Dear all,
The year is almost over. The time to take stock and reflect.
The good news: Despite the challenges posed by the environment (the dreaded virus continues to impose too many constraints upon all of us!), many of our clients have made a lot of progress this year. We have seen huge steps forward in product strategy and the resulting roadmaps, product planning, as well as an increased strategic clarity that in turn is mirrored and managed in OKRs.
At the same time, we have also spent a lot of energy during the year to just get basics going. Fixing processes (even if they are ‘agile’) and basic role understanding where we should have been focusing on strategy and products.
In the end, successful – and in that increasingly digital – products are all that matters. Users and customers employ a product to get a job done. And they will recommend the product, if it does that job better for them than when they were without it. Sooner or later it becomes a flywheel.
Product-led organizations ensure that everyone is focused and incentivized towards one common goal: to deliver as much user value as possible with every iteration.
The long reads I‘d like to suggest for the holiday recess provide industry-leading thinking about how to become product-led, from product strategy to product culture and organization. Fortunately they are all but a drag to read. Fluently written, concise, and so full of examples that I consider them almost entertaining:
Strategize
By Roman Pichler is a book that I do wholeheartedly recommend to every Product Manager and Product Owner. Lots of practical insights into strategic product management; from creating a product vision to managing a product backlog.
Click to view!
Escaping the Build Trap
By Melissa Perri. A very readable and concise guide to what it takes to become product-led.
Click to view!
OUTPUT, OUTCOMES, IMPACT AND KPIS
By Marty Cagan. The ‘how to’ for building great product organizations – based on decades of Silicon Valley experience + the learnings from his consulting practice.
Time to sign off for this year.
A big „thank you“ to everyone who helped us making this year’s projects a success! I would particularly like to thank (in alphabetical order): Adrijana, Andreas, Diana, Gerold, Lennart, Roman, and Sonja for their contributions on various levels. Looking forward to working with you again!
A merry Xmas and a happy, healthy, and successful new year to everyone!
All the very best,
Godehard