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<h3>Series Introduction</h3><p>Starting from scratch with product analytics can feel like a daunting challenge, especially when you're navigating complex corporate environments. This blog series aims to break down the process of introducing product analytics capabilities and practices to an organization, sharing best practices and real-world insights through the lens of <a data-mce-href="http://www.pendo.io" href="http://www.pendo.io" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Pendo</a>, a product analytics platform.</p><p>Whether you're a product manager, senior leader, or an executive at a product-based company, understanding the intricacies of Pendo integration &amp; establishing strong analytics practices are crucial for leveraging data to drive better product decisions.&nbsp;</p><p>This series will distill these insights into actionable advice, focusing on areas such as:</p><p>- The technical nuances of integrating Pendo<br>- Establishing strong product and stakeholder expectations<br>- Techniques for rolling out Pendo best practices across diverse teams<br>- Strategies for building trust and reliance on product analytics<br>- Designing strategic approaches tailored to your team's needs</p><blockquote><h3>The technical integration of Pendo is merely the tip of the iceberg. The real work lies in educating teams, developing trust in data, crafting strategic approaches, and ensuring meaningful adoption.</h3></blockquote><h3>Real World Learnings</h3><p>Our experience with Pendo integration is grounded in real-world scenarios. We worked with a large corporate client, starting from zero and building a comprehensive product analytics capability. This wasn't just about plugging in a tool; it involved aligning over 50 development teams across multiple business units, each with unique needs and goals.</p><p>When we say "0-1," we don't just mean with Pendo, but with the concept of product analytics as a whole. The technical integration of Pendo is merely the tip of the iceberg. The real work lies in educating teams, developing trust in data, crafting strategic approaches, and ensuring meaningful adoption. Over two years, we gathered extensive insights into the challenges and best practices of bringing product analytics to an organization.&nbsp;</p><h3>Stay Tuned...</h3><p>In the coming weeks, our blog series will cover various aspects of Pendo integration, each post designed to provide valuable takeaways for your organization.&nbsp;</p><p>Keep an eye on Modern Product's <a data-mce-href="https://modernproductconsulting.com/blog" href="https://modernproductconsulting.com/blog" target="_blank" rel="noopener">blog</a> and <a data-mce-href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/modern-product-consulting" href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/modern-product-consulting" target="_blank" rel="noopener">LinkedIn page</a> for upcoming posts. We're excited to share these learnings with you.</p><h3>Conclusion</h3><p>We believe that our experiences and insights will be invaluable for teams in similar situations, helping you avoid common pitfalls and achieve successful Pendo integration. If you're considering integrating product analytics into your organization, let's chat. Modern Product is here to help you every step of the way. Contact us to set up a time for a discussion.</p><p>Stay tuned for the first post in our series, where we’ll dive deep into the initial steps of Pendo integration and setting the foundation for success.</p>

Pendo "0-1": Lessons Introducing Product Analytics to a Large Organization

<p>We’ve all heard the saying “Hindsight is 20/20.” &nbsp;Well this certainly applies to product development - as Product Managers and leaders of product organizations, we can all think of a time when things didn’t pan out as we had expected. &nbsp;But, how many of us actually calculated the cost impact to the organization from those poor outcomes? My guess is not many of us have ever figured out just how painful it was financially to the org. &nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p>This article is an attempt to identify, quantify, and visualize the hidden costs that impact organizations from product development, and then provide some suggestions on how to approach minimizing these costs. &nbsp;Today we look at three scenarios that I assume has impacted us all:<br>​<br>1. Inefficient execution that leads to slow/delayed releases.<br>2. Building a poor product experience or the wrong thing for the wrong customers.<br>3. Hiring the wrong person or onboarding poorly.