449: The secret advice tech companies use to excel in product – with Ben Foster
Aug 14, 2023
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Ben Foster, Co-Founder and Executive Chairman at Prodify, shares advice on solving common dysfunctions in product management. He discusses challenges in direction, people, and process, emphasizing the need for alignment between product strategy and organizational strategy. He also highlights the importance of effective communication, clear vision, and hiring and organizing teams based on growth stage. The concept of Conway's Law and its implications in product design are also explored.
Having a clear direction with defined metrics, product vision, and strategy is essential for decision-making and alignment in product management.
Companies often face challenges in three key areas: direction (core metrics and strategy), people (team structure and accountability), and process (empowering product teams).
Deep dives
The Value of Planning Over Plans
Dwight Eisenhower once said that plans are worthless, but planning is everything. This quote emphasizes the importance of the process of planning rather than the actual plans themselves. Planning allows for consideration of different future outcomes and adaptability when things don't go according to plan. It is essential for product leaders to have a vision and strategy in place, defining metrics, personas, and product principles to guide the team. While being nimble and open to change, having a clear direction enables decision-making and alignment across the organization.
Challenges in Product Management
Ben Foster, co-founder of Prodify, highlights the common challenges faced by companies in product management. These challenges include decision-making processes, stakeholder prioritization over customers, assumptions without proper discovery work, and more. Foster suggests that companies often seek guidance in three key areas: direction, people, and process. The direction involves defining core metrics, product vision, and strategy to achieve business goals. People-related challenges revolve around hiring, team structure, accountability, and maintaining a diverse team. Process and practice focus on empowering product teams and ensuring alignment with overall objectives.
Effective Team Structure: Pods
Foster discusses the concept of pods, which are dedicated, autonomous teams consisting of product managers, designers, engineering leads, and a pool of engineers. These teams are accountable for specific goals and have the authority to make decisions within that scope. Pods can be structured based on different product areas, personas, metrics, or market segments. Foster highlights the importance of minimizing organizational seams that can negatively impact the user experience. By aligning team structure with customer journeys and creating clear product and design principles, companies can improve collaboration and deliver cohesive products.
Balancing Autonomy and Vision
Foster emphasizes the need for product leaders to balance autonomy and vision. While product teams should be empowered to make their own decisions, the product leader's role is to provide a clear vision, strategy, and direction. This includes defining metrics, personas, and product principles. The vision guides decision-making and ensures consistency across teams. Foster compares this to using both Google Maps and Waze during a road trip – having a destination (vision) allows flexibility in the route (autonomy) while staying aligned with the overall goal. Having a vision enables product leaders to determine whether to change course or persevere when faced with challenges.
How to solve common dysfunctions in product management Today’s guest is Ben Foster, the Co-Founder and Executive Chairman at Prodify. He is convinced that product is the single most important success driver for tech companies, which is why he founded Prodify to share what he learned from being an advisor to over 50 tech companies to […]
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