How do you track the success of your vision and strategy?

We have to know where we’re going before we start or we’re just moving aimlessly. In a previous role, I told the team where I wanted us to go, we agreed (with a few adjustments), and we developed our KPIs. Because they were involved from the beginning and their voices were heard, they had buy-in. Needless to say, we achieve many of our goals ahead of time!

This reminds me a famous soccer coach in Argentina. He once received a detailed statistical analysis of his team's performance in their recent game. The numbers indicated that his players ran faster, completed a higher percentage of passes, and had more shots on goal than the opposing team. However, the coach's perspective differed significantly. He saw his team as more disjointed than ever, with minimum teamwork, less patience, and a lack of a winning mindset. This lesson serves as a valuable reminder that sometimes KPIs, Objectives, and OKRs can be set with a particular perspective in mind, but they must be constantly adjusted. #PerformanceMetrics #Leadership #TeamDynamics #ContinuousImprovement #AI #ML #pricing #analytics #CFO #CIO #CRO

First, I set clear, measurable objectives. Without tangible metrics, it's challenging to gauge progress. During our monthly reviews, I analyze our key performance indicators (KPIs) to see if we're on track. It's not just about numbers; it's about understanding the story they tell. Feedback loops with stakeholders are invaluable. Their insights often provide a fresh perspective on our direction.

I agree, and need to highlight that equally important is the connection to the goal on a soul level. Far from being “woo-woo”, I am talking about the fundamental WHY. Inevitably, there will be challenges along the way that will demand adaptive thinking and resilience. It is in these times that the soul driven grit kicks in and supports clear thinking and emotional stability to weather all storms.

One of the mistakes that I often see if jumping into measuring success based on some predetermined set of success criteria. If it is a new initiative, I would encourage leaders to do a little trial. I often look to set the MVE (Minimal Viable Experience). The MVE is a something I track to with KPIs, may my peers have outlined. Getting the MVE is very important because this is often the first journey your organization or customers will go through. If this isn't defined or you uncover a need to pivot, you will loose the audience. So, trial, define, MVE.

It's a good idea to keep a shared dashboard with the progress on the strategy and vision. Based on my experience, one of the biggest pain points during the change is communication with the rest of organization which is often being done poorly. Ordinary employees often treat leadership communication as a sales pitch - unless it is explained in proper manner, the trust will not be established. By keeping some dashboard with clear and trustworthy data we can boost relationships, gain proper attitude and trust.

When I was working for the “the fastest growing start up in history” — I was tasked with a job that I’d never done: I had to mass hire gig workers across the western hemisphere. We didn’t have a dashboard so, with one of my associates, we built one. The dashboard that tracked applicants across 9 different jobs, in every city, by associate, by applicant, start to finish. This not only helped to highlight where we were doing well, but also where we needed to improve. We shared this dashboard with our cross-functional teams which provided visibility to all stakeholders. The model we created worked so well, that the head of our EMEA Ops want to know how to duplicate my teams success in her operations. Lesson: if you don’t have it, build it.

One of the missing prerequisites here: we need to have data to actually plot onto a dashboard! Many times, startups don't have the necessary data in place. As a Principal Product Manager, I've run into this a few times. While we can't fix it overnight, we can start by "stemming the bleeding," then cultivate a culture of data stewardship. For the next feature you're launching, ask "do we have instrumentation for our metrics?" If not, work with engineering & data analytics to size the effort, and invest the time to make it happen. Once you've instrumented metrics for your new launch, instrument your past features. From there, document your processes and share with other PMs to encourage them to instrument tracking for their products too.

Because let's not forget when it comes driving results, "What gets measured, gets done." So make sure your dashboard enables the team to focus on what matters most and quickly understand "the score".

Don't listen to the little voice in your head that tells you "better" means working even more hours. Reward outcomes, not hours.

During my entrepreneurial journey, I have been fortunate to on-board team members with similar mindset and priorities aligning with the vision of what we were building. With motivated team members it is very important to always keep a two-way communication stream where in the voice of team members is equally important along with customer's voice. The constant feedbacks and weekly reviews empowers everyone to be on the same page. Instead of treating the team members like employees they should be treated like stake-holders in the product. Adjustments and improvisations are very important aspects as it will make things easier and also helps you keep a regular check internally with respect to the market scenario. Journey to vision is achieved.

Something that's missing: we aren't just responsible for tracking progress. As product managers, we're also responsible for changing & updating the strategy! For my clients & mentees, I advocate using three kinds of triggers to revisit product strategy: 1) Time triggers 2) Metric triggers 3) Fact triggers Time triggers just means that you should check in on your strategy every month or so. This method is the least nuanced, but it's a decent approximation. Metric triggers means that we have a health metric in place with a threshold. If we cross the threshold, then our reality has changed and we need to update the strategy. Fact triggers means that something qualitative has changed, e.g. new laws, changes in competitive environment, etc.

Very much agree! Strategy isn't static; it evolves. And regular reviews act as strategic pivot points, enabling leaders to adapt to unforeseen challenges or emerging opportunities.

