Your team member is focused on short-term gains. How will you ensure the product's long-term sustainability?

Reaching the long term vision is like a journey. Sometimes you need to relentlessly march towards a peak, but often you need to check and adapt your plans because of the weather or other events that may sidetrack the mission. Having a team composed of different personalities and attitudes is a gift. The team member reaching for short term gains will help experimenting new paths or getting food for the next days and, psychologically, provides momentum to the others engaged in longer quests.

I do not see anything wrong with short-term gains as long as they align with the product vision. Consider the product vision as a flight of stairs; not every step is of equal size. While bigger steps garner a lot of attention, hype, and greater returns on investment, smaller wins are imperative to sustain momentum, motivation, enthusiasm, and a continued sense of achievement for both the team and the stakeholders. The key to decision-making lies in finding reasonable trade-offs. If gains are short-term, it is important to ensure that the wins in question justify the returns and efforts involved. A great team never loses sight of long-term goals but is smart enough to identify low-hanging fruits along the way.

Both short-term and long-term visions must work together. Focusing only on one creates significant gaps in planning and execution. A long-term plan helps businesses communicate where they want to be in the next 5-10 years, while short-term goals provide small wins and define the path to reach that future goal. For your team, it's not necessary to constantly monitor the long-term plan, but it's crucial to understand it and how short-term plans contribute to achieving it. As a PM, regularly share progress and remind the team of these goals to ensure alignment. Also, encourage your team to voice concerns or suggest improvements, as their input can be invaluable in reaching the goals.

Ensuring sustainability requires that the goals of your team members are in line with the long-term goals of the product. Start by outlining the product's overall objectives and the ways in which ongoing tasks advance these more general aims. This enables your team member to see beyond immediate results and comprehend the long-term effects of their labor. Encourage a culture that prioritizes long-term planning by showcasing successful initiatives that struck a balance between short-term gains and long-term expansion. In order to enable your team to make strategic decisions that are in line with the long-term vision, encourage candid conversations about how decisions made today can affect success tomorrow.

Working as a growth PM, you're under constant pressure to prioritize short term projects to deliver metrics as fast as possible. The key is to find very small changes that can drive disproportionate impact. This achieves two goals: - You hit your metric for the quarter faster - You create space for the team to work on projects in service of the longer-term objectives You need highly efficient short term wins to give you flexibility to work on bigger projects that may require multiple quarters to realize.

The following scenario applies to only a handful of organizations where team members focus on short-term goals due to shorter product planning cycles, such as two months. While advising team members on long-term objectives is beneficial, the organization must acknowledge that shorter product planning cycles and the establishment of short-term OKRs cause this behavior. Implementing longer product planning cycles would give team members more flexibility to concentrate on long-term goals.

You can emphasize flexibility and adaptability in setting goals. While it's important to keep the big picture goals in sight, you can also set your objectives locally. In a fast-paced environment, being able to pivot and respond to new information can be more valuable than sticking to a predefined plan. It's okay to have shorter-term goals that provide quick wins and immediate benefits, but it's crucial to keep the bigger picture in mind. Encourage the team to adopt agile methodologies, where local objectives are revisited and adjusted regularly. This allows for a more dynamic response to both opportunities and challenges, ensuring that the product remains relevant and competitive. Still, always remind your team of the long-term vision.

Sustaining product sustainability requires setting goals that connect short-term targets with long-term objectives. Urge the member of your team to create a roadmap with important checkpoints that will support both current accomplishments and future expansion. This entails establishing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that assess progress made toward sustainable goals in addition to present accomplishments. By including these dual-focused KPIs, you can make sure that your team member stays on the same page with the overall goal, striking the correct balance between short-term gains and long-term success, and cultivating a mindset that values both short- and long-term effects.

Implement metrics that track both immediate performance (e.g., user acquisition rates) and long-term goals (e.g., customer lifetime value). This balanced approach helps the team appreciate how their daily efforts contribute to overarching success. Creating a visual roadmap with specific milestones allows the team to see the connection between short-term tasks and long-term objectives, encouraging buy-in and focus on future aspirations.

Promoting innovation is essential to guaranteeing the long-term viability of a product. Encourage the member of your team to see beyond the current demands of the market and to anticipate future trends and client wants. This strategy encourages innovation by using short-term successes as building blocks for longer-term developments. Your staff will be empowered to contribute to the progress of the product if you foster an environment that values creativity. As you reinforce the idea that innovation is not simply a goal but an ongoing process that advances the team and the product, encourage them to experiment and explore new ideas.

Initiate regular brainstorming sessions involving diverse teams. This harness various perspectives, encourages team members to share innovative ideas that address both current and future challenges, aligning short-term tasks with long-term vision. Introduce specific KPIs to track innovation efforts. For instance, measuring the percentage of new features that originates from employee suggestions cultivates a proactive mindset and incentivize team members to contribute creatively, thus creating a sense of ownership in the product's evolution.

