[48] Culture Defining Products 👟
How product teams drive culture forward.
Today marks the first guest post on Culture Codes by my friend Andy Barr. I met Andy during my time as consumer insight strategist in the global adidas Innovation R&D team and we frequently exchange on topics such as innovation, product, design and creative leadership. In this edition, drawing on his 20-year experience in sports and footwear innovation, Andy unpacks how cultural relevancy is baked into product development. Enjoy!
My name is Andy Barr and I write CMMN WLTH on Substack.
In my day job I create sportswear that make athletes look, feel and perform better.
In both endeavors my goal is to ignite curiosity, socialize margins that may become the center, and help people connect the dots to ultimately become better at what they do.
Thanks to Felicitas for letting me write for Culture Codes, I have you find it useful.
Let’s get into it ↓
Hello my friends,
This is the first Substack guest post I have had the honor to write.
Thank you for having me.
I’ve spent almost 20 years working with and leading culture defining teams in the sports and fashion industry and two questions I’m often asked is:
Are culture defining products are discovered or created?
Who drives (or defines) cultural relevance internally at the company?
In most large organizations the final consumer product is “curated” by a large team of researchers, engineers, designers and experts. I use curated rather than created as often the challenge is not a lack of input, but separating signal from noise; something that I have written extensively about in my newsletter.
The core product team is made up of three key skillsets: Design, Development and Product Marketing (or Product Management depending on brand). While these three functions work with a much wider group of experts to take an insight from brief to shelf, ultimately they are responsible for success of failure.
In football (soccer) terms the Designer is the striker, talented, opportunistic and usually a little flashy.
The Developer is the center back, focused on the tactics and timeline, they take hits with seemingly unlimited physical stamina as they make intention into reality.
The Product Manager is the center midfielder. They walk the line between art and the science, represent the consumer and the business and have the composure to make critical decisions under pressure.
Like on the pitch the best players don’t stay rigidly in their position, they understand and anticipate each other’s needs and adapt to an ever changing environment.
They put aside their department’s interests to focus on delivering an experience for the consumer, and fundamentally that experience is the product.
Cast a critical eye across the catwalks, courts, pitches and tracks around the world and you will see that newness and innovation has stagnated. This is a symptom of product teams being pushed increasingly towards project management rather than product excellence.
Conversations about cost, schedule, historical data tend to dominate, resulting in products that look right on an excel sheet but don’t solve real consumer pain points or shift the cultural zeitgeist.
In culture defining brands failure isn’t selling zero, it’s 100,000 people using the product when 1,000,000 should have experienced it. Or sales of $10,000,000 when it could have been a $1bn.
The greatest failure is falling short of potential.
When everyone has access to the same inputs, the competitive advantage isn’t access to more data, it’s what you do with it the separates good from great.
What makes product creation so challenging and consequentially exhilarating is that the dots only connect in hindsight.
The culture defining product teams obsess over insights that others overlook.
When leadership push their agendas, they return focus to consumer value
When complexity creeps in, they strip it back to first principles.
When cost pressures mount, they identify what truly matters.
They put the voice of the consumer at the centre when everyone else is talking margins.
How does the path to purchase unfold?
How does the product fit into their daily rituals?
How do materials feel in motion?
Every product decision either reinforces or challenges expectations.
The products that define culture don't follow trends. They respond to deeper human needs that others miss.
The job isn't to give consumers what they ask for.
It's to give them what they didn't know they needed.
That's how products become cultural forces.
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