# Transforming Your Organisation to the Product Operating Model  ## Metadata - Author: [[One Knight in Product]] - Full Title: Transforming Your Organisation to the Product Operating Model - Category: #podcasts - URL: https://share.snipd.com/episode/c8fb0f65-761b-4a7d-9f53-d8a053ef1c3b ## Highlights - Episode AI notes 1. True transformation requires investing in critical competencies and avoiding 'agile theater'. 2. Investing in new critical competencies is essential for success, such as product manager and real product designer. 3. Embracing transformation across the organization is crucial, including obtaining acceptance from all stakeholders. 4. Navigating stakeholder resistance in organizational transformation requires bridging the gap and emphasizing the benefits of change. 5. Transformation evangelism is key to successful organizational change, showcasing the value of transformation throughout the journey. 6. Avoiding controversies and defining product ops as focusing on user research, data analysts, and process governance. ([Time 0:00:00](https://share.snipd.com/episode-takeaways/44bd3998-147e-40fd-b28d-0d9cf853d235)) - Invest in Critical Competencies for True Transformation Summary: True transformation often gets masked by what is known as 'transformation theater', particularly prevalent in agile environments. This 'agile theater' focuses more on processes rather than on true transformational outcomes. Another common aspect of transformation theater is the rebranding of job titles without redefining the actual job responsibilities and without assessing the willingness of individuals to undergo necessary changes. True transformation requires investing in four critical competencies, which are often overlooked amid the theatrical facade. Transcript: Speaker 1 You know, the way usually what we see is they've spent years quote, transforming and spent all this money, but at the end, they really don't have much to show for it. What we realize has gone on is transformation theater. And that comes in many forums. I mean, the probably the most prevalent forum is agile theater. There is real valued agile. It's amazing though how you have to work so hard to find it, because so many people are all about that theater, the whole move to safe, all these crazy product coaches, agile coaches everywhere. You know, this is it's all it's theater. It's process. It's not product. And so that's a common form of theater. Another one is that they, it's kind of related, you know, whenever you get these what's been what happened really, they retitled a bunch of business analysts or some other job to product Owner or maybe product manager, but they didn't actually redefine the real job and go through what you really need to do, which is every person do an assessment to decide how much work They'd have to do to change. And then if they're even willing to do those changes, that's the hard work of really transforming. But most people don't want to do that. Most HR departments don't want to do that. Most CEOs don't want to do that. And especially they'll often say, oh, we only hire good people. And I'm like, look, you're on a path to failure. It's just so common. Unless you're willing to invest in these four, there's four critical competencies that are new competencies, even though you may have those titles, they are new competencies. ([Time 0:38:30](https://share.snipd.com/snip/4426bb8b-a0ba-48d8-93aa-033ab2853698)) - Importance of Investing in New Critical Competencies for Success Summary: Transformation requires willingness to invest in new competencies. Many resist this change, believing in hiring only 'good people'. However, without the right skills and roles, failure is imminent. Traditional titles may not align with the new critical competencies required for success, such as product manager and real product designer. Transcript: Speaker 1 And then if they're even willing to do those changes, that's the hard work of really transforming. But most people don't want to do that. Most HR departments don't want to do that. Most CEOs don't want to do that. And especially they'll often say, oh, we only hire good people. And I'm like, look, you're on a path to failure. It's just so common. Unless you're willing to invest in these four, there's four critical competencies that are new competencies, even though you may have those titles, they are new competencies. Unless you're, they're, you know, product always comes down to the people. And if you don't have the people in the right skills, right role, you're going to have trouble. And so that's critical. Speaker 2 So come on, there are more of the four competencies for the record. Speaker 1 Yeah. Well, like I said, many companies have these titles, but they're usually defined very differently. The first one is product manager, not to be confused with a feature team product manager or a delivery team product owner. Right. If you, if you were training in product was done by a CSPO or a PSP O class by an agile coach, you got nothing to work with there. You