The product function is a critical component within an organization. It acts as a conduit between the leadership, technology teams, and the sales and marketing organizations with the mandate to deliver a service that is of value to its consumer base.

Given this strategic importance, it pays dividends to invest in building the right team and putting processes and frameworks in place that allow it to evolve and mature as the organization grows.

Hiring right:

Depending on the kind of role you're hiring for there could be a number base competencies required. While the skill sets could be anything from being great at numbers, process-oriented, exceptionally detailed, diligent with follow-ups, exceptionally creative, etc - there are a couple of characteristics that I place a premium on.

  1. Empathy - Someone who is able to connect with customers, understand the world they live in, their challenges.
  2. Humility - There is no place for an out of control ego in a product team, given that a large portion of how easily your products and services are adopted by the consumer depends on the team's ability to adapt and learn from mistakes (and there will be a fair share of those). It's important to recognize going in it's not about "I'm right" rather "What's right for the customer".
  3. Communication Skills - Product managers act as conduits for information between the different functions of the organization as well as representing the voice of the customer, therefore the ability to communicate with clarity across various audiences is critical.
  4. Conviction - Someone who knows all the moving parts and is able to articulate clearly and defend the decisions they've taken is key to building a function where there is a well thought out (and researched) approach at play.
  5. Data-driven - In the early stages of your organization where the number of customers you're dealing with isn't very large you could get by using anecdotal evidence and a "gut-feeling" to drive product decisions. However, if you're looking at building a mature (scaleable) product or service its important to have a team in place that looks at data as the first source of truth rather than anecdotal evidence. This way you gradually start making decisions based on what the data tells you.
  6. A thirst to constantly evolve - Someone who's constantly challenging the status quo (not in a disruptive way obviously) and thinking of new ways of tackling a variety of challenges faced by the team and the organization at large.

Growing your Product Team :

As your product management function grows with time and you're forced to start defining layers within the organization, one way of splitting the roles is by breaking them down into the following hierarchy.

  1. Strategy - Driving the vision, Stakeholder management, Headcount management, Budgeting, etc
  2. Planning - Roadmaps, Team management, Product-Market Fit, Packaging, Pricing, etc
  3. Execution - Release management, Running Sprints, Customer Feedback, etc

Build an action-oriented culture:

Rapid prototyping, A/B Testing, faster market releases - should be just some of the things ingrained in your team's DNA. This "quick to act" approach should not, however, act as an excuse for shoddy work. Accept that mistakes will be made but the team's ability to react quickly and address those will balance out the impact of those mistakes in the long term. It will also prepare the team to be able to handle issues that adversely impact your business that isn't directly in your control (case in point the impact of COVID-19).

Too often do people find themselves stuck in the quagmire of their day to day activities and innovation/improvement is pushed to the side (for a variety of reasons). As a leader, your focus should be to push your teams to think, experiment and have the confidence to fail - not just toe the line. If you haven't established that as a foundation upon which you build your function/organization, maybe it's a good time to start.

Be wary of corporate "bulk":

It's important to recognize that while the organization transitions through different stages of its growth the fastest way to kill insight and the ability to build a great (relevant) product is to add more layers than necessary (via a traditional hierarchy) between the product function and the customer.

While it might be challenging to build a completely flat organization once you start getting large it's important to build processes and frameworks in place to ensure the product team gets as close to the customer as possible to prevent a "Chinese Whisper" situation when relying on feedback or input.

Evolve as needed:

It's important to accept that you might not get your product team structured "just right" out the gate. As your business evolves - growing bigger, new geographies, new product lines, etc, so could your product team.

Focus on the fundamentals of the people you hire, you can always re-organize as needed.

After all, if your customers and the world around you are constantly evolving why wouldn't you?