Thread by @sambhigham

I'm increasingly convinced that in some companies
the push for being 'Product-Led' is leading to a catastrophic misfire.

They incorrectly establish a 'Product-Fed' culture.

Some thoughts...

👇 (1/9)

The original intention behind the 'Product-Led' movement was to infer that we would create a proposition that centres around an increasingly more valuable Product - rather than whatever Sales et al. sell or the biggest customers demand...(2/9)

However, because we call it 'Product-Led' it infers (incorrectly!) to less mature teams that the Product Person is the one with all the power.

Hense 'Product-Fed'.

Unsurprisingly this causes animosity between disciplines... (3/9)

The natural consequence is that each function starts to act in a silo fighting for a 'seat at the table'.

So, instead of collaboratively finding the best way to add the most value to The Product, they are busy trying to get more of the work they deem 'important' done...(4/9)

This then leads to 'containerised thinking' where each discipline is only thinking about what is valuable from their POV and miss the bigger picture.

So even when they try to collaborate, they miss the connections between their viewpoints...(5/9)

This is exacerbated by some Product People who drink their own Kool-Aid, and take a command & control approach.

"We only need to do this type of Discovery."
"Get the thing out, we'll take the technical debt and deal with it later.
"Here's the mock-up, implement it."

... (6/9)

This completely misses the point of what a Product Team actually is!

Each discipline collaborates together to find the most effective way to get to the desired outcome given the constraints.

The Product Person's responsibility is to help the teams understand the goal...(7/9)

...and any of the context that is valuable to help the other disciplines make the right decision about the way forward.

They then need to rely on their peers to make the right decision - and give the context for that decision.

My favourite diagram to articulate that...(8/9)

So, what can we do?

I think a helpful reframing would be instead of 'Product-Led' they are 'Value-Led' Teams.

They collaborate together to deliver sustainable value for their Product, in a way that works in the given constraints.

(9/9)

So...

- What do you think?
- Does this sound familiar?
- Is Product-Led vs Product-Fed a thing?
- What ways have you helped prevent this?

Back to the top...

https://twitter.com/sambhigham/status/1473953265628893184?s=20