Top 5 books …for those transitioning to Chief Product Officer

The smell of bacon. That deliciously irresistible, both sweet and savory, charred smell of bacon. You shouldn’t want it quite as much as you do, but you just can’t help it.

It’s a Friday morning, I’m walking into the office and I can smell the bacon. I can taste it too. This Pavlovian response was established many years before when the then-leadership team at ITV, the UK’s largest commercial broadcaster, wanted to encourage people to come along to the monthly data sharing session. For forty-five minutes on the last Friday of every month, the whole online division would gather around a big screen and have a discussion centred around our most important Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), all while munching down bacon sandwiches. If you want to encourage a large group of people to get together around, what in my view could be wrongly seen as a dry subject, incentivisation is helpful. To this day, if someone starts talking about data, or it’s a Friday, there had better be a bacon sandwich on hand.

The message here isn’t about bacon or data, though, it’s about great leadership. Our data was key to growth and these leaders understood that. Better yet, they recognised that every team member needed to not only understand but also be aligned to our data too. You could argue that I probably shouldn’t lead with an example of bribery, but if you think of bacon as the marketing collateral that takes you from a small number of early adopters to a majority, well then, you can see why I hung on their every word.

There isn’t a single great handbook for becoming a senior leader in an organisation. I, however, think that great leaders are at least in part a product of the leaders they themselves have been exposed to, both the good ones and the bad ones. At that moment in time the ITV senior leaders were, in my view, the good kind and I emulate some of their characteristics and behaviours in my own leadership style to this day. I also keep them close, calling on them regularly to act as a sounding board when I have something I’m chewing over. In lieu of a single handbook, or your own sounding board, these are my top five books that have helped inform my first couple of years as a CPO, and more recently as CPTO.

1) The first 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels — Michael D. Watkins
I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen Product people shun feature roadmaps and hamper themselves by further shunning ALL forms of planning. Having a plan is important. Yes you need a purpose, and a vision, but a plan is critical to keeping yourself steady, and accountable in demonstrating progress. Ideally that plan takes the form of a short and longer-term set of outcomes, rather than solutions. It’s also about more than just having a plan, it’s about being in a role where you need to lead a strategy. Chances are this could be the first role where you really have to set your objectives, and the objectives of a whole department, or even the company. This can be an intimidating time and The First 90 Days is a great reference guide to help structure those first impression building days in your new role.
Authors site | Amazon

2) Zapp! The Lightning of Empowerment — William Byham
I first read Zapp! by accident when I was around 12 years old. I picked up my Dad’s copy one summer holiday because it had lightning on the cover and was seemingly a story all about dragons. I’m sure there are some more technical books that break down the all important points of good employee engagement (in fact, check out Build It: The Rebel Playbook for World Class Employee Engagement by Debra Corey and Glenn Elliott if you want deeper, more technical guidance on this topic). I just love Zapp! though. It’s a great reminder that nothing happens without people and that everyone is equally important when delivering against the vision of a great product or service, just like the well-known janitor that helped put a man on the moon (Google “JFK janitor” if you’re not familiar). Of course, you’ll have to ask one of the teams I’ve worked with over the years to find out whether it’s rubbed off or not. Above all else, I hope so.
Amazon

3) Team Topologies: Organizing Business and Technology Teams for Fast Flow — Matthew Skelton & Manuel Pais
Team Topologies articulates concepts that you feel like you know but have never been able to express quite so clearly and succinctly, or at least that’s how I felt when I read it for the first time. It was like a light bulb going off, suddenly it was all so simple. Organisational design obviously isn’t simple though, mainly because when all is said and done it’s about positioning human beings to be the most effective versions of themselves. There are human impacts, tough choices, and sequencing considerations. Team Topologies provides the framework, but you still need to be an empathetic master chess player to do it justice. The best advice I’ve been given is “Hold your nerve and get the restructuring done as fast as you can”. Eek. You might also choose to read How Google Works by Eric Schmidt & Jonathan Rosenberg in this position, which really speaks to setting a culture and scaling an organisation.
Authors site | Amazon

4) Radical Candor — Kim Scott
The best bosses I’ve had over the years are the ones that tell it to me straight. They make me a better person by providing clear honest feedback and demanding excellence, politely. The age-old mantra “Don’t be a d*ck” rings true here. Be direct and avoid padding out your feedback with too many words (I fall into this trap all the time) but remember everyone is likely already trying their hardest and wants to do a good job. It’s your job as a leader to help them be the best versions of themselves through continual learning and self awareness. Being candid isn’t easy but done well it is an incredibly powerful tool in leading your team to success. Kim Scott gives you the framework in Radical Candor.
Authors site | Amazon

5) Crossing the Chasm (3rd Edition): Marketing and Selling Disruptive Products to Mainstream Customers — Geoffrey A. Moore
As a CPO it’s often hard to know how to balance your time beyond setting the vision and the strategy; how to divide your time between the people, the processes and the technology. It sounds unthinkable but it can be easy to forget about the actual product! So that’s why this book is on this list. The product, the product strategy and continually thinking 3–5 years ahead. Creating a good product strategy requires a certain amount of vision, data, storytelling, persistence and ultimately, market fit. Crossing the Chasm really focuses on that last one, market fit. Balance your time carefully and, while it sounds obvious, don’t forget that you’re a business with a product that has real end users.
Authors site | Amazon

Hey, nobody ever said this was going to be easy. If you’re setting out on your first senior leadership role or trying to land your first CPO gig, keep in mind that everyone will have different strengths, weaknesses and areas of personal development. Just remember to take a break from time to time to reflect; it’s easier said than done but really important to do.

Other articles in this series:

• Top 5 books …for those getting started in Product
• Top 5 books …for more advanced Product development
• Top 5 books …for the hardest workers in the room
• Top 10 videos …for Product people

Please note: I do not receive commission or affiliate revenue of any kind from the above endorsements or links, which are provided only for the benefit of the reader. All the thoughts are my own.