EMPOWERED

CHAPTER 69Key Takeaways

If you have persisted in working your way through this case study, I'm hoping that you have a clearer picture in your mind about how strong product organizations work in practice.

Here are what I consider the 10 most important points I hope you take away from this snapshot of a real company in the midst of dealing with the challenges and stresses of rapid growth:

1. The critical role that the product leaders need to play—from the topology, to the product strategy, to the team objectives, to actively managing the issues and obstacles that came up during the quarter.
2. The importance of a true product strategy based on focus and insights. The product strategy is what tells us which problems we need each product team to solve. These leaders crafted a strategy around a few high‐impact insights and then asked most of the organization to tackle these problems. The results will only be as good as the strategy.
3. The importance of active management of team objectives—both by the product teams themselves, but also from the product leaders. If the teams do not stay on top of their objectives, life intervenes, and pretty soon much of the quarter is gone and not enough has been done.
4. The value of empowering teams and teams of missionaries. The real innovations that occurred were all a direct result of having empowered teams excited to work on a hard problem that can make a real difference for the customers and for the company.
5. The limitations of what you can know and ...