How to Maintain Your Product Agility With Non-agile Stakeholders
I’m a big believer in Agile. Aren’t we all? Apparently not. When I hear CEOs and senior managers complaining about Agile, they have legitimate concerns. But we don’t want to throw away the baby with the bathwater. So here is what you can do to remain agile when your organization sees things differently.
Everything Is a Choice
We all take many things as given. This perception defines how we think and operate. But many of the things that we see as objective constraints are actually choices we or someone else made along the way. Here is how to allow yourself to choose right.
Smart Use of Principles
Principles are a very powerful tool in product leadership. They can help you create clarity and alignment, and separate the wheat from the chaff. Here are a few ways to use them in your everyday tasks, and some cases where they are not the right tool.
When the CEO Has a New Product Idea
CEOs have product ideas all the time. It’s a legitimate component of their ability to lead. But how can you lead the product if the CEO gives very specific guidance? The answer lies in making yourself their thinking buddy. Here is how to do it.
Are You Bounded by Authority?
Everyone treats authority differently. Some of it is cultural, and some of it is personal, but how you treat authority impacts your ability to lead. Especially in product management, where authority is limited, you need to act beyond the limits of formality. Here is how.
The Value Assessment Framework (Part 3)
The value assessment framework allows you to identify gaps in any of the value layers – definition, delivery, and perception. But not all gaps are alike, and not all of them need to be treated the same way. Some even need to be left untouched. Here is a guide on how to tell the difference and how to address each.
The Value Assessment Framework (Part 2)
Your product’s value needs to be defined, delivered, and perceived as such by your customers. If this isn’t challenging enough, what your customers want and need varies based on their profile and maturity with your product. Here is a simple framework to help you understand what they need, and more importantly – where are your current gaps.
The Power of Summaries
Product leadership is such a hard role, one of the hardest. You live at the heart of endless conflicts caused by a variety of points of view that collide with each other. You are involved in complex decision-making under extreme uncertainty. Here is a simple tool that will help you shine and help others along the way.
Reality Isn’t Always What You Want It to Be
Nobody likes bad news. But what happens if this is the reality? Realizing it is one thing, and a more important thing is to accept it as it is and then act to change it while you can. You can’t change the reality of today, but you can change tomorrow. Here is a quick guide to get you going.
4 Fundamental Mistakes You Are Making With Product OKRs
OKRs are an amazing tool to drive business success. Starting with OKRs is easy. Doing it right is not necessarily so, especially with product OKRs that are a unique beast. Here are a few common mistakes to avoid.
6 Types of Competition That You Must Be Aware Of
Sometimes your competitors are not the usual suspects. They might not be the products that appear exactly in your category, and honestly, they might not be products at all. Here are six categories of competition that you must be aware of.
Leadership Without Authority on Steroids
Leadership without authority is product management 101. You must master it to succeed, in most cases with developers. But as a product executive, you must take it to the next level – and this time use it with the entire management team.