Mandalorians are coming!
Intro
I’ll be offering my commentary, rather than in-depth analysis, on Sean O’Neill’s insightful article, ‘Entrepreneurship: Lessons from US Big Tech for EU Product Managers,’.
This is my first comment, and I’ll be sharing another one in the next few days. The next comment will be more critical and aimed at my fellow peers.
Now, I’d like to focus on just one point that Sean emphasized as a crucial aspect: “A key behaviour I have noticed is that for some UK and EU Product Managers, what ever product book they read that drew them into the industry (Inspired, Lean Startup, Sprint, Lean UX, Crossing the Chasm, etc …), they have become fanatical about that being the ONLY way to properly be a PM. Like in the Mandelorian where they are always saying, ‘This is the Way!’
For a profession that is meant to be adaptive by design, these folks can be the most rigid in insisting there is only one way to do the job. Some UK and EU PMs come across as very naive when complaining that their company doesn’t operate the way Marty Cagan’s book says they should, and this is missing the key point of what makes a Product Manager successful. At the core of a great PM is an entrepreneur.”
Setting the stage
To begin, I admit that such behavior might find its place within European companies. However, I aim to delve deeply into the core of why this behavior is increasingly manifesting among my peers. Additionally, I wish to shed light on a dimension that Sean omitted in his article — an aspect related to the weak product strategy that is meant to be shaped by the senior product leadership of these European companies.
Although I don’t have as much experience as Sean, I’ve gained valuable insights over my 15 years in the IT field. These observations lead me to explore the reasons behind our occasional ‘fanatical’ tendencies — our inclination to treat books like ‘Inspired’ as holy scriptures, asserting, ‘This is the way!’
New labels, old sta(u)ff
Across Europe, the past decade has witnessed a shift in company nomenclature, transitioning roles from business analysts and product owners to product managers. However, this transformation hasn’t necessarily translated into a comprehensive transfer of the various facets intrinsic to the role of product management — elements such as autonomy, decision-making authority, and the very essence that enables entrepreneurship.
Without direction
To be fair, everyone is learning how to do the product management job, including senior leaders in companies who are figuring out how to create and lead successful product management teams. Unfortunately, at times, leaders learn these lessons the hard way, and it’s us, the regular product managers, who end up paying the price.
As an illustration, these companies often lack a strong product strategy. Consequently, we find ourselves faced with an extensive (and frequently conflicting) array of goals and initiatives that are intended to substitute for a proper strategy. In this kind of environment, corporate politics thrive, different stakeholder groups compete against each other to achieve their objectives, and the company’s identity transforms from being focused on products to being fixated on features, constantly driven to deliver without a clear direction.
Mandalorians are coming!
Being a product owner in Europe (even if the title is Product Manager), in situations where there’s no clear product strategy, we can observe how different people involved unintentionally damage their company’s product. They take quick shortcuts, and senior product leaders find it challenging to make decisive choices about where to concentrate their efforts. In these situations, you can pick up a book like “Empowered” and enthusiastically show that there’s a better way of doing things.
If you possess the necessary courage, you should undertake this endeavour. However, don’t treat it as a rigid recipe to follow mechanically, but rather as a benchmark, we ought to pursue and strive for on a daily basis.
Thank you, Sean, for your article that made me think and helped me sort out my thoughts.
