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Transcript: https://yuvalyeret.com/podcast/episodes/empowered-product-teams-the-key-to-speed-outcomes-and-impact/transcript.md
## Published episode notes
This episode of the audio series introduces a core pillar of the modern product organization - empowered product teams:
* What does a truly empowered product team look like?
* Contrast between ideal product professionals and reality in feature factories
* Challenges faced by product people in feature factory environments
* The struggle to build effective product capabilities in technology organizations
* Misalignment between strategic product roles and tactical team needs
About the Navigating the Product Operating Model Landscape Audio Series
What You’ll Learn:
* Why Agile Feature Factories Fail, and What to Do About It
* Assessing Your Current Operating Model, Are You Stuck in Projects?
* Principles of Effective Product Operating Models
* When does a Product Operating Model make sense?
* Making It Real: Mapping Your Trail Toward Transformation
Subscribe to the free audio mini course here: https://yuvalyeret.com/from-buzzwords-to-clarity-product-operating-model-audio-mini-course/
This is for you if you’re:
* A Head of Product, Technology, Engineering, or Product Ops, trying to apply or scale product-led practices
* Tired of theory or comprehensive perspective frameworks and hungry for real-world strategies that work
* Too busy to sit down for training or even watch a video “masterclass” (Webinar in disguise…) and prefer to consume audio podcasts.
* Not a fan of 6-figure, inspiring slide decks left behind by expensive consulting firms and product experts.
Need help navigating the product transformation landscape? https://yuvalyeret.com/work-with-me/figure-out-your-product-operating-model-strategy/
Interested in more of my insights on the Product world? https://yuvalyeret.com/category/blog/product/
To hear more, visit yuvalyeret.substack.com
## 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/empowered-product-teams-the-key-to-speed-outcomes-and-impact/
Source RSS GUID: substack:post:176411856
Source: published Riverside RSS audio enclosure
Transcription: faster-whisper base.en, English
## Transcript
[00:00:00] So let's talk a bit more about why that happens.
[00:00:04] If what we want is empowered product teams
[00:00:07] that are lying around outcomes,
[00:00:11] they have everybody that they need
[00:00:13] and the accountability, the permission,
[00:00:17] the encouragement and the expectation from the organization
[00:00:21] to go discover what delivers value,
[00:00:24] to go talk to their customers,
[00:00:26] to try different things,
[00:00:28] to throw some features at the wall
[00:00:30] and see what sticks and double down on these things
[00:00:33] and pivot away from things that don't work.
[00:00:36] This is what we want to see,
[00:00:38] but what we often see in an organization
[00:00:41] is an environment where this isn't the case.
[00:00:46] What we want to see in this empowered environment
[00:00:50] is product professionals,
[00:00:54] whether you call that product owner or product manager,
[00:00:58] you want to see a product professional
[00:01:02] that is a visionary for their product,
[00:01:04] that makes a lot of the decisions about their product,
[00:01:08] maybe even act as the mini CEO of that product.
[00:01:12] They influence other people, other stakeholders,
[00:01:16] even when they don't make the decision,
[00:01:18] they are a big influencer about their product.
[00:01:21] They experiment, they try different things,
[00:01:27] see what works, and double down on what does.
[00:01:32] They are the ones that really understand their customers
[00:01:36] and represent them.
[00:01:38] Those are the product people that we want to see.
[00:01:44] But often what we see is a feature factory,
[00:01:47] a feature factory is the place where the work is managed as
[00:01:53] at best features, not really outcomes,
[00:01:56] not really trying to see if we can deliver value
[00:02:00] and adjusting course, we just know the features
[00:02:02] that we need to deliver work is managed
[00:02:05] in terms around scope and timelines,
[00:02:10] more classic project management.
[00:02:12] You might use agile terms like backlogs and sprints,
[00:02:18] but inherently under the surface,
[00:02:22] it's still the traditional mindset
[00:02:23] of managing to scope and timeline.
[00:02:27] And a lot of the time, the teams that we have,
[00:02:30] because of our architecture and organizational structures,
[00:02:34] the teams cannot even deliver features.
[00:02:37] The teams depend a lot on other teams
[00:02:39] in order to deliver value.
[00:02:42] And when that is the situation, a lot of the time,
[00:02:46] what we see instead of the empowered product owner manager
[00:02:52] that can be a visionary and experimenter,
[00:02:56] can own customer outcomes,
[00:02:59] we see product people that are team level operators.
[00:03:06] They're asked to work closely with the team
[00:03:09] on feeding the team with stories and technical details
[00:03:13] that are needed to build this stuff.
[00:03:14] They don't really have a chance to be strategic.
[00:03:18] The strategic product people don't see themselves
[00:03:23] in a place where they can work inside these teams.
[00:03:26] They look at the broader picture,
[00:03:29] and they struggle to find how to work
[00:03:31] with this in their view feature factory.
[00:03:36] That's where we see a lot of the time,
[00:03:37] either the struggle of a technology organization
[00:03:40] to build product capabilities,
[00:03:42] because they don't even have those strategic people
[00:03:45] that look across and look at even beyond the features
[00:03:49] and outcomes.
[00:03:50] Or when we have a product organization,
[00:03:52] it's not seeing how to effectively interact
[00:03:55] or be involved with the actual work on the teams.
[00:04:00] They don't want to be that tactical,
[00:04:03] and they don't know how to be at that level,
[00:04:06] and they shouldn't.
[00:04:09] So what happens is that if we do try to follow
[00:04:14] some of the agile practices,
[00:04:16] we're asked to define product owners for these teams,
[00:04:20] and because real product people don't make sense at that level,
[00:04:25] we end up with product owners or even product managers
[00:04:30] that are in reality project managers,
[00:04:35] or delivery managers,
[00:04:38] or just business analysts
[00:04:40] that just do command decisions,
[00:04:44] make the details work in between teams,
[00:04:47] but are not really strategic,
[00:04:48] are not really driving towards outcomes.
## Source boundary
These are the published show notes from the podcast feed. They are a starting point for discussion, not a verbatim record of the conversation. The transcript is machine-generated and may contain errors or unlabeled speakers. Check the audio before quoting anyone.