 Well good morning or afternoon wherever you are in the world. Thank you for taking the time out to be curious about Curiosity and what it can unlock for your teams. This is going to be a wild ride full of a couple stories some bite-sized applications and then some insights that you can use to level up your team So we are talking about curiosity because for a healthy high-performing product team curiosity Is a compulsion. It's this relentless drive to learn you know where that learning sparks action and creates new and unique value Faster than the competition So those teams know just how powerful curiosity is and how easy it is to lose Especially as your company grows. So if you don't fight for it, you don't fight for curiosity disintegrates it Atrophies and your best product people start thinking about leaving and your product drifts So here's where we're heading today. First, we're gonna do kind of like a shared understanding on what I mean By curiosity like why should we care? We'll use a framework. It's just a little simple two by two grid to kind of help visualize this And then we're gonna zoom into the product the life cycle So it's some of the dangers that pop up as we shift from discovery to delivery And where we're kind of starting to be tempted to stop asking questions And then last we're gonna unpack the five ingredients that kind of help build and keep this culture of Curiosity and some super simple practical things that you can start today So a little bit about me I'm Evan Michener head of product management of full story for those who have not used full story before full story is a digital Experience intelligence platform. So we're combining Quantitative data and analytics with the qualitative so watching real user sessions Heat maps journey maps and because of that unique pairing full story is kind of the Ultimate curiosity playground So I've held product management roles across all sorts of industries be to be sass Atlassian and full story and then be to see across financial services and travel and retail companies of all stages sizes startup of three to a retailer of 120,000 people I Just really love working with product teams. That's what's behind this conversation today because Curiosity is core to our DNA as product people It takes some work to keep it alive though So to kick us off quick story time My wife and I have three kids our middle kiddo our son is eight and has what you would call kind of a naturally high sense of curiosity So the other day we're at the library here and super peaceful Out of the corner of his eye Through the glass door. He sees this fish pond outside So we live near the ocean. He's been super curious about pretty much everything water related Lately, so this pond catches his interest his curiosity his peaked and He is off like a lightning bolt dead sprint through the door out the pond and then all of a sudden this peaceful silence of the library kind of erupts because This door was an emergency exit door so After this all settles down. So it's great moment kind of encouraging his Curiosity and then of course reminding him, you know to read the red signs all over this door that say emergency exit alarm will sound So it's it's curiosity that drives him to sprint through that door And as I was putting this talk together. I asked him asked our son to define Curiosity kind of coming off of this in library experience so he defines curiosity as to wonder to wonder and As I thought about how that applies to product There's a layer in there that I love this kind of element of joy, you know Truly caring about something enough to go learn and sprint after it You know, how often do we really spend time kind of wondering about our users and customers? And then I asked him what he was going to do after the pond So after he gets whatever he thinks he was going to get after he learned what was in that pond And so he looks at me and says The knowledge could have come in handy later in life Which is a great answer for an eight-year-old Somewhat insufficient when we think about kind of curiosity in the context of product and product teams obviously So this spirit of wonder is beautiful this kind of compulsion to learn To sprint through the door. We're gonna keep that element But we need to pair it with Intentionality in action knowing, you know, which signals to chase down and actually doing something with those learnings to move your product forward So here's here's how I've sketched this out when it comes to curiosity We're gonna use this little two-by-two baseline To kind of baseline our conversation today I'll do a quick voiceover and then as I do this think about your own teams here Where are you as a product person where your company is? So the lower left corner This is apathy. So first of all apathy is a product person is poisonous This is effectively the lack of caring about the product the customer the metrics, you know Maybe this is over time a lack of caring kind of just becomes the norm Apathy is kind of what you hope happens to your competitors and pray never happens in your own org We don't want to be here as product people. We don't want our teams to be here as product leaders So let's move to the right. I Bet if we were gonna do a quick poll here My hunch is that many might be in this category. We're shipping and executing and delivering with excellence Some of you might even kind of be at the top of your game here Super laser focused almost myopically focused perhaps Strong sense of purpose clear finish line in mind Typically the teams here are kind of consistently delivering on time under budget And this might be what your organization rewards and they should because so much of product is on that follow-through Product leaders, I'm gonna talk directly to you for a minute You help set the pace through your priorities and questions So if this is your team or organization congratulations on encouraging this high velocity bias towards action and Are your team so focused? That they might miss other valuable opportunities. You might miss the warning signs in the data We're gonna look at how this manifests in the product lifecycle here in a minute But this posture is a perfect start to potentially deliver delivering Exactly the wrong thing because your blinders are on So the trick is we want we kind of understand that bottom right hand corner action We understand how to motivate and reward action. We're setting ambitious goals and clear