The right way to turn your Product Strategy into action (5:6)
This article isn’t for everyone and you’ll see why
If you strongly identify with the following statement and are dead set on it, you might want to stop reading this article: “Team, we need to build this specific feature”.
Still here with me? Nice. Whatever the answer, once again, Nice!
I believe that there are three ways of taking your product strategy into action. The first one is the one in which you don’t have a product strategy at all and still decide to go ahead and build features. In this case, the team is all about delivering and velocity. There isn’t the certainty of achieving value. As in any of the different ways, there’s never a warranty for that. But, in this particular case your team’s energy is scattered because there is no real focus.
The second way describes a scenario where you do have a product strategy, but sadly, you tend to default to some version of the sentence above. Working in this environment is not healthy for the team. In other words, it’s a demanding way for taking your product strategy into action. I would strongly discourage it. Product teams are made up of so many different professional profiles and skills. People need to feel passionate about their product, business and customers, and telling them exactly what to do takes away from all of that. Without fail, this way is only slightly better than the first one.
However, we still have the third way to do so, which is the right way. In this case you have a product strategy, and instead of telling the team what to build, you supply the team with the problems to solve. This gives the team autonomy and the space to discover and propose solutions. Differently to the second case, people feel motivated and their understanding of the context is richer.
I have experienced the three of them. With the first one I ended up quitting my job. For me, it makes no sense to work without purpose, and it was hard to change the company’s mindset. Working in the absence of product strategy doesn’t assure that what you are solving brings value. On the other hand, when experiencing the second one, I was lucky enough to learn from that and switch to the third one. It is really valuable to work in a space that is open to that kind of change. Today, I embrace the third way and see the cultural benefit in it.
Still, the right way doesn’t stop there. We need to build a process or methodology that fits the team and measure the process of each problem to be solved. When referring to methodologies I’ve talked about it before, pretty intensely as well. I’ve highlighted that there are different tools out there, but as a leader you must find the one that best fits the team, as every team is unique (check out: A shortcut to Product Leadership). When discussing measurement, it’s all about turning the strategy into objectives. I believe that a team that shares metrics becomes empowered. I’ve worked within a product team in which Product Managers, UXers and Engineers have different objectives. I still don’t get it, as we are all a single team. That practice ends up leading people to focus on different actions. I have no doubt that when a team takes into account what they are targeting and that target is shared, then greater ownership and unity to solve the problem at hand occurs.
You now understand the right way to take the strategy into action. Nonetheless, trusting the team to solve the right problems and enabling an adequate process is not enough to keep the team on track. Obstacles will surely arise and leaders must be there to facilitate things.
This article belongs to a Product Strategy thread. Next one in line is:
In the following article, I highlight how great management helps a good product strategy survive.
Here are all of the articles from this thread:
- The one where we talk about Product Strategy
- Product Vision and Goals as leads for your Product Strategy
- Pick your battles when defining your Product Strategy
- Identifying needs and opportunities to build your Product Strategy
- The right way to turn your Product Strategy into action
- Proper management keeps Product Strategy alive
