Blog – Field: Digital Headquarters for Product Leaders

April 13, 2023

Check Your Core/Context Fit (Also Known As Product/Reality Fit)

This is a translated and revised version of a post we guest-authored back in 2015 for the 'produktbezogen' blog. It's about why the Core/Context Fit is the foundation for product success. And how the Product Field helps you find it.

April 05, 2023

The Field Guide for Visual Product Thinkers

The product innovation space is filled with useful methods, popular strategy frameworks and canvases asking meaningful questions, and well-known shapes of innovation that have emerged over time. But the immense variety of tools and approaches often proves challenging.

March 31, 2023

What if?

Hi there 👋 — Chances are you are currently reading The Field Guide for Visual Product Thinkers and want to check out what's behind our "What if?" quotes, right? Well, here we go ...

January 05, 2023

Virtual Reality Is Made for Strategy Work

Yes, that was my very first thought when I put on an Oculus for the first time: VR is just made for strategy work!

June 20, 2022

Understanding & Using Innovation Methods

According to Wikipedia, Method literally means “a pursuit of knowledge, investigation, mode of prosecuting such inquiry, or system.” Indeed, this is exactly how we understand and use methods — as tools to help us gain information and make sense of it, to become more confident when we make product decisions.

June 19, 2022

The Kano Model — How the Product Field Tells You When To Use It

At Field, we are currently working on Method Advice, a new feature that provides contextual method advice based on the results from the Product Field sense-making process.

June 19, 2022

The Stakeholder Map — How the Product Field Tells You When To Use It

At Field, we are currently working on Method Advice, a new feature that provides contextual method advice based on the results from the Product Field sense-making process.

June 19, 2022

Why/How Laddering — How the Product Field Tells You When To Use It

At Field, we are currently working on Method Advice, a new feature that provides contextual method advice based on the results from the Product Field sense-making process.

June 18, 2022

The Product Chasm — Learning vs. Knowing

Why do so many top executives don’t seem to get “product”? This is the 9th and last post of the The Product Chasm series that introduces 9 different mental models that separate “modern product management” from “the business”. I found these models when reading through the responses to my question on product twitter.

June 10, 2022

The Product Chasm — Philosophy vs. Solutions

Why do so many top executives don’t seem to get “product”? This is the 8th post of the The Product Chasm series that introduces 9 different mental models that separate “modern product management” from “the business”. I found these models when reading through the responses to my question on product twitter.

June 07, 2022

The Product Chasm — Customer Value vs. Shareholder Value

Why do so many top executives don’t seem to get “product”? This is the 7th post of the The Product Chasm series that introduces 9 different mental models that separate “modern product management” from “the business”. I found these models when reading through the responses to my question on product twitter.

June 03, 2022

The Product Chasm — Continuous Product Development vs. Launch Product, Then Sell It

Why do so many top executives don’t seem to get “product”? This is the 6th post of the The Product Chasm series that introduces 9 different mental models that separate “modern product management” from “the business”. I found these models when reading through the responses to my question on product twitter.

May 30, 2022

The Product Chasm — Team Sport vs. Strong Individuals

Why do so many top executives don’t seem to get “product”? This is the 5th post of the The Product Chasm series that introduces 9 different mental models that separate “modern product management” from “the business”. I found these models when reading through the responses to my question on product twitter.

May 25, 2022

The Product Chasm — Systems Thinking vs. Linear Planning

Why do so many top executives don’t seem to get “product”? This is the 4th post of the The Product Chasm series that introduces 9 different mental models that separate “modern product management” from “the business”. I found these models when reading through the responses to my question on product twitter.

May 11, 2022

The Product Chasm — Failure Is Part of the Game vs. Failure Is Not an Option

Why do so many top executives don’t seem to get “product”? This is the 3rd post of the The Product Chasm series that introduces 9 different mental models that separate “modern product management” from “the business”. I found these models when reading through the responses to my question on product twitter.

May 06, 2022

The Product Chasm — How It Works vs. How It Looks

Why do so many top executives don’t seem to get “product”? This is the 2nd post of a series that introduces 9 different mental models that separate “modern product management” from “the business”. I found these models, when reading through the responses to my question on product twitter.

May 03, 2022

The Product Chasm — Long-Term Thinking vs. Short-Termism

Why do so many top executives don’t seem to get “product”? This is the 1st post of the The Product Chasm series that introduces 9 different mental models that separate “modern product management” from “the business”. I found these models, when reading through the responses to my question on product twitter.

May 02, 2022

The Product Chasm — These Mental Models Separate “Product” and “The Business”

Earlier this year, I asked product twitter why so many top executives don’t seem to get "product" — despite such valuable insights and thought leadership from so many popular product thinkers out there. I was hoping to find some cues that help us connect the two worlds, to explore the intersection of “modern product management” and "the business“.

January 31, 2022

Product Management in One Word

A few days ago, I asked product managers on Twitter to share what it is they provide — by using just one word. My hope was to get some strong signals on what product management is really about. The very essence of it. This post aims to make sense of 250+ inspiring responses this tweet has triggered:

November 05, 2021

Thinking Out Loud: Creating Product Strategies

Tamer El-Hawari invited us to record a session for the Project A podcast with him. We talked about product strategies, The Product Field and Field. Listen to Klaus-Peter and me thinking out loud — but sorry, no simple answers here!

August 20, 2021

ICYMI: Our SXSW talk “A Language To Foster Innovation”

tl;dr — There is now a post-produced video of our talk: Learn a product innovation language that lowers the risk of innovation failure significantly, and how companies can adopt it.

August 09, 2021

Tool Builders are Tool Users are Tool Builders

Let’s think about products and services as tools. They connect humans creating and humans experiencing value. When tools change the way we see the world, they also change the way we work and create value. What happens when we change our tools?

July 29, 2021

Visual Thinking for Product People

Collaborating on products and thinking about product strategies needs visual thinking. Visual thinking not only helps to grasp complexity better than reading a linear text, it also opens your mind to other perspectives.

July 21, 2021

What Horst Rittel Knew About Product Development and Innovation

Not one writing about the history of “Design Thinking” is missing Horst Rittel, the design theorist who coined the term “wicked problem”. But there is way more to learn from Rittel’s early teachings: Here are three things, product people need to know.

July 15, 2021

Product Innovation as Knowledge Creation

When working on product innovation, knowledge is in constant flow. Teams working on digital products need to adapt to the ever-changing environment.

February 26, 2021

A Personal Note From the Authors of the Product Field

The visual form of the Product Field still surprises us – it reveals insights we couldn’t think of when we first created it. Let’s take the chance to look back to our long journey with the Product Field.