Reza Akhmad Gandara’s Post

Something to think about this week: Is your product team set up for success? Here are the 5 key pillars of high-performing product teams: 1️⃣ Vision that inspires: Align everyone on where you’re going and why it matters. 2️⃣ Empathetic leadership: Lead with trust, clarity, and empowerment. 3️⃣ Customer-driven action: Understand your customers so well you solve problems they didn’t even know they had. 4️⃣ Culture of experimentation: Foster ownership and innovation by embracing smart risks. 5️⃣ Tech, talent, and process: Equip your team with the tools, skills, and frameworks to thrive. If you’re ready to empower your team and deliver real results, start here: https://lnkd.in/evWcMWqK 👉 #ProductManagement #Leadership #Innovation #AI #TeamBuilding

Good Product Teams Build, Great Product Teams Define Success A few days back I talked about the importance of a solid hypothesis for a feature/initiative. Success criteria are equally important and complementary to the hypothesis. Crappy analogy alert: IMO Building features without success criteria is like saying I want to build a house without knowing how many bedrooms/bathrooms I want in the house. Here is why objective success criteria are non-negotiable in product development. 1️⃣ MVP Definition: Having clear success criteria helps understand what should/should not be part of MVP. As new ideas and "enhancements" are thrown at you, you can fall back on "Does this new enhancement solve our hypothesis and will it move the needle on our success criteria?" The answer to those questions will help keep your MVP, a true MVP. 2️⃣ Alignment and Communication: This is not instantly evident, but clear success metrics align teams and set expectations. Everyone knows what success looks like, what we are trying to achieve and reduces creative interpretation. 3️⃣ Facilitating Decisions: When a feature doesn’t meet its success criteria, the decision to iterate, pivot, or sunset becomes clearer and easier. Without criteria, teams risk endless debates and indecision. Setting objective success criteria won’t guarantee success, but it’s the responsibility of leaders to enforce these good practices. By setting clear, objective success criteria, we give our teams the best possible chance to learn, grow, and ultimately succeed. It's about creating an environment where teams can build with confidence and learn from every outcome.

Does your product team use its full potential? Here is how to unlock it. You may be tired of watching your product ideas get stuck in an endless cycle of prototyping and development. You might be experiencing "Launch Paralysis" – a common ailment that's costing companies millions in unrealized potential. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗛𝗶𝗱𝗱𝗲𝗻 𝗖𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗗𝗲𝗹𝗮𝘆 According to a recent study by McKinsey, companies that are slow to market lose up to 35% of potential lifetime profits for their products. But it doesn't have to be this way. 𝗥𝗮𝗽𝗶𝗱 𝗟𝗮𝘂𝗻𝗰𝗵 𝗔𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 Get your product teams out of MVP hell and into the market. 4 things to focus on: 1. Cross-functional sync: Break down silos and get everyone moving in the same direction through experiments 2. Accelerated decision-making: Cut through analysis paralysis with priorization frameworks 3. Market-ready mindset: Shift from perfection-seeking to value-delivering right away with GTM frameworks 4. Launch momentum: Build a culture that celebrates shipping and iterating quickly with ownership by product teams 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗽𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗲𝘀 The most successful product teams aren't just creative - they're agile launchers using best practices in tech. Here's what sets them apart: They embrace 'good enough' over perfection They align cross-functionally from day one They celebrate shipping more than ideation The result? Products that evolve with real user feedback, not boardroom hypotheses. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗜𝗻𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 If you don't transform your product teams, every day your product stays in development is a day your competitors are capturing market share. Don't let indecision and perfectionism be the enemy of progress. 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺 In my years at AWS, Google, and McKinsey, I've seen firsthand how this mindset shift can unlock a team's potential. It's not about working harder or more resources - it's about organizing the work smarter. What's holding your teams back from launching faster? Share below, and let's discuss how to overcome the hurdles! #ProductManagement #Innovation #TechLeadership

