Weeknotes 399
This week I did:
A little knowledge goes a long way
I attended a fantastic playback of some user research. The insights it revealed were pretty powerful. If there are any arguments against speaking to users, or things like ‘were the right questions asked’, ‘was it with the right people’, etc., they all go away when you realise that you didn’t really know anything before you spoke to some users, so at least now you know something.
Daynotes
I did much better writing daynotes this week. Daynotes are much more raw than weeknotes. There’s less reflection and more collection. Less refinement and more brain dump.
Psychological safety stickers
Ten years in charity product management
I wrote a bit more on my reflections on my ten years as a product manager in charities. Some of the themes include ‘no one knows what product managers do’ (good and bad), ‘product management is too inwardly focused’ (probably bad), and ‘no one (not even product managers) know how to build products to tackle wicked problems’ (good, because that’s the future). Hopefully I can actually finish it soon.
I read:
What Makes People Act on Climate Change
Copying others, basically. Behavioural science says that conforming to social norms is the biggest driver of change. I’ve said a few times that product managers need to know more about behaviour change techniques than they do about technology. Understanding social norms around using products helps product managers create products that tap into norms.
Process-expert continuum
I think Matt Ballantine’s process-expert continuum, which describes the spectrum of approaches consultants take, could be applied to lots of other things. Being a manager of someone springs to mind. It also spans from ambiguity and supporting the person to figure their way through problems to providing specific answers and completing known tasks. In this case, the manager slides back and forth along the continuum depends on the needs of the person they are managing.
What’s holding us back? Why not-for-profits are struggling to be fit for purpose in the digital age
How 12 charity digital thinkers and leaders, surfaced the big problems stifling non-profits ability to thrive in the internet era. But didn’t include the biggest reason why charities are so far behind in digital transformation; there just isn’t a big enough threat to their existence for which digital is the solution. Back in the pandemic, digital was the solution. For many charities, it was the only solution for how to carry on delivering services. But now, there’s nothing that makes digital the solution, so there’s no reason to transform.
I thought about:
Principles
Principle are so easy to write and never put into practice. That’s not surprising when most principles seem to be written to look good rather than drive good behaviours. I believe in principles, but have also struggled to explain how they are actually useful. But the mathematics of chaos provided the answer. It shows that in nature, simple rules can produce complex behaviour. Rather than principles being aspirational but a bit meaningless, like “Design for inclusion”, principles should be treated as simple rules that can create complex behaviour. One of my favourites is “Talk to each other”. As a rule, it suggests defaulting to communication, to working collaboratively, to asking for help. It tells you what to do without telling you what to do.
Ratchets
“A ratchet is any mechanism that allows progressive movement in one direction and prevents slippage backwards.” That is the secret to designed organisational change; progress that can’t slip backwards. So many attempts to change fail because they they don’t build in ratchet mechanisms. There are many such mechanisms, some obvious, some more subtle. Staff retention is one, because when someone leaves a new person joins and wants to change things to do them their way, and that takes time and creates change. There are lots of ratchets in organisations, and if we want change to stick we have to use them well.