EMPOWERED

CHAPTER 20Integrity

This chapter and the next tackle two of the toughest, yet most crucial, aspects of successful product teams.

In this chapter, I address integrity, and in the one that follows, we'll explore decision making. These two topics are distinct, but interrelated. I tackle integrity first because it is the foundation for good decision making in an empowered product team.

Especially for product managers of empowered product teams, integrity is not some sort of lofty aspirational goal. As I explained earlier, empowered product teams are predicated on trust—with executives, stakeholders, customers, and your own product team. I also explained how this trust is based on both competence and character. And integrity is at the heart of the necessary character.

The first thing I want to acknowledge is that developing, demonstrating, and preserving your integrity is in no way easy.

Forces are constantly conspiring to challenge your integrity.

Just imagine you've just come out of a meeting with the CEO in which she has impressed upon you just how critically important it is to be able to deliver something urgently. Yet your team has explained to you how they absolutely need more time.

Or you are sitting with a customer who is frustrated and angry because the product your team provided is not what they were led to believe they would receive.

Or one of your stakeholders has confided in you that she's looking at leaving the company because she feels unable to do her job with the ...