In order to deliver tangible outcomes fast, #ProductDevelopment teams must radically collaborate and rapidly iterate. Speed to market isn't just about velocity but about your team's ability to rapidly iterate and incorporate feedback. A good analogy is revolutions per minute (RPMs):The smaller the feedback loops, the faster you can get a #ProofOfConcept, wireframes or working software to production. For example, 4 iterations in 2 weeks will take you 1.5-2X further than 1 iteration in that same 2-week span. As leaders, how can we drive speed across teams? 🏗 Build a culture of radical collaboration, trust, and transparency 🗣 Practice "strong opinions, loosely held" and "alignment vs. consensus"; I also recommend adding Ego Is the Enemy by @ Ryan Holiday to your reading list 🎯 To avoid bottlenecks and extra cycles, empower your teams with autonomy; trust their ability to execute product and business outcomes Across all disciplines at Crafted, we show progress early and often and are willing to iterate. This allows us to confidently say we ship value to our clients and their customers in 30 days. #ProductSuccess #SoftwareDevelopment

Building Empowered, Outcome-Focused Product Teams 🚀 Successful product teams don’t just build features—they solve real problems, drive outcomes, and thrive on collaboration. Here's how to empower your teams for maximum impact: 1️⃣ Empowered to Solve Real Problems: -> How: Give teams autonomy and the tools they need to make decisions. Let them focus on addressing core user pain points and encourage them to innovate solutions rather than follow pre-set instructions. -> For example: I push down authority to those closest to the work to be the decision-makers, rather than relying on multiple layers of management that aren't as close to the action. 2️⃣ Focused on Outcomes, Not Just Output: -> How: Set clear, measurable outcomes instead of just tracking deliverables. Focus on how your product impacts user engagement, retention, or business growth, always aligning with strategic business goals and organizational OKRs. -> For example: While KPIs/OKRs are essential, the focus should always be on solving the right problems for users—not just hitting a quota. Outcomes matter more than output, ensuring you're driving meaningful results for both the customer and the business. 3️⃣ Driven by Ownership and Collaboration: -> How: Foster a sense of accountability by making teams responsible for both successes and challenges. Extreme ownership should be the norm—everyone acts like the CEO. -> For example: I instill a culture where every team member knows their work directly impacts the product’s success or failure. Cross-collaboration across teams, departments, and divisions is crucial—working together to solve problems fuels innovation. Are your teams empowered to drive real results? How do you foster this culture in your organization? 👇 👀 Like, repost, and comment below! #ProductManagement #Leadership #Innovation #TeamCollaboration #OutcomeDriven #CareerGrowth

Product managers, we have a critical role in design success! By advocating for user empathy, data-driven insights, and strong collaboration with designers, we can unlock a product's true potential. What design fixes have made a major impact for your products? #productmanagement #designthinking #leadership

Steps to Rapid Application Development we follow at Crafted which enable us to drive impact in 30 days or less. While and Enablement and Handover can take months depending on scope, the first three steps allow us to get software in the hands of customers before their first invoice. ✍🏻 Discovery (Requirements Definition) 🚧 POCs (Prototyping) 🚀 Rapid Iteration (Construct Quickly) 🛤️ Enablement and Handover (Deployment and Transition) Check out our customer quotes in Adam Oliver's linked post. I'm also sharing a link to the article I wrote about RAD for Built In in the comments #SoftwareDevelopment #RAD https://lnkd.in/gY8mDK8d

It was deja vu for me, when I read Marty Cagan explain the four reasons product strategy is so hard: 1️⃣ Focus: While most companies & leaders believe they are focusing on a *few* things, it is still a few too many. We must take the list of critically important things, and choose the one or top few that can truly make an impact. 2️⃣ Insights: In my view, this is the primary reason product strategy is so challenging. It requires collecting qualitative and quantitative data, coupled with industry and technology trends, and the ability to synthesize this information to discover and identify insights. These insights, in turn, help us to comprehend the opportunities and valuable levers. 3️⃣ Actions: Using the focus & the insights to identify the problems worth addressing, and using those insights to establish objectives for your product teams. 4️⃣ Better Management - In the real world, product delivery teams frequently deal with unplanned challenges, from technical debt to customer issues. As a product leader, it can be hard to find the balance between empowering the team and removing impediments for them. Additionally, it's crucial to apply the lens of the company's strategic context as a guide in decision-making across these points! Share your comments on what other factors to consider to truly define a winning product strategy.

