# Why would you need a Product Operating Model?: transcript

Automatic transcript of the published podcast audio. Recognition errors are possible. Speakers are unlabeled; do not attribute a passage to Yuval or a guest without checking the audio.

Episode: https://yuvalyeret.com/scaling-ai-podcast/why-would-you-need-a-product-operating-model/
Source RSS GUID: substack:post:176410407
Source: published Riverside RSS audio enclosure
Transcription: faster-whisper base.en, English

## Transcript

[00:00:00] You're probably here because you've heard of product operating model in your research.

[00:00:04] You've probably seen some work from Marty Kagan, Elisa Perry.

[00:00:09] Maybe you've looked at the Scronditorgage of product operating model.

[00:00:12] Maybe you've seen a safe executive briefing on product operating model.

[00:00:19] Essentially, what product operating models try to be is a model for how the product

[00:00:25] organization operates, but how is it different than classic ways of working?

[00:00:30] Product operating models focus on the customer centric, focusing on product outcomes,

[00:00:37] having empowered teams that can deliver these outcomes,

[00:00:40] operating with agility so that you can close feedback loops and deliver fast.

[00:00:46] All of these things on the surface should be things that your organization,

[00:00:54] if it's invested in being agile or doing agile already, should have figured out by now.

[00:01:03] Why do we need a product operating model? Why isn't agile enough?

[00:01:08] And that's what I'm going to talk about today.

[00:01:13] Essentially, why are we still stuck in a feature factory?

[00:01:20] Why are you and your organization still stuck in a feature factory?

[00:01:24] What do we mean by a feature factory? We mean a product or engineering or technology organization

[00:01:31] that is focused on delivering scope, on delivering features.

[00:01:37] That's better than not delivering anything.

[00:01:41] A factory is an improvement from the mayhem that we've had before,

[00:01:45] where the organization couldn't deliver predictably and there was no trust in its ability to deliver

[00:01:53] working products. Feature factories are better. We're able to deliver working stuff.

[00:02:00] But a lot of the time, what we see is despite the fact that we deliver things, we're not really

[00:02:06] seeing the outcomes. There's this continuum from activity.

[00:02:13] Activity isn't that useful, right? We could be fully busy and not generate any useful stuff.

[00:02:21] We could start to improve the flow, being more focused,

[00:02:28] build quality in and start to deliver outputs. This is the feature factory.

[00:02:34] And we could start to focus on outcomes, on delivering features that generate customer outcomes.

[00:02:41] A feature factory is disconnected essentially from the outcomes. It doesn't care as much about

[00:02:47] the outcomes or struggles to orient around outcomes. As we reach the end of this episode,

[00:02:54] a reflection question for you. We talked about feature factory dynamics today.

[00:03:04] What are some signs of feature factory dynamics that you're currently seeing

[00:03:11] in your organization?