 Hello everyone, it is ding ding seconds out and round two, because I had an opportunity to host a webinar a couple of months ago on the subject of the gap in product tooling. So I'm going to call that round one and then say today is round two. And first and foremost, it's a huge thank you from me to the team at product school for inviting me back and for the opportunity to take that subject on to a different space and to talk about something again, very important to me and I'm very passionate about, which is about embracing the product life cycle and specifically the opportunity for product leaders and indeed product teams and product roles are going to a little bit later in this in this talk, but ultimately, really, it's taking on that first conversation from round one, as I put it, and starting to add a little bit more depth more specifically here around why this is such an important opportunity for product leaders, what we might be missing, and what kind of actions we need to take to step ourselves forward. As a brief reminder from myself in terms of who I am and what my background is, I presented this slide the first time I was here to talk. This just plays a little bit of that background of some of the organizations and the countries that I've worked with and worked in. And during that time, how is I developed my own product career, the topic that I'm going to talk about more so today has become ever more in focus to me as I'll share with some of my own experiences and my own thoughts going forward. So the product life cycle, we're all no doubt more than familiar with this. We have seen this or versions of this particular image on many occasions before, and when I reflect upon the places I've worked, the conversations I've had myself across product teams and with product leaders or leaders in other functional areas, et cetera, outside of product. I've often found that there's something of an apathy about this. And I think that's more so because it's just not well enough understood or it's perceived that maybe we're all doing all of this anyway in the kind of day to day activities that we have and the results and the measurements that we pull out of that. But I think something's missing. And what is that? What is really missing? And what should we maybe consider are the things that we need to try and craft and to make happen to move this on to a different level? And when I say this, I mean, how we understand and embrace the concept of the product life cycle. So what should we be doing at each stage in the life cycle and what are we perhaps not doing in each of those stages? So when we look at the initial introduction phase, and this is often about the launch and much less about the activities before that in the design or research space. And that feels like a bit of a miss to me. It's not that perhaps certain organisations are not doing that. I've certainly worked in areas where a great deal of this has been done, but never perhaps with that sort of connection to the concept that we're now entering into the life cycle of something new, a new product or the enhancement or the evolution of something that's already existing. So I don't really quite understand why this sort of excluded a little bit from a defined stage of a life cycle. Other than to say that it sort of shouts quite loudly to me about how easily we create those gaps. So if we move that on into a much bigger section there around growth and we think about some of the things that we will be doing to a greater or lesser extent along the way, the advertising, the marketing, the distribution channels for our products, keeping an eye on on the competition, all of those things that are an early stage about the products that we've either launched or as I say that we're seeking to enhance. And again, whilst that might seem quite obvious and we might do a lot of that to a greater or lesser extent, as I say, it sits against this concept of it's a firm and clear stage in a product life cycle. And as I'm going to talk to a little bit further on in this particular session, I just want to challenge us a little bit to think how much when we do some of these activities, are we really thinking about where they are in the journey for our product, what's come before, what's going to come after. So in particular actually for me, I think possibly one of, if not the most important part of it is when we get to the maturity phase, how are we sort of elongating this phase and what are we doing to reinvent or to extend our products somewhat as their growth slows, as you would inevitably expect in a phase like the maturity phase. Are we placing enough focus upon the cost and to reduce therefore the impact of perhaps slowing revenues as the products begin to mature and to plateau, etc. And as product leaders, we need to be well aware of this. We can't simply, if you like, place our heads in the sand and not be asking those kind of tough questions as we move through that thought process of where the products, if you like, product landscape actually are in their own life cycles because eventually as much as it might not be what we want to hear and it might be something of a tough pill to swallow, there's going to come a decline phase and everything to a degree comes to an end eventually. There could be fundamental changes in your marketplace, increased competition, new innovations and technologies. These pressures are going to build and maybe your product, you know, it has become a little stale or maybe it's been feature bloated in some way. It's not connecting as well with your consumer and user base. Product teams have got to be very honest and they've got to be very bold and if there's an opportunity at this particular point to pivot the product or maybe to focus more on existing or