Key Takeaways from MTP Engage Manchester 2020
I must confess I was late booking for Engage in Manchester this year. I wasn’t sure if I could make it, or even if it would be worth it… but I could make it, and boy I was wrong — it was SO worth it!
What a great community the Mind The Product community is — kudos and much gratitude to all involved putting together such a fantastic event.
Reflecting on what I take away let’s summarise it in three statements:
- Product is hard
- Product is possible
- Product is great!
Time prevents me going into all the details of every talk I attended, or each conversation I had — but here are some of the highlights…
Product is HARD
Whilst product management (from now on just ‘Product’) is great (more on that shortly) it is not easy. We were reminded of that from many angles.
Janna Bastow kicked off the day talking about ‘Decisions, debt and other dilemmas’ — 3 d’s with which all Product people dance. We thought about tech, design, process, culture and admin debt.
Culture debt struck a chord with me — it feels like the most subtle and pernicious form of debt, where the culture of big business trumps effective product development. Predictability is king, deadlines prevail and vanity metrics are worshipped — everything modern product development eschews! This is where the feature factory becomes normal, product management is seen as a cost and, of course, the wrong things are (probably) being built.
But all is not lost — as Product people we can play a key role here, building trust within the business, communicating consistently and seeking constructive collaboration. Outcomes over output. Focus on the strategic objectives and holistic measures. Safe communication. Not easy but oh so valuable!
Later that session John Cutler picked up on The Beautiful Mess which is product development. I started reading John’s writing a few years back on HackerNoon and I was hooked. So much to think about and so much sense. This occasion was no different — and it was great to chat with John over lunch as well.
In his session John reminded us that Product is indeed hard, and nobody has it nailed. Indeed, making progress on one thing often leads to problems in other areas — and then there is SO MUCH PRESSURE TO GET IT RIGHT. All those “product blog gods” who appear to have it sorted.
Well, John has spoken with those teams, and — as it happens — they don’t have it nailed. “Where are your spells?” “Oh we’re normal”. In fact sometimes what that team espoused as great they’ve since moved on from and are now doing something different. But even if a process does work for such-and-such a team, it may not work for a different team. Every team, every environment, every product is different. A recipe for ‘perfect product cookies’ does not exist.
So what is John’s advice to us?
“Don’t become the North Star Framework person. Don’t become the OKR, design sprint, design thinking, mob-programming, or Agile person. Don’t stop learning, of course. Don’t stop trying to help using what you know. But don’t lead with The Way”
Introducing Popcorn Flow to us John exhorts us to lead with that and start small, reasonable changes in a safe fashion with patience, humility and curiosity. Sage advice!
Product is POSSIBLE
Talking of humility, Thor Mitchell (pronounced ‘Tor’) graciously exhorted us to be humble and encourage humility — where humility is properly defined as the ‘quality of having a modest or low view of one’s importance’.
I’d read Thor’s original article on this subject and resonated with it immensely. As Product people we are ‘not all that’ —
- We are not essential — but we are fortunate, and we are in a position to build trust and prove our worth
- We’re not important — this is a tough one to stomach, but whilst we have no authority, we do have influence
- No task is below us and we can learn from anyone — servant leadership is the way forward
In fact, at the end of the day we are probably wrong and it will all (actually and ultimately) all be our fault!
But that is okay.
Are we Product people to prove to the world how great we are? Or to work with real humans building great products? It is our responsibility to learn from our failures, pass on the credit and delight our users. This sort of humility cannot be taught, but can be encouraged — Thor encouraged us to practice humility, hire for humility and build humble cultures.
Yes, yes and yes.
Believe it or not, stakeholders are real humans, and stakeholder management, or people management is key to great product management. Emily Tate and Shaun Russell both reminded us that empathy (not playing politics) makes great product management possible. Stepping into the shoes of our stakeholders, creating alignment on goals and embracing conflict effectively are all essential aspects for us to develop and grow.
Let’s say what we really mean, take positive action and keep going — even when it’s uncomfortable! Conflict, as Shaun reminds us, is ‘where the magic is’.
And of course, as Emily reminded us, mistakes will happen, humans will be human and not every day will be rosy. But let’s be transparent, communicate often and pick our battles wisely. Let’s seek to understand our stakeholders and dig into their point of view (by using 5 Whys for example).
Let’s own our product and use data to fight the HiPPOs! Dealing with angry people is part of our role and is possible to handle well — just watch out for jerks — we may not be able to handle everyone, and that’s okay — let’s just be sure to take care of ourselves.
Product is GREAT!
Jerks aside, Product is GREAT! We have such an opportunity to make a difference — in the lives of our teams, in the lives of our users and in our own lives too…
In the lives of our teams
According to Salma Alam-Naylor our teams are not bonsai trees. She’s absolutely spot on — they’re not! They’re not to be oppressed in shallow containers, clipped and sculpted into weird shapes for the enjoyment and praise of the ‘grower’…
No — they are to be nourished with light, warmth and scheduled care, enriched and protected, cultivated and given space to grow. Our teams are in fact TOMATO PLANTS. And in time the fruits of our joint labours will be ready to enjoy (although it may be here the analogy begins to break down!) — and whilst no team may be perfect, let’s embrace those imperfections and learn from them. It’s from those imperfections and dissonance that creative solutions arise.
In the lives of our users
Joe Leech reminded us to look forwards and not back — exhorting to focus on the needs of our users, not competitors and their features! The HOLE is not the GOAL — let me say it again (as Joe did many times!):
The HOLE is not the goal!
Introducing the Jobs To Be Done framework, Joe explained how he didn’t want a HOLE in his wall — quarter-inch or otherwise — nor did he really want a drill. What he actually wanted was a nicer looking room — and he was hiring pictures hung on the wall to achieve that.
Why use a drill when high quality adhesive picture hanging strips are available?
The HOLE is not the GOAL. Do we know what our users actually want and why they are hiring, or could hire, our product?
JTBD FTW. And a nod to the late great Clay Christensen and the Harvard Business Review article on Jobs to be Done.
In our lives too!
Talking of Harvard, Melissa Perri — author of Escaping the Build Trap and teacher of Product Management at Harvard Business School (amongst other things!) took the stage to close the day explaining how Product people can grow their careers to CPO level and beyond.
Are we suited to start-up, growth or enterprise organisations? Do we understand Product and how the c-suite works? Can we empathise with the c-suite as well as our users? Can we bring people together?
There is a career path available for Product people and it is a good one.
She also reminded us that SAFe sucks, and in general splitting the product owner role from the product manager role is a bad idea because it prevents a PO from being strategic and hides the tactical everyday nuts and bolts of product development from PMs. Both are necessary for a long and rounded career in Product!
We also enjoyed many cats. Thanks Melissa! Talking of cats — last but not least, #dogsinproduct is a perfect example of why the Product community is so GREAT. Does any other discipline have such endearing dogs?!
That’s it! I could go further, but if you want to go deeper checkout the write-ups and subsequent videos appearing over at Mind the Product.
Product is hard. But it IS possible, and it is GREAT. I’m looking forward to next year already — may even try to catch some early bird pricing!
Here at Product Lunch Club 🥪 we’re a group of product people who meet regularly over lunch to help, encourage and support each other in our roles. If you’re in Bristol come and join us! 🍻
