Why Political Positioning Is Not the Best Long Term Strategy

This post is primarily intended for user experience professionals and product managers; however, I hope  that folks from many disciplines will find this post relevant and conclude that it is a good starting point for a spirited discussion. Please comment away!

Some people believe that the best way to produce a successful product is to align it with power and influence in the organization, referred to in this post as political positioning. Political positioning means that you create product requirements that are primarily consistent with the views of the most powerful people in the organization. The idea is that they are the most powerful and influential;therefore, they must know what is right. While this might be an effective short term strategy, it is often the very reason why products fail to meet customer needs, why infighting occurs within organizations, and why product plans fall short of their goals.

Filed under: Product Management, User Experience

From Cultural Attributes to Personas and Stories

The topic of defining the cultural attributes of a company culture came up in a recent Anthropology of Product Management (#aopm) discussion on Twitter. There was also an earlier discussion about this on Linked In AOPM discussion group. The ideas that Art Petty and Pattie Vargas contributed to this discussion served as a starting point for my post. Thanks Art and Pattie for jump starting my thinking on this.

Cultural attributes are characteristics that define a culture. The idea is that you can use cultural attributes to help solve cultural problems. These problems, which are really people problems, can be anything from understanding a audience for a product to understanding how different groups interact in an organization. Many product and organizational problems are actually cultural problems, although they are often disguised as tool or business practice problems.

Filed under: Ethnography, User Experience

The Role of Taboos in Understanding Culture

The topic of taboos in the workplace came up during the Thursday, April 9th #aopm discussion, more specifically, how to prepare new product managers  for dealing with taboos in the workplace.   Here are my thoughts:

Typically,  taboos are the result of  a value or belief system, and they are usually a sign of a broader cultural issue that goes beyond the taboos themselves.  If you understand the value or belief system that is behind the taboo, you  understand why the taboo exists and, more importantly, the broader cultural context. 

Filed under: Ethnography, User Experience