Summary of the book "Radical Product Thinking" - By R. Dutt

Key Concepts in this book:

1. When it comes to product development, an iterative strategy rarely yields revolutionary results.
2. Iteration is a poor substitute for a vision-driven approach to product development.
3. Make your vision problem-centred, specific, and meaningful to build a clear and engaging vision.
4. Learn about people's genuine problems so you can create your product with the features, capabilities, and logistics it needs to succeed.
5. Remember your priorities if you want to be successful without losing sight of your goals.
6. Make sure you're measuring the proper things when testing and iterating your product.
7. Emphasize meaningful, vision-driven work to foster a vision-driven organizational culture.

Who can benefit the most from this book:

• Product developers.
• Entrepreneurs.
• Change-makers.

What am I getting out of it? A completely different approach to product creation.

How can you make a product as revolutionary as the iPhone?

It certainly helps to be a visionary genius like Steve Jobs. Some people are simply born with an innate sense of how to bring game-changing concepts into reality.

What about the rest of us, though? A more intentional and methodical approach is required. Enter RPT, a step-by-step technique for envisioning, producing, and delivering creative, vision-driven goods with a beneficial impact on the world.

• You'll learn why Twitter's success isn't a model you should strive to mimic.
• Why your business strategy should focus on people's real pain problems.
• And why you might be assessing the wrong aspects of your product in this summary.

1. When it comes to product development, an iterative strategy rarely yields revolutionary results.

Odeo was a scrappy little start-up that existed once upon a time, in 2005 to be exact. They were hard at work on their product when they got some bad news: Apple was preparing to introduce a new app called iTunes, which would contain a podcasting platform built right in.

What is the issue? Odeo's service included a podcasting platform. They couldn't possibly compete with a tech behemoth like Apple. The founders realized they needed to pivot, so they polled their workforce for ideas.

One of them came up with a great idea: a service that allows users to publish status updates. The concept went through several revisions before becoming a microblogging platform. Jack Dorsey was the employee, and the platform was called Twitter.

Want to follow in their footsteps and create your own Next Big Thing? Reconsider your position.

The takeaway here is that iterative product development rarely results in innovative goods.

"Iteration" has become the name of the game for many product developers in recent years, thanks to success stories like Twitter. You don't start with a clear vision of what you want your product to be when you use an iteration-led approach to product development. Instead, you just take whatever you already have and try to enhance it, resulting in new versions, or iterations. Then you keep iterating until you find a winner — anything that helps you meet your short-term goals, such as gaining market share.

You might wind up with the next Twitter if you're extremely lucky. But, more often than not, you end up with a dud like the Chevy Bolt, GM's premier electric vehicle.

There's nothing particularly bad about this vehicle right now. There's nothing revolutionary here, either. That's because GM didn't have a clear vision of what they wanted to produce while they were building it. They just intended to compete with Tesla by bringing a commercially viable electric car to market as rapidly and cheaply as feasible.

They used an iterative technique to achieve this goal. Rather than constructing a new chassis, they built it on top of the one they already had in their gas-powered Chevy Spark.

What's the end result? Rather than an electrifying revolution in the automobile industry, as Tesla has been leading with its trailblazing Model 3, this is an electric evolution of an old car.

2. Iteration is a poor substitute for a vision-driven approach to product development.

What distinguishes the Tesla Model 3 as a game-changer?

Well, first and foremost, it's the product's vision. Unlike GM, Tesla's goal was not simply to introduce an electric vehicle to the market. They aimed to create a vehicle that would hasten the world's move away from fossil fuels. How? By making it possible for drivers to switch to electric vehicles without sacrificing performance or breaking the pocketbook.

They didn't, however, scribble a hazy vision statement, post it on their website, and then soon forget about it. Instead, they made sure that their vision guided every choice and innovation they made while they worked on Model 3.

They used a vision-driven approach to product development as a result. This was their key to success, and it may be yours as well.

Here's the main point: Iteration is a poor substitute for a vision-driven approach to product development.

The problem with an iteration-driven strategy is that without a vision, all you have are short-term business goals to measure each new iteration against. These objectives are frequently measured as Key Performance Indicators, or KPIs, such as revenue and user counts, which you become fixated on increasing.

However, this may cause you to lose sight of what is really important. Let's say the most recent version of your website boosts the number of time customers spends on it, which is a popular metric of customer engagement. Great! Or perhaps not. Perhaps your goal should be to help your consumers take care of their business and go as soon as feasible.

Corner-cutting can also result from a short-term, vision-less mindset. Why not just slap an electric car on top of an old gasoline-powered car's chassis, as GM did, if you only want to grab market share on the cheap?

Tesla, on the other hand, designed the Model 3 from the ground up, keeping the end goal in mind throughout the development process. "How can we maximize this part's efficiency so it contributes to our objective of achieving both great performance and affordability?" they asked themselves for each component of the car.

