Escaping the Build Trap

Chapter 20. Outcome-Focused Communication

At the next quarterly business review, Karen was able to speak about the accomplishments of the team.

“This quarter, we were able to launch the video-editing software and onboard 150 new classes to our site, all in key areas of interest for our users. Since the launch of those courses, we have seen an increase in acquisition rate from 15% to 25%, and our retention numbers have risen to 60%. We’re well on our way to reaching our goals. With the additional efforts from other teams around this strategic intent, we’ll hit our goal early—​within a year and a half.”

The senior leadership team was very impressed with the work. A lot had changed in the past year for this company, and it was starting to see the benefits.

A year before, Marquetly was a classic example of a company stuck in the build trap. It was project-oriented, spinning up teams to tackle whatever was prioritized by the CEO. There were no product managers in the organization. Teams never talked to customers and were rewarded for shipping finished software. Those attributes were starting to fade and were being replaced by a customer-centric and outcome-oriented mindset. The company was not finished with its journey of becoming a product-led organization, but it was well on its way. Chris, the CEO, was excited to see the progress.

“It’s pretty amazing,” he told me, as we caught up after the quarterly business review meeting. “I didn’t know what to expect, but I can definitely see ...