People Don’t Care What You Know …

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authenticity, courage, leadership, priorities, purpose, relationships, servant leadership, transparency

Every once in a while, we are reminded people matter and relationships should be prioritized over tasks.  That we even need to be reminded of this is an unfortunate truth, but a truth nonetheless.  I received just such a reminder when I stumbled across this article/interview about Deloitte CEO Cathy Engelbert a few days ago.

And in the midst of a very busy season, it was just the rude awakening I needed. In particular, this quote captures the essence of what good leaders should be striving for …

Building a team that brings you solutions instead of challenges, listening to and collaborating with them—that ultimately prioritizes your focus on issues where you can have the most impact, not just scratch items off the to do list … to me, productivity is directly related to the personal relationships you are able to build.

The Gold Cup & Leadership

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execution, Perseverance, self-awareness, storms, strategic

Admittedly, I am a huge soccer fan.  I guess that is to be expected having spent the first 10 years of my life growing up in Germany as a pseudo-military brat.  And this morning as I was reflecting on the USA’s victory over Jamaica last night in the Gold Cup, it occurred to me there were a few leadership lessons to be gleaned.

1 – Building the bench

2 – Understanding your role

3 – Perseverance & Redemption

Strategy, Quality, & the Product Manager

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prioritization, quality, risk management, strategy, Technical Debt

Every year organizations are called upon to put forth their views on the 3 year horizon, and part of the Product Management role includes participation in this planning process. While many of the strategic decisions get made at an executive level, it is your role as a Product Management leader to covey the importance of your product(s) with respect to solving for the market needs such that it is clear how it supports (and is integral to) the overall strategy.

An interesting component (and expectation) of any strategic plan is an emphasis on quality. Without it, customer satisfaction will suffer, customer attrition could become an issue, and/or customer references will be hard to come by.  But should quality be considered a strategic initiative, or is it more tactical?  And as Product Management leaders, what is our role in ensuring quality?

As Business Models Evolve, So Too Should the Thinking of Product Managers

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analytic, API economy, business acumen, CEO, consumer-centric, creative, data-centric, digital economy, domain expertise, maturity, strategic, tactical, technology, technology-centric, transformation

“As more companies … set out to build software capabilities for success in the digital era, it’s critical that they get the product-management role right.”

Over the past several years, I’ve had many posts focusing on digital transformation, API-first approaches, the need for a bi-modal mentality and the like.  The discussions point to the rapid evolution of business models, and more importantly why Product Management leaders need to understand the implications of these changes.

This morning I reread an article I came across last week from McKinsey titled Product Managers for the Digital World, and it not only echoes these sentiments around digital transformation, but also the analogy of the Product Manager to the mini-CEO.

… product-management rotational programs are the new leadership-development programs for many technology companies …

… before becoming the CEOs of Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo, Sundar Pichai, Satya Nadella, and Marissa Mayer were product managers … 

This is a really good read, with so many salient points within the article itself, as well as topic-branches exploring several other important conversations.  I highly recommend digging into the content yourself, but here are some of my thoughts around just a few of the topics that captured my attention this morning.

True Leaders Produce More Leaders …

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character, competence, effective, impact, integrity, leadership, people, purpose, results, servant leadership

I was recently reminded of this quote, and I’ve seen variations from several well known leadership gurus … Tom Peters, Ralph Nader, John Maxwell and others … true leaders produce more leaders, not more followers.  And with a long holiday weekend recently, I had some time for introspection on the topic.

There are certainly times in our roles as Product Manager Leaders where you may question the true impact of what you are doing.  Or at least I have.  Partially with the products I’ve led and their impact … but more so from the perspective of impact with people. This is just something that isn’t easy to gauge unfortunately, and it can often leave you wondering.

Perspectives on Product Leadership

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escalation, leadership, needs-driven, priorities, strategic-driven, strategy

Excellent article from Rich Mironov titled 7 Ways to Know That You Need a Head of Product.  Over the course of my career, I’ve seen each symptom and they can certainly be painful and frustrating to work through.  But the last paragraph brings the point home!

Like other functional specialties, product management needs leaders who recognize and reward great product work; who know how to hire/mentor/grow product folks; and who build executive-level support for doing the right things. Without seasoned product leaders, each individual product manager has to go it alone.

Check out the article for yourself … but here are a few additional favorite comments:

Tools of the Trade

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competitive, consumer research, features, KPI, market data, repeatable, roadmap, sizing, strategic, success, survey, tools

Over the years, I’ve enjoyed reading survey results specific to various aspects of Product Management.  From how much time we spend in meetings, to what skills are most important and rewarded, to a day in the life of a Product Manager (and there have been many others) … it is always interesting to hear what my peers think and how they go about their jobs.

This morning I was reading another survey findings document focusing on What Tools Are Product Managers Using?  If you’ve ever done any home improvement projects, you know first hand it’s all about having the right tools!  There are some really good perspectives in the findings, even a few surprising ones … for example, 70% of Product Managers are using new applications within the last year.

Admittedly, I’ve not kept up with all of the latest & greatest out there … but it did make me stop and think about what tools have been central in me being productive in my role?  Not from the perspective of a specific product per-se… but more around what “tools” have been essential to my success in the Product Management role.

Perspective on Yesterday, Tomorrow and Today

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failure, focus, over-estimating, over-exaggerating, relationships, success, under-estimating

“We over-exaggerate yesterday, we over-estimate tomorrow, and we under-estimate today.” – John Maxwell

I was listening to a podcast this morning on the way in to work, and honestly my mind was elsewhere … I wasn’t really engaged in the discussion … until the speaker quoted this little gem from John Maxwell.

For the remainder of the drive in, it was all I could think about. Take each piece independently … how often do we look forward to something in the future only to find our expectations of the event were bigger than the event itself?  How often do we find ourselves reliving past successes (or failures for that matter)?  How often do we miss the near and present opportunities because we are too focused on either the future or the past?

Anticipating the Unexpected, Preparing for the Worst

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ask right questions, character, collaboration, contingency planning, courage, integrity, leadership, learn from mistakes, risk management

A couple of good quotes caught my attention this morning.  The first has to do with the recent financial meltdown that led to the global economic crisis … the second with Captain Sully’s spectacular landing of the US Airbus on the Hudson river.  Very different scenarios with very different contexts.  Yet both speaking to role of leadership when it comes to risk management.

“… You can’t control people through policies, procedures and policing.  You can only do it through a strong risk management culture and absolute integrity in all leaders.”

Leadership on Trial, A Manifesto for Leadership Development

We have to have situational awareness–we have to be able to create a mental model of our reality. We have to be good risk mangers, be mindful, we have to understand our process so we can sensitize ourselves to risk. Bad outcomes are rarely the a result of a single failure but are instead the end result of a  chain of events, and when we sensitize ourselves to risk and are able to identify it proactively we can break the chain and have a good outcome.  

PODCAST: Captain ‘Sully’ Sullenberger On How To Thrive Under Extreme Pressure

The Same, But Different

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API, bi-modal, digital economy, platform

Last September, I talked about Gartner Group’s bi-modal topic in my post Adopt, Adapt … but Focus on What Doesn’t change.  It was also something I explored with Dan Woods from Forbes while at an Apigee FinTech Summit in late 2015.  My point was both modes are necessary … moving fast with new systems of engagement is critical, but not at the expense of jeopardizing existing business, systems, or processes.

So seeing this CIO article In the digital era, CIOs not buying ‘this bimodal crap’ certainly peaked my interest!