deadlines priorities Get rowing in the same direction and it's that inertia that can be so hard to overcome But your learning muscles here are atrophying and it kind of over time Maybe you slowly slip into the apathy zone If you don't fight to stay curious About the customer and their needs and whether you're actually focused on the right problem your product will drift And so curiosity constant learning is core to what we do in product This is not easy, especially in the face of these pressures and deadlines So how do we fight here? What do we need to kind of layer into an environment like this? And that upper left hand corner this product manager or product team is wondering Through data and customer conversations. This is kind of this spirit the raw spirit of Exploration it's alive and well. You're running through the emergency exit door. Now. What are they curious about? This could be anything they're often learning in spurts and sprints, you know loads of Questions that result in scrambled priorities Half finished designs. So curiosity here needs to translate to clarity and action direction So the idea or insight is just a part and then of course the magic Is on the follow through what we want is that upper right hand corner So we want to blend that high curiosity with the bias towards action And that's what we're just going to call that intentional curiosity. It's Caring so deeply That you can't let go It's that relentless drive to learn and to put those insights into motion To create new value with speed. So what does this look like? How do you blend that high curiosity with that bias towards action to move with purpose? So one story I've seen play out Over and over again is actually during the product life cycle itself Does this image Resonate with you You know, you're at the start of discovery. You're on fire. You find some new insight You find a spark. You're talking with customers. You're digging through the data You're sizing up competition. You're wondering with direction and intentionality And so as you move into validation and delivery though Your aperture narrows and shifts, especially if you're under pressure And so just like a a camera lens, you're letting less light in Your sense of curiosity wanes to Make space for an increased focus on delivery Um, there's a scene from the movie vacation Uh, where, uh, Clark and Ellen Griswold Get to the Grand Canyon on their way to Wally World Uh, Clark is short on cash here. So this is kind of a long story But he spends basically about two seconds Soaking in this scenery, uh, and then he's rushing the family back to the car to kind of get on the road The point is if you haven't seen this movie The point is you've got this majestic set of data in front of you And you might miss the signals in the warning signs because you're too focused on delivering You're already on the road. You're shipping no matter what One of our, uh, product managers here at Full Story Greg asked, uh, this really thought-provoking question the other day about Alphas and betas, you know, these are the kind of early releases releases inversions that we Often release to a subset of our customers He asked whether we were treating them, uh, as a checkpoint or as a check box Are we pausing during delivery to, you know, be curious enough still about the data during those stages Or are we just staying on the highway at at full speed? It's that inertia of delivery. It's so hard to overcome. It's hard to be That person to leave, you know, some user research session and then ask Wait, does this still make sense? And so, uh, by the way, the fact that Greg even asked this question is a reflection of the culture We're trying to constantly work on and build up here at Full Story. This is the culture of curiosity Balancing moving with urgency with pausing on principle He's looking at our launches and asking When was the last time we got into an alpha or beta and didn't continue on because of data or user feedback I would ask you the same question So part of the kind of endless Challenge and joy of product work is maintaining these two kind of diametrically opposed Mindsets at all time this passionate zealot, you know, this thing we're building will change the world And the objective critic asking, uh, the right hard questions with confidence exercising curiosity So think about what you're working on right now What new learning could cause you to stop mid-flight? Anything Are you curious enough to check your assumptions as you deliver your product leaders? Are you allowing your product teams to check those assumptions? So let's go back to our framework here We know where we want to be. It's this upper right hand corner. We want Question askers. We want action when we find those sparks. And so how do we get there? How do we stay there? How do we Fight for curiosity. Um, there's five ingredients that I found in talking with product teams We're going to run through each one of these First one is empathy To be curious, you first have to care There's two aspects here. One is understanding the customer's problems And then the second piece of this is viewing the the product through their eyes So understanding their problems and uh, when I say that I mean like really understanding their problems deeply understanding their Day and how your product fits into that day And then the second piece is viewing the product through their eyes. Um I was talking uh with a product manager a few weeks ago who works on software for doctors medical industry And so as you might imagine one of her biggest challenges is viewing the product through the doctor's eyes and actually using the software So things like usability testing and research All of that is obviously much harder in that type of environment. You've got busy doctors tons of privacy issues, obviously So they have to fight to stay curious to kind of build that empathy and get signals and insights Um on the flip side I know there's probably a lot of sass Folks here, uh, maybe you work on a tool or a product that you actually are using in your day to day So what a double-edged sword here because this can almost be the polar opposite You're using that product all day. How easy is it to just gloss over speed bumps and hiccups in that workflow? When you drive the same highway all day, you're on autopilot And so while your product is the center of your day It's usually just a slice of your customer's day So viewing the product through their