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ITX Product Momentum Podcast – Episode 23: The Product Leader’s Path to High Performance

As a community, have we gotten better at product leadership? And if we haven’t, what’s it going to take to get there? The answer to both depends on who we ask and by what yardstick we use to measure our performance. For example, is there alignment between the big organizational vision and our individual product vision? Have we mastered the softer skills to bring together such a diverse group of people? And do our teams know how to think through complex problems and adapt when the ground shifts beneath them?
In this episode of the Product Momentum Podcast, Sean and Paul pose these questions to Richard Banfield, VP of Design Transformation at InVision. Richard’s natural curiosity provides some helpful takeaways:
The notion of high performance is not new; powerful examples exist in every industry and sector. Find one that works for you and imitate it.
Effective product people first need to be people people.
Building a practice of high performance requires us to teach our teams how to work together, think together, and decide together.

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Product Leadership and Sticky Notes

Our industry owes sticky notes a tribute.

Sticky notes have become a prized item in the product leader toolbox. We use them to brainstorm, sort, prioritize, vote, organize, group and rearrange everything from thoughts, domains, and problems to ideas, concepts and user stories. It is fair to say we would be lost without them in the product development world today.

We have learned a lot about how to use them and how not to use them along the way. Stick-note sorceresses, whiteboard wizards & flip-chart fortune tellers might improve their craft by learning from our misfortunes and innovations over the last couple of decades, so I am sharing them here.

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23 / The Product Leader’s Path To High Performance

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Richard Banfield
InVision

As a community, have we gotten better at product leadership? The answer depends on who we ask and what we use to measure performance. In this episode of the Product Momentum Podcast, Sean and Paul pose the question to Richard Banfield, VP of Design Transformation at InVision. “A lot depends how much you are able to …

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Richard Banfield
InVision

How To Conduct Effective Virtual Design Sprints

Coronavirus Adds New Opportunity For Distributed Design Teams To Go Virtual
Even before coronavirus isolated us from our software product team members, UX designers at ITX Corp. created a guide for translating the design sprint process to a virtual environment. Our already-distributed workforce has enjoyed using the virtual design sprint for months. And they’re confident its value will outlive the pandemic that inspired its expanded use.

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The Nature of Competition

Experience is what creates sustainable competitive advantage. This is the nature of competition.

The Experience Puzzle

Economists have argued for centuries about the nature of competition.

According to Adam Smith in the 18th century, every individual “intends only his own gain.” Therefore, he exchanges what he produces with others who sufficiently value what he has to offer. One thing many economists agree on is the elusive nature of individual utility. What one man values, others often ignore. This simple fact is what drives human innovation and ingenuity.

I was taught many things about competition and positioning in the course of earning my MBA, We read about Michael Porter’s five-forces model, Jerome McCarthy’s 4 P’s of Marketing, and a few other generic frameworks, which invariably describe the relationship between cost and target positioning. One model that stuck with me, as I have seen it used countless times in business, is a more traditional contextual model for determining the positioning of your product, your services and ultimately for your firm called “The Tradeoff Triangle.”

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22 / Combining Empathy with Tech

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Roman Pichler
Pichler Consulting

For today’s product leaders, it’s not enough to have technical proficiency or apply the right techniques. These skills are necessary to be sure – vital even – but no longer sufficient by themselves. Effective product leaders deliver even more. To make and implement effective strategy decisions, product leaders need buy-in from key stakeholders. In a …

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Roman Pichler
Pichler Consulting

Measuring Loyalty

Authentic, self-determined loyalty only occurs after hard-earned, authentic trust is well established. This is true for interpersonal relationships just as it is for the relationships between customers and firms or between employees and firms. Trust is always a fundamental prerequisite to loyalty. If you are serious about earning sustainable and authentic loyalty, you must have established an authentic and thorough foundation of trust.

Once you have gained trust, the next natural step in your customer relationships is loyalty. The “buy 12 cups of coffee and get the 13th cup free” type of loyalty behaviors some companies use to bribe through discounts or freebies are not sustainable. You have to keep giving the discounts to continue to get the behaviors. The type of blind loyalty demanded by drug warlords or mafia boss “leaders” who use fear, manipulation or outright bribery is generally feigned as well. When a more powerful, more frightening or higher paying leader comes along, loyalty is quickly questioned.

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ITX Corp. Named 2020 Top Rochester Workplace

Employees Cite ITX Culture, Values, Service to Community
(April 1, 2020) Rochester, N.Y. — ITX Corp., a leading producer of custom software products, announced today its selection as one of the Rochester region’s top workplaces. Selections for the prestigious award are based on a scientific survey of company employees who rate their workplace culture. For the 7th year, the survey was administered through a partnership between the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle and Philadelphia-based Energage.

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Business Leaders Must Navigate Digital Transformation To Survive

Coronavirus Signals Need for Rapid, Lasting Societal Change
As I write this, I am closing out week three of the coronavirus lockdown across New York State. We’re all focused on the immediate impacts, and rightly so. But business leaders can ill afford to overlook the more profound, longer-lasting systemic changes.
Among them is our society’s readiness to accept, let alone embrace, the speed of technological evolution. Throughout human history, our resistance to change has delayed technological expansion and adoption.

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