Product Management & Leadership Principles
This portion is divided into two sections: Product Management Principles and Product Leadership Principles. I discuss Product Management Principles first because they inform the Product Leadership Principles I prefer to follow. These are organized as follows:
Product Management Principles
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The Two Stages of Product
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What are “Problems to be Solved”?
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Understanding Product Discovery
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Understanding your Customer
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The Opportunity Assessment
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Product Discovery - The Prototype
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The Four Product Risks
Product Leadership Principles
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Product Team Values
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Product Leadership Responsibilities
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Product Leadership Nuts & Bolts
Product Management Principles
The definition of Product Management varies quite a bit depending on who you ask. Many companies view a Product Manager as a Project Manager - an executional role that is primarily about "Dates and Docs". The PM gathers requirements, resources estimates, stakeholder feedback, and so forth, to build a set of features. This purely executional approach misses the most important aspect of a product: resonance with the customer. Best-in-class product organizations de-risk Product Execution by front-loading Product Discovery - you must first build the right product before you build the product right.
The Two Stages of Product
Digital Products have two distinct stages:
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Most Product Organizations focus on Product Execution, building features without fully validating their value and viability, consuming time and resources without producing meaningful results.
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Successful Product Organizations are given problems to solve (rather than features to build), are empowered to solve them (via Product Discovery), and are held accountable for results.
Key Point: Product Discovery is the primary job of a successful Product Organization, followed by Product Execution.
What are "Problems to be Solved?"
Building the Right Product means understanding what problems your product will solve for customers. These are typically framed in User Stories derived from investing deeply in understanding customers and the problems you are solving for them. A strong Product Vision will typically identify the key user stories the team should focus on solving, giving clarity to a product. Here are some examples:
"As a user, I would like to easily and conveniently purchase a wide range of affordable goods and have them delivered to my doorstep in less than 24 hours."
"As a user, I would like to easily and conveniently connect with my friends and family."
"As a user, I would like to see and potentially interact with anyone that comes to my door, whether or not I am home."
"As a user, I would like to know the most efficient route to my destination."
The first story is obviously Amazon - an extraordinarily complex problem to solve, requiring massive investment of infrastructure, technology, revenue, and so forth. To invest in such a complex solution, they had to be very, very certain they were solving a resonant consumer problem.
The second is the original problem solved by Meta, and one that arguably they are no longer solving. The third is Ring; the fourth Google Maps. All problems solved with new technologies in ways that have altered our lives in extraordinary ways.
Regardless of a company's stage, understanding the problem you need to solve is a prerequisite to building the right product to solve it. And this is what so many companies today get wrong, especially mature ones: they create lists of features that have not been adequately vetted in Product Discovery. They are rushed into development and invariably flop - at great expense of money and resources - because, very simply, they do not resonate with the consumer.
Key Point: You cannot build the right product until you understand the problem it solves for the customer.
Understanding Your Customer
Every single company in the world pays lip service to the idea of understanding their customer, but a very small percentage actually do the work necessary to do so. It isn't just a survey, an NPS score, or an avatar. It is about talking - in person - to your customers every day. It is about both Qualitative (i.e.; person-centered enthography) and Qualitative (data-driven) methodologies to understand what works and doesn't work for your product, what problems you are solving and what opportunities exist. When you invest deeply in understanding the Customer Experience, you unearth Opportunities that can then be assessed as potential product lines or features.
Understanding Product Discovery
Product Discovery is not merely an exercise in understanding your customer. Once customer problems are unearthed, Product Discovery means assessing the potential opportunity through comprehensive analysis. Is the juice worth the squeeze? Before creating any wireframes, requirements, etc., empowered PMs on my team must be able to answer these questions during Product Discovery:
The Opportunity Assessment
Value proposition
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Exactly what problem will this solve?
Target Market
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For whom are we solving the problem?
Market Size
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How big is the opportunity?
Metrics/Revenue Strategy
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How will we measure success?
Competitive Landscape
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What alternatives are out there now?
Differentiation
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Why are we best suited to pursue this?
Market Window
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Why build this now?
Go-To Market Strategy
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How will we get this product to market?
Solution Requirements
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What factors are critical to success?
Go or No Go
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Given the above, what do you recommend?
The Prototype
If an Opportunity Assessment identifies just that - a great opportunity - then Prototyping can begin. This is a collaborative process involving a Product Designer, an Engineer, and a Product Manager. The Prototype phase is absolutely vital to de-risk the later phase of Product Execution. This Prototype is:
Thoroughly vetted with real customers
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Customer feedback will shape the direction and changes made to the product.
Shared and Reviewed with Stakeholders
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Stakeholder checkins will ensure alignment on the direction of the product before moving into development. For this reason, the prototype will evolve into high fidelity until it is a 1:1 version of what will be developed. This will significantly reduce (not eliminate) costly scope creep and churn during development.
Vetted with Cross-Functional Teams
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As discovery continues, collaboration with cross-functional teams (legal, marketing, brand, engineering, QA, etc.) ensures continued alignment.
Again, this saves time and resources. Towards the end of this process, one final stage is necessary to green light a Product into development: The Four Risks.
The Four Risks
Let’s suppose an awesome Product Manager has completed the full Product Discovery process and is ready to move into development. There are four critical questions that must be answered beforehand:
Is the product valuable?
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Will it resoundingly meet the needs of the consumer?
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Is the product viable?
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Will it meet the needs of the business? (i.e. Will it generate revenue? Meet desired goals/KPIs?)
Is the product usable?
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Is it easy and delightfully intuitive to use? (responsibility of Product/UX Design team)
Is the product feasible?
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Can we successfully build it? (Typically involves Tech/Engineering, but also Legal, Brand, Marketing, and other considerations to ensure there are no unforeseen issues.)
Valuable, viable, usable and feasible. Most companies discover the answers to these questions after they launch their product, at enormous cost and risk. With comprehensive and strategic Product Discovery, the more expensive step of Product Execution is substantially de-risked, ensuring resources are spent on thoroughly vetted products, delivered on time to truly solve user problems.
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One last note: just because Discovery is thorough does not mean the feature should be more than Minimally Viable. An MVP product should be deployed to an audience as soon as possible to promote agility, speed, and iterative product development.
Key Point: Comprehensive Product Discovery substantially de-risks the more costly step of Product Execution.
On to Product Leadership Principles!
With a framework of Product Management Principles, let's look at corresponding Product Leadership Principles.