</p><p>Before we dive in, please note I have taken the liberty of simplifying the analysis with certain assumptions, in order to streamline the main points/arguments I’m trying to get across. &nbsp;There are certain process metrics/measurements that I will assume exist. In reality, not many organizations have these metrics in place, which is why Modern Product offers the services that we offer. &nbsp;But for this article’s sake, please be gracious in these assumptions and focus on the primary point (spoiler alert): It’s REALLY expensive to execute inefficiently or to make the wrong decisions! (not really a spoiler alert...)</p><h3><br>Scenario 1: Inefficient execution that leads to slow/delayed releases.</h3><p><br>Let’s assume your product team has a 3-month project to build out a new capability that has a decent revenue opportunity of ~$50k/week (incremental $2-3MM annual), with initial adoption forecasted at 10% week over week. &nbsp;Let’s also assume your team, today, executes at 50% efficiency and costs the organization ~$50k/mo in general base salary expenditures. &nbsp;</p><p>The question: How much are the hidden costs to the organization of the team running at 50% efficiency instead of, let’s say, 80%?</p><p>Well, a 3-month project executed at 50% efficiency means it will take the team 4.5 months to complete and launch. &nbsp;At 80% efficiency, it would take 3.6 months. This is a 0.9 month delta, which is where the hidden costs lie: additional costs to pay the team and the opportunity cost of lost revenue from the delay. &nbsp;(NOTE: there is also the opportunity cost of the team not working on the next big priority which I do not model in this analysis) &nbsp;</p><p>The analysis shows that it costs $49k to pay the team and that the company loses $18k in incremental revenue for that period of delay, for a grand total of $67,000. &nbsp;</p><figure id="figure-7icdna2sh9lswnhj78"><img id="7icdna2sh9lswnhj78" src="https://cdn.durable.co/blocks/20kjfcZqR6A7UOxoAlNRnHDexZCwibhrx4pPcuA4IRk0PRPEMRM8eceASSBSTB3f.png" alt="hidden costs" class="object-cover bg-gray-100 rounded-sm md:rounded-md lg:rounded-lg" style="aspect-ratio: 3/2; object-position: center center;" data-corners="default" data-aspect="3:2" data-caption="Hidden Costs Calculated" data-positionx="undefined" data-positiony="undefined" data-fullwidth="false" data-mce-src="https://cdn.durable.co/blocks/20kjfcZqR6A7UOxoAlNRnHDexZCwibhrx4pPcuA4IRk0PRPEMRM8eceASSBSTB3f.png" data-mce-style="aspect-ratio: 3/2; object-position: center center;"><figcaption class="body-normal text-gray-500 mt-2">Hidden Costs Calculated</figcaption></figure><h3><br>&nbsp;&nbsp;<br>&nbsp;<br>Scenario 2: Building a poor product experience or the wrong thing for the wrong customers.</h3><p>Let’s assume the team has recently released a new product capability to market that turns out is only 60% “on target” to your customers you expect to adopt*. &nbsp;Let’s assume there’s a decent incremental revenue opportunity of $50k/week (incremental $2-3MM annual), with initial (ideal) adoption forecasted at 10% week over week. &nbsp;</p><p>The question: How much does the organization lose in revenue if what’s built and released to market is only 60% “on the mark” versus 90% “on the mark”? &nbsp;And, how much does it cost to swarm/pivot to address the issue?</p><p>A product can be “off the mark” for many reasons, such as poor quality (instable, buggy, unusable), or simply that the wrong capability was built that doesn’t really address the true need of the customers. &nbsp;Whatever the reason, customer adoption will be impacted negatively which will have a negative impact on revenue opportunity. In this scenario, being “off the mark” by 30% resulted in a -22% impact in revenue over 8 weeks to the tune of $12,000. &nbsp;That’s just opportunity cost of lost revenue - we also must consider the costs of swarming to address the issue (and the disruption to the roadmap). A team that swarms to either address quality issues or to pivot the feature capability to better address the needs of the customer will likely spend several weeks, which, as shown in the last exercise, can easily add up to several $10’s of thousands of dollars. &nbsp;</p><p>​All in, we’re likely talking $50,000-$100,000 of hidden costs.</p><figure id="figure-t39721q5sylswnk2cv"><img id="t39721q5sylswnk2cv" src="https://cdn.durable.co/blocks/28BTo2WUqrtDgsABPMajeEVPp9J0Ulh5wg5GsAIKyPl2VVNtobECv4a4pYPU0RtS.png" alt="hidden costs" class="object-cover bg-gray-100 rounded-sm md:rounded-md lg:rounded-lg" style="aspect-ratio: 3/2; object-position: center center;" data-corners="default" data-aspect="3:2" data-caption="Hidden Costs" data-positionx="undefined" data-positiony="undefined" data-fullwidth="false" data-mce-src="https://cdn.durable.co/blocks/28BTo2WUqrtDgsABPMajeEVPp9J0Ulh5wg5GsAIKyPl2VVNtobECv4a4pYPU0RtS.png" data-mce-style="aspect-ratio: 3/2; object-position: center center;"><figcaption class="body-normal text-gray-500 mt-2">Hidden Costs</figcaption></figure><p><br>&nbsp;&nbsp;<br>* This is simply a score to illustrate that product releases can be “off the mark” in terms of the quality of the product UX, how well the feature set meets customers’ true expectations, or how well the *right* customers were targeted in the first place.