In product development, balancing decisiveness with questioning decisions is crucial. What is the right approach? Why Lean Towards Decisiveness? Speed to Market 🕒: Quick decisions enable faster product launches, allowing us to capitalize on current market opportunities before competitors do. Agility 💪: Being decisive helps teams adapt to changing market conditions swiftly, maintaining relevance and competitiveness. Customer Feedback 📣: Early product launches provide real-world feedback sooner, enabling iterative improvements based on actual user experiences. Resource Efficiency 💰: Swift decision-making optimizes the use of resources, reducing the time and costs associated with prolonged deliberation. Team Motivation 🎉: Decisive action fosters a sense of progress and momentum, keeping the team motivated and engaged. Market Relevance 🌍: By making quick decisions, products remain aligned with the current market trends and demands, ensuring they stay relevant and competitive. Potential Downsides of Decisiveness Potential Oversights 🔍: Rapid decisions might miss critical details, leading to mistakes that could have been avoided with more thorough consideration. Initial Market Misalignment 🎯: Without sufficient questioning, early versions of the product might not perfectly align with market needs, requiring subsequent adjustments. Increased Risk ⚠️: Without thoroughly examining decisions, potential pitfalls can be missed, increasing the risk of significant issues later. Limited Innovation 💡: Short timelines might push towards more straightforward solutions, limiting the exploration of diverse ideas and potentially stifling innovation. How to Balance Decisiveness and Validation 1. Set Clear Decision Frameworks 🧩: Establish clear criteria and processes for decision-making to ensure consistency and alignment with strategic goals. 2. Embrace Iteration 🔄: Launch minimally viable products (MVPs) to gather early feedback, allowing for quick adjustments and improvements based on real user input. 3. Regular Checkpoints 📊: Implement regular review checkpoints to reassess decisions and incorporate new insights, ensuring ongoing alignment with market needs. 4. Encourage Open Feedback 💬: Foster a culture where team members feel empowered to voice concerns and suggest improvements, balancing decisiveness with thoughtful consideration. While decisiveness drives speed and efficiency, it’s essential to incorporate mechanisms for ongoing validation and iteration. This approach ensures that products not only reach the market quickly but also evolve to meet changing customer needs and market dynamics. In fast-paced industries, the ability to adapt and iterate rapidly can be the key to maintaining a competitive edge. 🌟 #ProductDevelopment #DecisionMaking #Agility #Leadership #ProductMarketFit #Innovation

🚨 EMPOWERED Product Teams are not AUTONOMOUS! 🚨 ...and if you think they are you've misunderstood the concept! This mismatch in understanding is something that I believe is adding to the friction between leaders and teams at the moment. Increasing the perception of "not doing product right" for many people. The terms get thrown around and mixed together as if they are the same. But there is a problem; they are not the same... The word AUTONOMOUS gets interpreted as meaning: The team is completely in control of what they do. COMPLETELY, as in no external forces have any control or input. The term EMPOWERED product team comes from Marty Cagan, and he is clear that is not what he means. It is leadership's job to decide what problems to solve; not doing so means they aren't doing their job. And I fundamentally agree with him here. To quote Marty: "EMPOWERED product teams don't need less leadership; they need better leadership." They need leaders who provide clarity and then empower the team to solve the problems in the best way. Those leaders need to provide context and constraints, too, because that informs what solving in the best way really means. There are ways to solve problems that are strategically aligned, for example, and there are ways that aren't. But teams are often unaware of these, and this leads to bad choices. Empowered product teams are empowered to solve customer problems in ways that work for the business. Don't get me wrong; I want to see an entrepreneurial spirit in the product teams. They are likely to find many of the customer problems that need solving and will have an opinion on which ones to pursue. Great leaders will listen to this and weigh it. Often, they will agree and say, "Yes, go solve it." But not always. Once the decision is made, the team should get onboard. 📣 Leaders empower your teams through clarity and direction! 📣 #productmanagement #productmgmt #productpeople #productleaders #productteams