EMPOWERED

CHAPTER 55Ambition

We have now assigned each product team one or more specific problems to solve, but we're not quite done providing the necessary context.

When leaders ask a team to work on solving a problem, it's important to be clear with the team about the level of ambition they should strive for in their discovery work.

Should the team focus on low‐risk but low‐reward “sure things,” or should they strive for more substantial and dramatic improvements?

One useful way to think about team objectives is that the leaders are placing a series of bets. Some are low risk, some are high risk, and some are in between.

They're making bets primarily on the people, but also on new enabling technologies, changing market conditions and customer behaviors, and the strength of the insights behind the product strategy.

As you'll see, if something is important enough, the leaders might choose to have several teams each attack a problem in their own way—some going for low‐risk, quick wins, and others maybe going for much more ambitious but higher‐risk approaches.

It's important not to confuse the level of ambition with the level of effort or sense of urgency.

Work ethic and sense of urgency are more a function of the culture—and also very likely your company's cash situation—and not what we are addressing here.

Teams that pursue low‐risk/low‐reward solutions will test product ideas that are much different from teams pursuing high‐risk/high‐reward solutions. The nature of the product discovery ...