My guest today is Chris Jones, partner at Silicon Valley Product Group.
Chris and Marty Cagan wrote the best-selling book Empowered based on their 30+ years of experience working with 200+ companies. Their definition of “empowered vs. feature product teams” has created controversy, so I knew I had to chat with them.
Chris and I had a heart-to-heart chat about empowered vs. feature teams, how to avoid becoming a feature factory, and how to take back control of your career.
Timestamps:
(00:00) What empowered really means
(01:13) The difference between empowered and feature teams
(04:58) Why companies stop being customer-focused
(06:12) OKRs, processes, and bureaucracy
(13:47) Be the go-to person to build trust with leaders(18:13) Quarterly metric targets lead to bad trade-offs
(21:40) The trend towards small teams
(23:00) Does empowerment matter in wartime (Airbnb)?
(27:24) 3 types of product operating principles
(30:23) Is Google still empowered?
(33:40) How to avoid product review hell(36:15) The right way to push back on execs
(41:08) Take back control of your career
Where to find Chris:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisjonessvpg/
Get the interview takeaways: https://creatoreconomy.so/p/empowered-vs-feature-product-teams-chris-jones
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