</p><h3><br>Scenario 3: Hiring the wrong person or onboarding poorly.</h3><p>Let’s assume you hire a Sr. Product Manager at a base salary of $140,000, but that this person, for whatever the reason (poor fit or poor onboarding) ends up leaving the organization after 6 months. &nbsp;Assume it takes ~3 months to recruit, interview, and hire a new replacement for this role and that it takes ~3 months to reasonably onboard a new Sr. PM employee. &nbsp;</p><p>The question: How much does it cost the organization when the wrong person is hired into a leadership position like a Sr. Product Manager role?</p><p>In this scenario the analysis shows a 9 month period in which the product team is lacking a full-strength leader, which results in a -20% impact in efficiency of execution, which as we show in the first scenario results in hidden costs of extra execution and delayed releases. &nbsp;Additionally, there are operational costs incurred to recruit, interview, and hire a replacement Sr. PM (of the research I reviewed, I used a $7,000 estimate). &nbsp;</p><p>​If you model out 9 months of inefficient execution of a product team, along with the additional costs of replacing that Sr. PM role, the hidden cost impact to the organization adds up to approximately $100,000! &nbsp;</p><figure id="figure-9jml40jyhclswnlm4g"><img id="9jml40jyhclswnlm4g" src="https://cdn.durable.co/blocks/26SC9hPxbS0orjE4WRoouFs6wfBMI9y8rhOglJedQqhqqaTuSwjSgYS4rKIYbFQd.png" alt="hidden costs of replacing talent" class="object-cover bg-gray-100 rounded-sm md:rounded-md lg:rounded-lg" style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; object-position: 100% 100%;" data-corners="default" data-aspect="16:9" data-caption="" data-positionx="100%" data-positiony="100%" data-fullwidth="false" data-mce-src="https://cdn.durable.co/blocks/26SC9hPxbS0orjE4WRoouFs6wfBMI9y8rhOglJedQqhqqaTuSwjSgYS4rKIYbFQd.png" data-mce-style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; object-position: 100% 100%;"></figure><h3><br>&nbsp;<br>The Punchline: It’s EXPENSIVE to execute poorly or make the wrong decisions.</h3><p>Having worked in software tech for the last 18 years across several industries, all technology stacks, and every company stage of growth, I can say the scenarios I cover above are real and happen all the time. &nbsp;My guess is that you would agree, these are all too common issues that product organizations experience in the normal course of execution. Yes, these featured scenarios used hypothetical numbers, and big simplifications to how measurements were taken. &nbsp;All that being said, I believe the numbers are within reason and paint a picture that puts some quantification to what we all know intuitively, that it is very expensive to execute poorly and/or make the wrong decisions. To the tune of tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars! &nbsp;</p><h3><br>Now What?</h3><p>Obviously, the question is, how can we MINIMIZE these hidden costs our organization incurs BEFORE they come about? &nbsp;How can we avoid the “Hindsight is 20/20” moment of realization? Here is some practical advice that you can consider:</p><p>1) Establish the right measures - each scenario above assumed the ability to measure team efficiency, product quality or market fit, or hiring/interviewing or onboarding effectiveness. &nbsp;Do you have these types of measures in place organizationally? Are you actively working to optimize these measures? If not, this is the first step. Without the ability to baseline or benchmark how your organization is doing, you will have no clear idea of how, if at all, you are improving.</p><p>2) Consider bringing an outside perspective to the table - There are many benefits to bringing an external perspective to assist in optimizing execution efficiency, strategic decision-making, or even in hiring/onboarding practices. &nbsp;One major benefit is the very fact this person is external - unbiased, immune to internal politics, etc. Another benefit: if this external person can help you avoid these hidden cost scenarios, even just one, it is very likely the ROI to bring on this person will be very high. &nbsp;</p><p>If you are a Product Leader within your organization, consider how you can influence the changes necessary to identify, measure, and minimize these scenarios that ultimately cost your organization tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars. &nbsp;Keep in mind that Modern Product exists to partner with executives and product leaders as that outside, unbiased perspective with a ton of industry experience. We can help you measure and minimize these hidden cost scenarios to the tune of an ROI of 2-5x. &nbsp;Reach out today to explore how we can help!<br></p>

