Diamonds are Forever?
No this isn’t a post on Shirley Bassey or Kanye West (depending on your preference) but maybe something that might help us in our day-to-day planning and optimisation of Digital Products
…but before we get into the Product topic let’s take quick step back…
For many years we have worked with Project based Portfolios where we’re familiar with the ‘Project Triangle’ as a model and quick guide to help us understand and identify the trade-offs we might apply in optimizing our Projects…and, as a quick refresher, the ‘Project Triangle’ is based on three factors that can traded-off against each other;
Cost - Increasing or decreasing the cost of the Project delivery, especially in relation to the cost of the people that are required to deliver the target outcome. The hypothesis being the more cost that is expended, the greater the scope / quality that can be increased and / or the ability reduce the time that is planned for delivery
Quality / Features / Outcome - All closely linked to the overall scope, this variable looks to vary what is planned to be delivered and the quality of those deliverables. The more features and greater quality specified typically increases the time needed and cost of the target project
Time - Quite simply if you want to deliver faster you need to change the scope (features / quality) of the work and / or increase the budget to hire more people to bring in the overall timeline for example
…having said this, in today’s world we have a number of delivery options, from the more traditional Project Portfolio based approaches to modern Digital Products founded on agile principles, and it is to the Digital Product that we now turn our focus
Without trying to fall into the curse of over simplification, maybe we can establish a new, simple visualization and model for the Digital Product…
…and with that we present the ‘Product Diamond’!
The goal of the Product Diamond is fundamentally the same as the Project Triangle; to help identify key factors involved in the design and optimization of a Digital Product and how the factors might work together and can be ‘traded-off’ in the overall design and optimization of the Product
The ‘Product Diamond’
The main four points of the Product Diamond help us to create a simple model that defines the key elements or factors that make up a Digital Product;
Customer - The definition of the Customer and their context. What the Product should provide and why it is needed, along with who they are providing it for (stakeholders, personas, etc.)
In Architectural terms this will describe the associated Business Architecture elements of the Capabilities, Business Processes, Business Strategy and the different Personas that the Product serves. This point of the Diamond also focusses on the Offerings and Solutions that the Digital Product will provide and the associated things like the engagement model for the customer and the Marketplace to advertise and provide the Product Offerings along with the associated Pricing - all things that will be important to the customer in their ongoing decision making as to what they want to consume
‘Product Stack’ -How the Digital Product is composed. What makes up the Product and how the functionality that enables Offerings is comprised. This brings together the Products’ Components and things like the Business Applications and Services (e.g. XaaS, etc.) that enable the Digital Product to provide its Offerings
From an Architecture perspective this looks at elements pertaining to the Applications / Technology and Data / Information Architecture along with factors such as security and compliance that make up the overall ‘Product Stack’
Teams - This is who is planning, developing, maintaining and supporting the Digital Product. The Team(s) of people in various, different compositions or services that work on the Digital Product. This can include internal or external people and / or managed service offerings that work on the Digital Product throughout its lifecycle
Finance - The money. The budgeting, funding and financial management needed to develop and operate the Digital Product. Either as a constraint or enabler, the commercial elements of finance, contract, and supplier management needed to optimize the go-to-market approach of Digital Product
Delivery Context & Features / Value -although visually outside the four points of the ‘Diamond’ these are two key factors in the overall Digital Product design and delivery; being able to understand the wider context in which the Product operates within and how to define and measure the Value of what the Product is providing
In the case of the former, this means an understanding of how the Product in question fits into a typical corporate goverannce model including things like funding and the prioritization of work and resources in an overall framework. Understanding things such as where dependencies across different Products might exist or how the Product is contributing to other Delivery ‘mechanisms’ such as ARTs or Programs
By combining the different ‘points’ of the Diamond the goal is to create a simple model that helps our understanding of the key inputs and factors that could be considered in designing, operating and optimising a Digital Product
This is of course a simple model with this whole area having a myriad of further considerations and complexity [For more excellent work on Digital Product see the ‘Beautiful Mess’ by John Cutler], but as a starting point and quick ‘go to’ reference perhaps the Diamond is the new Triangle, and can help us as we continue to explore and optimize the world of Digital Products
In writing this I would like to thank and acknowledge the huge contribution of Brandon Nelson, Nick White and Anna Kochanowska all of whom are incredible experts who’s work I strongly urge you to look into!
