PITA 056
How to teach the rest of the org what Product does?
Align to goals from the org, then work as a facilitator/enabling function
Make sure you have a clear remit and a senior champion
Be honest with the team that you’re hiring in to do this work - they need to be both Product and Change Agents
Double-check with the people who are allies - what do they think Product is? Or for?
Create open/group forums for prioritisation discussions - bring everyone in to the discussions
Be clear that this isn’t about being in charge, but about fostering better outcomes (and outputs/outcomes)
Share videos (from mindtheproduct.com or similar) - but not ones that make product feel like a magic cult
Use their language, not the product buzzwords - what we do is just good management practice, same as what everyone else does
Run an anti-problem session: what does the worst version of Product Management look like?
How to get people comfortable with story telling
Practice, practice, practice
Motivation mapping - understand what the audience needs. WIIFM? (what’s in it for me?)
Documentary storytelling approach can work, too
Perspective - what are they not seeing? Do they know how their thing fits into the bigger picture?
Use the examples from users/customers as an enabler - bring people into the synthesis
Front Doors and change request processes: dealing with stakeholders
Alignment on risk can be difficult - create a mechanism to have good discussions on this
Be clear about responsibility for Triage - who’s responsible, and how quickly
Be able to articulate how things align (or don’t!) to organisational priorities - and get people to self-sort into those buckets. (But police it, so no one cheats to get their pet project approved!)
Get them to commit as well - money, time, support. If it’s so important, you need to commit as much as we do to make it happen.