Thread by @lissijean

Well I’m stuck on the runway and you know what that means!

*drumroll*

Time for a #prodmgmt twitter rant.

Today’s rant is about enterprise companies and how they value digital product management. /1

I’ve spent the last 5 years helping very very large organizations go through “product transformations”. You know, that thing after the “agile” transformation.

When they realize “oh crap we have 450 people who don’t know what they’re doing.” /2

And I’m glad that these #agile transformations happened because it helped to show these companies they need real #prodmgmt, not just backlog groomers.

But there’s a problem... /3

Large enterprises see #prodmgmt as a team level job - something that does not have a career path to the C-Suite. And because of that, they don’t spend the time and money they need making that division and capability in the organization better.

Why? /4

Because they don’t see #prodmgmt as a business function. They see it as an “IT” function because of the way they were introduced to the concept - through tech.

So PM has become a cost center. /5

Now how does that compare to the Silicon Valley and growth stage companies these enterprises want to innovate like?

They understand #prodmgmt as a growth engine, not a cost center. They see it as value creation. And that’s what makes them innovate better. /6

The Silicon Valley companies grew up digital - their products were software products.

They weren’t selling printers like HP, or CPG items like Procter & Gamble. These were companies that had Product Managers early on, but not “software product managers” until later. /7

So the concept of “digital products” is foreign to many enterprises. And even less understood than that is how digital products can be an engine for revenue growth.

And for the companies who do understand that engine, they aren’t structured to take advantage of it. /8

These companies get stuck bc they aren’t putting the oomph they need to behind this change.

Instead of hiring experienced product leaders at mid and top tiers, they train everyone. Which I think is good intentioned.

But a year later they take that training budget away. /9

Then the #prodmgmt team gets frustrated - they can see what they need to do but the organization isn’t ready. They have no coaching. They have no career path. But they’re told to keep “innovating” or “building MVPs”. /10

Instead of taking a holistic approach to introducing a product capability, top to bottom, they only focus on the team level processes. They don’t change the structure or strategy behind what those teams are doing. /11

Now I know changing an enterprise is not easy, and I’m not suggesting this is something that happens overnight. It takes years.

But every time budget season comes around, companies forget that.

/12

And this won’t change until leaders see the value in great #prodmgmt.

If software is eating the world, who do you think figures out what we should build? /13

#prodmgmt is not like #agile or #designthinking.

It is a role. A career.

And companies who don’t have this career path, all the way to CPO, and see it as a critical business function are going to fail as we rely more and more on software to deliver value to our customers. /end