The Hidden Costs of Product Development

<p>(This blog post was originally published on the <a data-mce-href="https://www.bostonproducts.org/blog/product-managers-as-business-leaders" href="https://www.bostonproducts.org/blog/product-managers-as-business-leaders">Boston Product Management Association (BPMA)</a> event site as part of a panel discussion of which I was honored to be invited.)</p><figure id="figure-5zr192j7vmlxma65dr"><img id="5zr192j7vmlxma65dr" src="https://cdn.durable.co/blocks/207CKI4rsllq21bknScIRFVh6VJUe5NDFyoIgzL7la1h0ZJY2TD7tg73QftKATIs.png" alt="woman sitting at table" title="woman sitting at table" class="object-cover bg-gray-100 rounded-sm md:rounded-md lg:rounded-lg" style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; object-position: center center;" data-corners="default" data-aspect="16:9" data-caption="" data-positionX="undefined" data-positionY="undefined" data-fullWidth="false"/></figure><blockquote><p>In a nutshell, all Product Managers (no matter what stage of their career) should seek opportunities to expand their horizons beyond their immediate area of focus that delve deeper into their company’s business and strategy.</p></blockquote><p>What makes Product Management interesting and challenging is the variety of experience it offers across different industries, technologies, and within companies of different stages and cultures. While this multifaceted aspect of the job itself requires diverse set of skills, Product Managers must develop a common, core set of skills over time, that involve a strong business acumen - their ability to think broadly and strategically across all facets of the company - in order to be much more effective business leaders. &nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p>In a nutshell, all Product Managers (no matter what stage of their career) should seek opportunities to expand their horizons beyond their immediate area of focus that delve deeper into their company’s business and strategy. &nbsp;Depending on the company, this could mean many different things: from learning more about how distribution and supply chain works, to learning about customer acquisition and marketing strategy, to learning about company financials and how margins and bottom line impact strategic decisions, etc. Product Managers who invest the time to expand their business acumen can benefit in several ways - what follows are just a few examples.</p><h3>Ability to make better decisions with the team</h3><p>Product Managers who base their decisions with the bigger strategic picture in mind are able to make better decisions in that lead to positive and more productive outcomes. &nbsp;By expanding one’s horizons beyond features, functionality, and UX into business-centric areas such as efficiencies of acquisitions / conversions, company financials, market trends, the competitive landscape, etc., the Product Manager has a more comprehensive set of inputs to aggregate, synthesize, and leverage to make decisions.&nbsp;</p><h3>Ability to positively impact the effectiveness of company execution&nbsp;</h3><p>By taking the time as a Product Manager to come to a broader understanding of business objectives and needs, one will not only be able to shape the roadmap execution of the team(s) he/she works with directly, but will also be able to establish a more cohesive collaboration with other departments in the organization (i.e. marketing, sales, business development, finance). Eventually, this approach results in alignment across teams about the end goal as it related to the company’s broader strategy and vision, leading to effectiveness in execution and achieving the targeted growth. This, leads to a more sustainable performance of the company in the market, which benefits everyone. &nbsp;</p><h3>Ability to advance in leadership roles within the company, or entrepreneurially</h3><p>Product Managers with increasing business acumen position themselves for more leadership opportunities within their companies, or even externally as entrepreneurs. &nbsp;PM’s who expand their perspective from tactical execution within a primary area of focus to broader strategic impact and results gain an increased ability to communicate with much more gravitas, which increases their influence and visibility. &nbsp;Simply put, their career options multiply - they can decide to rise up the ranks of their company’s leadership positions; they can decide to go out on their own and start a company; or they can decide to hone their craft in/around very specific domain expertise.<br>​<br>At the end of the day, the great thing about Product Management is how much variety and flexibility there is at every step of the way of one’s career journey. &nbsp;That said, every Product Manager should commit to advancing his/her business leadership skills and experiences - not only does this benefit the individual and his/her team(s), it can be a “tide that raises all boats” in terms of the benefits the company itself realizes.<br></p>

