How to get your whole organisation practising ‘product thinking’

5 steps to get your organisation embracing product thinking

It’s important to note that any change can take time. The following steps are a framework to guide your process.

✔️ Step 1: Seek clarity

The more specific you can be about the problems you are wanting and needing to solve within your organisation and for your customers, the more laser focused you can be with your planning and approach.

Being clear about which problems you are wanting to resolve will also be beneficial when encouraging other members of the organisation to adapt to this way of thinking (see step 2). Taking a statement approach can be helpful. For example, an organisational challenge could be stated as “Our decision making isn’t supported by robust data” or “My team isn’t clear on what success looks like”.

Get clear on your problems and then consider how product thinking could assist in resolving them.

✔️ Step 2: Get buy-in

Stakeholder buy-in is vital to get any kind of change happening across an entire organisation. Change is also a team effort. Product thinking is no different. If the people at the top are on board, it is far more likely to be embraced and implemented by everyone else.

But how do you get buy-in from the top?

One approach is by identifying who in your organisation is already applying product thinking successfully, with examples to showcase. Once it is clear how product thinking can benefit the wider business, you can increase broader buy-in by upskilling members of teams with product thinking training, so they take on a champion role. This empowers individuals and can inspire others to engage with a new concept, such as product thinking. 

Another option is to curate examples of other organisations, within your industry if possible, to demonstrate best practice and successful implementation of product thinking – real world product thinking in action for your organisation to aspire to.

✔️ Step 3: Start small

Try on this new way of thinking with smaller projects first. It will build confidence and support  experimentation amongst teams before embarking on larger scale assignments.

Encouraging a beginners mindset for all involved is important here. This will be a totally different approach for many people and the key is to bring everyone along for the ride, not intimidate anyone into resisting change.

It’s during smaller projects like these that you should be on the lookout for any potential product thinking champions who could be offered specific design thinking training.

Begin with the data

Use existing data to inform decision making on a smaller project. If the data doesn’t exist, explore how it could be gathered. Getting teams trained in basic data analytics could also be considered to support the product thinking approach. Data exists across all functions and is a powerful area to upskill any team in.

✔️ Step 4: Be adaptable

Every organisation and team will have their own problems to address and need to develop processes that suit their unique circumstances. Try different approaches to see what works and be open to changing things up as required.

Training in product thinking can provide a strong foundation to help your team navigate developing processes and support critical thinking as to what would best suit.

Remember, there is no fixed one-size-fits-all approach.

✔️ Step 5: Take notes

From little things, big things grow… by documenting your process as a team and as a wider organisation, you will be aware of your learnings and able to share with others so they too can learn from your journey.

Encourage everyone to note their experiences of product thinking specific to projects, highlighting that what might be perceived as a mistake is just as valuable as a ‘good’ outcome.