Product people can change the world

Of course “Product people can change the world”, we all know anyone can change the world. Yet, Product people are uniquely positioned to craft and communicate a story that unifies business and customer needs with long-term world needs.

That’s not going to be easy. [understatement]

The world is changed by people voting with their wallets more than ever — that’s our products. Money leads to political gains. We don’t have to like political lobbies or campaign finance practices; but, we create who has the money and what they stand for. Can we do better?

Change happens one step at a time.

So be mindful of what you choose for your product day-to-day. Even if it isn’t front of mind for your business or your customers today. Product people must stand for long-term value creation more than anyone else. That often originates from the intersection of a business’s and the market’s principles — not their immediate desires (for example, start with why).

The status-quo is customers do not choose on principle. It’s harder to hear or see the principles, so often principles are overlooked. Consumers don’t resonate, B2B businesses know the end-consumers don’t care. Thus, it is important to be deliberate, as Product people what principles are we choosing and be better at communicating: sustainability, empowerment, equity, safety, respect, trust, or something else (including not factoring it in)? We can change the status-quo by vastly improving our story telling in communicating principles. Work on your story telling until you have consumers understanding the business’s principles and consumers seeing themselves in them.

To go with the flow would be easy. On the other hand, we can choose the rocky path where we can all create meaningful ripples that will change the course.

Picture the world you want to create and believe that it is achievable. Then tell the story that brings everyone along for how to get from here to there and why that’s essential.