Reimagining IT: From cost center to innovative product builder (INO109)

Reimagining IT from a Cost Center to an Innovative Product Build Partner

Key Takeaways

  1. Amazon's Enterprise-Wide Product Management Approach:

    • Focus on customer needs and working backwards from the customer.
    • Build durable, long-term products and services rather than short-term projects.
    • Organize teams into small, cross-functional "two-pizza teams" to drive faster decision-making and experimentation.
    • Use a working-backwards approach, starting with a press release, FAQ, and visual press release, to define the customer problem and solution before building.
  2. Innovation and the Test-and-Learn Approach:

    • Anchor innovation efforts on customer needs and durable, long-term trends.
    • Experiment and iterate quickly to gain customer insights and drive differentiated products.
    • Leverage small, empowered teams to make high-quality, high-velocity decisions.
  3. Bridgestone's Journey from Tire Manufacturer to Mobility Solutions Provider:

    • Bridgestone shifted its focus from being a tire manufacturer to a provider of integrated mobility solutions.
    • Organized cross-functional teams to define customer problems, map the ecosystem, and build feasible, scalable, and desirable solutions.
    • Launched products like end-to-end scheduling for fleets, driver behavior analytics, and ROI-focused mobility services.
    • Bridged the gap between IT and the business to drive innovative product development.

Detailed Summary

Amazon's Enterprise-Wide Product Management Approach

  1. Focus on Customer Needs: Amazon's product management approach is anchored on customers and their needs, as the company believes customers are always "beautifully, wonderfully dissatisfied."
  2. Building Durable Products: Rather than focusing on long-term roadmaps, Amazon aims to be "stubborn on the vision and flexible on the details," allowing for adaptability to changing customer needs.
  3. Organizing for Speed: Amazon uses small, cross-functional "two-pizza teams" to drive faster decision-making and experimentation, reducing communication overhead and enabling high-quality, high-velocity decisions.
  4. Working Backwards from the Customer: Amazon's innovation process starts with the customer, using a working-backwards approach that includes a press release, FAQ, and visual press release to define the customer problem and solution before building.

Innovation and the Test-and-Learn Approach

  1. Anchoring on Durable Needs: Amazon focuses on identifying customer needs that are not likely to change significantly over time, rather than chasing the latest technology trends.
  2. Experimentation and Iteration: Amazon's product teams are empowered to experiment and iterate quickly, gaining customer insights and using that knowledge to drive differentiated products.
  3. Empowered Teams: Amazon believes that small, cross-functional teams can make higher-quality, higher-velocity decisions than large, siloed organizations.

Bridgestone's Journey from Tire Manufacturer to Mobility Solutions Provider

  1. Organizational Alignment: Bridgestone aligned its leadership and teams around the goal of transforming from a tire manufacturer to a provider of integrated mobility solutions.
  2. Cross-Functional Teams: Bridgestone formed cross-functional teams with representatives from design, product management, and engineering to tackle customer problems.
  3. Focus on Customer Behavior: Bridgestone observed customer behavior and pain points, such as the need for better access to vehicle data and visibility into the ROI of their investments.
  4. Launching Innovative Products: Bridgestone launched products like end-to-end scheduling, driver behavior analytics, and ROI-focused mobility services to address customer needs.
  5. Bridging IT and Business: Bridgestone worked to bridge the gap between its IT and business teams, ensuring that innovative product development was driven by customer needs and business priorities.

Overall, the key to Bridgestone's transformation was its ability to adopt a product-centric mindset, organize cross-functional teams to tackle customer problems, and launch innovative digital solutions that delivered tangible value to its customers.

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