In our work with numerous world-class organizations, we have identified a few core areas of discipline that leaders of Product Management teams can focus on to drive functional excellence:
- Create process, but not too much. Do you have a process by which product management is evaluated? Is that process overly bureaucratic, or does it allow for flexibility based on market needs and individual creativity?
- Force tough decisions. Are you making your teams "decide" before it’s too late—or is inaction too easy? Have years of portfolio inaction compounded?
- Make time to work on strategy. Are you providing a regular forum to discuss your portfolio strategy, or are you "too busy" with day-to-day challenges? Do your attempts at strategy sessions turn into pointless PowerPoint exercises where people are more interested in their individual objectives than in business goals? As one of our client senior executives recently said to a group of product managers, "We don't make decisions in silos, so why do we spend all of our time in silos?"
- Provide structure and coaching. Are you providing the right structure to enable strategic discussions? Have you tried bringing in external coaches to offer outside perspective and help facilitate cross-team interactions? One senior executive recently told us after a workshop that our "EMM Coach helped keep the team on task and added structure to services innovations that we wouldn't have come up with ourselves."
- Get your data right. It seems that data is never in the format and function where it is most useful, so basic metrics (revenue, margin, cost) can be difficult to ascertain at the portfolio level. Are you in synch with your IT group to the get the information you need when you need it?
- Don't allow complacency. Even the best functioning teams with strong strategies can get better. The marketplace is always changing and teams are always evolving. Constrained budgets force teams to find creative ways to fund experiments and stay ahead of competition.
A Word of Caution About Leadership
The term "leadership function" is often attributed to Product Management, but that is a double-edged sword. Yes, Product Managers need to be leaders: inclusive of other's input, decisive, able to set a vision and motivate others to follow along. However, this mindset may undermine the fact that leadership is essential across functions.
- Marketing needs to lead with the voice of the market.
- Sales leaders need to drive the vision across the organization.
- Finance leaders need to set a tone of risk management and financial acumen.
- Every function has an essential leadership role.
Calling out product management as “the” leader sometimes has unintended effects on how other functions view them, which is entirely counter-productive.
So, what did do you think? Have any of these strategies worked for you? Are there others you recommend?
