One Knight in Product

The Five Dysfunctions of Product Management Teams (with Saeed Khan, Founder @ Transformation Labs)

Saeed Khan is a product consultant, coach, speaker and founder who wants to give all of us product managers some tough love. In a long career, he's seen the same five dysfunctions across multiple product organisations and wants us to all be honest with ourselves so that we can have a chance to fix them.
I actually interviewed Saeed in one of my first podcast episodes. It has a certain "Simpsons Season 1" quality about it but, if you're curious, feel free to check it out!
A message from this episode's sponsor - One Knight Consulting
This episode is sponsored by One Knight Consulting. Yes, yes, that's me. But listen up. I started One Knight Consulting because I have seen variations of the same problems plaguing growing startups, scale-ups and larger, digitally transforming companies again & again. These problems can cause friction between teams, slow product development, lacklustre sales, and ultimately lead to constrained growth. If you're scaling your product organisation, struggling with cross-team alignment or having trouble executing your product strategy to support your business goals, book a call with me and we can discuss your needs and how I can help.
Episode highlights:
It's important to be honest about the state of product management
It's not about being negative or blaming "bad product managers" for everything. But, there are repeated dysfunctions across a large number of companies and we can't fix them if we ignore them.
Product managers suffer from poor job definitions, which makes it hard to succeed
Bad job specs are a symptom of a deeper truth: Not many people outside product management really understand it, or what "cross-functional" working means at all. We should avoid being "glue".
There are lots of smart product managers out there but they don't all have the skills they need
Product management is the ultimate "school of hard knocks" trade & many people practising it speak only in the theoretical/struggle in different contexts. PMs need good coaching.
"Process" is too often seen as a dirty word. You don't need too much but you need some
There needs to be some level of rigour within PM teams to help set them up for success. Doing everything ad hoc gives you ad hoc results. Don't overegg it, but don't underegg it either.
Our objectives are often unclear, and we need to do our best to connect to the company's goals
We need to be able to define leading measures of success and connect our efforts to actual business success. PMs need to have a far higher level of interest in business outcomes.
Product leadership is often weak & is needed to fix all of the dysfunctions
It's better to have a former PM and coach them into a leader than to have a non-product businessperson brought in. Someone with good pattern recognition who can bring everything together is essential.
Check out the blog article "The 5 Dysfunctions of Product Management Teams"
You can read the article that inspired this interview right here.
Contact Saeed
You can connect with Saeed on Twitter, LinkedIn, Mastodon or check out Transformation Labs.

OKIP LIVE! Is Product/Market Fit Really Dead, or Just Resting? (with Andrea Saez & Dave Martin, Right To Left)

My good friends Andrea Saez and David Martin recently put a whitepaper out called "Product-Market Fit is Dead", and we decided to have a chat about it. Our original plan was a Twitter Space with audience interaction but it turns out that Twitter Spaces is awful. Undeterred, we did an "as live" session, uncut and unedited, to get as much of the live feel as possible. Check it out!
Contact Dave & Andrea
You can reach out to Andrea on LinkedIn or on Twitter.
You can catch up with Dave on LinkedIn or Twitter
Find out more about Right to Left at their website: https://www.righttoleft.io. You can also grab the white paper "Product-Market Fit is Dead" and browse the rest of their free content.

Learning the Bedrock Skills of Innovators & Entrepreneurs (with Bob Moesta, Co-creator of the Jobs to be Done Framework & Author ”Learning to Build”)

