Basics of Systems Thinking & its application in Product Management

It’s a classic situation for a PM to either focus on the delivery of critical items or take a step back to understand the impact of the related items highlighted by the dev.

For instance, launching an in-house merchandizing capability for the org might be the desired deliverable, however if the dev is giving a heads up regarding the subsequent impact on other app flows, then it’s a prerogative of the PM to wisely analyze the problem statement once again with a long term view in mind that adds value in future without much dev effort & cost implications.

As a result, PMs ability to visualize and run through the flow multiple times to identify the gaps & understand the impact is most sought after skill. It is known as “Systems Thinking”.

Systems thinking is a way of helping a person to view systems from a broad perspective that includes seeing overall structures, patterns and cycles in systems, rather than seeing only specific events in the system.

Sharing the list of the top 10 parameters PMs should consider as part of Systems thinking :

1. Critique cycle 🌀 : Output of this cycle going as an input in next cycle ?
2. Impact of Cannibalization ↔️ : Analyzing the impact of launching one product on the engagement/conversion of already existing product ?
3. Stepwise customer journey impact 🪜: If the new feature is able to bring 1.5x more users to the app, its imperative to analyze whether they are junk or the real users of the app ?
4. Impact of App modules 📦: Analyzing the impact of new feature on the acquisition , adoption , retentions , referral & revenue specific modules.
5. Gaming the user behavior 🎮 : Is launching new lucrative refer & earn programme impacts user behaviour across funnels & the key metrics negatively.
6. UI components 📱: For instance, analyzing the impact of launching the Dark mode on UI components across each screen.
7. Platform compatibility ✅: Does the new feature works exactly the same on Web , Mobile Web & App ( Android + iOS ). Deep understanding of the tech architecture is needed to have a good hold on connected thought process.
8. Impact of Customer Support 💁: Have we trained the CX team on dealing with the queries related to the complexity of the new feature.
9. Robust Analytics instrumentation 📊: Do we have seamless and robust instrumentation in place in order to quickly identify the change in the key metrics due to the launch of this feature.
10. Impact on Old users 👴: In case you are launching a new subscription model to entice new users — how the old users going to respond & what’s the thought process to address their concerns.

4 ways to develop a sound Systems thinking :

• Connect with Infra team engineers and understand the overall architecture.
• Document each step in the data flow journey & understand its limitation & advantages.
• Create flow chart for each flow and share it with the group for better mutual understanding.
• Build your own repository of Systems thinking checklist over a period of time based on your real-life experiences.

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