This resulted in a spate of cutting-edge improvements that functioned together as a coherent, vision-driven whole, such as a single cooling system for the entire car, rather than separate cooling systems for the battery, motor, cabin, and other components, as in other electric vehicles. That's how they transformed their dream into a reality that changed the game.

3. Make your vision problem-centred, specific, and meaningful to build a clear and engaging vision.

Your product is like a car without a destination if it lacks a vision. Clear, iterating on it will make it faster, but what's the point if you're not sure where you want to go? You may end up speeding down the incorrect path.

Cutting corners and focusing on KPIs are just two examples of dead ends you could encounter. You can also fall into the trap of flitting aimlessly from one half-baked notion to the next. Alternatively, you could allow unnecessary add-on features to stymie or derail your product in order to appease the whims of specific customers, investors, or board members.

You can't stay focused on your vision when confronted with these temptations since you don't have one, to begin with. Creating a vision is the first step in RPT's vision-driven approach to product creation.

The main point is to develop a clear and compelling vision that is problem-focused, specific, and meaningful.

Many businesses have vision statements, but the majority of them don't answer a few key points.

First and foremost, what problem do you want your product to solve for the rest of the world? "For the world" is the key phrase here. Don't get caught up in what you want to achieve for yourself, such as becoming a billion-dollar corporation or the industry's leader. Concentrate on the change you want to see in the world.

For example, Lijjat, an Indian food and consumer goods company, doesn't only want to sell a lot of papadams, the delectable lentil crackers for which they're famous. They hope to help disadvantaged women in India solve their socioeconomic difficulties by giving them a sustainable opportunity to make a decent livelihood and become financially independent.

That is a vision that is both concrete and profound. It's focused on a noble aim, making it relevant to anybody who works for the organization. It's not just a vaguely positive message like "empowering women," though. It's a detailed description of a change Lijjat intends to bring about for a specific group of people who are dealing with a specific set of issues.

Who exactly are you attempting to assist? What is the solution that your product will provide for them? What does that mean to you and the individuals whose lives you want to influence? These are the inquiries you must address.

4. Learn about people's genuine problems so you can create your product with the features, capabilities, and logistics it needs to succeed.

You'll see your product in a whole new light if you have a clear and appealing vision. It's no longer just an electric vehicle, a papadam, or whatever else you want to call it. It's a tool for bringing about the change you wish to see in the world.

The question then becomes, "How do you activate that mechanism?" So, the next phase in the RPT approach to product creation is to design a plan.

RPT offers a clever mnemonic for recalling the key elements of a winning, vision-driven strategy: RDCL, which stands for "radical." It stands for "real pain points," "design," "capabilities," and "logistics," among other things. When you combine these elements, you'll be ready to put your vision into action.

The takeaway here is to figure out what people's true problems are so you can create your solution with the features, capabilities, and logistics it needs to succeed.

Lijjat started life as a group of seven people rolling out papadams on a patio in 1959. They now employ more than 45,000 women. Knowing the true pain points of disadvantaged women in India was one of the secrets to their success.

These women live in a patriarchal society, with little control over their household income, the responsibility of being the primary carers for their families, and limited access to formal education and typical professional prospects.

Lijjat considered the real pain problems of women when creating the company's operational model. They realized that putting them to work in a papadam plant wouldn't assist them because they couldn't just leave their responsibilities at home behind.

As a result, they allow them to work from home, allowing them to continue caring for their children and ageing parents. They also paid them at the conclusion of each workday, allowing them to have a say in their families' daily spending habits.

You, like Lijjat, must develop your product to address the real-world problems of the individuals you want to help. Once you've done that, you'll need to determine the capabilities you'll need to bring your idea to reality. These resources might be both tangible and intangible. Netflix, for example, relies on viewership statistics to fuel its recommendation algorithm, while Airbnb relies on people's trust to rent out their properties to strangers.

Finally, don't forget about logistics: how will you sell, transport, and support your product? This section delves into the specifics of your business model.

5. Remember your priorities if you want to be successful without losing sight of your goals.

So you've devised your plan. This provides you with a bird's-eye, big-picture view of how you'll reach your goals.

From afar, however, everything appears to be so straightforward. The planet appears to be a lot more confusing place as you get closer to the earth. That is especially true in the corporate world, where you are constantly confronted with difficult decisions, trade-offs, and demands.

How do you cross this treacherous terrain with a clear vision? That is what the RTP approach's next step is all about.

Here's the main point: Remember your priorities if you want to be successful without losing sight of your goals.

At the end of the day, as a decision-maker in a vision-driven organization, you have two main priorities: progressing toward your vision and surviving as a business. Every decision you make will either suit your vision or not, and it will either reduce or increase the dangers to your company's survival.

As a result, you'll have four options, which might be visualized as four quadrants in your decision-making space. You could make a decision that satisfies both requirements: an excellent vision fit that also reduces risk. This is the perfect quadrant. You could, on the other hand, make a decision that fulfils neither imperative: a poor vision fit that also puts you at risk. That is the quadrant of peril.

These first two options are self-evident. In general, you should favour selections in the Ideal quadrant and steer clear of those in the Danger quadrant.