need to really start fresh. Second, real product designer. And I'm not just talking graphic design. ([Time 0:39:37](https://share.snipd.com/snip/9a957837-5158-4323-bdd0-ccf1531b8f37)) - Key Competencies for Product Development Teams Summary: Four key competencies for product development teams are product manager, real product designer focusing on service and interaction design, tech lead engineer who cares about what and how is built, and genuine product leaders who truly understand their role. Transcript: Speaker 2 So come on, there are more of the four competencies for the record. Speaker 1 Yeah. Well, like I said, many companies have these titles, but they're usually defined very differently. The first one is product manager, not to be confused with a feature team product manager or a delivery team product owner. Right. If you, if you were training in product was done by a CSPO or a PSP O class by an agile coach, you got nothing to work with there. You need to really start fresh. Second, real product designer. And I'm not just talking graphic design. I'm talking service design, interaction design, visual design, but especially that interaction and service design skills. The third competency is a tech lead engineering tech lead. This is a senior engineer that cares as much about what's built is how it's built. Those people are worth their weight in gold. And then the fourth competency is the one you brought up earlier, which is real product leaders, real product leaders that understand the job that they need to do. ([Time 0:40:22](https://share.snipd.com/snip/48aa620d-4033-41ea-8ac5-39e90f617c53)) - Embracing Transformation Across the Organization Summary: Transformations can face resistance from existing stakeholders who may be reluctant or unaware of what transformation entails, leading to concerns about loss of power and prestige. To ensure a successful and inclusive transformation, bridging the gap and obtaining acceptance from all stakeholders, including HR, CFO, and CEO, is crucial. Simply focusing on engineering transformations, as done in agile transformations, only impacts delivery, not the products themselves. Welcoming and involving all employees in the transformation process is essential for a holistic organizational change. Transcript: Speaker 2 Absolutely. And something that we all aspire to develop more of. But part of the problem with transformations in general, when you call out in the book, and it's been called out in other books as well, which all kind of riff on this idea that a big part Of the problem is you have existing stakeholders that are used to working in a certain way. You talk about HR, for example, and the CFO and the CEO, they've probably not asked all of them to be transformed. It's somewhat against their will in the first place. They may not even really be aware of what being transformed or transforming the company means. And they're either unhappy or frightened or both of the kind of loss of power and prestige that they might have in this new organization. Now all these product managers and product leaders and product designers and tech leads are coming into still their lunch. How can we bridge those gaps and make sure that the transformation is both accepted and I guess welcomed by the whole organization rather than just the people that are going to be at its Heart? Speaker 1 Well, of course, one approach to that is sort of what the agile transformation people did, which is say, you don't even have to be bothered. We're not going to bother you. We're just going to mess with the engineers. And of course, that doesn't all that is really transforming is delivery. It's not transforming product. ([Time 0:41:26](https://share.snipd.com/snip/268b0144-e59d-4aea-9975-eea8806fddf2)) - Navigating Stakeholder Resistance in Organizational Transformation Summary: In organizational transformations, existing stakeholders who are accustomed to working in certain ways may resist change due to fear of loss of power and prestige. Merely focusing on transforming delivery, as seen in agile transformations, is not enough to address the core issues. Instead, transformation efforts should aim to bridge the gap between stakeholders and those at the heart of the change by ensuring it is accepted and welcomed by the entire organization. This can be achieved by avoiding a perception of power shift and by emphasizing that product transformation is about creating solutions that benefit both customers and the business. Transcript: Speaker 2 Absolutely. And something that we all aspire to develop more of. But part of the problem with transformations in general, when you call out in the book, and it's been called out in other books as well, which all kind of riff on this idea that a big part Of the problem is you have existing stakeholders that are used to working in a certain way. You talk about HR, for example, and the CFO and the CEO, they've probably not asked all of them to be transformed. It's somewhat against their will in the first place. They may not even really be