Product Management function is unique, challenging and interesting as the leaders in this org have to navigate multiple challenges depending on the size, maturity, growth stage and the make-up of the organization. The conditions in which Product Leaders execute are never optimal and that brings a variety of hard choices to make. It is important to assess where your organization stands on the business strategy.
Strategy: A coherent, consistent, precise, actionable, loud strategy and repetitive narration from the CEO and the Executive leadership team is the first and foremost necessary condition for building successful products. As the economy and the time horizons shift, the Organization needs a re-affirmation time and time again on the strategic direction, where we are today and how we get to the end goal. Often times, as the startups mature, the founders hire Head of Product to offload the vision, execution and day-to-day burden of building and shipping products.
Getting into a product leadership role, one need to understand where the Organization
stands today in terms of Strategy and what role the Product Leader is expected to play.
a. Does the Head of the Product formally apprised of the strategy, or
b. Simply expected to follow the defined strategy in a playbook, or
c. Redefine the strategy from scratch to adapt to the changing dynamics, or
d. Refine the strategy and make it more precise and less ambiguous, or
e. Is in total control and expected to own the strategy.