Things get a little more complicated with the next two options. You could make a decision that is beneficial for your vision yet increases your risk. This is the quadrant in which you're putting your money into the vision. Investing in R&D, for example, may have a negative impact on your short-term profits, but it may provide you with the technology you need to fulfil your long-term objectives.

Finally, you could make a decision that is terrible for your vision yet lowers your risk. Perhaps you might take on a project that has nothing to do with your vision but will help you acquire some much-needed funds.

You have to do stuff like that from time to time. Simply state what you're doing: diverting time and resources from your vision. As a result, you've entered the quadrant where you're accumulating vision debt. That's fine as long as you don't rack up too much debt and don't put off paying it off by investing in your idea for too long.

However, you should try to avoid accumulating vision debt as much as possible, and prioritizing investing in your vision over risk mitigation should be your first priority.

6. Make sure you're measuring the proper things when testing and iterating your product.

You're now ready to get down to business with developing your product, with your vision, strategy, and decision-making priorities in place. According to common wisdom, the next phase is to put your product on the market, assess how people react to it, and iterate as needed.

The example of an app named Nack, on the other hand, demonstrates the dangers of this strategy. The app's goal was to allow individuals to partake in the Italian ritual of suspended coffee, which entails going to a coffee shop and purchasing two coffees: one for yourself and one for a stranger.

Paul Haun, the founder of Nack, followed common wisdom by keeping a careful check on his app's usage data and iterating it depending on whatever drove the numbers up. Everything seemed to be going swimmingly until Haun made a dreadful discovery one day.

The main point is to make sure you're measuring the proper elements when testing and iterating your product.

The number of daily users on Nack was increasing, as was the amount of time they spent on the app. These are the kinds of numbers that app developers love to see, so Haun was ecstatic – until he learned that the majority of people were only using the app to get free coffee.

They weren't utilizing Nack in the intended spirit, which was to not only receive but also to pass on a random act of kindness. You get a free coffee and then go out and buy one for someone else, who then goes out and does the same for a third person, and so on. It's meant to function like that.

What is the moral of the story? Yes, you should test and measure people's reactions to your product before iterating on it. However, make sure you use the correct measurements — those that show whether you're getting closer to your goal.

The most important metric for Nack was how many people were gifting coffee to others rather than how many people were using the app. They iterated the app to fix the problem after realizing the numbers were low. When users received a gift in the latest version of Nack, they were given two free coffees: one for themselves and one to give to someone else. The software taught them how to enter into the spirit of gift-giving in this way.

Soon, a significant portion of users was spending money on coffee for others.

7. Emphasize meaningful, vision-driven work to foster a vision-driven organizational culture.

With four of the five steps of the RTP approach to product development, you've now seen how to take a vision-driven approach. However, if you're a leader or employee of a company that employs a large number of people, being vision-driven isn't enough. Everyone else, too, must be vision-driven. That takes us to the RPT's final step: establishing a vision-driven organizational culture.

"Company culture" has recently become a bit of a buzzword. To put it another way, think of it as the sum total of everyone's job experiences at your organization. Depending on whether your work is satisfying or pressing, these experiences can be divided into four quadrants.

Meaningful labour is the first and most crucial quadrant.

The main message here is to emphasize meaningful, vision-driven labour in order to foster a vision-driven organizational culture.

Any task that feels satisfying but isn't urgent qualifies as meaningful work. It helps to achieve a wider goal, such as your company's long-term vision. It is not, however, time-sensitive. The short-term survival and growth of your organization are not in jeopardy. To make everyone feel mission-driven, make sure as much work as possible falls into this area.

The heroism quadrant is the second. This is work that is both enjoyable and urgent. You're working on something important, but you're under time constraints. One example is scrambling to resolve a crucial, time-sensitive client issue. This type of labour can be thrilling for a short period of time, but it quickly becomes exhausting. You should maintain it within reasonable bounds to avoid burnout.

The organizational cactus quadrant is the third. Filling out administrative forms, for example, is a laborious task that must be completed. To allow employees to focus on meaningful work, much of this job can and should be reduced.

Finally, there's the soul-sucking quadrant, where you're engaged in activities that are neither enjoyable nor necessary. Sitting in meetings where you have to bite your tongue because you can't dissent without fear of reprisal is an example of this. As much as possible, these experiences should be avoided.

What is the best way to develop a company culture that follows this pattern? Consider your culture to be a product, and apply the RTP method to it. Create a compelling vision for the culture you want to create. Then devise an RDCL strategy to help you realize your vision. Last but not least, use vision-driven metrics and priorities to make good decisions and collect meaningful measurements of your results.

The main takeaway from this summary is that iteration isn't intrinsically bad. Instead, you should be aiming to develop new and better versions of your product! When iteration becomes a defining feature of product development rather than a powerful tool in service of a greater vision, it becomes problematic. Every aspect of your product development process, including strategy, KPIs, and business culture, should be guided by a clear and appealing vision.