From Hype/FOMO/Theater to Fit-for-Purpose: How To Use a Product Operating Model To Develop Your Product Operating Model

Alice wants her product organization to adopt a product operating model because she believes it’s the future of working. She’s been an early adopter of agile and lean startup methods and is constantly looking for better ways to work. 

Bob wants their product organization to adopt a product operating model because they have an expensive problem—they were brought in to help scale a product organization. With 12 product teams working on a line/portfolio of products, there’s little consistency, little alignment to outcomes, and little predictability. 

Charlie heard about a product operating model from their analyst at Gortner. Then, the Partner at McLoitte, with whom they’re working, suggested it might be the next big step in their organization’s transformation. 

WDYT? Which of these product/tech leaders will get more out of their investment in adopting a product operating model? 

Alice is motivated by ambition. She is one of a rare breed of leaders whose ambition is oriented around the How, not the What. She knows that being proactive and creating a great organization will eventually impact her organization’s results. Alice is willing to invest in improvement even if it’s not directly connected to a top-of-mind, expensive problem. She’s even excited to try new things for the sake of innovating. 

Bob is motivated by desire. They have a real problem to solve. For Bob, any work on ways of working needs to be tightly connected to top-of-mind problems/opportunities that affect the ability of their organization to deliver. 

Charlie is motivated by status / FOMO (Fear of missing out). If everybody is investing, they will jump on board. 

What should you do if you’re Alice? Bob? Charlie? How should you approach the Product Operating Model? (Or any similar opportunity? ) : 

Here’s what I’d do:

• Explore real problems and see which improvement ideas could address them. (even and especially if the improvement idea first emerged due to FOMO or new shiny thing syndrome)

• Frame an outcome hypothesis - why? Why now? 

• Identify leading indicators focused on the behaviors the change will drive/enable (avoid vanity metrics!) 

• Treat ways of working development as a “Platform Product,” applying a customer-centric approach to serve their internal customers—the product organization and the ecosystem around it. 

• Working with suppliers? Adopting a Product Operating Model could be a nice opportunity to move from a project-to-product mindset in how you engage your vendors… 

Or, in other words, use a product-led mindset to develop and leverage a product operating model.