After a year's worth of lessons learned from all the good and bad product decisions I made as my company's Head of Products, I recognized that I would need even more help from the larger community of Product people in the months and years ahead.
The Product Decision: Advance my own professional product capabilities and better address the expanding needs of my company by tapping into the rich pool of talent and experience all around me.
Call in reinforcements to advance product initiatives
In recognizing that my internal team members did not have the time and/or expertise to help with a few of our upcoming and impactful product initiatives, I decided to reach outside the company and use trusted resources to temporarily expand my team.
The Product Decision: Recruit available experts from the company's extended circle of trusted colleagues to help tackle a few pressing product engagements.
Read MoreGuide and advise fellow Product Managers
After many rounds of discouraging conversations with less experienced and struggling Product Managers both inside and outside my own company, I decided to assemble and share some helpful resources for advancing one's own PM career.
The Product Decision: Create simple orientation assignments for Product Managers who have a genuine appetite for advancing their careers.
Read MoreFind a good stopping point for a postponed feature
After the principal customer backed off a requested new feature, I decided to quickly wrap up our discovery work.
The Product Decision: Suspend ongoing product discovery and shore up the current state of requirements.
Read MoreGetting ready to groom
In recognizing that too many of our user stories were not truly ready to be implemented, I decided to revisit the entire path to grooming.
The Product Decision: Formalize the team's story preparation process leading up to sprint planning.
Read MoreDeliver a more compelling product status update to the troops
In recognizing that our periodic meetings to share our development progress were falling flat, I decided to revamp the company-wide Product Preview event.
The Product Decision: Substitute the Engineering-led, tech-heavy, feature-level demos with a Product-led, value-driven, full on show-and-tell lineup.
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