Why New Product People are the Weak Link in Transformations
Identifying the problem, and mindset shifts to help them step up and lead
“Leaders in many organizations undergoing transformation see Product as nothing more than a “part-time” management responsibility.
Rightly or wrongly, these senior leaders feel their own trusted direct report is in the best position to make Product decisions with their needs in mind.
And surely they wouldn’t mind “taking on just a little bit more work.”
Greetings from the Fall chill!
We’re back with the latest Upstream Full-Stack Journal, helping you go upstream and be more effective across the full Value Delivery stack.
Continuing where we started last edition, subscribers receive free access to my latest articles.
In this edition:
How "The Product Gap" Has Already Doomed Your Transformation To Failure
Unlocking Success: Key Strategies for New Product Owners in Transformation
What to Do When Your Product Owner is Too Busy?
Everyone fresh & ready to go?
Deep personal experience
This edition hits very close to home for me.
After consulting in numerous Agile and Product Transformations as a contractor and an employee, I’ve seen some anti-patterns continually crop up in the Product role.
In a two-part series, I break down how these hiring decisions get made.
I also point out how traits that made someone successful enough to get selected for the Product role in the first place are the same things that set them up for failure as Product Managers.
I round out by offering four mindset shifts I’ve used effectively to coach new Product people to success.
How "The Product Gap" Has Already Doomed Your Transformation To Failure
Why putting busy managers with zero Product experience into Product roles spells trouble for the entire organization
The promises and challenges of Transformation
I’ve been part of multiple major Agile and Product Transformations, including 3 over just the past 5 years.
With few exceptions over that time, I’ve seen work break down at the Team level.
Teams are stuck not knowing what to build, how to build it, don’t have requirements to work from, nor have any idea what they should be building next. It’s not because the people aren’t working hard enough. Pushing them to do more, or “try harder” won’t solve the problem long-term.
If we’re ready to move from putting band-aids on the symptoms, to addressing the true underlying cause, we come back to “The Product Gap,” a fundamental lack of awareness of the Product role’s central importance.
A few simple missed decisions start with a key leadership miss that creates a rolling set of impacts that set everyone up to fail, and prevent organizations from getting any hoped-for transformation benefits.
Read the full story at this exclusive free subscriber-only link here.
Unlocking Success: Key Strategies for New Product Owners in Transformation
Understanding how key Product competencies spell the difference between dysfunction and consistent value delivery
A bright spot
A couple of years back, as an internal consultant supporting a large-scale transformation in collaboration with a global consultancy, multiple siloed groups were brought together into Portfolios and Programs.
After several months of massive upheaval and mixed feelings about the transformation, one Program alone stood out, consistently delivering value and outcomes.
Looking back, I understood their success had nothing to do with anything the global consultancy did, or how well they practiced Agile or Scrum.
Product experience made the difference
And while they did adapt some of the structures to their own ways of working, It all came down to two things:
They were led by a full-time dedicated, engaged, and experienced Product lead who passionately cared about his entire cross-functional team
The two teams in the program were each led by two full-time, dedicated & experienced Product Managers
Why does this happen so rarely, even within the same organization?
And what can we learn from how these experienced Product people led differently?
Read the full story at this exclusive free subscriber-only link here:
What to Do When Your Product Owner is Too Busy?
Dave Prior and Vic Bonacci of LeadingAgile pick up on exactly the themes I share in the above two articles in this podcast.
If you’ve ever dealt with an absent or difficult Product person on a team, you’ll find much in this podcast that will resonate with your experience.
Listen to or watch the full podcast on the LeadingAgile site here.
Like I said, this was a great deal of very personal material that hits close to home for me.
Have you had challenges with your Product person?
Are you a Product person who feels you’re not experiencing the success you could be?
Let me know! I’ve been coaching a few Product people on a select basis, and am happy to discuss.
And join me next time as we continue to go upstream and use strategy, goal-setting, and product management to make you more effective.