eyes becomes kind of equally important in this case just for different reason So building empathy for the customer's problems and then viewing the product through their eyes Here are two things you can look into this week really quick both of which we could probably unpack and uh, spend maybe a whole other session on but First thing is a journey map. So I I'm not talking about when a customer logs in it goes to the page You want them to go to I'm talking about like the 30 minutes before they log in What are they doing? What are they feeling as they log in? What pressure are they under? And then the 30 minutes after they log out What tool do they use next? Who are they talking to? And so a journey map here can help Because it's this visual depiction of the customer journey that kind of helps shine a light on opportunities to invest in As you understand the the holistic experience the the user's going through There's two ways to start this a quantitative Quantitatively so full story has a way to build the customer journey and then qualitatively with user studies to really understand what's happening outside of your product How the user is feeling throughout the journey and day The goal of this is just to build a deep understanding of that customer and then evangelize it within your teams So as you look at that journey another dimension Another dimension here is clarifying the jobs to be done. So how well Do you understand the job the user has actually hired you for? What are they trying to do? And then how well does the marketing team know that we're the sales team So jobs to be done. So it's a great way to kind of illustrate what your customers are actually buying from you And you know, it's usually not your product, but what your product helps them do So a full story we use personas like product manager or marketer We like to talk about making our data accessible to different teams in different ways And then we have a short list of kind of the primary jobs those teams are trying to accomplish There's a list of tasks with with each job and then we spend time with those users and teams to really understand Where we're succeeding and then where we still have some work to do So empathy understanding the customer's problems viewing the product through their eyes. This is just really caring Second one here is trust. So giving voice to our curiosity. It's my comment as a surprise, but giving voice to our curiosity carries risk How safe is it to ask questions in your organization to challenge something in mid-flight? To challenge something in mid-flight So first it's important to acknowledge that Even in the healthiest environments, we are still human which means it's risky to put ourselves out there and ask questions The difference though between a high trust and low trust environment Is that there is intentional reinforcement that questions are not just okay, but they're expected Surely someone has thought of this question before I'm gonna sound dumb It's not worth interrupting the the flow of this conversation with a question or this isn't my area or my lane. I'll stay out of this Or if I ask this question, they're getting it really defensive giving voice to our curiosity carries this risk and slowly Curiosity and caring disintegrates So trust is an unlock and an outcome of a culture Curiosity so it's this loop that kind of builds and builds when you have a team that feels safe Their minds are not consumed with calculating the risks of asking a question So there's two quick ways to put this in motion one Question reception, which really just means like let's get a baseline here So on the receiving end of a question in your team today Do you find that minds are receptive or defensive? Receptive means Kind of meeting curiosity with curiosity often you hear a question that lights up a part of your brain and defensive looks like armor Assuming that person is there to kind of take you down a notch challenging your decisions These little moments of questions are so Valuable do not let them go to waste especially for the product leaders here when you get a hard question Make it clear that you love that question It's contagious Second thing here is this really simple way to kind of start thinking about asking your questions, especially within your team It's pairing curiosity with context. That's it So next time you ask a question Add a little bit of context to disarm and add clarity So here's an example We do this in person and over a chat as well so Hey product manager curious if you've seen any data around kind of the adoption of feature x Why I was looking at feature y this morning and started wondering if we're starting to see some of these same things Or the patterns emerge and all you're doing here is just pairing curiosity with context It's funny though how a little tag of why you're asking helps open up the dialogue Here's a bonus tip as well Uh, you know what else? Based on my experience anecdotally is more common in an environment of trust humor And humor also happens to be a fantastic delivery mechanism for curiosity and asking questions Okay trust so you have this kind of bubbling curiosity across your teams and so trust can help that rise And explode can bring confidence and voice to that curiosity or That curiosity can disintegrate and cool kind of as this layer of of mistrust Forms across the surface Squashes creativity and curiosity so high trust Next passion So if you're passionate about the problem the surface area the customer you're just gonna care a lot naturally You're gonna have Ownership you're gonna feel ownership over that problem space You're gonna be compelled to act agency to act Accountable for delivering on the goals now the flip side of this though So take that passion which is good and maybe layer in uh some org changes Your company's growing. Maybe you're adding a few new people to the mix and slowly sometimes that passion kind of morphs into territorialism and Like a weed you don't really see it growing but kind of over time it starts choking innovation and curiosity And you're seeing uh questions Decreased you're seeing these lanes Emerge staying in my lane stay in your lane You know carving out space this myopia So the thing about this The customer your customer Does not care what your lane is Your customer doesn't care if you're the product manager for checkout on the android app So each product person is kind of a player working together for the sake