Log in or create a free Rosenverse account to watch this video.
Log in Create free account100s of community videos are available to free members. Conference talks are generally available to Gold members.
Whole Product Thinking: Expanding beyond problem and solution space thinking
Summary
Join us for this session with Sean McKay, Founder, Product Strategy & Design Consultant at Whole Product Thinking. Why is it so hard to align everyone so we can deliver products that our customers love? It’s a question that will steal your soul (and your job) if you let it. I believe it’s more important now than ever that we transcend the nagging industry debates, power struggles, and process wars that are blocking us all from doing our best work for our customers. In this session, I’ll share a new “Whole Product Thinking” framework I’ve been developing. It’s intended to help structure conversations and align teams around the fundamental concepts needed to deliver human-centered products that are meaningful to users and effective for business. My approach centers on the 'what' and 'why,' deliberately separating the 'how' to allow organizations the freedom to choose approaches and methods that align with their unique contexts, development philosophies, and company culture.
Key Insights
-
•
Whole product thinking integrates business, problem, and reality spaces for holistic product delivery.
-
•
Shared language and alignment documents help teams overcome communication silos and contradictory perspectives.
-
•
Decision culture and business stage significantly impact how product strategy and investments should be approached.
-
•
Customer outcomes and business impacts must be simultaneously considered for successful products.
-
•
Continuous understanding blends strategic exploration and tactical evaluation to maintain customer connections.
-
•
Product operations—including research ops, design ops, data ops, and customer success ops—are critical as binding infrastructure.
-
•
Delivery is as important as design and development, emphasizing incremental releases and deployment planning.
-
•
Design principles like accessibility and sustainability are folded into business values and solution design, not separate add-ons.
-
•
Avoid prescribing rigid roles; instead use the framework as a diagnostic tool to identify gaps and align cross-functional teams.
-
•
An experience vision acts as a north star, inspiring teams toward long-term customer-centric outcomes beyond fixed product features.
Notable Quotes
"Frameworks are the best because they help structure conversations and align teams."
"Everyone has a different context—teams, culture, and history—that shapes how they work and think."
"Is there good kung fu in everything? Every perspective has something to teach us."
"Outcomes is a word people use so much it's lost its meaning, so we need clarity around it."
"Business space includes vision, mission, market understanding, business model, and decision culture—not just product."
"Reality space focuses on customers’ mental models, appetite for change, and the broader solution ecosystem."
"Continuous understanding means both strategic and tactical research with strong customer connections."
"Delivery gets missed at the right time often; sequencing, deployment, and adoption planning are critical."
"Product operations serve as the binding agent to enable teams and processes to work seamlessly together."
"Experience vision is the north star describing what the customer’s world will be like after success."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"Everyone is circling around similar topics but in very different ways—there’s a battle of models but more similarities than differences."
John CutlerOxbows, Rivers, and Estuaries: How to navigate the currents of change (without burning out)
December 3, 2024
"By observing Jeff's concerns and asking questions, I was able to show empathy and distract myself from getting defensive."
Darian DavisLessons from a Toxic Work Relationship
January 8, 2024
"If you have a feeling you’re having the same conversation over and over, a canvas like this can ratchet the conversation forward."
Dave GrayGroup Activity: Making Sense of DesignOps
November 7, 2017
"Quality is value to some person who matters."
John CutlerThe Alignment Trap
November 29, 2023
"When was the last time that you felt stuck? The one where you feel a sense of being stuck trying to understand something."
Abby CovertStuck? Diagrams Help
October 27, 2022
"If you want to get faster output, optimize the work and workflow first — not add more hours."
Mark InterranteCollaboration Flows in Product Development
June 9, 2017
"Obsession with gadgetry and cool tech ignores the fact that most critical future changes are mundane and essential, like clean water."
Devon PowersImagining Better Futures
March 9, 2022
"Good designers understand you can’t design what you don’t understand."
Prayag NarulaHow to Empower Your Designers to Do Good Research – And Why You Want To
June 10, 2022
"We need to dramatically change the hats, the walls, and the workflow of how we work together in design and development."
Peter Van DijckHands on AI #3: Claude Code for UX people
October 22, 2025
Latest Books All books
Dig deeper with the Rosenbot
What are the core UX research tools essential for managing participant recruitment and study logistics in large companies?
What features does Rosenbot offer to help UX learners deepen their knowledge through follow-up prompts?
How effective are AI-generated follow-up questions in usability testing compared to human moderators?