Product Managers as Business Leaders

<p>What kind of product organization do you have today? &nbsp;I don’t mean at the surface-level, such as general team structure or which agile process you employ. &nbsp;I’m trying to get to the heart of what your organization’s philosophical approach is to building software products. &nbsp;This typically comes directly from the management approach of the CEO and/or founder(s) and of course, at what stage the company is currently. &nbsp;I haven’t seen many truly valuable frameworks out there along with practical recommendations that help teams put a proactive plan in place to evolve. &nbsp;I will say this article (and previous articles) from Marty Cagan provides a great way of classifying different product organizations and I always appreciate his strong bias toward what he refers to as “empowered product teams.” &nbsp;What I would like to cover in this article is an attempt to offer up some practical advice to Product organization leaders and/or Product Managers that you can apply at the onset of this new year (and decade!) to influence evolution within your organizations. &nbsp;<br>​<br>Let’s start with a simple defining framework that we can use to align on terminology for the rest of this article. &nbsp;Here is one way of classifying an organization’s product philosophy that will suffice for the purposes of today’s conversation: one can look at the stage of growth of the company (early, growth, mature) alongside the CEO/founders’ instinctive expectations or baseline approaches to accountability. &nbsp;This visual provides a simple organizational evolution trajectory to consider:</p><figure id="figure-cjvkf2tintlswntij9"><img id="cjvkf2tintlswntij9" src="https://cdn.durable.co/blocks/2fSzZ0LRWFmGER10PA85dp2REshUr5SAeuwwM6CbXQ6I4eaLv8rg3lJGrs0p7Kec.png" alt="" class="object-cover bg-gray-100 rounded-sm md:rounded-md lg:rounded-lg" style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; object-position: center center;" data-corners="default" data-aspect="16:9" data-caption="" data-positionx="undefined" data-positiony="undefined" data-fullwidth="false" data-mce-src="https://cdn.durable.co/blocks/2fSzZ0LRWFmGER10PA85dp2REshUr5SAeuwwM6CbXQ6I4eaLv8rg3lJGrs0p7Kec.png" data-mce-style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; object-position: center center;"></figure><p>What you see here is a simple representation of company growth transitions over time, along with a general evolution of the product organization’s role/responsibilities. &nbsp;When a company is in early stage, the founders are typically the primary product strategists and must be hyper-focused on execution as fast as possible to get to a place where they can measure and assess product market fit. &nbsp;In other words, they just want and need their team to carry out their vision. As the company grows into a mature organization, there ought to be an evolution of how accountability is distributed across the team, from simple execution of the founders’ vision to solving problems and driving market and customer impacts.&nbsp;<br>&nbsp;<br>There are a few trajectories that can play out over the course of a company’s life cycle, depending on the philosophical grounding of the executives (CEO and founders). &nbsp;I’d throw in factors in/around trust and what talent-level or domain expertise exists on the team as well. The less trust or domain knowledge that exists, the more the executives/founders will seek out executors or “doers”. &nbsp;Alternatively, organizations may actually have executives/founders who may not have expertise in building strong product experiences, or who simply are too trusting of their teams’ abilities to execute strategically. These execs may ultimately need to place much more emphasis on hiring strategic domain experts to rely on building the right products for the customers they are serving. &nbsp;This trajectory has its own pitfalls/risks, particularly when it comes to ensuring the right strategic SME is hired and onboarded properly.<br>​<br>If this general line of thinking resonates with you, keep reading - I’m going to attempt to boil it down even further (If not, leave comments below with your thoughts and opinions!). &nbsp;What this trajectory can look like at any given time is a snapshot at your product organization’s talent needs. What the following quadrant graphic shows is the type of personnel that really ought to be a part of your product organization, depending on where your org falls on the spectrum of size and accountability/trust structures:</p><figure id="figure-krf7bhe8aalswnu9zh"><img id="krf7bhe8aalswnu9zh" src="https://cdn.durable.co/blocks/16YSNf5R75tgCcsykubAHLJIn5F1OaQfoMgQKJHl9Lq2pMcAZGWvgMoKKgtq3WxW.png" alt="accountability / trust quadrant" class="object-cover