CEO: “We need to replace our entire product team” Me: “Um, ok, let’s talk about this for a moment…” As a CPO and product advisor I’ve met plenty of CEOs and execs who are frustrated with the results they see from their product teams. Often they feel like all they need to do is replace the existing team with more experienced, “better” PMs. But really they're blaming PMs for some of their own shortcomings as leaders. Results from a product team depend on putting great PMs in a great environment. If you don’t have a great environment, it doesn’t matter how good your PMs are, you’ll still be disappointed with the results. Maybe your PMs really are awful, but before you fire them all and hire new ones, I’d make sure you fix the environment: a) It’s much faster, cheaper and less painful b) You’ll have to do it anyway c) You’ll be surprised by what you can get from your existing team So how do you create a great environment for PMs as a leader? 🎯 Have consistent goals Of course you want to be agile, but try not to change the priorities all the time. Every quarter is ok, but every week or two and your teams will never get going. 🛡 Minimize distractions Progress is inversely correlated to the number of initiatives you have. Make sure your teams aren’t getting distracted by execs’ pet projects, internal requests or customer feedback. Have a very small (1-2) number of priorities for them to focus on. 🗺 Explain the context Spend the time up front to explain your goals and the features you’re asking for. If all you’re doing is demanding widgets from your product team, likely they’ll have a very different idea from you of what they are building and why. 💰 Talk about the money You can’t expect your PMs to make commercial decisions if they don’t have visibility of the business financials. Make this a part of every discussion (but just a part - it’s not everything!) 🛑 Be explicit where you will take risk Teams are usually quite conservative when it comes to risk, because when the site goes down they get blamed. If you want to move quickly, be very clear about the risks that you are willing to take. 👥 Manage their role breadth PMs can be excellent at lots of things - comms, analysis, delivery, user interviews… pretty much whatever you need them to, but they can’t do it all at the same time - there are only so many hours in the day. Make sure tasks as split evenly across design, engineering and data. 📄 Agree a lightweight reporting process As a leader you need status updates. To fly blind would be reckless. But bloated reporting burns many hours each week. Take 1-2 hours up front to co-create a reporting process with your PMs (i.e. tell them what you really need, and let them figure out the best way to deliver it) and you’ll save them huge amounts of time going forward. And if there’s anything I can do to help, give me a shout. We’ve got lots of tools on Hustle Badger to accelerate product teams, and I offer private workshops and advice.
Hard truths for sure. And often these perceptions of “product team failure” are self-inflicted by virtue of various externalities. This can include an unclear or diffusive business strategy, trying to be too many things for too many markets (which then mandates pancaking maker teams across too many priorities/projects), overly ambitious promise and setup as part of fundraising that then must somehow be satisfied, and generally resisting data-informed assessments that, while rational, don’t support the desired forecast and narrative. It’s always nuanced and complex, and lots of resets are happening in tech post the ZIRP funding bubble, with many ventures now scrambling for profitability (or in some cases viability). As Patrick Lencioni talks about in The Advantage, a successful organization is most often a Healthy organization.
“Be explicit about where to take risk”. Stands out to me Ed. The other items in your list can apply equally to other managers/teams. I think this one is a little different. In most orgs, a PM has the ability to identify/define 50 - 90% of the user-facing features,with little oversight of the details of each feature. This can be great, or can cause confusion or stress if the founder/executives haven’t been explicit about when they should be consulted on feature definition.
Anytime I hear this I always think back to the number of times I've found a whole team was incompetent. It doesn't take long, in 20 years I've maybe seen it once. So I agree it can happen, but I've heard the statement atleast 15 times, and mostly in orgs where they hire real product people and then expect them to just deliver the solutions they've been told to.
Replacing a resource should be the absolute last resort. You end up losing a tonne of knowledge, cultural nuances, ability to navigate existing relationships and get things done. I would also include having PM’s listen to CS calls, triage customer reviews to validate feature priorities and have these metrics in front of dept heads when going into quarterly / monthly sprint planning exercises.
Excellent post. I don't know WHY there isn't more talk about financials, even if it has to be disguised as percentages, but hiding it isn't helpful and won't drive engagement. The closer people feel to the success of a business, the more they're likely to adapt their behaviour to deliver that success (unless of course they're demoralised and hate everything).
I love your list, and I'd add decoupling and reducing dependencies across teams as a key component. It gives them freedom to build/do what they need to do in their area of focus, and trusting them to deliver what customers want across the entire product has a snowball effect on customer satisfaction, NPS, etc.
Great post, I would think the first 4 points are universal to leading a business. Consistent goals goes hand-in-hand with minimising distractions, and painting the context alongside the commercial landscape, reminds team members that we’re here to create value in a competitive environment. It boils down to discipline as leaders and empowerment of the great talent you’ve invested so heavily in. Thanks for sharing!
CEO and business teams doubting product (pm, devs, etc) is very common, many decide to reduce the team thinking it as a cost centre. This is so wrong. Product team can create leverage that can not be matched with anything else. Give them empowerment to thrive and see results. Ed Biden thanks for sharing
Not only will you have better results and your expectations will be met if you follow the above, but you'll also have a happier product team. Which will no doubt have other benefits to your business and projects. Some of what you mention above resonates with me like PTSD. How different it could have been if just a few of those points were implemented.
My favorite is when the product team is stretched way to thin, not allowed to say no, and then being accused of not delivering good work. Then the product team gets cut. It’s like not having enough firefighters to put out a fire and instead of calling more firefighter, you send them home because they didn’t put out the fire.