Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) are a worldwide phenomenon, helping to drive the success of organizations like Google, Zynga, Oracle and Twitter. They are particularly suited to driving the alignment for a high-performing cross-functional Product team.

Sometimes stakeholders don't get along. Or their view of the product doesn't match. Or their priorities don't jive. That's where Shuttle Diplomacy goes a long way. I like to meet with stakeholders individually as I'm drafting a new roadmap. Then we meet all together for final buy in.

How can a Product person justify changing a roadmap midstream? Won’t customers, partners, salespeople, the board, etc. expect you to deliver on the roadmap commitments? Actually, no.

“How do product teams really know the right thing to build? Many products aren’t successful because teams haven’t done enough problem discovery and validation with customers. Those processes need to be a part of a product team’s culture.” 

My favorite product tool is Google Docs. I use it for interview notes, meeting agendas, personas, product charters, OKRs, and more. I like it because it makes any document collaborative. People can edit and comment on the same document simultaneously from anywhere in the world.

Outputs are the specific changes your team is making to your product or service to improve things for your customers and your business.

Outcomes are what you are hoping for as a result of those outputs. 

A lot of organizations balk at hiring Agile coaches (aka scrum masters) for every team. They find it hard to justify that many people who aren’t coding, designing, or figuring out what’s next. I agree.

Product people are often elected to jump in and do whatever it takes to make their product successful. In addition to product I've pinch hit in UX, agile coaching, engineering management, ops, business development -- you name it

The best boss I ever had trusted me with everything. He taught me everything about product culture by giving me the mission and letting me loose to figure out what was necessary for myself. John Wang went on to become CMO of HTC and Chairman of Noodoe. Thanks, John.

Product culture is spreading. 

• The idea that making people awesome is at the center of success; 

• The idea that we should put all of our effort to build, test, and learn into achieving that outcome sustainably; 

• The idea that we need to entrust small, diverse teams with that effort and hold them accountable;

...these ideas are accelerating.

Some would argue we are living in a post-Agile world. Some say SAFe and LeSS are ruining Agile. Some say it was never that great and we are outgrowing it.

Are you a strict Agile Product person? Are you a kinda-sorta Agile Product person? When do you deviate? Why?

"Roadmaps get a lot of flak. They are often blamed for unrealistic deadlines and death marches. For missing market opportunities, and for building features that are out-of-date before any code is even written," says Janna Bastow, cofounder of Mind the Product. "No Roadmap Survives Contact with Reality," is a common product refrain.

Be the one who brings the light of knowledge of market needs to the organization. As a product person, that's core to your value. Shed that light on inside-out thinking and it will illuminate your roadmap to success.

“A great product manager has the brain of an engineer, the heart of a designer, and the speech of a diplomat,”says Deep Nishar, managing director at SoftBank. I've written about product leadership skills in my book Product Manager vs. Project Manager from O'Reilly.

Steve Jobs is famous for ignoring market research, saying, “A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.” This perhaps oversimplifies the problem a bit but it resonates with my experience.

It's often a mistake to focus on matching your competition feature-for-feature. All this does is commoditize your market. Instead, focus on creating unique value by developing solutions your competition can't easily duplicate.

Influence is the superpower of good product people. Few people report to your average PM, but they have outsized impact on their organization. They provide direction on what to build to Engineering; they provide direction on target markets and messaging to Marketing; they recommend alliances and acquisitions to Business Development, etc.

Here are some New Year's Resolutions. Some are eerily similar to a talk I gave on product culture. Others not so much. 

Premise 1: Agile was developed as a response to lack of consistent direction from business execs.

Premise 2: A good roadmap keeps your organization inspired and on course toward its destination. 

That doesn't mean the two are incompatible. Yet many companies I have worked with fear mapping out a course, thinking "it's not allowed in Agile."

Personas deal with softer characteristics. They are often defined as representations of users that embody the qualities, feelings and preferences of groups. They are typically depicted with photos or images surrounded by descriptions and supporting attributes.