bg-gray-100 rounded-sm md:rounded-md lg:rounded-lg" style="aspect-ratio: 1/1; object-position: center center;" data-corners="default" data-aspect="1:1" data-caption="Quadrant" data-positionx="undefined" data-positiony="undefined" data-fullwidth="false" data-mce-src="https://cdn.durable.co/blocks/16YSNf5R75tgCcsykubAHLJIn5F1OaQfoMgQKJHl9Lq2pMcAZGWvgMoKKgtq3WxW.png" data-mce-style="aspect-ratio: 1/1; object-position: center center;"><figcaption class="body-normal text-gray-500 mt-2">Quadrant</figcaption></figure><p><br>&nbsp;&nbsp;<br>In a nutshell...Lower Left quadrant (Little-to-no accountability / trust structures in place and earlier stage):&nbsp;<br>Your execs are probably the primary drivers of strategy and product vision. You don’t need Product Management at this point, just executors like engineers and designers.<br>Upper Left quadrant (Some accountability / trust structures in place and medium-sized, growing company stage):&nbsp;<br>You probably have your first Product Manager in place who helps drive execution at a day-to-day level, but who needs more guidance/supervision. &nbsp;This is a dangerous stage to be in - trust is starting to form but can be broken quickly if the company experiences setbacks; there may be early accountability structures in place such as OKR’s, but they are likely underdeveloped and/or evolving. &nbsp;<br>Upper Right quadrant (Accountability structures in place, trust exists, and the company is mature):<br>At this point there is probably a multi-person product team with a product development organizational structure that allows for empowered teams to execute against product visions driven by the product managers, with clear accountability against market/customer outcomes. &nbsp;This is when it is good to have Sr. Product Managers who bring added level of professional maturity and domain expertise, who are capable of leading large initiatives strategically.<br>Lower Right quadrant (Underdeveloped accountability structures or a lack of trust within a larger, mature company environment):<br>In this scenario, it’s probably best to have a product organization that is made up of Project Managers and/or Program Managers, or even Engineering Managers who take on some product roadmapping responsibilities. &nbsp;This is not a scenario where a Product Manager is needed, or where one will thrive for long. This type of organizational situation can stem from many scenarios, whether it’s that the founder(s)/execs never were able to let go of their product ownership (there are many articles and case studies out there about this), HR leadership never ensured the proper accountability and success measures were put into place to clearly empower people and teams, etc. &nbsp;Regardless of how this organizational situation has arose, this is one where true Product Managers will very likely not be happy, nor thrive.&nbsp;</p><h3>Now what - Where do you want to be?</h3><p>If you are tracking so far - the question becomes, so what? &nbsp;If you are able to identify what type of organization you are a part of, does it matter? &nbsp;It is what it is...right? Well, it depends. The question to ask is where do you want your product organization to end up? &nbsp;Whether it’s 3 months from now or 2 years from now - what do you want to see improved? And the second question to ask yourself is, will you have a reasonable chance of influencing change to get to where you want to be? &nbsp;If not, you need to decide if you can put up with the state of the union at your current company, or consider looking for another organization to join that aligns more closely with your vision. Assuming you feel reasonably confident you can inspire change, I offer up some practical advice to consider trying out as 2020 kicks off. &nbsp;This advice is the same whether you are a Product Manager working within a Product Development organization, or if you are the Sr. leader or executive leading that Product Organization - how you go about influencing / enacting that change will be different of course.#1 - Implement or strengthen foundational accountability structures - If your organization does not have the right structures in place to clearly and publicly declare what outcomes the product team should drive, this should be the first area of focus. &nbsp;Some organizations have OKR’s or MBO’s, but are so high level without proper hierarchical ties down to the product roadmap, there is not a clear sense of what results any given team must drive. If the accountability “pipeline” doesn’t go all the way from the top to the bottom, then it will not be a big surprise that the executives/founder(s) cannot easily empower the teams to take on their own problem domains and for the Product Managers to set their own strategic visions. &nbsp;Make sure there is a clear, tight connection between each Product Manager’s area of ownership and the corporate goals the company executives are focused on. Practically, one example of this could be to ensure that every Product Manager creates his/her own OKRs that clearly contribute to the company-wide OKRs. Of course, with SMART objectives that are quantified and achievable.