How can you optimize product engineering for different cultures?

I am part of an international company that serves the global market. When I want to create a product or a service that spans across regions, I start evaluating what characteristics each region has in common and how they differ from each other. I start with market research, mainly secondary research, to understand what customers require. After that, I analyse the usability and I may adopt primary research to directly ask customers. Sometimes the differences are in the alphabet, way of writing and terms. Sometimes the whole workflow is different. The Facebook team mentioned that they should have addressed internationalization early in their product to win local competitors. This is the strategy for international products.

To optimize product engineering for diverse cultural audiences, I implement these: Cultural Research: with comprehensive research on target cultures, I delve into understanding their values, beliefs, and societal norms. Localization: Such as translating content, adjusting visuals, and making modifications to align with specific cultural expectations. A/B Testing: Implementing A/B testing with variations tailored to different cultures allows me to experiment and identify the most effective features or designs for specific cultural groups. Localized Marketing: Crafting marketing strategies tailored to each cultural context is imperative. This involves adjusting language, tone, and imagery to resonate effectively with the target audience.

Some of the ways to get started are: 1. Align products with the cultural needs and values of target markets. 2. Empower teams with resources and a supportive environment. 3. Adapt product features, brand strategy, packaging, operations, and quality to reflect cultural preferences. 4: Analyze the market life cycle, physical and psychological product attributes, and cultural compatibility for effective adaptation strategies.

Overseeing different markets with culture, languages, mindset, perception ... being defining factors in the way the same product can be marketed. As an example, launching a product conceived in an english environment in a french speaking market is not only about "translating the words into french", but translate "the cultural meaning and perception" in the language. There is a reason why the same movie has a different title in french which is not only the translation of the initial title in english.

When you work with global, cross- functional teams, the primary thing you need to be aware of is the difference is work cultures, difference in expectations regarding the same service/product, and different target markets. Sometimes, this is heavily governed by geographical positioning of the product. Without deep diving to understand the expectations in a particular location, and collectively tailoring either your strategy or your product, it would be very tricky for any organization to achieve and maintain a successful product.

Internationalization is everything when it comes to product engineering. The fact is: Most engineers have differing backgrounds and attitudes when it comes to product engineering. • Some of never heard of it • Others fully embraced it in a prior job And, the attitudes to product engineering vary a lot by country and company. So you should provide custom instruction relevant the to level of every engineer. Help them understand how autonomous they should be, what discovery they should do, and what their relationship with their PM should be. The better the documentation and eng leadership, the easier the transition to a product engineering culture.

From a medtech or medical device perspective, it’s important to leave desirability bias or confirmation bias at the door. Really try to “listen” and understand from the native user or prescriber’s perspective. Definitely don’t try to force fit a corporate mandate or a large market’s perspective on another. And there is nothing wrong with piloting products and strategies as a learning experience.

One of the best examples for localisation and internationalization is Uber. I have frequently used Uber in the US and India and the user experience is consistent but different and localized. For example, India has a lot more ride options such as auto rickshaws, motorbikes, electric rickshaws whereas the US has electric cars and a lot more premium options such as Uber Black. When I used uber in London, Uber Boat was on one of the top recommended options. Another key difference is the way promotions are handled. In India, you get a promo on almost every ride you take whereas in the US it is a lot less. Challenging aspect of L&I is earning points, maintaining payment options and compliance.

In my experience as a PM, I've used a focussed approach on localization and internationalization. Localization involves adapting the product to market's cultural nuances, preferences, and legal requirements, encompassing language, UI design etc. However, a pitfall I've encountered is overlocalization, where the product's core identity gets diluted. Internationalization, the process of designing the product to support multiple languages and cultural formats from the outset, has been equally crucial. The challenge here is avoiding a generic approach that fails to engage specific markets. Balancing these strategies, while navigating their respective pitfalls, is essential in developing products that are globally adaptable yet locally resonant.

To all startups and entrepreneurial friends in the US - stop thinking that Europe is a homogenous market! Just because we all understand English does not mean we have the same believes, values or understanding. Europe is not only a conglomerate of different countries, languages and cultures but we are proud to be organized and making decisions de-centrally. We believe in pluralism, in democratie and in individualism. Government is very slow, Large enterprises too, SMEs are fast and flexible - innovation and change is driven by SMEs - if you want to enter the market and need a partner to ensure product-market-fit go for SME, large enterprises are risk averse and you will lose years.

Best Practice - Always sit with the design team for your product than just giving them your ideas to design , let them be creative and you can always change accordingly to your liking. At the end of the day everyone is special in their own field , try an empathy and trust on cross functional teams and you will surely be surprised with the outcome.

Regarding Agile, specifically Scrum, it's important to remember that every team is unique. The flexibility isn't just about the product development but the team as well. Don't be scared or too rigid that you do not adapt processes to cater for what works best for your team. Does the design team need a different Kanban/Scrum board? Cool. Does Team A prefer two backlog refinements in a sprint, and another prefers one? Cool. Just ensure that the team is supported enough to put out their best work! Do you agree?

I think the interesting thing about adopting agile and cross functional methodologies is that there is simply no one size fits all apporach. I've implemented agile for business process design, org design/strategy and for development teams in different industries and business contexts. If you try to do a textbook agile approach you will fail. Its important to remember the values and core focuses of agile and figure out how that will fit within the culture of the organization. I always find that adopting a mindset of continuous improvement is both palatable and achievable in most contexts. Start there and build

Uma experiência que vivi em relação ao Agile, especificamente ao Scrum, é importante lembrar que cada equipe é única. A flexibilidade não diz respeito apenas ao desenvolvimento do produto, mas também à equipe. Não tenha medo por não adaptar processos para atender ao que funciona melhor para sua equipe.

