Product management is a multidisciplinary profession and is still in its infancy in many companies. It does not have the importance it deserves or needs to be addressed by most companies. Many companies have sections/divisions focused on sales, engineering – manufacturing, customer care or operations, rarely on product. At the top management level, there is very often infighting and power struggles over power and budget. Good product management can mediate between different company parts and strong feedback partners. Successful organisations in future will be more product-oriented because it will help them to flourish their businesses based on competitive products. Loyal customers greatly appreciate mattering products; they can also benefit local communities and suitable living ecosystems.
Product management is significant and valuable balancer for every company to move on using the best tactics…
To succeed, you need to balance all three product leadership legs. With that, your outcomes would be stable.
Great product leads know very well how important is everyday communication & diplomacy in speaking to customers and internal teams. So from the beginning of the first customer contact up to presenting the outcomes, the product lead has to be able to tell the story to all stakeholders involved. And the same point, they have to tune up the individual strengths of teammates to the maximum. At the same time, he has to partner with line managers in guarding principles and rules of play overall teams. Every team alignment must be based on solid strategy and tactics to balance this inside the organisation.
What are the three product leadership legs that need to be balanced?
- Mattering product: focus on making features that customers will greatly appreciate;
- aligning teams on shared goals;
- and last but not least: the cultivation of an honest culture in the organisation. Preferably a powerful culture of freedom & responsibility.
Without this stable, a very well-balanced #3pod every product-driven company will fail. Take care of this and may you be succesfull.