Set the stage with practical steps: -Create small innovation sprints. Say, give them two weeks to develop a rapid prototype of a promising idea. It doesn’t have to be perfect—it just has to show potential. -Pair innovation with accountability. Each team member should take ownership of an innovative idea. For instance, if someone suggests integrating augmented reality into your product, have them spearhead a mini-project to explore this. Let them present their findings and a prototype to the team. -Celebrate the wins. When an innovative idea makes it into the product, shout it from the rooftops. Recognition fuels motivation and sets the bar for future innovation.

Encourage innovation by fostering a forward-thinking mindset. Challenge your team member to look beyond immediate gains and anticipate future trends. Emphasize that short-term successes are stepping stones to long-term product evolution. Create a space where creativity thrives and every idea is valued. Remember, innovation is the lifeblood of a sustainable product. By nurturing a culture of innovation, you're setting the stage for long-term success.

Promote a culture of innovation to keep the product relevant and competitive over time. We implement regular “innovation sprints” where team members can work on new ideas or improvements outside of their usual tasks. For example, Google’s famous 20% time policy allows employees to spend 20% of their time on projects they are passionate about, which can lead to innovative breakthroughs that benefit the company in the long run.

Encourage team collaboration to leverage diverse perspectives and expertise. Try using cross-functional teams to work on projects, bringing together members from different departments such as marketing, engineering, and customer service. For instance, in a software development project, having developers work closely with customer support can provide insights into user pain points, leading to better, long-lasting solutions.

Equipes multidisciplinares: Reúna profissionais de diferentes áreas (marketing, desenvolvimento, produ??o, etc.) para uma vis?o holística do produto e identifica??o de oportunidades de melhoria a longo prazo. Comunica??o aberta: Estabele?a canais de comunica??o eficazes para que todos os membros da equipe se sintam à vontade para compartilhar ideias e preocupa??es sobre a sustentabilidade do produto. Cultura de colabora??o: Incentive a troca de conhecimento e a valoriza??o das diferentes perspectivas, criando um ambiente de trabalho colaborativo.

Ensure that both short-term gains and long-term sustainability are considered in decision-making by balancing risks appropriately. Begin by conducting regular risk assessments and scenario planning. For example, before launching a new feature aimed at quick market capture, analyze potential long-term impacts such as maintenance costs or scalability issues. Develop a risk mitigation plan that addresses both immediate and future concerns.

Take Adobe's approach with Adobe Creative Cloud. Initially, there was a push for rapid feature releases to meet short-term user demands. However, Adobe balanced these immediate needs by focusing on long-term sustainability through continuous improvement and integration across their suite of tools. They carefully assessed the risks and benefits of each feature, ensuring they aligned with the broader vision of a unified, subscription-based ecosystem. This strategy allowed Adobe to stay relevant and innovative, while also maintaining a strong market position and ensuring long-term customer satisfaction.

While you connect short-term actions to long-term sustainability ensure you also assess potential risks and benefits for each decision. Wherever there are significant risks, develop contingency plans. Take steps to address high-impact risks while managing lower ones. Finally regularly review and adjust risk strategies based on outcomes

Análise de riscos: Identifique os potenciais riscos à longo prazo, como mudan?as nas preferências dos consumidores, novas tecnologias e regulamenta??es ambientais. Planejamento de contingência: Desenvolva planos de a??o para mitigar os riscos identificados, garantindo a adaptabilidade do produto às mudan?as do mercado. Equilíbrio entre curto e longo prazo: Encontre um ponto de equilíbrio entre os objetivos de curto prazo e a vis?o de longo prazo, evitando decis?es que comprometam a sustentabilidade do produto.

Imagine you're building a tall tower with blocks. You can stack them quickly to make it tall fast, but if the blocks aren't strong, the tower might fall later. Similarly, if a team wants to launch a new feature (like adding a shiny block) to boost short-term KPIs (how high the tower looks right now). But if you skip technical debt checks (making sure the blocks are strong), the product might face scalability issues (the tower wobbling) in the future. So, instead of just focusing on a quick win, guide the team to build it with a solid foundation, ensuring long-term sustainability (the tower stays strong and doesn’t fall). This way, you balance the risk of future problems while still achieving short-term success.

Utilizing North Star metrics can aid in establishing long-term strategies. Set practical goals that account for both short-term and long-term objectives. For example, as time progresses, gradually increase the thresholds to provide team members with ample learning opportunities to catch up to the long-term.

What works today might be obsolete tomorrow. As a Product Manager, you generally steer a ship in unpredictable waters. Sometimes, you have to change course to avoid a storm. If a new competitor disrupts the market or customer preferences shift, your team member needs to be agile enough to respond quickly. Being adaptable isn’t just about reacting to changes—it’s about anticipating them. Encourage your team member to keep an ear to the ground. Regularly review market data, user feedback, and competitor activities. This proactive approach helps in spotting shifts before they become seismic. Adapting strategies ensures that short-term efforts are not wasted but aligned with evolving long-term goals.

Monitoramento contínuo: Acompanhe de perto as tendências do mercado, as necessidades dos clientes e o desempenho do produto. Flexibilidade: Esteja preparado para ajustar as estratégias e o desenvolvimento do produto conforme as mudan?as do cenário. Inova??o contínua: Incentive a busca por solu??es inovadoras que garantam a competitividade do produto a longo prazo.