loyal customers. But if that product does come to an end, we've got to be sure to keep those costs to a minimum and definitely not just assume that everything's going to continue on as normal. So what does all that mean? All of that means that every product has a life cycle where, as I said at the start, we're very familiar. Nobody had talked to us not familiar with this slide, this image or any version or derivative of it. However, when we start to explore that as I'm about to in a little more detail, when you start to lift the lid, you find that it's not necessarily being approached in a very holistic way and that it's much more fragmented and not really understood what the actual approach should be from maybe a more strategic perspective. So it really starts with leadership. That's what this session is all about is product leadership and what is our role in being able to influence and embrace and drive forward the concept of the product life cycle. So rather than seeing it as some kind of theoretical or textbook term, I believe we should take every opportunity to firmly and strongly embrace it. You know, every product team that I've ever seen gets swamped by driving as much output as is possible. And typically, you know, from the from that capacity that's available. It's it's quite a blunt equation, if you like. When it's seen as someone else's money and the accountability and the pressure to deliver on it becomes ever more challenging as a result. It becomes difficult to sort of propose or push for a different way to slice into that capacity. So if you want to place more of a focus upon life cycle, specific roles or activities, that becomes much harder to achieve. But as product leaders, you know, we have an opportunity to really embrace all of the elements or the stages here of the full life cycle and as a result to lift the bar on connecting all of those aspects of the product, which as I just said a few months ago might be quite fragmented at the moment with a fairly light touch or maybe not even being considered at all. So whether we're thinking about lots of keywords that may be so prevalent in our worlds at the moment, the strategy, the vision, the design, the performance, the regulatory and compliance aspects, how we do product reviews, what happens when things are changing in our market, the impact of and importance of customer insights, all the bumps in the road that come as products begin to mature or decline, as we're just talking about. And then innovations are always going to bring something new to the table. Sustainability, another keyword that's come along fairly recently and challenges us to think differently about the product life cycle in the context of the sustainability or the ESG agenda. It's a long list, there are more to add to that, but it's all the same viewpoint. They're all collectively held within the product life cycle. So the message here for me is that leadership can help us all to think more holistically about life cycle for it to be a much more regularly used word, always considered, never really bypassed or just brushed under the carpet as something that's just a little bit too out of reach or just a bit too textbook, if you like. Toolkits, what I talked about in the first session a couple of months ago. So as product leaders, we're effectively for one of a better way of putting it. We're like an umbrella across the entire product landscape. You know, we have a responsibility to look at all of the aspects in the life cycle and we should want to feel driven to do so. I certainly always did in the roles I was in and and it's challenging. It's this is not simple stuff, but also to think about how we invest the appropriate levels of our own time and the time across all of the teams we work with, not just in the product teams, to think more about these activities that sit across the holistic product life cycle. I've watched far too many product donors, product managers, product leaders, whatever you like, all get completely lost and swamped in the day to day, remaining mainly tactical. And whilst, obviously, it's critical to make sure that we execute well. There are so many more moving parts in the modern day product landscape than just ensuring great quality and efficient execution. And sadly, too often they have been the only focus point since some of the teams I've seen. Now, you know, some roles are much more, if you like, at the coal face of the day to day. And but as product leaders, we've got a responsibility to think much bigger. We need to be a lot more ambitious than to shape an environment that's extremely well placed. So, you know, that we've got a continual finger on the pulse of all of those aspects of the product life cycle and that we can not just see them, but we can utilize them and react to them. So, you know, you could argue, for example, let's take something specific like a product review and you could argue that it's maybe just not that cool or interesting, could make it as cool or interesting as you want. But maybe it's just so almost seen as too much of a stretch because it's just not going to be that much fun. And I can track on doing all of the new stuff, the new cool stuff and continuing to add more and more. Or maybe that, you know, the design activities are just something of a nice to have. And whilst we do them, we sort of skirt around them. Yeah, we can all do that as part of the sort of eat, sleep, repeat of the day job that we easily fall into. So it is a challenge. And, you know, leaders and teams, the functions as a whole, the entire organization, it's an opportunity for all of us to step up and look at the product life cycle as being normal. You know, toolkits have begun to emerge to support this. Although in my thoughts, you know, perhaps they're not yet