Product Patterns Everywhere

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In my entire Product Management career, I’ve probably done hands-on, formal analysis of the functionality and usability of over 300 software products and online services (not including mobile apps).

Why so many? Well, I am extremely good at competitive analysis. I had one client who hired me to analyze the product features of over 35 different products of competitors or possible acquisitions. For every product I've ever owned, I've done my own competitive analysis of at least 5 other products.

I’ve done this analysis through the lens of someone who is a product manager by training and experience, and as someone who has deep familiarity with the way users interact with software products (especially business applications) and their expectations of them.

After working with the first hundred or so products, I realized something:

About 80% of the functionality in each of these software products was essentially the same.

For example:

  • Most business applications let you integrate with your business’s existing security systems and user directory.
  • Most content designers provide (or should provide) a way for users to preview the content as it would be displayed to other users.
  • Most installed software provide (or should provide!) a way to let users easily upgrade to the latest version of the software, without the user losing work.
  • Most platforms that generate new content, or receive new content from users or outside sources, needed a way to notify users of what’s new.
  • Much software that manages content provides a way for users to give reviews and feedback about the quality that content.

And so on. Deja vu. Over and over. No matter what the domain, the business problem, or the type of user, the same types of functionality and use cases come up again and again. For my product management clients, I find myself working on requirements and user stories for the same buckets of functionality as I had for many other clients in the past. Even for clients that are in very different problem spaces.

I've heard “Product Patterns.” as the term for describing these recurring bits of functionality

Product Patterns

I tried researching what others had discovered about “Product Patterns” via a Google Search, and I didn’t turn up much. I found a handful of Medium posts, but not much.

In contrast, I did find a lot of information about

  • Software design patterns, but these were at a lower level—deep in the code – than what I was looking for.
  • User interaction design patterns. Jennifer Tidewell wrote an excellent (although dated, by now) book on these patterns.

Both were promising, especially for Software Engineers and User Interaction Desigers. But what about some pattern tools for product managers?

What I sought were descriptions of common Product Patterns, the common functionality building blocks that are used to develop software product. Ideally, each would have:

  • a overall description of the pattern
  • what the pattern is typically used for
  • how to determine which patterns are applicable to the target market and cusotmer problem
  • what questions to ask customers and prospects
  • tips for implementing the pattern
  • traps to avoid
  • sample user stories
  • etc.

I didn’t find this, so, I started to create descriptions of Product Patterns on my own. I then started using them and refining them with my product management consulting clients.

I will share more detail about these common product patterns in future posts.