Are You Struggling to Scale Your Organization ? Need agility but dubious of process BS/dogma? I share reflective, pragmatic, principled takes on how to approach scaling your organization leveraging the essence (rather than theater) of product operating models, agile practices and frameworks, and business operating systems such as EOS and OKRs.
What’s the difference between Product-Led Growth, Product-Led Org, And Product Operating Model?
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I see some practitioners and leaders using these terms interchangeably. I thought I’d take the time to clarify the overlaps and differences, first of all for myself. Product-Led Organization—As 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 – are Tesla, Spotify, and Atlassian. Product Operating Model (POM)- is about the way the product/engineering organization operates. It typically entails empowered product teams, aligned and steering towards customer outcomes. Spotify and Amazon are two famous tech organizations that use a product operating model. This model has gained popularity in recent years as more organizations move from project and feature factories toward a product focus. Product-led growth (PLG) is a go-to-market strategy in which the product itself is the leading mechanism for acquiring customers. Think Slack, Dropbox, JIRA, Zoom, Canva. Think freemium, viral loops, and activation. What’s the relationship between these three terms? A company could be a Product-led Organization, leverage a Product Operating Model, and rely on a PLG motion. It could also do each one of these or any mix. A Product Operating Model would thrive in a Product-led Organization, but it would be an uphill battle in a Sales- or Marketing-led organization. A Product Operating Model is beneficial if you’re trying to build a PLG motion because it’s so product-centric. I’m having a headache imagining an organization trying to achieve PLG without it. As an example – I was talking yesterday to the COO of a company that recently shifted from being a “projects company” to being a “product company”. They are looking at applying a Product Operating Model to help support this transition. A futures exchange I’m working with is adopting a Product Operating Model as part of a strategy to leverage their product to accelerate growth significantly. PS What’s the relationship between a Product Operating Model and Agile? A Fortune 50 Consumer Goods company I’m working with has implemented a product operating model without even calling it that, as part of understanding really well what’s the intent of Agile and Scrum. Said another way – It’s tough to discern Awesome Agile from a Product Operating Model. (And I’m not talking about the theater / rituals here. I’m talking about the principles being used to design the organization and run it). Yours, |
Scaling w/ Agility
Are You Struggling to Scale Your Organization ? Need agility but dubious of process BS/dogma? I share reflective, pragmatic, principled takes on how to approach scaling your organization leveraging the essence (rather than theater) of product operating models, agile practices and frameworks, and business operating systems such as EOS and OKRs.
Reader, I just wrapped up a great conversation with Clemens Adolphs, co-founder of AIce Labs, for the Scaling With Agility podcast. We dug into a question we both see more and more leaders wrestling with: Why do so many AI proof-of-concept projects look promising on paper, but never scale past the pilot? Clemens and I discussed some emerging practices for dealing with the pace and uncertainty of developing internal AI capabilities. Here are a few of the ideas we unpacked: — How to avoid the...
"Instead of Portfolio Management - Just Create Product Teams" - Have you heard that before, Reader? While I understand the angst against Portfolio Management Theater as a solution to Agile Theater... And while I agree wholeheartedly that the north star is to descale by reorganizing around value I find reality a bit more nuanced....Most leaders I encounter can't "just create product teams" their way out of decades of complex products and systems. None of them are Jeff Bezos - they don't have...
Product development concepts come in handy every time you're developing something. Whether that thing is software, product, or even a point of view. The first sentence in this email is a point of view (POV). I want this point of view to be effective - I want people to understand what I mean, be intrigued by it, take action, and hopefully see me as a thought leader / expert in this space that they'll want to follow / listen to more. It took me a while to develop this point of view. To carve a...