You should know your economic environment style

I am always thinking about ways to make a business more efficient and cost effective. When functions, processes and companies are not well organized I can almost see the destruction of economic wealth. Because of this, there are two economic environments that suit me rather well:

1. The downturn. Companies are looking for ways to be more efficient and reduce costs. This plays beautifully into my natural way of thinking.
2. The boom. Increasing capacity by increasing efficiency is the name of the game. Companies recognize that it takes time to put new resources into place - so the more well thought out the processes, the better they can cope with accelerated growth.

What about you? Describe the variables that make your work more interesting (for you). Think about your strengths and apply them to the current environment. This should give you some insight into why your work feels so rewarding sometimes and why in others it just feels blah.

Now, turn the thinking around. Think about your company and what different environments increase your worth to them. Make sure they know your value proposition based on the current economic environment.

Know when to quit...

I've just read a very interesting Wired article about the death of Duke Nuke Forever. A video game project that lasted an incredible 12 years when most games take 3 to 4 years to complete. The end results were that 3D Reals went bankrupt and the game was never released. This is a cautionary tale about keeping objectives real and not letting "the latest thing" drive your project. Other lessons that I would add are:

1. Strategy - you have to have one (and stick to it)
   
2. Know what success looks like.
   
3. If your team can't talk to you, you are doing something wrong.
4. You should know when to pull the plug on a project.
5. See the evolution of your industry and adapt to it - but follow your strategy.

On a personal leadership level I have to ask: Where were Broussard's advisors? What about other stakeholders voices (other employees, mentors, partners)? Do you have anybody that can tell you that you are off track? Would you listen?

Communicating your strategy for best results

You have spent a year formulating your strategy. It is firmly and clearly stated in a Powerpoint. You are done, right? Not by a long shot. Let's ignore for a moment the effort required to implement, and let's focus on the communication effort. You need to clearly communicate to ALL stakeholders the new strategy and how it affects them. The companies that don't know how to do this send out an email (with the powerpoint and a nice introduction) and then forget about it.  Then they wonder why their efforts didn't pan out and nothing really changed.

Two things you have to remember:

1. You and your management team know more than everybody else.
2. The rest of your stakeholders can not read your mind to see what's in it - but they will try.

To maximize results tell your coworkers, subordinates, providers, partners and clients what they should expect from the new strategy and the benefits they will receive. You have to craft the message according to the audience (communications 101) and make sure the message is visible and repeated (that is why advertising works). If required, you should form a transformation and communications office to make sure that happens.

More on the how in a latter post...

Don’t let your organization leaderless unless you want to be jobless

For whatever reason you are distracted from your day to day duties (a merger, an acquisition, a family emergency) and you haven’t been in a position to attend to those duties. This is fine if it is a short hiatus (less than 3 weeks), but anything longer than that you need to make sure that somebody is tending shop. You have to groom your team to work without you for a while or designate one or more people to fill in your role. If you provide no leadership you are creating a vacuum where people are making decisions and launching projects because they sound good.


Let’s be clear, your team has to be able to function without you for short periods – and they should be able to provide their own direction (after all, their resumes do state that they are entrepreneurial, self-starters and self motivated). But the longer your absence, the more decisions start to pile up and change the direction; suddenly you have a new and emerging strategy that you are still accountable for.

Why not a short term strategy?

If you, as management, are not clear on the strategy and do not communicate it; How can your employees deliver? I am surprised how many companies ask their employees to read management's mind, find the right intentions in there and execute to specifications. It makes no sense. Is like having a neurotic spouse with the power to fire you. You want to succeed in business? You have to be clear as to your objectives. If those are not clear, nothing will please you and your company will sink (unless you are really lucky).

It is OK to have temporary strategies. We have them for emergencies, why not for times when life is not clear (is it ever?). Why do we feel that is not OK to have shorter looking strategies? Square was in the brink of collapse with their games. They set out to build their last game (after that they were expecting to close). They put all their effort into the game but with a pessimistic feeling, they called it: Final Fantasy. They wanted to bow out with a last great hurray. Guess what? The game was a huge success. As well as FF2, 3, 4,... They are now one of the most powerful and well recognized game development companies in the world (it is now called Square-Enix) and they are working among other things in: Final Fantasy XIV.  What worked? Having a finite narrow strategy: Make their last game great!

In the middle of a M&A or bankruptcy debacle? Come up with a short term strategy and communicate it to all employees. They'll appreciate the honesty and the direction. They may very well build you a Final Fantasy.

Stopping the launch of weak products

A weak Product Management function can result in features that are not introduced in response to customer needs but in response to internal wish lists (that may be out of touch with the market), or in cost structures that are not being revised strategically to enhance profit margins (like outsourcing vs. internal development). To change a Product Management function takes making an assessment, mapping out where we are today, where we want to go be and what are the best practices in what we need.

After the initial assessment and once you understand where you are and where you want to be. Choosing the right framework will be one key to your success. There are several frameworks about what Product Management should be, for example: the PDMA model has one, author Steven Haines documents another, and author Marty Cagan shows us yet another one. All frameworks list a set of skills and functions that every organization should have. But just using any of these frameworks will not work for a company, as with everything in life, each situation is unique and your framework should be tailored to your needs. Best product management practices will come from a consultant (you are hiring one, right?), current literature and studies on the matter.

Another big factor is if your company wants to change its culture – for example, is the organization willing to let a Product Manager team define and control the product? Or are they convinced that it is a function of the Marketing department? Whatever the answer to the culture question, it will mean a lot of changes to marketing, product development, service desk, platform development, etc. If your company is not willing to change the culture, the best way is to look for a framework that will reinforce current weaknesses and strengthen what is being done today.

Product Management & its strategic implications

Product management is a market-driven approach to develop and manage products or services:

• Defines what the product should be – is accountable to users for feature sets, navigation, quality, and overall experience

• Is a cross-functional discipline: involves strategy, product development and marketing

• Is accountable for overall product direction, key decisions, including in some cases full P&L control or at least budget control
  

• Ensures that the final product meets specifications

• Evangelizes product to internal and external stakeholders

The strategic implications of a robust Product Management function are many: from increasing the value of the company, understanding the customer today and in the future, ensuring that all possible revenue is being captured, guiding future product investments and controlling the current cost structure of the products, to name a few. For any organization, it is imperative that these and other issues are being taking care of in the Product Management function.