What does it take to make a Product Management Team successful?

Many people I speak to in different organisations are trying to move to, or adopt a product management model to increase business value and accelerate digital business. Many also think this is the "sliver bullet".

I don’t think this article applies to businesses that are technology led, as the culture in those businesses embrace all the challenges and observations below. They are already customer centric, product led, technology and business aligned and most importantly, have the right mindset baked into every fabric of the organisation. Lifting and shifting this magic into organisations that are trying to get there is a challenge, and some of the observations and recommendations below may help as that blueprint and quick wins, does not exist.

• Product management requires substantial talent changes in terms of leadership, roles and ways of working
• Understanding capabilities and where they are needed when defining ‘product management’ and ‘product leadership’ need to be clearly understood
• Product teams are small, execution orientated and focused, and generate value by delivering a capability or outcome that is adopted by internal or external consumers
• Product teams typically sit within the product lines that have interconnected capabilities
• Product teams often coordinate roadmaps, sharing leadership resources
• Product teams should be defined based on how products are consumed, rather than how they are produced or the functionality they offer
• Prepare employees for success, not just in current roles, but also to transition to new, emerging product management roles
• Do not forget about the other roles that are critical to operations; morale can be easily impacted as focus switches to the “shiny and new”. Once baked into the culture, this becomes less of an issue
• Employees need to develop new skills and competencies for success in existing and emerging product management roles that emphasise strategic thinking, deep collaboration, agile thinking, flexibility, outcome orientated, with both digital and business insight
• Product lines run the risk of becoming skill silos, with?different groups in the organisation developing employees on the same data and technology skills

Having worked with a number of organisations and having seen and implemented best practice, one of the most significant barriers to achieving objectives is culture.

The barriers to culture change vary from:

• Business culture is blocking the change
• IT culture is blocking the change
• Weak management understanding of digital business
• Not enough innovation
• Poor alignment between technology and business
• Ineffectual relationships
• Technology credibility

Changing culture is hard and changing the operating model to transform a business takes a lot of planning and engagement. If this is not achieved, the culture is unlikely to change. Based on my experience and insights, the following components are often the most difficult:

• Culture
• Way of working
• Talent
• Organisational
• Governance
• Performance, financial, location and tools

As mentioned above, transitioning to product management requires the underlying culture to change in order to succeed in this new model. For those digitally born businesses that operate with a product mindset, the change and shift is easy as everything is already baked into the culture. Moving highly skilled people from this culture to a traditional business that wants to make this ‘swing’, but does not support it through action and change – find themselves losing this talent and also damaging the morale of functions and teams.

I have often wondered why companies restructure and enhance their skills and think that by doing this they will succeed.?It is not enough! The most important aspect that needs to follow, is successful change management, that builds on and instils customer centricity, empowerment, focus on outcomes that drive value and cross team collaboration. Changing the employee mindset to support these attributes is critical.?

I’ve been reflecting over what to companies have to do, and is there a blueprint?

Whilst I have strong views on this, I am not a product manager and have not done the job of one either. I wish I had!

Great product managers are the glue that binds everything together. Their success is tied to the culture in which they operate and their focus and as business leaders, we have a duty of care to ensure that they are empowered to drive the development of the product forward.

Success means we need to:

• Create standing but flexible product teams of both IT and business employees with?compact staffing, matrixed design, and empowerment to pursue business outcomes. Moving to matrixed design is a key challenge for many people to grasp – Does my line manager have to be my task manager/performance manager?
• Define a product manager role and other product leadership roles to lead one or more teams and manage investment prioritisation decisions
• Form communities for skills development and performance management. Empower them and listen to their needs
• Redesign role and job families, adding?new roles where necessary to scale product management
• Provide transparency on role changes and help employees prepare for their current and possible future roles by clearly articulating which roles will be phased out and which will grow.
• Reframe competency expectations for product management by emphasizing new competencies needed for success, such as learning agility and collaboration.
• Facilitate ongoing learning through role-specific communities of practice, rotations, coaching or mentoring.
• Having a clear direction of travel, that alignment, that north star with all areas of he business is key
• Performance metrics drive behaviours. Often metrics are used that are not focused on business value, customer experience and business outcomes. These need to work across the organisation boundaries and be reviewed regularly.
• Bureaucracy - Quick action is needed, that signals change is real. It is going to happen, and its happening now.

?I read an article some time ago that highlighted T-Mobile’s principles. Some good points I took on board

1. Put the customers’ needs at the heart of decision making.
2. Own the experience of products by Creating the right experiences for partners and customers.
3. Be empowered to make decisions by owning the outcomes of the product to continually evolve as context changes.
4. Accelerate consumption through product evolution, technology and processes to accelerate time to value.
5. Iterate to sustain innovation by pursuing customer outcomes.
6. Break down organisational silos by accelerating collaboration to meet customer outcomes.

So what are the biggest hurdles that organisations need to take to successfully implement and shift to becoming truly product management aligned?

What else?