+One Question

for Geoff Watts

Martin: It could be challenging for someone (especially for a beginner) to be a ruthless and versatile product owner at the same time. In my experience, only practice (and by that I mean “trial & error” mode) will teach you how to tune your ruthless/versatile approach in the given context. When your decisions are driven by data and by taking into consideration the expertise of teammates and stakeholders, you are more (or less) ruthless and less (or more) versatile in a given specific situation. In my understanding, Ruthless & Versatile are like Bass & Treble frequency spectrum in your product hi-fi management amplifier.

Would you provide an example of the situation where great product owners gain maximum benefits when combining a ruthless & versatile approach?

Geoff: Product Owners will need to be very flexible in listening to different stakeholders and challenging their own cognitive biases. However, they will need to say “no” a lot more than they will be able to say “yes” to stakeholder ideas and requests. Saying “no” to different stakeholders will require different tactics. Some stakeholders will respond better (and cause less disruption) with a “not yet”, some may require a “yes, if” but all of them effectively requires you to be ruthless enough to say a firm “no because” and follow your bigger yes.