Building product is straight forward.

It requires organizations to do two things really well,

1. Find out what your customers need and
2. Figure out how to give it to them (solution must be better than the status quo)

That’s it.

But straight forward does not mean simple. Here are three reasons why companies continue to struggle.

The three main reasons are,

#1. Not organized to support building products:

Building products requires the teams to put the customer in the center of everything. It requires them to get out of the corporate bubble, talk to users, learn their needs, experiment with options, iterate, fail, pivot, and then build a solution.

Organizations are simply not built that way. Work flows from one silo to another. Where the silo that designs and builds the product has never actually talked to the customer / user. They just don’t have the operating model, process, team structure, tools etc. to support it.

#2. Don’t have the right leaders:

Building products requires a special type of leader. Someone, who can not only build a product, but can also be the catalyst for change and transform existing teams.

Most organizations don’t have these types of leaders within. And for good reason. Executing projects well is how most leaders rose up the ranks. Asking them now to abandon everything and do a complete U turn, is a recipe for disaster.

#3. Teams / individuals don’t know how:

The best products are built by high performing teams. Teams (and the individuals) who know how to build a product, self organize, collaborate (within and across the company), communicate, use data etc.

Most teams in traditional organizations don’t work that way. They are told what to do, how to do it, when to do it, and to do it fast. Any deviation (coloring outside the lines) comes with a sharp and swift reprimand. No wonder they are lost when it comes to building products.

So what can you do to fix it? Attack the problem at all three dimensions.

Since the problem is at three levels, you need to attack it from all three.

Organization: Implement a transformation program while reducing risks

Commit and create a holistic transformation program that will help your team move from building features to delivering outcomes. And since change can be risky, the key is to start small, experiment, and then scale.  

The basic steps are,

1. Assess:  Diagnose the problem, find out what is stopping you from building great products.  
2. Experiment:  Create new approaches and experiment with just a handful of teams.  Look for early wins
3. Scale:  Scale to the remaining teams (as appropriate).  
4. Codify:  Then and only then, codify the changes into a new operating model, process, hiring practices etc. 

You can read more about the 4 steps to transformation here.  

Leadership: Hire the right leaders and provide them with proper support

Make sure you have the right executives leading the charge.  

This includes,

1. Recruit:  Hiring leaders who have a product mindset.  Executives who not only understand how to build products but have experience in transforming teams.
2. Support:  Providing them with the right level of support (funding, leeway, time etc.).  All too often great leaders are hired and then the rest of the organization eats them alive.
3. Connect:  Take extra steps to connect the new leader with the rest of the organizations. Its impossible to pull off transformation if product, sales, marketing, legal etc. are all not on the same page. Create shared OKR if you can.

And I get it. This type of talent is hard to find (right now).  But that is changing, as more and more organizations are investing in building their product capabilities.  

If you are looking for a shortcut – i.e curated list of some of the best product executives.  Take a look at our Masters of Product interview guests.  

Teams & Individuals: Hire for mindset, train for skills, and incentivize

This is where the real magic happens.  

1. Hire:  Just like above, be mindful of who you hire within your product team.  However in this case it is not about skills, skills can be learnt.  Rather it is about the right mindset.  Renaming a project manager into a product manager, just won’t cut it.  
2. Train:  Invest in training.  Not just a one time event, but a continuous series that introduced the product teams to new ways of thinking, doing, working etc.
3. Support: Knowing what you need to do and doing it are two different things.  To bridge that gap, individuals need coaches and mentors to hold their hands and guide them.
4. Incentivize:  Incentivize good behavior.  It sounds silly but it is basic and it works.  If you want people to behave a certain way, then promote the people who are exhibiting that behavior already.  This stuff catches on.  

Check out this article, of what a good product manager looks like.

TL;DR

• Building products is straight forward – identify user need + build a better solution to meet that need.
• Companies struggle because they are,
  • Not organized correctly
  • Don’t have the right leaders, and
  • The teams / individuals don’t know how to build product
• If you want to get better, then you need to attack the problem at all three dimensions
  • Create a transformation program (organization)
  • Hire the right leaders and support them (leadership)
  • Hire, train, and incentivize (teams / individuals)

Happy building!!