I frequently encounter leaders who believe their team(s) aren’t “ready” for taking a more outcome focused approach. They talk of “baby steps” and “learning how to crawl before...”.
Here’s what they are missing
... to learn something, it is important to practice the thing (1/n)
You don’t learn this by running a (or working in a) feature factory, cranking out the stuff sprint by sprint.
You learn by doing a version — albeit probably more controlled/structured — of the thing ... (2/n)
What might that involve?
- direct contact w/customers
- some ability to “sense” outcomes qualitatively/quantitatively
- a feedback loop
...and most importantly, a real team. With all the people needed, working together regularly.
Why? This is something you need to practice.
The rationale of hiding people from each other because collaboration is hard is detrimental (4/n)
Of course, it would be evil to throw a team early in their learning journey to the wolves. A super chaotic problem space. Lots of dependencies. No role models.
This is finally a chance for experienced people to actually be 10x :) Work alongside/instead these learning teams (5/n)
...and not as distant managers helicopter parenting the team ...
No...in the trenches, doing the thing.
Anyway, the point here is to learn something DO THE THING, not part of the thing.
Which brings us to final issue...(6/n)
The fear mentioned in the original tweet (of a team not being ready, of needing to crawl) is often really about the leader being afraid. Fearing their own abilities. Not able to let go.
And that’s where you should always start (7/end)
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How should product managers and designers share certain responsibilities?
wrong answers only.
Pm: I pick the right things. You build them right ...
Pm: oh hey for that work we’ve been talking about that is five months out ... do you mind just whipping up some mocks? Nothing serious. Promise. Will not hold you to them.
I've meet execs who swear "we can't do X because we can't hire engineers like [big tech co]". Are they right?
and others who say ... "all you need is psychological safety and empowerment and ppl will figure it out"
hmm (1/n)
... I'm reminded of an environment that had an extremely strong foundation of quality (and safety, and empowerment). And exp. leaders.
In that env, a new grad would take 2-4y to really start figuring out the product thing. AND...would start contributing quickly.
and.. (2/n)
... another env with very talented/experienced folks all with 10+y experience, being mired in complete insanity. Things falling apart. Bureaucracy. Toxic company politics. It was terrible. Many people left. Some people stayed in a Sisyphean effort to fix the org.
a question I ask startup founders that they seem to find helpful ...
"what do you need to be the best in the world at?"
(hyperbole intended)
here's what is fascinating about the replies...(1/n)
Some people will list 5-8 things.
"We need to be awesome at a,b,c,d,e,f,g!"
...w/o an ounce of self awareness that being awesome at one thing is HARD. Two things is REALLY HARD. Three? Nope.
Here's another thing...
Most people haven't "unpacked" the value chain (2/n)
Take something like targeted in-app #UX enhancements ...
you need to be amazing at 1) doing that w/o breaking someone's product, 2) doing it quickly, 3) the targeting, 4) all the requisite data plumbing, 5) clean data, 6) marketing it, 7) best in the world at in-app #ux (3/n)
a big learning the last year is the degree to which your most passionate team members will *expect* leaders/managers to coherently frame strategy
this is where "autonomy" often hits a snag. Leaders assume it means "bottom up" planning. But that isn't it ... (1/n)
Writing up 3 vague bullets on a "vision" slide is easy. Also easy is planning out each and every chunk of work for the year.
Much harder is detailing a strategy that leaves room for creativity and agency ... but is also coherent, backed by evidence, and is opinionated ... (2/n)
Opinionated? Isn't that bad?
I don't think so when it is opinionated at the right level. Passionate problem solvers want to know that their company has a perspective and doesn't want to be everything/anything.
"Um hey, so what are your OKRs" doesn't land. (3/n)