In interacting with companies that don’t sell digital products—but who are investing heavily in digital capabilities—I’ve noticed a pattern. I call the pattern: We’re Trying to Do Product, But We’re Handed an Incredibly Overwhelming List of Prescriptive Projects Disguised as Problem Statements With Overly-Ambitious Business Impact Forecasts
A great snapshot about why these companies also embark in overly ambitious "agile" "transformation" "projects" (I separate the quotation for good reasons) and then they say "agile doesn't work".
"A common diagnosis for why efforts fail is that “the requirements were unclear”, which explains efforts to clarify requirements."
With one purely digital company, I worked closely with 2 execs who were both very experienced in digital and were — on the surface — close partners who wanted to break the cycle of founders'-whim-driven development. One was pushing for more product-led, more empowered teams, discovery-driven roadmap with shaping and opportunity-solutions trees, etc. The other was pushing for better requirements written in tickets, in the belief that would enable their team to give accurate estimates.
Neither was getting desperately far, because most of the work was created through promises to partners and customers. And the business was growing just fine!
Will there bê the part 2? I liked the approached o the non digital products, what happens to those companies when they undergo a digital transformation? The urge to go back to project is stronger, is there somethong a product leader can do?
You've picked up on a key thing here: that the digital product is just a small part of it. The system is more complex. The digital product sometimes is a hypothesis for increased distribution or a brand new product line, rather than THE product. Yet, it is tethered to the rest of the machine. It requires a lot more physics to work, for the addendum not to become atrophied.
A great snapshot about why these companies also embark in overly ambitious "agile" "transformation" "projects" (I separate the quotation for good reasons) and then they say "agile doesn't work".
Great post. Thanks!
A strategy: could work to let business pitch their business opportunities to digital, and let digital be the judge on what opportunity to persue.
Huge flip of power, so might not be easy to pull off.
"A common diagnosis for why efforts fail is that “the requirements were unclear”, which explains efforts to clarify requirements."
With one purely digital company, I worked closely with 2 execs who were both very experienced in digital and were — on the surface — close partners who wanted to break the cycle of founders'-whim-driven development. One was pushing for more product-led, more empowered teams, discovery-driven roadmap with shaping and opportunity-solutions trees, etc. The other was pushing for better requirements written in tickets, in the belief that would enable their team to give accurate estimates.
Neither was getting desperately far, because most of the work was created through promises to partners and customers. And the business was growing just fine!
Great article, as usual. Thanks for sharing!
Will there bê the part 2? I liked the approached o the non digital products, what happens to those companies when they undergo a digital transformation? The urge to go back to project is stronger, is there somethong a product leader can do?
It feels like you're speaking directly to me! Thanks so much for this post.
I do feel like I'm banging my head against a wall sometimes. It does take patience.
Where's Part 2?
I can so relate to this. Well written! Did you write a part 2?
Love it! great framing to make the situations interesting challenges
love the reminder that if you're going through this you're not alone, all too easy to forget that amidst the whirlwind.
You've picked up on a key thing here: that the digital product is just a small part of it. The system is more complex. The digital product sometimes is a hypothesis for increased distribution or a brand new product line, rather than THE product. Yet, it is tethered to the rest of the machine. It requires a lot more physics to work, for the addendum not to become atrophied.
Awesome thoughts! I can see how often companies and PMs struggle through this. Look forward to reading part 2!
Great Post John!! Lot of this resonates very well with my situation and you have captured it accurately.