ONE THING on Thanksgiving

Next week is the American holiday of Thanksgiving. We won’t be having lots of friends and relatives over for a meal this year, alas. But there are somethings to be thankful for, even in times of hardship.

I’d like to take a moment below and thank a bunch of you for your help and inspiration this year. I will be extremely thankful for good vaccines, when they come out. What are you thankful for?

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ONE THING on a Pivot and a Roadmap Walk into a Bar

Sometimes your strategy turns out to be all wrong. At that point, the business may decide to pivot. It doesn’t make sense to wait for regularly scheduled roadmap or OKRs reviews to update strategy. When it’s time for a pivot, revisit everything in your roadmap from the product vision down, and be explicit about what is changing, what is not changing, and why these changes are necessary and good.

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ONE THING on It All Started With a Bicycle

Ever wonder where the word "roadmap" actually came from? In the 1890s, bicycles were a key form of transportation within cities, and some of the first roadmaps were created to show how to bike from one part of New York City to another. With the rise of the automobile, travel between cities becomes more common, and organizations like the American Automobile Association provided printed roadmap directions for travelers. In the 1980s, Motorola began using the term roadmap to align technology and product development. Ta-da!

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ONE THING on Product (Mona Lisa)

"The Mona Lisa has a huge social media presence. Her picture is everywhere. But she doesn’t tweet. She’s big on social media because she’s an icon, but she’s not an icon because she’s big on social media."
Becoming an icon is a tall order, both in art and product. How does your organization balance product and marketing? Do you believe in product-led growth?

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ONE THING on Train your Stakeholders

Getting buy-in for a new roadmap can be difficult, with numerous stakeholders wanting different things. I have found it helpful to reach decisions without the politics and posturing of large roadmap review meetings. Of course, this is doubly hard if you are introducing a new format of roadmaps, one with strategy and outcomes rather than dates and features.

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ONE THING on Influence

What is the difference between a CPO and a VP of Product Management? A director? Senior PM? Naturally it depends on your organization. But in my experience, the higher you rise, the more you have to influence across the organization (and deal with politics). These soft skills are the most critical success factor for product, but also the hardest to learn.

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ONE THING on Product Strategy Alignment

One of my early product jobs was at a startup with money and the CEO's exciting vision. We also had Shiny Object Syndrome, with a million ideas and tactics for how to bring the vision into practice. That's where a smart product person's strategy comes in: narrowing focus to a few key things we can do well, and getting alignment from all the stakeholders.

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ONE THING on Product Grownup

"Sometimes product managers are asked to be the rational person, the grownup in the room. Others may be super optimistic, like salespeople or the CEO. Product people have to be imaginative, too, but also say, 'wait, let me break this down, we can’t do everything at once.' Product success is that level of imagination combined with an ability to plan your way there and to lead a team."

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ONE THING on Sanity and Multiple Products

For extra fun, some of you are in charge of multiple products in a company's portfolio. In theory, each product should add to profitability and the whole should be greater than the sum of its parts. In practice, companies tend to focus on Product 1, the biggest source of current revenue. Longer-term ideas and projects get kicked further down the road and Product 3 never becomes a reality.

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