Can you identify with the product you work on? I have been talking about this with a number of people lately and we all came to the conclusion that a high level of identification will eventually lead to high quality.
On all levels.
Of course you can identify with your work without caring for the product much. When I was working for agencies I wasn’t caring at all about marketing sites for yogurts for example. Still I managed to do a good job.
But as soon as you are working on a long term product such as a brand even as small as your local football club you get the feeling of being part of something bigger than yourself.
And a product in general can not be the best it could be if people working on it are not identifying with it. Or if they are hindered to do so.
For example I can not imagine what the perfect app for magazines could look and feel like. But take a single magazine brand that you know the audience of that you know the strength and weaknesses of and you can start imagining. Sure there are things it will have in common with all the other magazine apps but the quality of a product is a very individual thing to achieve.
On a different level I learned over the past few years that also developers perform a lot better once identifying with their product.
As soon as people start caring for the final output you get momentum. As a product/business owner (not talking scrum here) it is you job to get everyone committed so start with identification.
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