequences in society. RPT helps you embrace the responsibility that comes with the power of building successful products that affect people.
There are no rows in this table
When we look at our product as a means to get us to our destination, we become open to the possibility of constantly improving our mechanism for getting there. This is where iteration fits in. Iteration allows for a feedback-driven approach to executing on a clear vision and strategy.
An example of iterative execution was Singapore’s approach to public transport. The vision for public transport was clear—to have an inexpensive and extensive public transport system that accommodated a growing population. In 1995 Singapore privatized public transport in an effort to increase efficiency and improve pricing through competition. While this strategy seemed reasonable, it turned out that SMRT, the corporate entity managing public transport, was prioritizing short-term earnings because it was a publicly listed company. Trains became plagued by delays and safety incidents as railway maintenance and long-term investment were neglected for years. When it was clear that the privatization strategy wasn’t achieving the vision for Singapore’s public transport, the government changed its approach. SMRT was bought out by Temasek (a government investment arm) and delisted. Today Singapore’s urban transportation is among the best globally and was ranked number one by McKinsey & Company in 2018.
Lean and Agile have taught us to harness the power of iteration through tight feedback loops—these execution methodologies give you speed. Radical Product Thinking gives you direction, helping you plan where you want to go and how you’re going to get there. Combining iterative execution with Radical Product Thinking gives you velocity: speed with direction.
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