Why the Minimum Viable Product Is Dead
Okay, okay, maybe it’s not dead, but the way we treat MVPs today is NOT how they were originally intended, and that’s costing companies their ability to build truly customer-centric products that actually impact business metrics. The good news is that there’s a different, more impactful way of thinking about early releases.
How Product Managers Can Excel at Being Generalists With 3 Straightforward Steps
A cornerstone concept in product management is that product sits at the center of multiple disciplines. This intersection naturally lends itself to the idea that Product Managers need to be great generalists. If you’re struggling to strike a balance in this role, here are 3 things you can do right now to become a great generalist.
A New Scorecard That Will Make Product Managers and Key Stakeholders Happy (Mostly)
I’ve decided to make some improvements to the typical scorecard that teams use to report on progress. My hope is that it makes both product folks and their stakeholders feel more aligned and maybe, just maybe, a bit happier with the process. Keep reading to learn about my adjusted scorecard and download the template for free!
Busting 3 Common Myths about Switching from a Corporate Career to Consulting
Have you been on the corporate treadmill for a while and can’t help but feel curious about the world of consulting? People often want to pick my brain on the transition process and we always end up discussing three common myths that seem to linger around the field of consulting. I’m busting them today.
Are Your People Quiet Quitting, or Are They Just Disengaged?
Low pay, stingy benefits, and an overworked culture are all symptoms of a company that is not checking the boxes for its people. But what about the ones that are: the organizations that do get a good rep for treating their people well and honoring work/life balance? What can we infer about the Quiet Quitting within those companies? My hypothesis? Maybe the organizational structure is making it impossible for talent to get their work done and, as a result, make an impact. Asking people to try and try again without changing the outcome is a surefire way to encourage disengagement and Quiet Quitting.
The 3 Things Product Leaders Should Think About Heading into a Recession
I know, it’s the dreaded “r” word, and it has taken up residence in the back of everyone’s minds as 2023 looms closer. We know the recession is coming, so what can we do to get ahead of it? Here are three reminders for product leaders to consider.
Here’s a Better Way to Manage Quarterly Business Reviews for Product-Led Orgs
It’s essential that we rethink and reimagine the QBR to better suit the needs of a transformed organization and ensure teams and their leaders have the opportunity to review roadmaps, KPIs, and learnings from past releases.
3 Ways Product-Led Orgs Can Support Their Talent’s Growth
With so many training, certification and continuing education courses available to product folks, I understand why I’m frequently asked which options offer the best value. It’s a lot to navigate. If you’re a leader who finds themself with some remaining year-end budget, or in a position to carve out dollars for next year that can be invested in your talent, there are a ton of options out there. Here’s how I simplified it for a recent client.
The Weaponization of OKRs: Is Your Org Guilty of It?
Ah, the beloved OKR. From Intel in the 70s and Google in the 90’s, to just about everywhere in late 2022. Are they worth the hype? And are they even being used well in your organization? This might be a bit of a hot take because I know people love OKRs, but I tend to roll my eyes when they come up in conversation with clients. Why? Well, most companies don’t actually understand how they’re supposed to be created.
3 Reasons Why Your Product Team is Faltering (and what you can do about it)
If your product team is getting off course time and time again, or has failed to make progress for many months, it may be time to run some diagnostics and address the root cause. There are a lot of reasons why derailment happens, but in my experience most can be traced back to one or more things missing in the context of their work.
Building Cross-Functional Product Teams is Harder Than You Think
Building cross-functional teams for product-led orgs is harder than you think it is, and if you miss the target it can hurt the whole team’s best effort at creating value for customers and the company alike.
A Product Manager’s Guide to Streamlining Meetings and Emails
Great Product Managers and Product Owners know that communicating with large teams and key constituents is a major part of the job (among other important things). The road to that realization can be rough, especially if you’re constantly fighting to “find time to do the work.” The reality is that constant communication is the work. PM roles are highly relational, so it’s critical to accept that a significant portion of your time will be spent talking with other people via meetings, Slack, email, 1:1s, standups, and beyond. The real secret to wrangling team communication isn’t to resist the chaos, but to figure out how to organize the chaos.
Don’t Let Your “Later” Roadmap Become Your “Never” Roadmap
When it comes to Product Roadmaps, the “Later” column is meant to be a place where the big audacious problems and opportunities live. What it becomes instead is Just Another Backlog: a holding ground for ideas and pet projects and problems of all different shapes and sizes, and the only thing they seem to have in common is that they aren’t being done “Now,” or even “Next.” So what can we do about it?
Here’s What’s Working in Innovation Today
At one point in the not so distant past, the fashionable thing for companies to do was to set up an innovation lab. With it came a dedicated room, foosball table, some bean bag chairs, and a couple of folks charged with leading innovation. But that didn’t work, and we watched the ideas created in the lab struggle to survive in the wild.
The 3 Digital Transformation Trends I’m Seeing in 2022
With Q2 well underway, I’ve been reflecting on a few emerging trends in digital transformation that I think we’ll see more of in 2022. These three patterns are challenging companies to change the way they operate, hire, and align business to value if they want to succeed.
How to Hire Product Managers for Agile Organizations
Any Google search or LinkedIn query will tell you the core responsibilities required of a Product Manager, however, evaluating whether a candidate is actually ready for the role in an agile, product-led organization can be challenging.
4 Quick Game Changers for Your Product Roadmap
If you’re reading this article, you likely already know the purpose of a product roadmap and probably have a template (or twelve) that you’ve based yours on. You also probably have a love/hate relationship with yours: you know it’s necessary, but would rather not look at it most days.
With these four mindset elements, you can transform this one-dimensional document into a colorful and cogent vision that everyone is eager to explore and engage with.
The 3 Things Every Great Product Manager Knows
As someone who works alongside Product Managers regularly through my consulting, I’ve come to observe a certain mindset embodied by all-star managers that leads to more aligned teams and better work. It’s not always present, but when it is, you can see the positive impact ripple across touchpoints. So, if you’ve already got the mechanics of Product Management down, how do you take your work – and your results – to the next level?
How do we define product?
When I wrote this article in April of last year, I was focused on the juxtaposition between projects and products, and boy oh boy did it ever resonate with you. Not only that, but the concept of moving from “project to product” was soon everywhere, so I felt especially cool in having explored the topic here before getting buttonholed in a meeting.
Product Goals, Outcomes and Objectives
HOT TAKE: I’m going to attempt to define and differentiate GOALS, OUTCOMES and OBJECTIVES.