Bob Moesta is the co-creator of the Jobs to be Done Framework, a now-ubiquitous methodology to identify "struggling moments" and understand the driving forces behind customer demand. He worked on this with the legendary Clayton Christensen to take it out the world and followed it up with books about demand-side sales and, now, how to use the principles of the greatest innovators to help you succeed as an entrepreneur.
A message from this episode's sponsor - One Knight Consulting
This episode is sponsored by One Knight Consulting. Yes, yes, that's me. But listen up. I started One Knight Consulting because I have seen variations of the same problems plaguing growing startups, scale-ups and larger, digitally transforming companies again & again. These problems can cause friction between teams, slow product development, lacklustre sales, and ultimately lead to constrained growth. If you're scaling your product organisation, struggling with cross-team alignment or having trouble executing your product strategy to support your business goals, book a call with me and we can discuss your needs and how I can help.
Episode highlights:
Bob is dyslexic, and Jobs to be Done was his hack to understand the world
Bob has trouble reading and writing, and this forced him to admit what he didn't know and find ways to get customer insight that didn't involve reading reports. Jobs to be Done was the result.
Clayton Christensen helped him turn his hack into a framework
Bob's hack became an indispensable framework to identify customer motivation, with applications through sales, product, design... even religion & HR! The importance of uncovering "struggling moments" is universal.
Bob is passionate about mentorship and paying it forward
Bob has had great mentors throughout his life: Clayton Christensen, W. Edwards Deming, Willie Moore & Genichi Taguchi. They poured so much into him, all in different ways, & he feels obliged to pay forward what he learned
In many organisations, there's more energy spent arguing between functions than serving customers
Product, marketing, sales & customer success need to stop shouting at each other and concentrate on helping their customers make progress. We're all on the same side!
All the best innovators in the world have a core set of skills
The 5 bedrock skills of innovation are: Empathetic Perspective, Uncovering Demand, Causal Structures, Prototyping & Trade-offs. To have the best chance of success you must master them all or find people to help.
Buy "Learning to Build"
"This journey of entrepreneurship and innovation shouldn’t be a solo trip. If you’re missing something, struggling to begin, or have reached a plateau, fellow entrepreneur and innovator Bob Moesta knows your next steps because he’s been there himself. Now, in Learning to Build, Bob helps you develop the five fundamental skills every successful innovator practices to be their best. He provides you with the resources you need to learn these skills, grow through experience, and adapt your mindset."
Check it out on Amazon.
Buy "Demand-Side Sales"
"For a lot of us, selling feels icky. Our stomachs tighten at the thought of reciting features and benefits, or pressuring customers into purchasing. It's really not our fault. We weren't taught how to sell, plus we've been sold before, leaving us with a bitter taste. Here's the truth: sales does not have to feel icky for you or your customers. In fact, with the right approach, sales can be an empowering experience for all.."
Check it out on Amazon.
Contact Bob
You can connect with Bob on Twitter, LinkedIn or check out The Re-Wired Group.

Using The Power of Community to Help you Thrive in a Generalist World (with Milly Tamati, Founder @ Generalist World)

Milly Tamati is a former "Director of Miscellaneous" who travelled the world before settling in a tiny island off the coast of Scotland with 170 residents, a castle and a distillery. She's always been a generalist at heart and is now looking to support a global community of like-minded professionals with Generalist World.
A message from this episode's sponsor - One Knight Consulting
This episode is sponsored by One Knight Consulting. Yes, yes, that's me. But listen up. I started One Knight Consulting because I have seen variations of the same problems plaguing growing startups, scale-ups and larger, digitally transforming companies again & again. These problems can cause friction between teams, slow product development, lacklustre sales, and ultimately lead to constrained growth. If you're scaling your product organisation, struggling with cross-team alignment or having trouble executing your product strategy to support your business goals, book a call with me and we can discuss your needs and how I can help.
Episode highlights:
Not everyone needs to be a specialist, you could be a generalist!
Do you not fit neatly in a box? Do you consider yourself a jack of all trades/someone who wears many hats? You might be a generalist & there are lots of generalists out there. Embrace it and find your people!
The generalist sweet spot is in smaller companies & startups
All companies could benefit from good people, but startups especially need people to be the connectors, tie things together and solve whatever problems arise whatever the domain. Generalism is a superpower here.
If you've got a product that makes people's eyes light up then you're onto something
Milly started Generalist World by speaking to a few people, but every single person's eyes lit up & they were all super-passionate. This is a perfect signal that you're doing something right!
Applying a "Jobs to be Done" mentality to recruitment could be a step change in hiring practices
We can make hiring less transactional & more human by not just talking about job roles, but problems that you need to solve and the skills you need to solve them.
Milly believes in communities but believes 9 out of 10 will fail
It's just so easy to create a community these days. Companies & brands are jumping on board, doing the bare basics & leaving a ghost town behind. Companies need to be strategic & intentional to be successful.
Contact Milly
You can connect with Milly on Twitter, LinkedIn or check out Generalist World.

