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PART I Lessons from Top Tech Companies

My first book, INSPIRED, discussed how strong product teams at the best product companies use the modern techniques of product discovery to solve hard problems in ways their customers love, yet work for their business.

      INSPIRED brought me and my SVPG Partners into many more organizations, well beyond Silicon Valley.

      The most striking thing we learned was that in so many companies—even companies trying to do true, technology‐powered products and services—product teams were too often not allowed to work the way they needed to.

      We realized that it's not just the techniques that strong product teams use to discover successful products, but that the differences between how great product companies work and the rest run much deeper.

      What we found in these companies was not pretty.

      The Role of Technology

So many companies still have the old IT mindset when it comes to technology. It's viewed as a necessary cost rather than the core business enabler it needs to be. The people who work on the technology teams are literally there “to serve the business,” and the technology managers and leaders are there to facilitate serving the business. Or it's shoved off to the side in some “digital” business unit. The technology teams are disconnected from the real customers—in fact, they're encouraged to think of their stakeholders as their customers.

      Coaching

      There is little if any active coaching of the people on the technology teams. And even if they wanted to coach, the managers often don't have the experience themselves. So the problems perpetuate.

      Staffing

      Most of these companies recognize that they don't have the staff they need, but they have very misguided ideas about how to correct that, and what to look for in product staff. So again, the problems perpetuate.

      Product Vision

      These companies rarely have an inspiring, compelling product vision. They may have had one during the early years of their company, but after the founders left, the vision faded. The people on the technology teams feel like they're just working in feature factories.

      Team Topology

The technology people are divided up into teams where they feel like they aren't responsible for anything meaningful, they can't do much without depending on changes from several other teams, and that they're just a small cog in a giant wheel.

      Product Strategy

      It wouldn't be fair to say that most of these companies have a weak product strategy, because in truth, most have literally no strategy at all. They are just trying to please as many stakeholders as they can with the people and time and skills they have.

      Team Objectives

      Most of these companies have heard that Google and others use the OKR (Objectives and Key Results) technique to manage their work, and the CEO watched a video or read a book and thought it sounded easy. So they adopted the technique—layering it on top of their existing product roadmaps and culture—and every quarter there's a planning exercise that consumes a few weeks and is then largely ignored for the rest of the quarter. Most of the people on the teams say they get little if any value out of this technique.

      Relationship to Business

      The relationship between the technology teams and the rest of the business is not good. The stakeholders and executives have little or no trust in the technology teams. And the people on the technology teams feel like unappreciated mercenaries, subservient to the business.

      Empowered Teams

      Worst of all, the teams are not empowered to solve problems in ways customers love, yet work for the business. And as such, the teams can't be held accountable to results.

      The product manager is really a project manager, shepherding the backlog items through the process. The designers and engineers are there just to design and code the features on the roadmap.

      Motivation is low, sense of ownership is minimal, and innovation is rare.

It is easy to see why so many of these companies are ripe for disruption. And nothing at all like how product is done at strong product companies.¹

      What is especially shocking to me is that it is really no secret how the best companies work, and how financially successful they are. Which raises the question, why is this the case?

      In my experience, it's not that these companies don't want to transform, it's that transforming is hard, and they just don't know how. Or even what it really means to transform.

      What they need is to move to empowered product teams.

      Now, you may not be using that term, and you may not even realize there are different types of technology teams.

      But if what I described is similar to your organization, I need to share with you a few very hard truths:

      I'm hoping that the reason you're reading this book is because you are convinced there must be a better way.

      And there is.

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