at the forefront of the kind of buying decisions for organizations. And I think a lot of that comes down to, as I said earlier, still not being really fully understood. But this will change. It is changing. And when it comes, you know, it'll come fast. Product leaders need to see this coming and not be too reactive and almost left chasing to catch up when something does emerge. So if you take, as I mentioned a little bit earlier, that whole sort of sustainability and ESG agenda, the product leaders, product teams, you know, need this to be an integral part of their thinking. And I know it is becoming much more so for a lot of teams, a lot of organizations, but they need the visibility. They need the access, the easy access to what's known and what's emerging. And they need a simple and efficient way to address the impact of that. So these matters can't just be another bolt on yet another bolt on in a fragmented landscape. You know, they need to be seen as examples where we allow it to highlight where the tools can really help us to identify and support these kind of changes and respond to them at pace. So the existing toolkits can be somewhat limited for that. And I think that comes down to that kind of fragmentation and not necessarily joined up behind something as holistic as the life cycle. So got here, you know, I'm imagining an environment where in product world we've designed and implemented a technology enabled operating system. Let's call it something like a command center for product. So in this space design, all of the ambition we have has been supported by the right level of investment in technology in resources, in capacity. Our product leaders and the organizations we work in have seen the opportunity to move behind a command center targeted at meeting the stability, the security and all the demands of the platforms and enhanced it to look at all aspects of the product life cycle. So I think a lot of us have these kind of sort of command centers, but they're very much, you know, they're more than keep the lights on. But they're in that kind of space of stability, of security, of performance, et cetera. But how about if we push the boundaries to create something like let's call it a digital operating system for the product life cycle? That's not just for us in product. That's for the entire organization. You know, nothing gets missed here. This isn't just for someone who has product in their title. It is for everyone. And this kind of complete visibility is the tooling landscape really grows. It's an opportunity to boost the cross collaboration that everyone can have by having that kind of transparency and access to what's going on. It helps us to drive efficiency to alert ourselves much faster about risks, about opportunities and to support the original strategic thinking as these products were actually designed and brought to market. And at the heart of all of that is an opportunity for a much better and faster decision making across the entire organization. OK, it's perhaps something of a utopia, a level of investment and appetite that swamps pretty much everything we might have all seen before. I've always had, for some time now anyway, I had these ambitions of the teams I've been able to work with. And you know, why not? But for too long, I've watched those teams held back by environments that are very siloed, that are in, you know, in some way at the sort of whim of a lot of land grabs that hold it back. A lot of that kind of internal political maneuvering we see, you know, who really owns something or controls something. And ultimately, it all dissipates and we end up without direction. So the massive opportunity is missed because, as I say, this isn't just for one functional area to own all of this. This is about putting the product behind that sort of front of the product lifecycle as being front and centre and that the consumers of those product and the product life cycles that that emerges as a result are the kind of thing that we should all be thinking about and all have that kind of transparency every minute of every day. So it is about collaboration, removing those kind of opinions and desires for control and embracing those needs of our users and our consumers and being able to see them and react to them really quickly. So it's about doing something now. It's not about waiting for later. We can all recognise that the market is changing. The tool kits, the solutions, they're advancing rapidly. You know, we can all sit back and just see and watch what happens. Or we can get on the front foot and get out there and act now. And there'll be lots of things that I'm not aware of, lots of things that I've never seen that are beginning to emerge in this kind of space, which could really help us to consolidate and create and and build a much stronger approach towards thinking about products and their lifecycle, the demands of our of our customers and our users changing faster than ever before. So being able to adapt really quickly, it's now a key focus point for us as product leaders, for organisations as a whole, of course, and by having that kind of digital operating system with all of those supporting tool kits and access to the data that truly highlights what is mattering to those users and those customers. Then the fingers on the pulse for everybody, it's all centralised and it allows us all to react and make decisions really quickly. Our consumers are expecting this office more now. They almost expect us to be able to react to those changes, to predict them as they happen. So as product leaders, we need to make sure that we have solutions that allow us to almost create that kind of command centre hours using this terminology to keep us ahead of the curve. Because for sure, if we don't, you know, others