Growing your Product Mindset How to Think Bigger and Change the World

The Product Mindset is the link between the products we build and the culture of the organization building them. It's the foundation for operating in a digital economy.

There is a shift happening. One that puts the user closer to the center of our work than ever before. We are moving away from the question "Are we building it right?" to asking "Are we building the right thing?" This approach isn't new - it's growing in response to the increasing speed and complexity of competing in today's marketplace. It's founded in human behavior and decision sciences. No matter what you are creating for your customer, there is one thing that unites us: Our customers want products that are simple to use and solve their problem.

The best tool we have to grow our Product Mindset is a set of principles and techniques known as Design Thinking. This isn't trivial, it's big business. The Design Management Institute's study in 2016 says Design companies outperform others by 211% percent! You know the names; you use the products - companies like Apple, Starwood, Nike, Walt Disney to name a few.

Julee Everett, VP of Product for Clearly Agile, explores what Product Mindset means, identifies questions to ask to go further, shows us how to develop products that resonate with our user's emotional needs, and introduces a simple discovery exercise you can use.