How to leverage your work with a Product Mindset - Mark Opanasiuk 1. What is a Product Mindset? 2. Product Thinking Mindset on Personal level. 3. Product Mindset on Organization level.

1. How to leverage
your work with a
Product Mindset
Mark Opanasiuk
Product Manager
CPM, PSPO 1, SAFe PO/PM certified
Ukraine, Kyiv

2. Mark Opanasiuk
Product Manager
• Location: Kyiv, Ukraine
• 4+ years in Product Management
• Podcast Host at Product Market Fat
• SME at Ukrainian Startup Fund
• And I got some agile & product certifications:

3. 1. What is a Product
Mindset?
2. Product Thinking
Mindset on Personal
level.
3. Product Mindset
on Organization
level.

4. Technology Trends 2020 by Deloitte defines Product Mindset as
foundation in the Business of Technology.
2019 Gartner analysis on application development and integration
trends derived that 85% of organizations Favor a Product-Centric
Application Delivery Model instead of project-based approach.
Survey conducted by Gartner in Feb 2020: 55% of
organizations surveyed are moving towards full adoption
of the product-centric application model by (1) defining
new architectures and tools (39%), (2) investing in
DevOps software development methodologies (35%),
(3) hiring workers with new skills (32%).

5. Tracking activities and budgets provides a false
sense of security that may become apparent
only when the software product hits the
market...

6. What is a
Product
Mindset?

7. Mindset - a person's way of thinking and their
opinions, habitual attitude, state of mind.
* Cambridge dictionary | Merriam-Webster dictionary
Our mindsets affect our
lives, our work, our
careers, our results and
in a long run determine
who we are, and how we
interact with our world.

8. Fixed mindset vs. Growth Mindset
The product mindset is rooted in the growth mindset!
A growth mindset
encourages risk-taking
without worrying about
failure because mistakes
represent a chance to
learn. The growth mindset
classically refers to
personal development,
and in Product, it’s about
delivering value for
customers, embracing
change, and discovering
opportunities for growth.

9. • Product thinking mindset practitioners may come from a
wide variety of industry backgrounds with experience in
multiple disciplines (project manager, designer, developer,
business analyst, marketing manager, etc.).
• Vendor development teams that adopt a product mindset
bring even more value to clients, by finding additional
opportunities for growth along the way.
• Marketing teams can bring a product mindset approach to
every customer touch point, making each interaction a
chance to create brand loyalty and get better feedback.
• Designers with product mindset creates user friendly
customer–centric designs to delight end-users.
Product Mindset is not reserved
exclusively for product managers.

10. Love the problem, not
your solution.
Think in products, not
in features.

11. Product thinking is the journey from the problem space of the customer / user
to the solution space of the business. It starts with real problems and ends
with product market fit by delivering the right product to right people...
https://www.narenkatakam.com/

12. No business wants to ship Y when customers need X but, it happens... lack of understanding
of customer’s needs clearly or their own business constraints on what they can offer at that
point in time or lack of resources and team or hundred other reasons...
https://www.narenkatakam.com/

13. Product mindset
on personal level

14. Problem Space tool for growing product mindset:
5W1H (What, Who, Why, Where, When, & How) questioning tool
Source: www.narenkatakam.com
If you want to expand your problem statement, then use why and what more
frequently in your line of questioning. If you want to narrow down solution
options then use how, who, when, where more frequently.

15. Problem Space tool:
Mom's test - Foolproof your questions
Source: www.narenkatakam.com
Mom’s test is all about a set of simple rules for
crafting good questions that even your mom
can’t lie to you about:
• Talk about user's life instead of your idea
• Ask about specifics in the past rather than
generics or opinions in the future.
• Talk less and listen more :)

16. Problem Space Tool: JTBD
What job(s) arise(s) in people’s lives
that your product could solve?
Source: https://jtbd.info/2-what-is-jobs-to-be-done-jtbd-796b82081cca

17. Solution Space Tool: HDD
Hypothesis Driven Development
Fail fast and learn fast...
https://www.ibm.com/garage/method/practices/learn/practice_hypothesis_driven_development/

18. Solution Space Tool: Outcome > Output
Start focusing on the outcome rather than output = the value
your product is generating over estimation of development effort, and
the accuracy of the product to do a job over its simplicity.
“Everything should be
made as simple as
possible, but not
simpler.”
Albert Einstein
https://uxplanet.org/product-thinking-101-1d71a0784f60

19. Solution Space Tool: Problem Solving Skills
Models for solutioning: SCAMPER Technique
1. Substitute – What can be replaced? (glass >> plastic)
2. Combine – What can be combined? (smartphones)
3. Adapt – What can be added? (cars with built in wi-fi)
4. Modify – What can be Maximized, Minimized, Magnified? (sizing)
5. Purpose change – Can it be repurposed for other uses? (dual use)
6. Eliminate - What can be Removed, Minimized? (audio jack)
7. Rearrange – What can be Reversed, Reengineered? (free to play)

20. Product Mindset for BA and PO
• What problem do we solve? (User problem)
• Who is it for? (Target audience)
• What do we want to achieve? (Goals)
• Why are we doing this? (Vision)
• How are we doing this (Strategy)
• What exactly we are doing (Features)

21. Product mindset
on organization level

22. Changing The Way Organizations Think!
Project Mindset vs. Product Mindset
Source: https://www.sketchbubble.com/en/presentation-project-mindset-vs-product-mindset.html
Product mindset is
about building a
product centric
thought process
rather than
temporary
milestone-based
release approach.

23. 1. Teams shall understand their
responsibility to own the product over
the long term
2. Have channels for constant
communication with end users, gather
user feedback, practice UX
monitoring, canary releases and beta
testing. Agile or DevOps organizations
adjust their strategies according to the
feedback.
3. Each development decision affects
the product. Agile or DevOps
organizations should develop and
release products that are easy to test,
deploy and support after release.

24. 4. Invest in organizational change. The
hardest aspect of a product vs. project
overhaul is getting everyone to buy in.
5. The project mindset assumes failure is
expensive, so value is all about reducing
cost and risk. Product-minded
development teams assume the
definition of "right" will change over
time. The business, customers and
market always evolve.
6. Rather than fix their problems, many
organizations simply dress them up. A
product mindset requires a holistic focus
on results, not on processes. Measure
success according to business goals, not IT
service-level agreements.

25. Product Mindset increase chances to build products that
create value for customers & end-users from Day 1

26. Q& A
THANK YOU!
Mark Opanasiuk
Product Manager
You can reach me at:
Telegram: @mark_is_here
Follow in Telegram @wtf_is_pmf