Strategy starts with a Vision

In our recent poll, strategy came out on top as the key area that people wanted to learn more about. It’s a big topic so I’ll be breaking it down into a series of posts over the coming weeks. This week we’re looking at product visions.

You might wonder, "Why start with vision when we asked about strategy?" The answer is simple: you need a clear and compelling vision to create a successful strategy. Think of vision as the North Star that ensures that we continue to focus our strategic efforts towards our long-term goals instead of short-term quick wins.

But often product visions are too high level and not inspiring enough to provide the necessary context for making strategic choices. I dive deeper into the anti-patterns and best practices in this weeks’ article below.

Next week we’ll go deeper into the creating high-quality product strategies.

This Week’s Updates

Enabling the Team

How to Lead Like a Coach by James Elfer and Zsofia Belovai
Help leaders identify interactions that they’re already having with their employees and work to transform them into coaching moments .

Coaching Feedback by Martina Lauchengo
Radical candor is great but it can be abused to just “swoop and poop”. Feedback needs to finish with a coaching conversation.

Product Direction

How To Take Bigger, Bolder Product Bets by First Round
Slack’s CPO Noah Desai Weiss shares the three-step framework he leans on to make quality product decisions with just the right amount of risk.

Crafting a Compelling Product Vision by Rory Madden
Avoid common pitfalls, embrace multi-persona thinking, and use 'Day in the Life' scenarios to create a vision that inspires teams, guides decisions, and transforms healthcare.

Continuous Research

How to Keep IA Projects From Going Off The Rails by Jorge Arango
Jorge gives an overview of a template he uses to manage Information Architecture projects and how it keeps teams focussed.

For Customer Interviews, Who Counts as a Customer? by Teresa Torres
Who should participate in your customer interviews? Your customer is whoever buys or uses your product. It’s not always so straightforward.

Continuous Design

Why You Should Have A Brag Document by Ted Goas
It’s your secret weapon for performance reviews and job interviews. Don't forget to be specific, focus on goals and keep it updated.

Stop Blaming The UX Job Market And Fix Your Portfolio! by Matej Latin
Matej shares common portfolio mistakes that immediately make designers unhirable (and how to fix them)

Continuous Delivery

How Micro-frontends are Reshaping Modern Web Architecture by Luca Mezzalira
There are two big options: horizontal and vertical splits. Horizontal splitting divides a page into micro-frontends owned by different teams, while vertical splitting assigns each micro-frontend to a specific business domain

Software Architecture is Hard by Oz Anani
There is a big gap between writing architecture documents and someone reading and interpreting them correctly. The best approach is to decentralise architecture.

UXDX EMEA:
Beyond Design: Navigating Project Buy-In in Large Enterprise Ecosystems

Discover how Kelle infuses design thinking into strategic initiatives at Verizon Connect. Kelle will unveil pragmatic strategies for gaining buy-in across departments, tailoring communications to diverse stakeholders, and adapting design principles to any business context. Learn how to empower teams, craft captivating narratives, and shift from control to service-oriented leadership.

FREE COMMUNITY EVENTS 

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Video of the Week:
Design Driven Leadership

Discover how Mrinali, a design director at Ford, applies design thinking principles to tackle personal and professional challenges. Mrinali shares how adapting familiar tools and processes can lead to more effective leadership, better alignment within teams, and innovative problem-solving in various aspects of life. This talk offers valuable insights for anyone looking to enhance their leadership skills and create positive outcomes in both their personal and professional lives. Check it out now👇👇

The Results of Last Week’s Poll

The question: OpenAI decided to hide the train of thought from users. Are you ok with this approach?

This concern about abuse topped the charts in last week’s poll. What I found really interesting in OpenAIs announcement is that they are concerned that the AI will not be truthful if they start trying to regulate the train of thought. I wonder if they have tried that internally and noticed that the AI was lying about how it came up with a conclusion.

Given that AIs can beat humans in strategy based games now, which requires politics and deceit, it is definitely going to be an interesting area of research over the coming years. If you’re curious here is an interesting podcast about red-teaming the new OpenAI model.