1.
Radical Product Thinking:
How to Innovate Smarter and Build
World-Changing Products
@RadhikaDutt

2.
Our mantras until now have been:
● Move fast and break things
● Fail fast, learn fast
● Iterate quickly

3.
As we became more Lean and Agile we
began to rely heavily on iteration.
“We don’t have the right designer on the team, so that’ll just
mean a few more iterations… but eventually we’ll get there.”

4.
Where our current model breaks down:
1. Often leads to product diseases
2. Inflicts collateral damage on society

5.
Some common “diseases”

6.
Time for a checkup ?

7.
Pivotitis
Rapid, frequent changes
in product direction
Confused customers,
confused product team
“My company is in constant pursuit of the next shiny object.”

8.
Obsessive Sales Disorder (OSD)
Trading off the long
game for quick gains
Fragmented product,
distracted engineers
“This big prospect won’t buy unless we add this one new
feature. Don’t worry, we’ll only turn it on for them.”

9.
Narcissus Complex
Looking inwards and
focusing on our own needs
Disconnected from
customer needs
“To be successful, we need patients to come back often to
our hospital”

10.
Hypermetricemia
Obsession with metrics
and analytics
Incremental product
improvement, stuck in
local maxima
“MEASURE EVERYTHING! TEST EVERYTHING!”

11.
These diseases make good products go
bad when we’re missing a clear
product vision and strategy.

12.
Product diseases also have a side-effect:
collateral damage to society.

13.
Digital Pollution:
Collateral damage from our products

14.
My personal example of digital pollution

15.
Boys’ reaction to the game
How girls reacted to it.

16.
“But don’t worry, the next
version will be for girls and
it’ll have Disney princesses
that invite you to tea if you
get the answer right.”
-Arya, 10 years old

17.
Prodigy Game’s website says they now
have over 50 million users.

18.
Our approach to building products is
not sustainable because of product
diseases and digital pollution.

19.
Lean Agile
and
Why can’t we just
our way out of trouble?

20.
...Speed
..are important feedback-driven execution
methodologies that gives us...
Lean Agile
and

21.
Speedcan look like this...
Direction matters.

22.
What is RADICAL PRODUCT THINKING ?

23.
It’s a methodology for building
vision-driven products to create the
change you want to see in the world.
...using a shared language
of product vision, strategy and execution

24.
Vision
What’s the end-state
you want to create?
Strategy
How will you
create that?
Execution &
measurement
How will you measure
and adapt?
Prioritization
In what order will
you deliver it?
Culture
What culture do
you need in place?
You can systematically engineer your change:
...and communicate your rationale across
your team and within your organization

25.
VISION
Define your

26.
First we must unlearn
all we know about a
“good vision”.
Here’s why...

27.
“Contributing to
human progress
by empowering
people to express
themselves.”

28.
Your Vision should articulate...
● Who: Whose world are you changing?
● What: What does their world look like today?
● Why: Why does their world need changing?
● When: When will you know that you’ve arrived?
● How: How are you going to change it for them?
… the Who, What, Why, When and How

29.
Use the Radical Vision Worksheet to iterate
on your vision until you’re happy with it
Today, when
identified group
want to
desirable outcome
,
they have to
current activity/solution(s)
. This is unacceptable, because
shortcomings of current solution
. We envision a world where
shortcomings are resolved
.
We’re bringing this world about through
broad technology/approach
.
(Who) (What)
(What)
(Why) (When)
(How)

30.
It’s time to stretch our thinking on
product.

31.
A country as a radical product

32.
In 1950’s Singapore,
the majority had
no running water
or sanitation.

33.
A radical vision
1. Intended change: “To create a
better life for Singaporeans”
2. The vehicle: “Produce a
first-world oasis in a
third-world region, a platform
to explore the region. ”

34.
Defining your vision is only the first
step in engineering change.

35.
Capabilities
C
Design
“What does our
solution look
like?”
D
R
Real Pain Points Logistics
“How do we
deliver it?”
L
“What do
businesses need
in the oasis?”
“How do we
enable those
capabilities?”
Product Strategy
(RDCL is just a mnemonic)

36.
Capabilities
C
Design
“What does our
solution look
like?”
D
R
Real Pain Points Logistics
“How do we
deliver it?”
L
“What do
businesses need
in the oasis?”
“How do we
enable those
capabilities?”
1. Easy to
communicate
2. Easy to do
business
3. Looks and feels
like home
English as official
language
Talent, business
friendly policies
Clean and green
city
Language
education
Education, tackle
corruption
Get public buy-in,
water purification
Loans to fund the
efforts, investing in
infrastructure, rules
and the ability to
enforce rules

37.
Prioritization means factoring in
the pesky problem of survival

38.
GOOD VISION FIT
POOR VISION FIT
WORSENS
SURVIVAL
IMPROVES
SURVIVAL
INVESTING
IN THE VISION
IDEAL
DANGER!
BUILDING
VISION DEBT
Prioritization: Balancing Vision vs. Survival Risk

39.
GOOD VISION FIT
POOR VISION FIT
WORSENS
SURVIVAL
IMPROVES
SURVIVAL
INVESTING
IN THE VISION
IDEAL
DANGER!
BUILDING
VISION DEBT
Prioritization: Balancing Vision vs. Survival Risk
Declaring
independence
Building alliances
Creating an army
Investing in
education
Taking loans to fund
development
Creating access
to water
INVESTING
IN THE VISION
DANGER!
IDEAL
VISION DEBT

40.
Singapore was designed as a
radical product.

41.
A radical product is your
improvable mechanism for
engineering the change you envision.

42.
How do we plug this in
to what we’re doing today?

43.
Speed + Direction = Velocity
Before launching into Lean and Agile execution, use
Radical Product Thinking to define the direction of your speed
+ =

44.
Lean and Agile help you execute,
learn and iterate under uncertainty
Radical Product Thinking + Lean and Agile
Vision Strategy Execution
Radical Product helps you define and communicate
what you’re building and why

45.
Vision
What’s the end-state
you want to create?
Strategy
How will you
create that?
Execution &
measurement
How will you measure
and adapt?
Prioritization
In what order will
you deliver it?
Culture
What culture do
you need in place?
You can systematically engineer your change:
...and communicate your rationale across
your team and within your organization

46.
You can build successful
products that create
the change you want to
bring to the world.

47.
Want to learn more?
● The Radical Product Thinking
book is on Amazon now
● Join the mailing list on
www.radicalproduct.com
● Join my launch team
● Reach me on LinkedIn

48.
Questions?
www.radicalproduct.com
@RadhikaDutt