Product Leader's Guide to Execution
Product Leaders need to put “systems-in-place”, supported by right behaviors and incentives to allow their product teams to execute better.
When you think about execution as a Product Manager, you may think about series of steps, let’s take one type as an example:
-finding which problem to solve
-prioritizing this problem over other problems
-gathering resources and stakeholders
-moving through bottlenecks
-till one day, a part of the product is launched/executed
-track for feedback and improvements
And, when you move into people management or leadership roles and manage multiple product teams, each of your product teams is doing above steps in some shape or form - their own adaptations of it.
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You could imagine each of your product team as an important organ of your product area. Each organ is doing its own series of steps, and since every organ has its own goal - none of them are fully right or wrong in their approach - they do what they need to do. They adopt best practices as it suits them (also made popular in Spotify models where teams learn from each other’s ways of working and tools rather than standardize them across all teams)
So, the heart pumps blood. While the liver does metabolism. You cannot ask the liver to follow the steps to pump blood, but they follow some common principles - example both employ feedback loops, where the output of a process influences its own input, maintaining homeostasis within the organ and the body as a whole.
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Your leadership role is then to manage and thrive this organism (collection of organs that allow the organism to thrive), and not necessarily each organ. Or in simple terms, you start managing a “product area” and not “product team”.
Such a fundamental change in your responsibilities often gets reflected early in your role - from the kind of questions you need to ask.
A Product Manager would say “What can I do to unblock my team due to friction from a certain stakeholder” , whereas a Product Leader would ask “What broad alignments do I need with all stakeholders that my Product Managers get stuck the least possible times?”
You go from caring for “components” to caring for the “systems-in-place”, supported by right behaviors and incentives. Because without behaviors, systems are inconsistent and without incentives, systems don’t sustain.
Execution ability of your teams is then the result of which systems, behaviors and incentives you (with your team) have put in place. These are the three pillars on which product area execution depends upon. Let us go into each one by one:
I define system as a structure and set of processes that enable smooth information flow, collaboration, and decision-making.
First and fore-most, you cannot have a perfect system in place. More often than not, I have ended up reaching a Work-in-progress but stable system for my product teams to operate in.
To reach this state, you need to analyze five key elements and start with the element where you see quickest intervention possible and get some wins early on, while continuing to tackle the hard ones over a period of time.
The first one is Vision and Strategy:
Do the teams know where is the ship going and how do we go there?
You can also learn more how to view strategy in context of an organization (What Stanford teaches about Product Strategy). But essentially, you as Product Leader need to invest extraordinary time to make sure teams to know what’s our destination (Vision) and how do we get there (Strategy).
Next, you cannot expect your teams to make use of a good Vision and Strategy if you do not allow them a great playing field where they can explore and thrive i.e an empowered environment. This is not just a Product-Design-Tech empowered trifecta, but more cross-functional wide where all interdependent stakeholders feel comfort with product teams and together feel excited to work on the most meaningful problem.
While working on first two elements, it is essential to see which processes (supported by certain tools) need to be in place to put discipline to the madness. The process could simply be about how prioritization happens across multiple teams - which factors need to be included and what needs to happen when teams are feeding on conflicting resources.
While putting the system in place, it is essential to make sure that teams have good access to data and insights (both market and customer) and that it is actionable. Otherwise, the empowered teams will end up working on un-informed hypothesis and may end up solving the wrong problems.
Lastly, collaboration is key. But this is not your “let’s get everyone together and set common goals” collaboration - this is the hard part. This means working through the politics, conflicting incentives, tough de-prioritizations and more. Your product teams can figure out the usual collaboration challenges, but you as their leader is expected to resolve more systemic collaboration challenges that is not visible to a single product team.
Overall, for you to put systems in place, you should look into each of these 5 elements to ensure product execution is not stuck often and randomly but more structured and with feedback loops.
Do you have more to add? Don’t forget to leave a comment:
This one is very close to culture but is much more than that.
I like to start with principles here - how do we decide things? how do we act when situations are difficult? how do we move forward when data is not sufficient? and so on.
Principles of decision making are key to make sure your team members behave consistently even in your absence. This is not a top-down exercise but more of a joint understanding of how the team will behave and act.
While you figure this out and ensure good alignment with principles, you should also be making sure that it is not leading to an “isolated product area culture” but more of an aligned culture to the rest of the organization.
How you document product requirements? How do you communicate product launches, but also product issues? How much psychological safety do the teams feel? → is all part of overall communication behaviors.
If a production incident happens - do you escalate? or do you find root cause and then escalate? or do you fix it and then let everyone else know? These behaviors and communication styles should be agreed and consistent across your product area.
What happens if your fancy feature launch tanks? What if the metrics didn’t move as expected - this culture of experimentation and learning - is not an easy one to build but is strengthened by bringing right examples and success stories.
Finally, you cannot imagine having right consistent behaviors without having organizational structures to support. As a product leader, you should think often and iterate on your product team topology, team scopes, team sizes and so on. How much of this you do - depends upon:
Company size and stage of growth.
Product complexity and market dynamics.
Organizational culture and leadership style.
Motivating product management teams to excel requires careful consideration of what, when, and how they are incentivized.
1. Align Incentives with Metrics & OKRs:
Focus on Outcome-Oriented Metrics: Go beyond vanity metrics like feature launches and downloads. Prioritize metrics that reflect user value and business impact, such as user engagement, retention, and conversion rates.
Integrate with OKRs: Ensure performance metrics directly support established Objectives and Key Results (OKRs). This creates a clear line of sight between individual actions and overall team goals.
Define "Good Enough" Performance: Establish clear thresholds for achieving success on each metric. This provides tangible targets for the team to strive for and avoid ambiguity.
2. Craft Meaningful Recognition & Rewards:
Move Beyond Financial Incentives: While bonuses and commissions can be motivating, don't underestimate the power of recognition and non-monetary rewards.
Recognize Individual & Team Achievements: Celebrate both individual contributions and team wins. Public recognition, peer-to-peer shoutouts, and team outings can all be effective.
Offer Personalized Rewards: Consider individual preferences and career aspirations when offering rewards. Learning opportunities, mentorship programs, and special project assignments can be highly motivating.
Focus on Intrinsic Motivation: Foster a culture of intrinsic motivation by highlighting the positive impact of the team's work on users and the business.
3. Implement an Effective Feedback Loop:
Regular Performance Reviews: Provide regular feedback on progress towards metrics and OKRs, not just at year-end. This allows for course correction and fosters continuous improvement.
Open Communication: Encourage open communication about challenges and suggest solutions. Empower teams to identify and address roadblocks hindering their execution.
Celebrate Learnings: Don't penalize setbacks or missed targets. Frame failures as learning opportunities and focus on adapting strategies for future success.
Additional Considerations:
Transparency & Fairness: Ensure the incentive system is transparent, fair, and unbiased. This fosters trust and motivates everyone to contribute their best effort.
Regular Review & Adaptation: Regularly review the effectiveness of your incentive system and adapt it based on evolving needs and team feedback.
Culture Matters: Remember, incentives are most effective within a supportive and empowering company culture. Invest in building a culture that values innovation, risk-taking, and learning.
By thoughtfully aligning incentives with metrics, OKRs, and meaningful recognition, you can empower your product management teams to consistently deliver impactful results. Remember, it's a continuous process, so stay engaged with your team and adapt your approach to keep them motivated and thriving.
