PRODUCTHEAD: Pragmatism versus idealism
PRODUCTHEAD is a regular newsletter of product management goodness,
curated by Jock Busuttil.
sit down. product up #
every PRODUCTHEAD edition is online for you to refer back to
tl;dr
There’s a balance between motivating people to a goal and killing their enthusiasm with the gory detail
Just as with users and customers, we need to meet our peers where they are
In most complex organisations, product supports the organisation’s goals, not vice versa
hello
In case you missed it, late last week I published an explainer article for non-technical product managers on cloud computing. If you read it and have any thoughts or comments, I’d love to hear them.
For you this week #
Both Debbie McMahon’s recent interview with Jason Knight and John Cutler’s latest article this week touch on the topic of being pragmatic versus idealistic. In fact, there was a strong element of that also in the interview with Rich Mironov that I included in last week’s edition.
John Cutler is thinking about advocacy for a better way of working and how to get the message to stick. He observes that Transformed (by Marty Cagan and others) challenges leaders to be better at product, in a way that allows them to save face. (Because they don’t have to acknowledge the myriad ways their organisation is currently broken.) What the book doesn’t do is to highlight all the messy politicking that such an organisational change tends to trigger, as that would likely scare everyone from committing to it.
Is this Cagan being disingenuous? Possibly, but Cutler argues that it’s better to take advantage of forward momentum with the senior leadership team than it is to kill their enthusiasm with all the complexity that Cagan glosses over. It’s a slightly unexpected take from Cutler given how much he usually leans into exposing the messiness. That said, he has acknowledged in the past that systems thinking is useful for understanding, but perhaps not the best option for persuading peers.
CPO Debbie McMahon is also pragmatic about the role of product at the Financial Times. The fundamental core of the FT is the quality of its journalism, so the product teams need to support that, and – she jokes – not try to get the journalists to start writing more celebrity gossip columns because that’s what the metrics suggest they do.
“You’ve got to take people from where you are and you’ve got to start from where you are. That might not be where you want to be, but it is what it is.”
Debbie McMahon in conversation with Jason Knight on the ‘One Knight in Product’ podcast
Rich Mironov also talks about meeting people where they are, and of not falling into the trap of thinking our wonderful product strategy is worth a damn if it doesn’t connect to what the senior leadership team are primarily bothered about.
“We as product folks have to meet our peers in the same way that we have to meet our customers where they are. And if I can’t make a coherent financial argument for why our roadmap’s going to deliver more money than this [one-off] deal then I can’t bring it to the CEO and the head of sales and the CFO and explain why our roadmap should be supported. All I’m making is noise.”
[See last week’s edition of PRODUCTHEAD for more detail.]
Rich Mironov in conversation with Jason Knight on the ‘One Knight In Product’ podcast
You might take away the message from these three takes that product people should be political opportunists. Perhaps that has the negative connotation that we should jump on whatever bandwagon happens to benefit us personally.
Instead, maybe it’s that we need to consider that the path to where we, our products and our company need to get to is rarely direct. Sometimes we need to take a diversion here and there in order to maintain the forward momentum and political support, but without sacrificing our ultimate goal. We will still have lines we won’t cross and shouldn’t be a pushover, but equally we don’t need to win every argument, or always try to be the smartest person in the room.
It’s a tricky balance to describe, even harder to pull off successfully in practice. Perhaps that’s why product management is such a tricky profession to nail down.
Speak to you soon,
Jock
what to think about this week
CPO Stories – Debbie McMahon – The Financial Times
Debbie McMahon is the interim Chief Product Officer at the Financial Times, one of the UK’s most well-known and distinctive newspapers. Debbie started out working at the Department for Work & Pensions, moving into a product strategy role there before spending time at the BBC and onwards to the FT.
“Am I really going to die in a die in a hill over this?”
[Jason Knight / One Knight In Product]
The genius of SVPG
‘No one gets fired for recommending “Transformed”’
He [Marty Cagan] (and the other authors) has found a way to nudge change in an executive-friendly way. I mean this in the best way: no one gets fired for bringing in SVPG. That is an outstanding feat when you consider how directly SVPG challenges leaders to up their product game. Few people out there manage to do this on such a grand scale, and for that, I am very grateful.
“It’s not just what is said; it’s who says it, when, and how it’s framed”
[John Cutler / The Beautiful Mess]
recent posts
Cloud computing for non-technical product managers
To understand how cloud computing works, we’re going to start with the basic building blocks and work our way up.
And why is it a cloud anyway? (All is revealed)
[I Manage Products]
Navigating your product management career
Ross Webb and I have been chatting about product management career progression.
We cover topics including:
» Thinking of visibility as a strategic competency, not self-promotion
» Controlling your narrative through regular updates
» Building cross-organisational relationships deliberately
» Mapping your stakeholders’ preferred communication styles
A roundtable chat on moving into product leadership
[I Manage Products]
New technology alone is not the answer
New technology is not going to suddenly make all the challenges facing an organisation disappear overnight. Why? Because more often than not, those challenges are social not technological. Technology alone rarely solves ‘people problems’.
AI is neither a panacea nor a magic bullet just as digital wasn’t for UK gov
[I Manage Products]
can we help you?
Product People is a product management services company. We can help you through consultancy, training and coaching. Just contact us if you need our help!
Helping people build better products, more successfully, since 2012.
PRODUCTHEAD is a newsletter for product people of all varieties, and is lovingly crafted from wishing I skipped leg day this week.
Read more from Jock
The Practitioner's Guide To Product Management
by Jock Busuttil
“I wish this book was published when I started out in product management. It gives a really wonderful overview of what product management is and involves on a day to day basis.”
— Keji Adedeji, product leader & coach
Jock Busuttil is a product management and leadership coach, product leader and author. He has spent over two decades working with technology companies to improve their product management practices, from startups to multinationals. In 2012 Jock founded Product People Limited, which provides product management consultancy, coaching and training. Its clients include BBC, University of Cambridge, Ometria, Prolific and the UK’s Ministry of Justice and Government Digital Service (GDS). Jock holds a master’s degree in Classics from the University of Cambridge. He is the author of the popular book The Practitioner’s Guide To Product Management, which was published in January 2015 by Grand Central Publishing in the US and Piatkus in the UK. He writes the blog I Manage Products and weekly product management newsletter PRODUCTHEAD. You can find him on Mastodon, X (formerly Twitter) and LinkedIn.