» Context helps to make a service good as opposed to simply existing
» By not consciously designing our services, we instead force our users to link actions together
» Outcomes for users are core user needs that a service helps them to meet
» A starting point can be to ask different teams what ‘good’ looks like to them
» Empowered teams can only succeed if the leadership team is on board
» Leaders can’t scale or have all the answers; empowered teams stand a better chance
» Leadership needs to be open and transparent when issuing a “must-do” edict to an empowered team
» Product leadership is continually striving for coherence of approach and clarity of purpose
» Wartime vs peacetime leaders employ different skill sets
» Airbnb’s changes to product management could be just what is needed in wartime or equally a retrograde step
» Working from home is a particularly polarising debate because it aligns with the leader-employee divide
» Discussions about productivity are often a proxy discussion for some other dysfunction
» When delivering difficult news at work, you are not there to seek sympathy
» Tie business impact to deprioritised work to highlight the problem to your CEO without sounding whiny
» An organisation’s emotional culture governs which emotions people express and suppress at work
» Many organisation equate “fixing” to basically “patching holes in the slowly sinking boat”
» Some people think about problems directly; others think through the problem via potential solutions
» Organisations often jump straight into action without establishing a foundation for coping with uncertainty
» If one group has all the decision-making power, others cannot properly contribute
» We perform better when we bring our emotions to work
» Call out toxic workplaces, but also have an exit strategy
» An effective team needs: psychological safety, dependability, structure & clarity, meaning, and impact
» Treat psychological safety as a key business metric, as important as revenue, cost of sales, or uptime
» Make small changes and embrace experimentation
» People may have a sincere commitment to change, while also unwittingly applying productive energy toward a hidden competing commitment.
» Extreme situations can build extreme understanding and can also push people apart
» Does our current worldview limit the way we think about organisations?
» Problems come and go, but culture is forever
» Psychological safety presents a new set of social norms
» Product managers should be at the forefront of helping organisations to do things better for people
» The corporate vision explains why the company exists
» Open forums and communication lines between teams helps to maintain alignment
» Hierarchy in organisations appeals to our innate need for stability, but turns us into ego-driven and needy children
» Nature abhors a hierarchy. What if there was a viable alternative way to organise ourselves?
» Valve Corporation shows new employees how an organisation can operate without hierarchy
34.2% of product managers said they left their previous role because there were no opportunities to grow.
In this panel discussion, Lucie McLean (Zalando) discusses growth and career progression for product managers with Jock Busuttil (Product People Limited) and Daniil Pavliuchkov (Tier).
