Strong and direct. Yet, I can only agree that Product Ops is contradicting to empowerment and fostering collaboration. Contrary to that, it limits teams and distracts them with processes.
I love Melissa's Escaping the Build Trap, but the whole product ops push sounds a bit self-serving. After all, Meisda is in the consulting business and product ops is one thing she offers to develop for clients.
That aside, the whole practice seems like another layer of low value add complexity.
Thanks a lot for your thoughts! I also have ambivalent thoughts on that topic. The practices of Product Ops have their place in my toolbox, but the Idea of centralizing IS often Dangerous and the opposite to the core value of cross-functionality and the Idea of some kind of holocracy.... I did my thinking in that in one of my articles as well!
I'm not against with most of the practices. Processes standardization is something I'm allergic to. But I'd relate to your point of centralization, this is the part I disagree the most.
I am faced with a particularly nuanced problem and thinking deeply about this. A startup I'm interviewing at is taking on a dinosaur industry with a complex challenge. The REAL product, according to their CTO will take years to negotiate APIs with incumbents. In the meantime, they want me to join as VP of Ops and lead teams to run exhausting end-to-end processes in the most efficient manner possible. My goal would obviously be to automate whatever I can and minimize execution time.
Now here's the conundrum - these "ops" are essentially the product until the REAL product has been negotiated and developed. To me, these should all be part of the product function otherwise they run the real risk of losing alignment over time. In fact, I wouldn't even call the manual execution processes product ops - I would simply call them the "concierge" product - or something like that.
I will be less politically correct, David. The whole book by Melissa presents dangerous ideas.
It directly contradicts the culture or Netflix (lead with context, not control) and Jeff Bezos's "Day 1 Mentality."
While "Escaping the Build Trap" is a classic, "Product Operations" is not worth the attention it's getting.
Something dies inside me when I see the "Template Manager" job title. Seriously? 😵💫
Strong and direct. Yet, I can only agree that Product Ops is contradicting to empowerment and fostering collaboration. Contrary to that, it limits teams and distracts them with processes.
I love Melissa's Escaping the Build Trap, but the whole product ops push sounds a bit self-serving. After all, Meisda is in the consulting business and product ops is one thing she offers to develop for clients.
That aside, the whole practice seems like another layer of low value add complexity.
It does add complexity. And I’d call it adding unnecessary complexity that collaboration could solve.
My biggest trouble with product ops is the similarity of controlling teams and limiting them instead of providing guidance.
Thanks a lot for your thoughts! I also have ambivalent thoughts on that topic. The practices of Product Ops have their place in my toolbox, but the Idea of centralizing IS often Dangerous and the opposite to the core value of cross-functionality and the Idea of some kind of holocracy.... I did my thinking in that in one of my articles as well!
https://productpreacher.substack.com/p/product-management-renaissance
I'm not against with most of the practices. Processes standardization is something I'm allergic to. But I'd relate to your point of centralization, this is the part I disagree the most.
I am faced with a particularly nuanced problem and thinking deeply about this. A startup I'm interviewing at is taking on a dinosaur industry with a complex challenge. The REAL product, according to their CTO will take years to negotiate APIs with incumbents. In the meantime, they want me to join as VP of Ops and lead teams to run exhausting end-to-end processes in the most efficient manner possible. My goal would obviously be to automate whatever I can and minimize execution time.
Now here's the conundrum - these "ops" are essentially the product until the REAL product has been negotiated and developed. To me, these should all be part of the product function otherwise they run the real risk of losing alignment over time. In fact, I wouldn't even call the manual execution processes product ops - I would simply call them the "concierge" product - or something like that.
Any thoughts?