EMPOWERED

CHAPTER 13Sense of Ownership

The previous several chapters have provided a set of coaching tools and techniques designed to help you get your product managers to competence.

However, in this and the next several chapters I would like to explore coaching behavior and mindset.

A strong product person is not just competent in terms of knowledge and skills, she also has an effective product mindset and consistently demonstrates good judgment in her decisions and her interactions.

In this chapter, I discuss an important mindset for a product person, which is the difference between thinking like an owner versus thinking like an employee.

I want to acknowledge up front that this chapter touches on a sensitive subject for many people, because the topic can quickly get personal—especially for those who have grown up in countries with different attitudes toward work and its role in one's life.

But this is why I need to remind everyone that I'm all about sharing the practices and techniques from what I consider the best tech product teams in the world.

I'm not trying to share what most companies do (you learned in the preface what I think of how most companies work). I'm trying to share best practice. I'm also trying to judge best by objective results and not by subjective standards.

With those caveats, many product leaders have heard the phrase “we want to hire product people that think like an owner and not like an employee,” but what does that really mean? And just how important is ...