&nbsp;<br>#2 - Build trust with the executives/founder(s) - this is admittedly a bit squishy, but don’t expect the executives/founder(s) to suddenly start trusting their product organization to deliver results simply because the product folks want more empowerment. &nbsp;Product teams must demonstrate success *before* they are empowered. What can this look like practically? If executives/founder(s) are driving the product roadmap and vision, then a product organization can build trust by becoming extremely predictable in delivering features to the market, ensuring there are never any surprises in what they deliver, and ensuring that quality is top notch. &nbsp;Remember the executive/founder mentality in many of these situations is that they feel they must oversee the strategic vision and ensure execution aligns to their vision. If the product team builds trust at the execution level, then it will be that much easier to begin to take on more and more ownership and empowered decision making responsibilities from the executives/founder(s) as the company grows.<br>#3 - Align organizationally to talent needs today and for the future - Use the organizational diagrams above to match the type of product talent you need for today, but also for the future. &nbsp;This could mean hiring a different role than Product Manager to begin with, just to ensure execution is handled properly/well. But, ensure that a proper hiring plan is put into place that aligns to where you want your product organization to evolve, and proactively work on budgeting allocations and approvals to that plan, as you work on #1 and #2 above. &nbsp;That way, as you begin to build trust, take on more empowered leadership with your product organization teams, and execute against very clear accountability measures that tie to corporate objectives, you will be able to more efficiently build the team in step with your organizational evolution.</p><p>If you are a Product Manager who has a different vision in mind than where you find your product organization today, use the above as a guide to influence in your individual contributor role. &nbsp;Use those characteristics that make you a good PM, in particular strong communication skills, persuasiveness, and being data-driven, to influence organizational change. &nbsp;</p><p>If you are a Product Organization leader, use the above practical advice to put the right organizational foundations in place, and manage your team’s execution to build trust in such a way that you can ultimately get to your vision of a stronger, more future-proof product organization that will align with where your organization is growing.</p>

Your Product Organization?

<p>"Leveraging Data and Customer Feedback to Quickly Iterate Upon Your Product"&nbsp;</p><figure id="figure-qc11y1i7ulsmni3sd"><iframe id="qc11y1i7ulsmni3sd" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xAbtb2lWHfc" class="w-full bg-gray-100 rounded-sm md:rounded-md lg:rounded-lg" style="aspect-ratio: 16/9" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowFullScreen="" data-url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAbtb2lWHfc" data-corners="default" data-fullWidth="false"></iframe></figure>

Denver Startup Week 2020

<p>I was honored to have the opportunity to speak on "The Modern Product Manager" at the first event for Product School Boulder. &nbsp;It was great fun! </p><p>Here's a <a data-mce-href="https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1J3wcCgvDYr-jZp0e-V31uPxPOJ_Ka9JShb1qpjDSwFk/edit?usp=sharing" href="https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1J3wcCgvDYr-jZp0e-V31uPxPOJ_Ka9JShb1qpjDSwFk/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank" rel="noopener">link to the presentation deck</a>.</p><figure id="figure-3swmt4o64rlxm9sa1w" class=""><img id="3swmt4o64rlxm9sa1w" src="https://cdn.durable.co/blocks/8jbVuUVvHg09mQKc2vcqoCsma2f9n7PYkgHtpkOigdqkMIdzJSV4Ahk6KCvupu41.png" alt="modern product manager deck" title="modern product manager deck" class="object-cover bg-gray-100 rounded-sm md:rounded-md lg:rounded-lg" style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; object-position: undefined undefined;" data-corners="default" data-aspect="16:9" data-caption="" data-positionx="undefined" data-positiony="undefined" data-fullwidth="false" data-mce-src="https://cdn.durable.co/blocks/8jbVuUVvHg09mQKc2vcqoCsma2f9n7PYkgHtpkOigdqkMIdzJSV4Ahk6KCvupu41.png" data-mce-style="aspect-ratio: 16/9; object-position: undefined undefined;"></figure>

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Denver Startup Week 2020

Product School Event