aware of what being transformed or transforming the company means. And they're either unhappy or frightened or both of the kind of loss of power and prestige that they might have in this new organization. Now all these product managers and product leaders and product designers and tech leads are coming into still their lunch. How can we bridge those gaps and make sure that the transformation is both accepted and I guess welcomed by the whole organization rather than just the people that are going to be at its Heart? Speaker 1 Well, of course, one approach to that is sort of what the agile transformation people did, which is say, you don't even have to be bothered. We're not going to bother you. We're just going to mess with the engineers. And of course, that doesn't all that is really transforming is delivery. It's not transforming product. And so one of the things we say is unfortunately, that is not tackling the big issues. We need to do more than that. So this is why we don't like the terms product driven or product led, because if the stakeholders perceive this as power going from them to you, who's going to be happy about that? I mean, just common sense, right? But the other thing is even if that were the case, it doesn't work very well, because product is all about coming up with a solution that's fantastic for your customers, but also works For the business. ([Time 0:41:26](https://share.snipd.com/snip/74bcdabf-2cd2-4cb4-a6d8-5bcdafe37248)) - Transformation Evangelism is Key to Successful Organizational Change Summary: Motivation is crucial in driving organizational transformation. Transforming output to outcomes is appealing to business leaders, but the challenge lies in understanding how to effectively achieve it. Demonstrating early and continuous wins is essential in transformation evangelism, where the focus is on showcasing the value of change to stakeholders throughout the journey. Transcript: Speaker 1 Yeah, absolutely. I mean, now you're really getting to the core of what really makes transformation hard because, first of all, unless they're motivated, I warn them, the CEO really needs to know what He or she is getting into because this is a journey. And most of them are instantly, they love the idea of moving from output to outcomes because that's not very hard for a business leader to understand the virtue of. What they don't understand necessarily is how in the world do you do that? Really? Well, what does that even look like? Yeah, it sounds great, but so does all kinds of fantasy things, right? So they want to know how does that really work? And that's why the, when you come to the people element of this and the time element, because it could take years to transform a big organization, although even though it can take two To three years, you want value to start appearing in weeks. And so what we have is a number of techniques to make that happen. You need to show early wins, you need to show continuous wins, you need to highlight those wins. So now we're getting into what's referred to as transformation evangelism. ([Time 0:44:15](https://share.snipd.com/snip/1997a2ac-4ab5-440c-ab0b-f1fc6108d028)) - Navigating Controversies and Definitions of Product Ops Summary: The speaker avoids social media controversies and prefers to stay away from ambiguous definitions, referring to them as a mess. They tried to understand the different arguments surrounding product ops, which were clarified in a book mentioning two main pillars: user research and data analysts. These aspects are not new but are now under the management of product ops. However, the third pillar in the book, focusing on process and governance, is a concern for the speaker, labeling them as 'evil words.' Transcript: Speaker 1 Well, it's funny, you spend more time on social media than I do. I don't even really know about the controversies you're referring to. I do try hard to stay away from them. So that's probably why I don't know. But it was a mess early on with product ops, because so many, I just kept asking people that were referencing it how they were defining it and I kept getting different answers. So I don't call that a controversy. I just call that a mess. That's all. And I was trying to, you know, trying to understand what the different arguments were around product ops. And then of course, the book came out, which I think helped stabilize a little bit. If you read the book, they basically talked about two main pillars of product ops, which is user research and data analysts, which, you know, I would point out have existed in companies For 20 plus years. So this is not a new thing. But putting them under a single manager of product ops is a new thing. And I don't think that's a bad thing either. The third pillar is where it could go either way, because the way in that book they defined it, which I consider very unfortunate, is what was it? Process and governance. Two evil words. It's far something concerned. ([Time 0:49:50](https://share.snipd.com/snip/7d086c6a-aa27-4ed9-b7be-7c1f98d5773a))