Transformed

CHAPTER 39Objections from Line of Business

Note: Line-of-business managers are stakeholders but, rather than representing just one functional area of the business, such as finance, HR, marketing, or compliance, line-of-business managers are responsible for a business unit. It may be a small business unit, such as a category manager in an e-commerce company, or a large business unit, in which case the title may be general manager. Many of the issues are the same as discussed in chapter 38, “Objections from the CEO and Board.”

“I have P&L responsibility for this product line. So why would I not have control of the engineering resources?”

There is no question that a line-of-business manager is a critical partner in the product model, in very much the same way that a CEO of a startup or scale-up plays a critical role. But just as a startup CEO would depend on her product and technology leaders, the line-of-business manager would want to do the same.

In practice, just as with a startup, many of the most strategic decisions would be done collaboratively, such as product vision, product strategy, and identifying appropriate outcomes for the product teams.

“Leadership expects that I know about anything that can impact my business. I need to know what's coming so I can answer those questions when they come to me. I don't want to look like I don't know what's going on.”

Not only is this true, but leadership in the product model depends on informed, customer-focused, data-savvy, ...