Feedforward design (Product Management, Preventive Maintenance and Design Thinking)

 

Feedforward can be understood as Preventive Maintenance, Design Thinking, Product Management among other disciplines.

Key proponents of Feedforward are stalwarts such as Steve Jobs, Elon Musk and the Nostradamus of our time, Marshall Mcluhan.

What does it mean?

It means that before you present a product, you first move into the mind of the user, to understand exactly what they need, rather than what they want.

This is where the following come in:
 

Domain Expertise/Research
 

Constantly exploring new avenues, new technologies, new methodologies, new paradigms, since we are in essence, creating the future the user needs, in the social environment in which they need it.
This is where a product manager comes, in that he needs to constantly study new trends and technologies and understand their acceptance in the market and the most suitable applications, whether existing or to be invented.
The Product Manager is usually the person most able to pull together experts from different domains, which will provide the necessary skillset in understand the new upcoming domain.

Product Designing
 

In designing a product, the key focus is on a consistent and scaleable experience. So one part is to reduce dependency on buggy third party solutions, the way Steve Jobs refused to integrate Flash into the iPhone.
The other is to keep interfaces as simple as possible, such as giving users the option of a voice response like Siri.
 

System Architecting
 

The key point in architecting a system, is to create a system which embraces a future philosophy, rather than just look at translating offline processes into online processes.
What this means, is that give the chance to create a new architecture, means that we need to look at current needs rather than just replication of past needs.
For example, today, the focus is on systems which respect the user's privacy, which means minimum collection of profile data, for maximum utility. Like advertising for example, if you are able to get heat map data showing your target group's usage patterns, without collecting their names or phone numbers, but only their demographics, privacy is maintained.
The mobile operator systems of RADIUS and DIAMETER (today referred to Directory as a Service), already provide robust full proof systems where customer data is maintained.
The next, is to maintain security, which is an end to end transaction system, such as the cloud, where all transactions and storage of data, are ensured to be securely maintained.
Note the discrepancy here, that systems by companies such as Google, Facebook and Amazon, unlike typical mobile operator companies, are built for porosity of data, to make it more searchable and monetizable, rather than security of data, which would compromise the latter.

System Designing
 

System design, is about creating systems in line with the product. The difference is that a product may consist of many systems, but all the systems collectively form one product.
For example, in designing a car, there are various systems designed by various vendors, all following one product design.
 

Feedback designers focus on the key operations, rather than the long term operations, for example, the most important function in a car, is to keep it running, hence preventive maintenance (this means safety and security of the driver, meaning negligible accidents and breakdowns) is more important, than focusing on the daily user experience of entering the car, driving the car and leaving the car.
So if the design is cloud versus offline product design, certain features such as battery backup are maintained by the cloud similar to Mobile Device Management, but local features such as Autopilot and what to do if the driver sleeps at the wheel, is handled at the product/vehicle level.

Software Process Engineering
 

The process of building a software, has been typical following various methodologies such as waterfall and spiral, which are highly structured and look at a predefined document from the client in terms of what needs to be created.
In Feedforward, we clean the slate and focus purely on the customer, the user, in terms of what packs the most punch, since if the user experience is Wow!, that means that the user will keep coming back for more.
This means that rather than follow the process, we focus on following the person, the product owner, the user owner, who needs to drive the solution in a way which maximises the experience.

Technical Writing

A technical writer is a professional writer that communications complex information. So what exactly does a technical writer do? They create technical documentation that includes things like instruction manuals, user manuals, journal articles, quick reference guides, and white papers. They may also create more common types of content including social media posts, press releases, and web pages.
Technical communicators endeavor to create documents that help individuals understand how to use a certain technology. They write internal documents for employees to use or create products and target a consumer audience.
The technical writer is the voice of the product, is some places literally, as the initial videos showing how to use the product, or may be even the presentation by the CEO of the company, to showcase the value of the solution to the user.
Today, the viability of a product, is based on the viability of the market.


Marketing Expertise

The greatest document written for the online market, the Cluetrain Manifesto attests, the market is the conversation, something which Steve Jobs and Elon Musk excel in, in ensuring that the conversation is almost always around them, in whatever sphere, be it life, psychology or discovering spirituality.
In doing so, the alignment of the product with the market, is almost a given, as the conversation ensures that the user is in line with the brand owner and vice versa.
This creates the market, which has gone global, as the conversation too, is global.