Leading an agility journey can often feel lonely. These days, especially, thereās plenty of complexity, and rapid changeāwhat weāve come to know as VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous) or even the newer BANI framework (Brittle, Anxious, Nonlinear, Incomprehensible). Building and growing a consulting/advisory business in the agility/product/scaling field also provides plenty of VUCA and BANI. Peer groups, like Masterminds or the Forums used in the Entrepreneur Org (EO) / Young...
2 days agoĀ ā¢Ā 1 min read
I often discuss developing your company/operating model using product techniques. Today's post is a collaboration with my fantastic wife, Vered, where she outlines a somewhat concrete playbook for doing just thatādeveloping your product playbook like it was a productācollaboratively, iteratively, focusing on outcomes, steering with evidence. It's the essence of Product Operations. Enjoy! This article is inspired by recent conversations I had with Product Leaders about product operating...
6 days agoĀ ā¢Ā 3 min read
Over the years, I have worked with many tech startups. Reader Heidi asked an interesting question as a follow-up to yesterday's email about Product-Led Growth, Product-led Org, and Product Operating Models: "Can a Product-Led Org have a Project Operating Model?" First of all - I'll admit that I ran my product delivery organization using a Project operating model in a Product-led Org, 20 years ago. So it is factually possible (but not necessarily recommended...) Over the years, I have worked...
7 days agoĀ ā¢Ā 1 min read
I see some practitioners and leaders using these terms interchangeably. I thought Iād take the time to clarify the overlaps and differences, first of all for myself. Product-Led OrganizationāAs opposed to Sales/Engineering/Marketing/Professional Services-led organizations, a Product-Led organization is structured to deliver value through the product. These organizations often have product-oriented leaders at the helm. Some examples ā are Tesla, Spotify, and Atlassian. Product Operating Model...
9 days agoĀ ā¢Ā 1 min read
āCan we just start with day 2? (Fast forward the WHY/WHAT)ā If only I had a dollar for every time I heard this statement in an agile workshop (and was smart enough to invest in NVDA at the timeā¦) Even before we became addicted to short-form content, we never had the patience for the history lesson that most of these agile workshops started with. Workshops morphed to spend more time on practices and less time on principles. A side effect of this widespread focus on the HOW is that more and...
10 days agoĀ ā¢Ā 2 min read
I recently joined Adam Mattis on the āBusiness Agility Nowā podcast for a conversation about scaling agile and product operating models. Itās always a pleasure to chat with Adam about the realities of applying agility at scale and some of the trends Iām seeing in the field. We covered various topics, drawing from our experiences helping organizations navigate the complexities of business agility in a variety of environments. Here are some of the key themes and topics we focused on: The...
13 days agoĀ ā¢Ā 2 min read
A CEO asked me yesterday why I'm using the term Organizational Traction. I got the inspiration from Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business (Gino Wickman's book introducing EOS - here's my take on it from a while ago). Here's how I explained it in the conversation yesterday: Imagine you established a strategic vision. You know where you're going. But it seems like there's no progress towards this vision. It's like full gas in neutral. Trying to get a grip in the mud. Or losing grip in a tight...
14 days agoĀ ā¢Ā 1 min read
Today's email is more about my business than about agility or product itself. Hang in there - there's a connection to product discovevry/validation as a bonus sidenote ... A follower reached out earlier today - "Yuval, Whenās the next time youāre teaching a SAFe RTE class?" Hereās the deal. I rarely schedule open enrollment training workshops anymore. Why? The market is crowded with more and more trainers. Thereās less demand for certification classes compared to the past The whole dynamics...
16 days agoĀ ā¢Ā 1 min read
Should you focus on mastering organizational traction or on establishing portfolio agility? Let me tell you a secret: In my experience, mastering organization traction involves realizing you have a portfolio of investments youāre managing. So actually the paths convergeā¦ The difference is that mastering organizational traction extends beyond the IT/Product world. It intercepts business initiatives before becoming mandates for the technology organization. It also manages non-digital...
24 days agoĀ ā¢Ā 1 min read
