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.
What’s the future of Agile? Agility? Agile as a career choice? Yesterday, I joined Jonathan Stark on his podcast Ditching Hourly to discuss the current state of Agile as a platform, how it has evolved over the years, and what practitioners should consider as the platform matures. Jonathan primarily focuses on advice for freelancers/consultants on ditching hourly billing through positioning, productized services, and pricing advice. If, like me, you’re a freelancer/solopreneur agile...
Alice wants her product organization to adopt a product operating model because she believes it’s the future of working. She’s been an early adopter of agile and lean startup methods and is constantly looking for better ways to work. Bob wants their product organization to adopt a product operating model because they have an expensive problem—they were brought in to help scale a product organization. With 12 product teams working on a line/portfolio of products, there’s little consistency,...
Engineers excited about LLMs, Agentic AI, RAGs, spending time going to the vendors, playing around like kids with new toys. Without a real problem in mind. Without the ability to deploy any of it in the organization (the engineers don’t talk to the legal folks much…) Can you think of where so much time and energy is spent on a technical innovation without connecting it to a real problem? Of course you can… Mobile, Cloud, Big Data, just to think of a couple of recent examples. To be honest, I...