will catch up and it's inevitable in all walks of life. Someone will go past you because they're more innovative of you or innovative than you or fast thinking than you. So, you know, never stop innovating. It's often an easy suggestion to sort of throw that word into the mix. But as technologies and markets are changing so fast, the opportunities need to be grasped. Having that eye on changing markets and new technologies doesn't just allow us to react when we see a trend. It pushes the boundaries in our own mind and it challenges us and our organisations and teams to be more bold and to try new things much more quickly. As I come towards the end of this today, I wanted to just talk a little bit about what I've observed in communities. There are so many fabulous communities out there. Product School, who we're here with today, is a fantastic community, of course, in its own right. And I've engaged recently across a number of these and had many discussions in some of those chat forums with my own network contacts and asked them about their own experiences and thoughts. When some key themes are there's lots of theory, but not enough practice or I'm not really sure where or how to start because I don't know how to approach it because it's so big. So in many of the community chats that I've observed or participated in, there's there's a lot of discussion about how to embrace the flavour of the month. But right now, that's very much AI. So, you know, they're super useful conversations for everybody, product and beyond. But maybe another example of how it fragments into the conversation in the life cycle space. So, you know, is AI a part of a strategy pivot or definition for the product that we're talking about in question? Perhaps it's inside the life cycle is more of an innovation driver. Either way, it's about including this in the life cycle conversation point and not maybe just as another cool solution to the how or, you know, how you could use it in your day job. So I'd absolutely recommend, you know, if you don't already accessing and embracing these communities and challenging yourself and everybody there to think more about the subject matters in the context of the product life cycle. So finally, you know, it's up to you. Nobody's going to make this shift for you as a product leader. The responsibility rests with us to the push for this upscaling of the technology environment that we have at our disposal. As a team member, you have a duty to raise your voice and to help promote the need, the desire, the ambition to make this happen, to have to have all of that readily available so that we can all have that transparency. We can collaborate as a result and we can make faster decisions. It doesn't apply to every organization, as I've said previously. However, you know, if I draw my own experiences and those that are very much here across my network or at a conference or an event or pretty much in every conversation ever get party to, you know, product teams are still predominantly stuck in this reactive order taking delivery focus roles. You may not be. Almost everybody I speak to is and there's frustration and something like the life cycle is a great way to start to break through that barrier. So the measure of success in those teams and organisations is like I said earlier, it's often, you know, how much have we done and how soon have we done it? And I just think that's pretty sad. It's a shame that we've reached that point and sort of maintained that point by 2023. So to finish off, you know, product leaders, we have a responsibility to advocate for more and to have a voice for the greater good. My own experiences were often of being blocked or perhaps even ignored in this space when it came to thinking in this manner. But that's not going to defeat me and deflate me. You know, I wanted to push the boundaries. I want to encourage you to push the boundaries and to embrace creating that technology driven landscape that will give you much better visibility and decision making. You know, however much I pushed, often those walls closed in. There was fear. There was a lack of understanding of what product is still is. And absolutely, there was a lack of appetite. So we were constantly immersed in making promises to live a more deliver faster. But product still has these barriers to breakthrough in so many organizations. And as we are as product leaders and product teams, you know, we're key to making this happen. You know, I could never look myself in the mirror without knowing that I'd tried. The product has changed so much in such a short period and it's ready, I feel, for lifting the bar in this kind of way. I think it's really exciting as an opportunity and could unlock so much that at the moment might just seem like theory to us. So we need to stand up and be counted. It's an opportunity for us all to grasp it, to take a look at the toolkits out there, look at the technology landscape that's available to us in our organizations now and identify where those gaps are and what we want to see change, where we want to see the enhancements. We need to form a strategy. It's essentially a product in its own right. So, you know, what are the goals? What are the ambitions? What's the vision we need to create? And ultimately, how are we going to measure the success of that? But in doing so, it's about getting behind the concept of product lifecycle and looking to and working with our leaders to make a difference. So it's been a pleasure to have some time with you today. Thank you so much for that. My contact details are here on the final slide. If anybody would ever like to reach out, perhaps over LinkedIn, et cetera, I'd love to talk to you about product lifecycle. Thank you again. Thanks to Product School and have a great day.