Transformed

CHAPTER 30Transformation Tactics—Competencies

Establishing the new product model competencies is usually one of the hardest parts of moving to the product model. It is also one of the most sensitive as you are essentially trying to get people to learn new skills and take on additional responsibilities.

But establishing these competencies is usually among the first things to do as, without the skills, the people won't be able to succeed with the product concepts.

Note that many of the techniques in this chapter are described in much more detail in the book EMPOWERED.

Product Model Competencies

New Job Definitions

Please remember that just because you may have some titles that sound the same, the product model introduces very different job definitions and responsibilities.

As a reminder, one of the top reasons for failed transformations is ignoring this reality and thinking you can succeed without taking the difficult step of resetting expectations of the people in the roles.

Success begins by first clearly defining the jobs that are required. Then you can start evaluating which of your people are capable of succeeding in those roles. With capable coaching from their manager or another product coach, many can succeed. But if you don't reset the job expectations, you won't see a reset in behaviors or performance.

It's also important to note that there may be job definitions from outside of product and engineering that are impacted as well, depending on the org structure. If ...