The Irony of Managing a Product Transformation like a Project
If you're selling a product transformation but managing it like a project — tracking vanity metrics, avoiding kill criteria, and measuring outputs — you're doing exactly what you're asking others to stop doing.
Click image to open full size The next time a big consultancy pitches a transformation - let’s say a project to product transformation – ask them how they recommend managing it.
And see if what they describe looks more like a Project or a Product.
For example, Will they measure vanity metrics or product metrics?
It just goes to show how tempting these vanity metrics are.
How hard it is to talk about the real WHY (especially when the WHY is because a big consultancy firm sold us on it…)
How frightening it is to look at the actual outcomes of our initiatives.
Here’s the thing…
As change agents driving a product operating model, we are asking people to behave differently. We should show them how that looks:
Starting with a hypothesis: We believe that we will achieve stronger, more sustainable growth if product teams can deliver measurable customer outcomes with a product operating model that gives them end-to-end ownership and clear success metrics. (Don’t copy-paste - create your own!)
Provide leading indicators, for example -
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% of product teams who can clearly state their product mission and intended outcomes (ideally without looking it up)
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% of new product initiatives that go through hypothesis prioritization to determine whether to test, ship and measure, or drop
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% of new product initiatives that require testing undergo a discovery/truth curve process.
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% of product teams report they are empowered at the right level to make decisions
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% of product teams report fewer dependency overhead
For Key Results / Success Criteria, move from % to a discrete result, e.g., 80% of product teams can …
And don’t forget Kill Criteria, such as after 6 months, fewer than 30% of teams can articulate their mission and outcome metrics
What do you think will happen once you start treating your product operating model transformation as a product initiative (instead of a project)?
Interested to learn more? Explore the Product-Oriented Portfolio Agility Trail Map for in-depth insights into applying product thinking for product transformation.
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