Review and adjust, I think this is left out of many vision and strategy concepts. If this is not being used again and again to refine your strategy.

Given the fast changing environment, it’s also important to review if the original strategy is still relevant and effective to achieve the vision. If it’s not, the strategy should be updated accordingly as well.

We do a lot of tracking and measuring in the business world – too much, in fact. Vision is not something we should try to measure. Vision is beyond measurement. It’s something to aspire to, and work toward, but it isn’t a plan. Somewhere we took a wrong turn, and started to think, but measuring, counting, probing, evaluating, monitoring, adjusting, tracking, engaging, are the keys to success. A vision is something you allow to take shape, with the input of your teammates and confidence in them and yourself. A vision will shift on its own as the world changes. The most important things can’t be measured. When you try to measure them, you destroy them. You know the saying, a person’s reach should exceed their grasp? Vision is the reach.

We Welcome You and Your Associates to do business. Our trust... Maxwellians will encourage the artful expression of Vision for many Years to come Ma'am! You are Cordially invited to join our Association please!

Tracking is important yes - so long as it’s comprehensive and complete. I am a huge fan of using balanced scorecards. They cover every aspect of a strategy from multiple angles, and used appropriately can be very powerful. I also think simplicity is an underrated tool. Everyone should be able to grasp the vision, tactics and metrics associated with delivering on the strategy - but from a customers perspective it usually boils down to one thing. This isn’t about net promoter scores or similar - they are valuable in their own right, but really listening to the end user. After all - it’s not just what you are delivering or changing, but how you do it.

Not sure I concur with *not* having tools or reason for measuring vision, or defining it too esoterically, Ms. Ryan. There are ALWAYS (well, usually) signs of the success (yes, milestones) of an overall vision, elements like sales, market share, specific output, industry recognition of a better mousetrap. Letting others (team, partners) in on how things are rolling is better conveyed with solid numbers. That said, I celebrated and told others about gaining a piece of bigger vision by finishing 2nd book. I believe there's room for a movie in my vision, but marketing it to Romance market is part of process. (wink - Giving producer friend from childhood the essential outline of book - and in it - didn't impress him, but it worked for me.)

Celebrating wins and sharing success is often underappreciated and overlooked. Celebrations solidify bonds and build "community" within the team.

This very much reminds me of Andy Groves' book, Only the Paranoid Survive. Recognizing and quickly adapting to change enables an evolutionary path to business growth.

This is applicable for everyone in today's world, not just leadership. The best would be to establish a learning culture like LaaL - learning as a lifestyle.

I recommend leveraging team retrospectives (a.k.a. "retros") here, as the current positioning here is too focused on the individual PM. For something as crucial as product strategy, we want our teammates & cross-functional partners to actively be a part of the strategy. That includes setting strategy and reflecting on progress & learnings. A team retro doesn't need to be a deeply formal event! We just want folks to be in the same room to share perspectives and get a broader view of the world together. As the PM, you'll want to lead the team retro on strategy here. Remind folks about which problem we're solving, what the solution was, and which metrics we moved. Then, open the floor to let people share successes, gaps, and learnings!

In my view, death is the state when change ceases. Based on this, we change and develop as long as we live. I think there is high potential in teams composed of different professional backgrounds and knowledge - because all the knowledge and experience I've gained contains "fixed mindsets". They are such strict bindings that I believe that "it can only be done that way". But it's not...

This section is a bit repetitive - it's essentially the same as "use a dashboard" above. Long story short: 1) Define the problem to solve for customers and the problem to solve for the business 2) Craft an overarching solution across teams & functions for how to solve this problem 3) Clarify which actions make up the solution 4) Instrument metrics that prove the team's progress against the problem Hopefully this four-step summary helps you with your product strategy!

I agree with the statement. Tracking the success of your vision and strategy is essential for several reasons. ?? It provides a means to measure progress, make necessary adjustments, and ensure that your efforts are aligned with your goals. ??Effective tracking can also boost team motivation and help communicate the value of your work to stakeholders. ??By using appropriate tools and strategies, you can make this process more efficient and productive.

Metrics, milestones, dashboards, frameworks etc are important. However, I think the relational capacity you create with individuals involved in the initiative and clear expectations, parameters, and cultivating a culture of healthy and respectful dialogue to push on the thinking and approach from the start is the cornerstone of building effective change management. Actively listen & reflect on feedback. Provide context each step of the way so it’s less a vision set by one or a select few, but a co-creation where voices of SMEs and the ones carrying out the work are given thoughtful consideration. You may be directing the work and providing tools/ resources but the ones doing the lift will quickly be able to call out risks to mitigate.

Something that sounds weird, but is true: "reaching the goal" is not your real goal. Your real goal is to learn from the goal! As you and your team make progress against the problem that you're solving, you'll find new metrics to measure, new perspectives to consider, new caveats to watch out for, and new directions to take your product.

In the end, the most important thing is to try and persevere. The outcome is not the main thing. And this is also part of a strategy!