NEW: Check out my three (free) Miro templates: Competitive Analysis, Can / Should, and Mandate Levels. If you’ve read TBM for a while, these will look familiar! Please send feedback. A big thank you to Anna Savina from Miro for her patient nudges. KP Frahm posted
This seems less about certainty vs. uncertainty than it is about taking the path of least resistance. If everything stays the same, there's no chance of anything going wrong, right? And we don't have to stress ourselves by learning about new ideas.
In my experience, teams without clear product strategies also micromanage the shit out of really simple tasks -- so the easy-to-manage projects where improvisation is completely tolerable end up being just as stuck the big-ticket, hard-to-solve projects.
Hi John, I left a comment on KP's LinkedIn post itself—lack of clarity is also about the misplaced communication systems in an org. Establishing a workflow and expecting that a design systems or DesignOps *definitely* helps the product success is a misplaced assumption.
People (mostly leaders or their associates) do not really discuss (or ask or share) how certain decisions are made in the org. The communication system that they have for the operations, efficiency, speed, are designed around their own KPIs and metrics—rather than building the support structure for other functions too.
Love this John. And a leader clearly expressing the unknowns in the strategy is a vulnerable act, which not only creates clarity and coherence but also connection.
Hi John... I think for me the essence is being prepared to be vulnerable and acknowledge where there are gaps in the strategy. Most people will accept that IF you can tell them what the process will be to identify and close those gaps. People need to put their faith in something, even if it's just that there is a method that will be followed.
Uncertainty is fine, but you strategy should be built around it. Instead of saying “we will provide unique value” outline the plan to find it and criteria which define it. Most leaders just leave it hanging, that’s just lack of effort to me.
Thanks, John, for digging into this! I completely subscribe to your interpretation:
“The lack of clarity and coherence is a natural outgrowth of fear—fear of being seen as less capable, fear of limiting optionality, fear of being wrong, and fear of making informed guesses.”
Unfortunately, these fears tend to keep us from learning ...
Most execs that I’ve worked with just didn’t like to be regarded as learners. They wanted to be regarded as people who knew what they were doing. And this is very different to our self-conception as product people. Well, at least we claim to be open-minded and eager to learn, we acknowledge that as a key characteristic of our role.
John, great post as always. Where can I learn more about your “FAB” activity? Sounds like something I need to try.
This seems less about certainty vs. uncertainty than it is about taking the path of least resistance. If everything stays the same, there's no chance of anything going wrong, right? And we don't have to stress ourselves by learning about new ideas.
In my experience, teams without clear product strategies also micromanage the shit out of really simple tasks -- so the easy-to-manage projects where improvisation is completely tolerable end up being just as stuck the big-ticket, hard-to-solve projects.
Hi John, I left a comment on KP's LinkedIn post itself—lack of clarity is also about the misplaced communication systems in an org. Establishing a workflow and expecting that a design systems or DesignOps *definitely* helps the product success is a misplaced assumption.
People (mostly leaders or their associates) do not really discuss (or ask or share) how certain decisions are made in the org. The communication system that they have for the operations, efficiency, speed, are designed around their own KPIs and metrics—rather than building the support structure for other functions too.
Love this John. And a leader clearly expressing the unknowns in the strategy is a vulnerable act, which not only creates clarity and coherence but also connection.
Hi John... I think for me the essence is being prepared to be vulnerable and acknowledge where there are gaps in the strategy. Most people will accept that IF you can tell them what the process will be to identify and close those gaps. People need to put their faith in something, even if it's just that there is a method that will be followed.
Uncertainty is fine, but you strategy should be built around it. Instead of saying “we will provide unique value” outline the plan to find it and criteria which define it. Most leaders just leave it hanging, that’s just lack of effort to me.
And we don't even really know what we think we know. Uncertainty is the white whale of product development.
Thanks, John, for digging into this! I completely subscribe to your interpretation:
“The lack of clarity and coherence is a natural outgrowth of fear—fear of being seen as less capable, fear of limiting optionality, fear of being wrong, and fear of making informed guesses.”
Unfortunately, these fears tend to keep us from learning ...
Most execs that I’ve worked with just didn’t like to be regarded as learners. They wanted to be regarded as people who knew what they were doing. And this is very different to our self-conception as product people. Well, at least we claim to be open-minded and eager to learn, we acknowledge that as a key characteristic of our role.