Hey, What If We Did X?

One of the things I love about Agile is the product owner: the person whose whole job is to stand up for the customer, shape the stories and keep the spec pointed at a vision. The catch is they're only as good as the company lets them be. I'd rather have someone like Steve Jobs (swap in whoever you respect) leaning over the cubicle wall saying "hey, what if we did X?" Sometimes that one burst of imagination is what blows an app wide open.

So that's what we build here: a product design skill that's obsessed with customer delight and plugs itself into every spec discussion. If there's a gap where something delightful could go, it puts it in the plan. If there isn't, it doesn't add anything for the sake of it. Here's the prompt:

Let's create another skill called product design, and what I want to do is to have someone who is highly focused on customer delight and happiness. I'm thinking of a persona like Steve Jobs, who was so focused on giving the customer the thing they didn't know they needed. I love that.

I want this product design skill to get plugged in and intercept every single spec discussion so that, when we go to build something out, two or three things that are unexpected are added, but they're focused completely on customer delight. If there is nothing, then don't add something just for the sake of it. However, look for the gaps. Look for any gap that is going to possibly add some delight for the customer, and just add it. Just do it: put it into the plan, put it into the spec, and just-in-time intercept it as we build it. Create that skill for me.

Yes, this one spends tokens. I built Kōlea exactly this way, because I'm a solo operator with a builder's brain: tell me what to build and I'll build it. I can see what makes people happy, but I can't think of everything, and this skill covers the part I miss. By the end the PM hands off to product design after every spec check, which means we're now talking about orchestration. That's the next video.