21st century leaders define their knowledge products as quantified deliverables, designed to satisfy the emerging expectations of highly differentiated customers. We are used to improving our activity or processes. Most improvement initiatives make no distinction between the three. Rather, they care about what we give them that can help them achieve their desired outcome. What we give them is the product.
Products focus on our vision outward towards the customer.
When we work on process or activity, we are trying to improve how we do what we do. Again, how we do our work is of little relevance to the customer. By identifying our work as tangible products, we make improvement efforts more concrete. We have a very specific deliverable that we can talk to customers about. We can measure it and improve it.