Roadmap alignment naturally decays. Stakeholders forget what they agreed to and even the overall goals of your team. To avoid this, frequent communication is key.
Read moreONE THING on Roadmap as GPS
A good roadmap is a statement of strategy that helps stakeholders understand the destination and the obstacles along the way. It provides guidance for navigating those hurdles without prescribing an exact route. Yet, like a GPS, it recalculates as needed rather than a fixed set of turn-by-turn directions.
Read moreONE THING on Difficult Stakeholders
As product people, we often find ourselves trying to handle difficult stakeholders. I once had a colleague, a brilliant software architect, who objected (loudly) to any new idea. She disrupted several planning sessions, so I finally invited her to lunch. I said open debate between the two of us was confusing to the team, and we should meet one-on-one before team meetings.
Read moreONE THING on Boo! Eek! Quitting
For Halloween, here’s a frighting topic: quitting. Humans don’t like to quit. Our brains are wired for loss aversion and focus on sunk costs, among other things. How to make a smart, rational decision?
Read moreONE THING on Saying No
When you have to say “no” to a stakeholder, ideally you arrive at that answer together. If that’s not possible, use what you know about your stakeholder to craft a narrative that will help them understand why “no” is the right answer.
Read moreONE THING on Poison Pill or Silver Bullet
What to do when your boss starts talking about "Founder Mode?" Some founders think they are the next Steve Jobs, but are they? Or when they invoke "founder mode" are they just micromanaging things they no longer understand? I’m leading a CPO online discussion: Founder Mode: Poison Pill or Silver Bullet? Thursday, November 7 @ 9am PT / 12pm ET / 5pm GMT / 6pm CET. Register
Read moreONE THING on Secret
When you learn something about your organization and your stakeholders, write it down in a super secret document. Keep it to yourself, because people may not appreciate your judgments about them (even if they’re true).
Read moreONE THING on Human
When building rapport with stakeholders, bring your actual human self. In one product job, coach Melissa Appel created a monthly “Women in Warehousing” brown bag lunch. There was no agenda, just an opportunity to connect. With the natural work-related lunch banter, Melissa often learned valuable new information. More importantly, she developed relationships that made work easier.
Read moreONE THING on Trust the Sequel
Sharing your experience helps establish trust with stakeholders. When they realize you’ve done this before, they will be more likely to trust your advice.
Asking about the perspectives and motivations of your stakeholders will help too. Acknowledging their fears and concerns — added to your expertise — show that you can provide good solutions to their problems.
ONE THING on Roadmaps and Choices
Great roadmaps are the result of hard decisions, of deciding what you will do and what you will NOT do. By making hard choices public, you make your strategy really clear. And clear strategy helps the entire organization execution in alignment. Coach Phil Hornby will lead a CPO online discussion on Roadmaps: the Key to Great Product Decisions. Thursday, October 10 @ 9am PT / 12pm ET / 5pm GMT / 6pm CET. Register.
Read moreONE THING on Trust
Building rapport with stakeholders is a good start, but you also need to develop trust. Trust is 50% credibility, 50% reliability. Prove you are credible by being confident in your expertise, and they will trust your decisions instead of second-guessing you. Prove you are reliable by following through, and they will give you autonomy instead of micromanaging you.
Read moreONE THING on Customer Success
My friend Marcus Bittrich, CPO of omnichannel retail platform NewStore says: “By focusing our efforts on making the customer successful, we drive our own business forward.” His team measures both the customer revenue generated through their platform and the increases in that revenue their platform drives.
Read moreONE THING on Roadmaps and Objectives
When my friend Gibson Biddle was VP Product at Netflix, the number one business objective was retention. So he focused on how to measure and increase engagement, and thus retention.
Read moreONE THING on Roadmaps and Facilitation
Recently I wrote on the importance of workshopping when creating a roadmap. How you lead the discussion can make all the difference. A few tips we've developed over the year
Read moreONE THING on OKRs and Flight
Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) are not just another way of setting goals; they are actually a way to make positive change in your organization. Coach Nuno Silva Pereira will lead a CPO online discussionon how to use OKRs to help you avoid turbulence, navigate challenges, and reach new heights in performance and alignment.. Join us Thursday, September 12 @ 9am PT / 12pm ET / 5pm GMT / 6pm CET. Register.
Read moreONE THING on Summarizing
As you talk with stakeholders around your company, make sure that you are listening hard. One technique is summarizing in your own words. When you get it right, this convinces the stakeholder that you empathize. When you get it wrong, you give them an opportunity to correct your misunderstanding.
Read moreONE THING on Stakeholder Interviews
For stakeholder interviews, you want them to feel as relaxed as possible. One-on-one meetings are best. A notetaker (human or AI), while getting the most data down, violates this intimacy. Don’t.
Read moreONE THING on Speaking their Language
Using the right jargon for your stakeholder shows you’ve done your homework. When entering a new industry or company, preparation is your friend. If you hear a stakeholder use a term you don’t recognize, write it down and look it up.
Read moreONE THING on Workshops the Sequel
As we talked last week, workshopping is a technique for a group to create something together. The purpose of a workshop can be generative, like listing problems or coming up with solutions. It can be evaluative, like looking for patterns in customer interviews. Or it can be decisive, like setting priorities. If needed, a workshop can target all three.
Read moreONE THING on Workshopping
Workshopping is a technique for a group to create something together. It’s used by the most effective product leaders to generate ideas and solicit feedback. And it’s splendid for gaining alignment.
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