Its a Trap! 🚨Is product management overly obsessed with perfect? Through coaching and advisory role I have seen the inner workings of LOTS of companies. During this time I have seen behind the scenes of tech firms which IPO’ed, were strategic acquired, raised large sums from VCs, sold to PE and in severe cases closed down. While many companies bought into the ideas of SVPGs Product Operating Model not one recognisably practiced exactly what the books say. OKRs rarely were managed the same way, or formed the same way. Strategic planning typically involved different criteria and dimensions. C-suite or founders had totally different styles and level of involvement in product. Perhaps the ONLY common thing has been the frustration by staff about decisions or resource levels. My point is, the ideology shared by many product thought leaders and many practitioners doesn’t look identical when practiced. Each company is different, mainly because they are full of people and we are all different. Product management needs to stop comparing to the perceived operations of other companies. It’s the same as teenagers unhealthy obsession with the perceived lives of Instagram influencers. Let’s all focus more on your own organisation and how you can make improvements and compare against yesterday not others. As athletes often say “run your own race”. Take the learnings of others, and figure out how to try aspects to improve your performance, but don’t blindly copy! The companies you look at and believe are perfect are definitely not. They are full of policitics, manipulation and silos - they are full of humans.
Dave Martin great post. Stop comparing. Learn what you can from others' lessons and from frameworks. Then make your own choices.
I'm afraid everyone will read it, nod in agreement and then do the same old shit until the see it doesn't work. That's how we learn.
Does the quest for a perfect product management model do more harm than good by distracting from the unique challenges and strengths of individual companies?
The market is now obsessed with product management as if it were something new. Products and OKRs have existed for many decades under different names, the only difference now is that we have Agile and Methodology preachers.
Great point! Every organization, industry and market is different. The factors that determine success differ. Whatever PM model is employed is only a means to an end. Don’t obsess with the model. Be willing to tweak your model to realize the desired outcome.
Word! External references to compare yourself most unfavourably against are rarely any good for healthy development and progress. (My pet peeve with all kinds of maturity models out there.)
I love that comparison with teenagers unhealthy obsession with Instagram! Although sadly it’s not just teenagers.
At the risk of digging even deeper, the problem is the idea of a 'product management' profession at all. SVPG and everyone else in the 'use a model' or 'follow an approach' space (including preachers of Agile) have committed the scientific fallacy of believing their theory is true as opposed to pending falsification in every new company. In my limited experience, product professionals' time is better spent learning by experimentation than implementing any pre-canned wisdom or approach. Including strict agile.
Bringing together Sales-led SaaS CEOs hungry for profitable growth | Author of The Remarkable Effect | Client stories in About
7moIs it being overly obsessed with perfection, or is it procrastination? Often people are hiding, don't dare to ship - so the easiest way is to just keep perfecting. So costly.