EMPOWERED

PART IXBusiness Collaboration

Having strong product leaders and empowered product teams is necessary, but it's usually not sufficient.

That's because product work happens in the context of the broader company. Your CEO matters, as do the rest of your key executives and the various stakeholders representing other key areas of your business.

However, establishing the necessary working relationships with the rest of your business is a different level of hard. It requires a lot more sensitivity and nuance.

Realize that your company is currently used to feature teams that exist very clearly to serve the business, and now you're trying to replace them with empowered product teams that exist to serve our customers, in ways that work for the business.

What this really means in practice is that you need to move your product organization from a subservient model to a collaborative model.

At a very human level, you're asking very senior executives to think differently about teams comprised of ordinary people—individual contributors—who have been coached into extraordinary teams.

This is a very significant change, especially as it impacts the rest of your business. We need to discuss the implications of this change and how you, as a product leader, can guide your company through this change in mindset and responsibilities.