PITA 057

Written By randy silver

(Actual participants may vary from those depicted)

Topic 1: Creating a great environment for Product people to succeed - what do YOU need? 

  • Autonomy - but with accountability

  • Trust

  • An environment that’s safe to ask for help when you need it

  • A clear direction - and the freedom to pursue it

  • Education of the people around product about how we’re working - communication from both leadership with peers, and by the product team. Sponsorship from the CEO.

  • It’s OK to ask WHY and not be perceived as a troublemaker

  • Being empowered to be an owner - how I work, and what I can try. Ownership of their domain, comes with the responsibility to never say ‘this isn’t my job’

  • Tension between autonomy & ownership. But the org needs to be set up for this. Be explicit about the principles around this. 

  • Trust in each other to do our jobs

  • X-functional teams with the right people (including SMEs)

  • If I’m not defining the WHAT or the WHY, then the person who is doing so must be very clear and open about it

  • Working patterns & boundaries being clear


Topic 2: How to figure out if the management track is right for you (vs senior IC) 

    • Design your ideal day/week - what does it look like? Which type of problems are you solving? What type of activities are you doing?

    • Senior IC roles are less common in smaller firms

    • What is the role that comes after that role? Is that something you aspire to?

    • It’s not always a clear decision - sometimes you have to try to figure it out. Especially if you can make it a two-way door decision.

    • One way to try before taking on a role  is via mentoring

      • I second that try both approach - exactly what I did and through that decided to move towards the principal route.

    • If taking a management role, is the support structure in place?

    • Can you get support from internal or external coaching? Management development is something that is in the best interest of the firm. HR Partners can be very helpful on this.

Topic 3: What's your number one characteristic you look for in a Product/Design leadership hire?

    • Misfits - Attitude (Music Video)

    • Balance the need for change with how to approach it. Empathy for the approach of others.

    • 11 laws of showrunning NICE VERSION

    • Situation-specific - what is needed to succeed in THIS role, at THIS company, at THIS time?

    • Curiosity

    • Really cares for the people

    • Self-starter on the vision of the work

    • You’re stepping away from your craft - being able to balance the practice with the management responsibilities

    • Humility - knowing what you’re NOT strong at

Topic 4: Any helpful strategies  for balancing product autonomy with strategic alignment? 

    • Bucketing - what % of capacity/effort do we want to spend on company strategy vs bottom-up efforts?

    • Understanding the dependencies of different teams’ strategies

    • Explore the tension between the two with the teams that are experiencing it

    • Motivation mapping - understanding what their motivations are, especially around perceived success or reward

    • Opportunity Solution Trees and diagrams - use them to facilitate better conversations

    • Also go as ‘outcome’  based as possible in your ask - leave as much flexibility in the solutions (implementation choices) to the teams so they still feel ‘empowered’ / challenged.

Topic 5: What kind of "information & learning" formats (Newsletters, LinkedIn, Workshops, Books, …) do you enjoy/use most? 

    • Miro/diagrams

    • There are TOO many newsletters - and I don’t read them!

    • Books

    • Reforge/training

    • Threads is becoming interesting

    • Podcasts

    • Communities / interacting with actual people

randy silver
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PITA 056