Product Leadership Ponderings
What to say when your CEO comes to you with a “brilliant idea” … and you know you can’t say NO.
Instead say:
“That’s a great idea. Let’s think about how can we be successful when we do it?”
Why this is perfect:
1) When can be anytime
2) You didn’t say no, but you didn’t agree to do it
3) It gives you the opportunity to research and validate how good / feasible of an idea it really is
Provide guiding principles to your team through a product vision.
Then provide feedback to your team about their plans in terms of how well they fit within the vision.
It May take two or three rounds, but next time it will be less.
By investing now in helping your team understand how you interpret the vision, they will make better decisions even when you aren’t around.
Clear ownership is everything. Delegate or get volunteers, but make sure it’s clear to your team who is responsible for each action item.
Otherwise you end up with the Ringelmann Effect: the tendency for individual members of a group to become increasingly less productive as the size of their group increases.
— —
This is a story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody. There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that, because it was Everybody’s job. Everybody thought Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn’t do it. It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have.
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