The crucial element in adopting agile and cross-functional methods is the willingness to EMBRACE FAILURE. The expedited path to success involves encountering and addressing failures at the earliest opportunity. Cultivating a culture that allows for mistakes, without judgment or consequences for unintentional errors, empowers teams to explore new approaches toward their end goals. By alleviating the fear of repercussions, this approach not only emboldens teams to take innovative paths but also enhances their clarity of thought. Recognizing that stress over consequences can impede critical thinking, creating an environment that values learning from mistakes becomes integral to fostering creativity and resilience within a team.

Culture is so nuanced and multi-layered that oftentimes, despite all the efforts in user and market research, there are "unknown unknowns" that can catch you by surprise. Recognizing this reality and vulnerability means you test the product with a limited set of actual users before a more broader release. Testing and feedback must be early enough to allow for course correction yet late enough for users to have the full experience and provide actionable feedback.

The thing which i found quite effective is the User Acceptance Testing lies both Internal & External. Internally - Identifying defects earlier, testing core functionality, prevent potential risks and placing a thorough tested Product for Client testing phase. Externally - Validation of requirements by Clients, User Friendly evaluation, Actual user testing in real world, Client Confirmation and Validating training and Go live, Ensuring compliance and legal requirements and lastly Overall Client Satisfaction. Hence UAT is a crucial stage for meeting High quality Implementation, Successful Go live, High adoption rate globally & Minimize churn.

After we launch our products, we take time to collect data and analyse it. Already usage data shows us if the user experience is available across regions. If there is a discrepancy in the usage of our product, we may ask customers using a survey. This is the best way we guess what problems there are based on data. Otherwise, we can ask customers directly. This approach works best if we want to be generic, ask higher-level questions or propose to the customers to show how they interact with the product and how we can improve it. In any case, we collect feedback from customers or salespeople periodically, so that we know if customers are happy or if we need to improve. Regular discussions with customers may bring new ideas.

When your whole team understands the customer need, how the product solves it, and can put themselves in the user’s shoes as they use your MVP, you effectively bring a entire team of end users together improve your product. This scales feedback, and, therefore improvement. The best part is… You already have relationships with these users. They are your team. Get everyone testing as a team a couple times before you launch.

I always start the validation journey from my home and it goes to my friends and colleagues before it goes to the “Testers” as you get the base and that comes in a great help for the tester to know beforehand and that helps the time complexity.

The ability to collect user feedback just after the product is launched to its first set of customers is very critical. Once the feedback is collected using the correct methods, it needs to be analysed to define the next steps for the product manager. Product manager should be able to draw insights and enhance or pivot the product strategy accordingly.

Temos alguns cases, no passado, principalmente no início da globalização, de enormes fracassos de produtos que eram sucesso em seus países e acreditaram que sua linha de comunicação poderia ser utilizada em qualquer outro país, mesmo com culturas diferentes. Se não identificarmos as culturas de povos diferentes, sejam países ou estados, há alto risco de fracasso. Pesquisar, estudar o ambiente social, testar, aprender a entender como os povos pensam e funcionam é determinante para encaixar produtos e serviços e ter chance de sucesso.

I champion a data-first approach. My continuous learning and iteration process relies on meticulous data collection, user feedback, and stakeholder insights from testing and validation. Key metrics guide my decisions, allowing me to finely tune strategies and roadmaps. This data-driven approach ensures that my iterations are not just culturally attuned but strategically aligned, consistently delivering customer delight and driving business growth.

Continuous co-creation with customers is the fastest path to product development. Only the outside in perspective allows validation whether market requirement assumptions by the product designer have been met.

We frequently use North Star metrics and product success metrics to closely monitor the success of the products during the soft launch and GA launch. It’s such a useful process to optimize product development, and continuously literate the product even before the national launch.

I've always found it beneficial to consider both cultural and legal environment when dealing with other cultures. Cultural differences lead to distinctly different working relationships and negotiation tactics, for example specific employment law in a given country. For instance, most Australians are "brutally honest" in conversations both inside an organization and when dealing with external parties, due in large extent to very "employee friendly" employment agreements where they can't be fired without proper cause and relatively low rates of litigation, whereas Americans tend to be much more conservative with communications due to largely "at will" employment contracts and paranoia around discovery of emails etc.

To optimize product engineering for different cultures, consider conducting user research in diverse markets, adapting design elements to cultural preferences, and ensuring localization for languages and context. Collaboration with local teams and incorporating cultural feedback can also enhance cross-cultural product acceptance.

Mandatory regulations and laws, presence of technical standards might impact the outcome and these constraints must be defined since the beginning. If we design tangible product, not only we must consider the customer typical experience but the whole design process to the final outcome must consider and use tools, equipment, test environment, tangible and intangible assets, marketing procedures understandable and in compliance with the final destination market and culture.

More than just applying a premodeled framework to your routine, to create a functional and successfull product in a market you don't know, the best way is to adapt yourself to the environment and the culture. Always research for typical customer behaviours and government particularities. A good way to help you, is to build a diverse team, with people with expertise from the local country.

Be clear about the criteria that make a culture less economically attractive to address and when/how you chose not to support it. software business need to make money (or if you are a non- profit you need to carefully manage cost to fit funding). The product teams job is to invest wisely in the most valuable capabilities for customers. I guarantee you will never have enough resources to do everything so gear up to make wise “no” decisions or at least “not now” decisions. These can be a result of: - too small a cultural group - too low a sustainable price point - unexportable or unlicensable technology for the cultural region - language - common payment methods and business model - currency to price in - software piracy risk