1 tip & 3 resources per week to improve your Strategy, OKRs, and Discovery practices in less than 5 minutes.
🛠️ I asked 5 CPOs what a Product is. Here‘s what they said. (Part 2)
I asked 5 CPOs what a Product is. Here‘s what they said. (Part 2)Dear Reader, This is the sequel to last week’s newsletter. You can catch-up by re-reading it here. What is a Product? Arne Kittler, Product Org Consultant & Fractional Leader, ex-CPO at Facelift It can make sense to differentiate the external from the internal perspective even though they ideally lead to the same result. Let me explain: Externally, a product is a digital solution and/or service that is understood by the user to do one more jobs for them and help them achieve a certain outcome. A product can be marketed as such. Internally, larger organizations often refer to a more granular set of user-facing capabilities as products to reflect separate areas of responsibility that various cross-functional product teams may have. This internal perspective can be problematic if the different internal "products" don't correspond with what users perceive as the product: There's an increased risk of disfunctional silos, suboptimal solutions for the users and limitations in accountability the product teams with regards to go-to-market. This is why applying a meaningful org topology is important when deciding on how to cut the scope of teams in a multi-team setup. Lily Smith, CPO at BBC Maestro, The Product Experience Podcast Co-Host We have a simple product at BBC Maestro and our Product Managers own high level business goals of part the experience, rather than the end to end product. One PM is responsible for acquisition and the second is responsible for engagement and retention. Then we have a PM who owns the experience for our business customers which is end to end - from acquisition through to offboarding. The Product itself is essentially ‘the business of BBC Maestro’, and each PM owns a key objective of the business. So each PM creates a strategy, owns discovery and the roadmap for their business objective. Ravi Mehta, ex-CPO at Tinder, Product at Facebook A product is something that creates value for users — but we need to draw an important distinction about how a product creates value.
Consider two different cars: a family SUV and a luxury sports car. The SUV is a utility-focused product, and the luxury sports car is an entertainment-focused product. Product builders often assume that utility is more important than entertainment. But, not so in this case and many others. The SUV delivers more utility, yet the sports car is more valuable. Did you enjoy this one or have feedback? Do reply. It's motivating. I'm not a robot; I read and respond to every subscriber email I get (just ask around). If this newsletter isn't for you anymore, you can unsubscribe here. Thank you for Practicing Product, Tim PS: Part 2 of my "State of Discovery"-Poll is live on LinkedIn. This time, it's about the lead time to insights. New In-Person Workshop Dates AnnouncedI'm excited to bring my beloved in-person workshops back to Berlin in January 2025. You can choose between 1-day workshops on Product Strategy, Product OKRs, or Product Discovery OR get the full 3-day experience for you or your team.
(early bird pricing available) What did you think of this week's newsletter? As a Product Management Coach, I guide Product Teams to measure the progress of their evidence-informed decisions. I identify and share the patterns among better practices to connect the dots of Product Strategy, Product OKRs, and Product Discovery. |
Product Practice Newsletter
1 tip & 3 resources per week to improve your Strategy, OKRs, and Discovery practices in less than 5 minutes.
Product Practice #353 How Duolingo Approaches Strategy, OKRs, and Discovery READ ON HERBIG.CO PUBLISHED Mar 7, 2025 READING TIME 4 min & 24 sec Dear Reader, Many Product Managers were in awe of the ways of working shared in The Duolingo Handbook a few weeks ago. While it’s an inspiring read, I used this as a reason to revisit some of my all-time favorite reads about how this company operates (or at least used to operate) and extract my takeaways with you. Duolingo focuses on “Movable” Metrics...
Product Practice #352 My Digitale Leute Summit 2024 Keynote Recording and Slides READ ON HERBIG.CO PUBLISHED Feb 28, 2025 READING TIME 1 min & 40 sec Dear Reader, I'm excited to share the full recording of my talk on How Product Teams Can Connect the Dots of Strategy, OKRs, and Discovery from last year's Digitale Leute Summit. You can think of it as the naturally progressing chapter (hint hint) that would follow my talk from Product at Heart 2024. As always, I won't require you, as an...
Product Practice #351 The Post-it trap: Why Strategy needs more than Workshops READ ON HERBIG.CO PUBLISHED Feb 21, 2025 READING TIME 5 min & 19 sec Dear Reader, 'Product Strategy by Post-it' occurs when teams prioritize filling out frameworks over making real strategic choices. It's a common symptom of treating strategy as a checkbox exercise rather than a tool for decision-making. John Cutler even suggests that most frameworks should feature a warning label like this: "This framework is...