of the customer experience and the leaders Speaking to you right now. It is your job to help build context and make it okay Just swerve outside of those lanes and ask questions If you are struggling to dig up some passion for what you're working on right now Here's a just a little trick Connect it to something you do care about so he sounds simple, but here's what I mean by that If you spent any time maybe working around Neuro diversity if you're familiar with that term, uh, it's perhaps a topic again for a whole other session, but If you've spent time around neuro diversity, you might recognize this little trick trick because um in Oftentimes in neuro diverse folks, you're working with an interest based nervous system rather than an importance based nervous system That's a lot of words. What does that mean? So In that case, it's important to connect what you're working on that might be important to something that interests you To get the right level of motivation Interest often trumps importance in that mindset So this is just a little trick for you to kind of tap into and so maybe for your day to day I'll illustrate this. Um, maybe you're working on A corner of your mobile app that just it's it seems like a world's forgotten about So my question for you is what story could you tell yourself to build some passion for this? Maybe you're connecting it to the story you want to tell about your career Or uh, you know, like how um, how you built magic out of a forgotten corner of the app and drove Matrix x y and z, you know, or uh, maybe it's um the tech stack Get curious about the tech maybe spend some time with the engineers and come out smarter You cannot fabricate passion out of thin air obviously It's this key characteristic of the best product people But a key component to encouraging passion is through empathy So re-center on the customer and the outcomes and the role each person And each team plays in that so really simple one here Try starting each meeting with a customer quote For product leaders, if you start to see territorialism, you know first first kind of ask yourself What is your role in that? Consider shaking things up hackathons design sprints things that kind of get your teams out of their silos You know thinking about the user problems Rather than these lanes or surface areas Okay Access which means Easy access to the data and to the customer So how easy is it for your teams to kind of exercise curiosity? Sometimes the barriers here are cultural or procedural sometimes they're technical This is one of the top issues we hear about At full story from our customers by the way Our data is a mess. Not sure what the source of truth is. This is access This is also a fast way to apathy Data insights the customer they should all kind of be within an arms reach for the team I'll share a little ritual we use it at full story often It's a it's an exercise we call one number each product manager brings a simple number Usually a piece of data to our meeting we popcorn around the room This is adoption metrics retention data progress towards a metric of success It's so simple, but it helps connect dots and encourage curiosity Always always generates a huge dialogue your data need to be accessible Some of our favorite customer stories at full story are about watch parties Since you can watch user sessions in full story may many of our customers take Friday afternoon to kind of pop some popcorn Pick a part of the product and then observe their users through that experience They group up at the end to kind of find next steps and smooth out some of those areas of friction If it seems harder Then it should be to engage directly with your customers seek to understand internally first Oftentimes there's legal issues logistical reasons for that, but if not My encouragement is to move you be the one who starts that movement get a quick database of these customers start sharing notes So your teams can connect back to the customer. It should be Easy for teams to be curious. That's access Okay, last Speed How quickly do we move on new insights and in what way we want to create new value with speed? So let's say we found some new data this spark. We've got questions emerging We're rethinking some assumptions and you're kind of at this pivotal point here How much discovery how much time do we spend answering questions gaining confidence and how? So experimentation This is one of the fastest ways to move with urgency and act on curiosity One reason to invest in experimentation is to help reduce the risk involved in building something new Experimentation can help prioritize and act so it's not replacing data research. It's augmenting So you're quickly moving here from question to action to kind of stay out of that wondering square And you're by the way customers needs and expectations are always changing Everyone here is trying to figure out what's going on with the economy. You're looking for cost savings reducing risk experimentation is a powerful way to continue to ask and answer questions And one of the biggest myths is that is that experimentation is too hard It would never work at my company. I promise you you're wrong The investment is smaller than you think and the return can be measured in how much risk you're reducing less time wasted building the wrong thing And that snowball effect as optimizations build up over time Okay, let's summarize In high performing product teams curiosity is a compulsion. It's this key that unlocks the best Thinking it is a relentless drive to learn Where that learning sparks action. It creates new and unique value Faster than your competition So curiosity is a muscle if you don't work it The muscle atrophies so you have to fight for curiosity We talked about empathy really caring and understanding the customer trust Where it's safe and expected to ask questions Where teams are passionate have easy access to the data and to the customer And then lastly can move with speed and that is the place where intentional curiosity Flourishes where creativity reigns and so product people as we close here So much of our job feels like we must know the answers What's in the sprint? What are the biggest bets for the quarter? How does this fit into annual strategy? You know, where are we going? What's our vision and you become this action oriented answering machine It's habit forming I'm challenging you to interrupt the cycle. It is our job to fight for curiosity Thank you