Create Successful Products by 'Getting in the Van'
7 Comments Latest comment by: Gokul Seshan
reddit
| 
digg it!
| 
del.icio.us
I was going to write an article titled "The Soul of a Product" this week emphasizing the importance of design. But then, my plans changed as I went to an event organized by the Silicon Valley Product Management Association this past week.
In that event, Michael Sippey, the VP of Products at Six Apart (a blogging software company whose product 'Movable Type' powers my blog) gave an excellent speech on product management.
The best way I can think of to summarize his speech is: "Get everybody in the van, and do a DILO"! Actually I can think of better ways - but this is a pretty catchy way (I think!) to get you to read further so you can understand what the heck that means. 
It is well worth it, so let us get going.
Getting Everybody in the Van
Michael's speech was focused on how things have changed dramatically from the beginning of his career at companies that made packaged software, to now - where he is managing a hosted software product (TypePad).
Michael talked about how much many of the product practices have changed - such as 24-month release cycle vs 2-week release cycle, extensive specification documents vs lightweight specifications using wikis, building a product vs iterating a service, etc. He said the one thing that hasn't changed at all is "Getting everybody in the van". What did he mean by that?
When he started his career in a successful financial software company, one of the key lessons he learned was the importance of understanding customer needs. The way that company did this is by visiting customers at their offices and observing them work. They would get the product manager, engineering manager, and other relevant personnel into a van and drive to the customer sites.
Once there, they would watch them work and ask them questions to understand what needs they have - which ones are being met by their products and which ones are not. This practice enabled them to constantly enhance their products to keep their market lead, as well as create successful new products by unearthing unmet needs.
When they had a new idea, Michael said (I'm paraphrasing):
When we had a new idea, we had to call and set up meetings with 30 prospects. If you don't get 30 prospects to agree to a meeting about a product idea, you don't have much of a product idea.
Well said Michael! All high-tech companies would be well advised to practice this.
I've seen many high-tech companies, both startups and large companies, first create a product because a VP or founder thought it was cool ("I want to do something that uses AJAX"), and then start looking for a problem it happens to solve! Then many of their competitors copy it and pretty soon all of them have got a product looking for a problem.
What is a DILO?
Now to the bonus part of this article, where you will be learning a cool new thing called DILO. What is it, you ask?
Well, it is a totally cool sounding FLA (which itself stands for 'Four Letter Acronym'!) guaranteed to impress your friends! And if you happen to be in consulting, it is guaranteed to pull in 2X hourly rates. I'm so confident about this that I'll refund 100% of your subscription fee to my free blog if you don't get this result, okay?!
DILO = Day In the Life Of
It refers to understanding the "Day in the life of" a customer. The best way to do this is to "get everybody in the van" - and observe customers using your product in context, and asking them questions.
Get the Van Started
Now that you know what "Getting everybody in the van" means, start implementing this into your own product practices. Those of you in product management and product marketing should especially spearhead this. Check out this earlier article for some concrete steps you can take, and get the ball rolling.
As Thomas Huxley, the 19th century British biologist wrote:
The great end of life is not knowledge but action.
Here is to better products, happy customers and more success...
Like this article? Then you will love my FREE monthly email newsletter - loaded with useful information for Product Management & Product Marketing professionals. It is FREE - get it now!
About the Author: I'm your author, Michael Shrivathsan, an expert in product management and product marketing with successful experience spanning two decades. I live in Silicon Valley, USA. For my day job, I manage the product management & marketing teams at Accompa, makers of requirements management software and product management tools.
Comments
"Getting in the van" is a nice, memorable metaphor to underscore the importance of understanding customer needs by talking to customers and observing them in their surroundings.
I think getting 30 prospects to agree for meeting to review product idea may not be applicable to all companies however. DILO is neat, I will use it from now on to impress my coworkers! ;-)
Posted by: Josh Thomson | August 6, 2006 05:34 PM
This idea is similar to the Follow-Me-Home studies Intuit practices. The idea is that the best way to understand customers is to observe them in their environs. This is the reason for failure of focus groups, and sometimes even usability testing that is not well structured. Get-in-the-van/Follow-me-home method costs more but is worth the price.
Posted by: Kevin T | August 6, 2006 06:16 PM
Nice post, Micheal. It is indeed important for every organization to have deep knowledge of customer needs and this post re-emphasizes it. The anecdote from Mr. Sippey's speech is very useful.
Your mention of AJAX is quite funny since one of competitors to my current employer recently made a big splash about their new version with AJAX. From our study, it makes their product harder to use with the little timer wheels showing up everywhere on the page and non-standard behavior of several UI control elements.
Now there is pressure on us to respond with our own AJAX version. I don't believe anyone has really done customer studies, i.e. "getting in the van".
Posted by: Raj Pandi | August 7, 2006 12:33 AM
I agree with Josh, it is a good metaphor. For consumer software companies (like my employer) literally "getting in the van" is not very realistic. However, such companies can listen to forum feedback, conduct customer surveys, usability testing, etc to learn user needs and "day in the life of" scenarios. This post actually reminded me to arrange our next session of usability testing. Thanks!!!! :0)
Posted by: Sandy | August 9, 2006 09:09 PM
I just discovered your blog, and delighted to find very usefull content. Just want to congradulate you for sharing your insights, Kudos.
Posted by: Ajoy | August 17, 2006 02:17 AM
I do this on a regular basis with my customers. I set aside time every three months to spend a week or two with customers and to watch how they use our product and to capture what works or what doesn't work and how in their process it should work. My customers love the "personal touch" we give them and when they see changes made in the product that was "their idea" it lets them know we really do listen to their ideas and work to implement them.
Posted by: John Ganger | August 21, 2006 11:27 AM
it is yes and no. For start up product companies, getting feedback from customers would make sense (Sales driven product development) - which is predominantly in the enhancment space of value chain. Whereas product driven sales stratgies would be mainly on transformation space. hence there may not be need to convene or visit to get ideas (i am not against this idea but not possible always)but the product manager should have conviction that the product would change the way for prospects/customers to get more benefits
Posted by: Gokul Seshan | September 15, 2006 10:05 AM