Making Sure you REALLY Know your Customers and Pulling out of Growth Stalls (with Adrienne Barnes, Founder @ Best Buyer Persona)

Adrienne Barnes started out working to help people with their user personas but found that her work pointed to an even bigger problem - companies entering growth stalls and unable to recover. She is now here to tell us all how we might maintain our flightworthiness and get back onto the path of sustainable growth.
A message from this episode's sponsor - Product People
This episode is sponsored by Product People. If you’re a company founder or product leader who needs to get a product management team up and running quickly or cover parental leave check out Product People. They’ve got a thriving community and 40 in-house product managers, product ops pros, and product leaders. They onboard fast, align teams and deliver outcomes. Check out Product People to book a free intro chat and quote code OKIP to get a 5% discount.
Episode highlights:
Growth Stalls can happen to anyone and often happen after really strong growth
Companies can be growing, growing, growing and then all of a sudden just stall. There are factors that influence this, but if they're not addressed then growth stalls can last for years or decades
There are some red flags that indicate growth stalls and leaders need to listen
Too many leaders believe in themselves too much that they miss the signs of a growth stall & fail to address them. Status quo bias and ignoring dissenting opinions can impede efforts to fix it.
The earlier you catch a growth stall the better but it's never too late
Identifying stalls early naturally helps, but if you catch it late then you can still turn it around as long as you're realistic about what "turning it around" means and adjust your expectations.
Growth comes from understanding your customers & too many companies don't
If teams have different user personas defined, no one has user personas defined. There needs to be a concerted effort to understand your ideal customers and it should be a top-down, aligned effort.
Alignment is crucial for any of this stuff to work
The top reasons for growth stalls are: Not understanding your customers, Not understanding your positioning, Knowledge gaps & misalignments between teams. You need everyone to know the same stuff & pull in the same direction!
Contact Adrienne
You can connect with Adrienne on LinkedIn, Twitter or check her website, AdrienneNakohl.com.

Team Change is Inevitable - What’s Important is How we Respond to It (with Heidi Helfand, Author ”Dynamic Reteaming”)

Heidi Helfand is an engineering leader, consultant, coach, speaker and author who says that we need to "make the most of the time we have with people". Throughout her career she's noted how team change is inevitable and wanted to help companies navigate it with her book "Dynamic Reteaming".
A message from this episode's sponsor - Product People
This episode is sponsored by Product People. If you’re a company founder or product leader who needs to get a product management team up and running quickly or cover parental leave check out Product People. They’ve got a thriving community and 40 in-house product managers, product ops pros, and product leaders. They onboard fast, align teams and deliver outcomes. Check out Product People to book a free intro chat and quote code OKIP to get a 5% discount.
Episode highlights:
Team change is inevitable but what's important is how you deal with it
Even if you're going for long-lived mission-based teams, they're still going to change through attrition, company growth, lay-offs or mergers. It's important to manage this change effectively.
Dynamic Reteaming helps you however you decide to set up your teams
Books like Team Topologies tell you how to set up your teams to deliver value effectively. Dynamic Reteaming can work hand in hand with that approach and help you get there.
Team members don't always get to choose what happens
Sometimes people & teams will get moved around & sometimes this change will come top-down. It's ideal for team members to have a say, but ultimately it's important for the leadership to communicate, communicate. communicate
Bottom-up reteaming can work but your mileage might vary
Some companies allow people to decide what teams they work on, but your mileage may vary and, ultimately, in many companies, it's important to mix grassroots and executive input to get true success
Dynamic Reteaming offers a playbook for different types of team changes
The patterns within Dynamic Reteaming include people-focused approaches to use before and after team changes. The most important principles are to be kind, thoughtful and to treat people with respect.
Buy "Dynamic Reteaming"
"Your team will change whether you like it or not. People will come and go. Your company might double in size or even be acquired. In this practical book, author Heidi Helfand shares techniques for reteaming effectively. Engineering leaders will learn how to catalyze team change to reduce the risk of attrition, learning and career stagnation, and the development of knowledge silos. Based on research into well-known software companies, the patterns in this book help CTOs and team managers effectively integrate new hires into an existing team, manage a team that has lost members, or deal with unexpected change"
Check it out on Amazon. You can also check out the book website
Contact Heidi
You can connect with Heidi on LinkedIn.

The Trouble with Product Management Onboarding and How to Get it Right (with Mirela Mus, Founder & CPO @ Product People)

Mirela Mus is a product manager, product leader, mentor, coach, advisor and company founder who wanted to solve a problem that she kept seeing when she spoke to company leaders; the need to spin up product teams to cover hiring gaps and parental leave. She's doing this with her firm Product People.
A message from this episode's sponsor - Product People
This episode is sponsored by Product People. If you’re a company founder or product leader who needs to get a product management team up and running quickly or cover parental leave check out Product People. They’ve got a thriving community and 40 in-house product managers, product ops pros, and product leaders. They onboard fast, align teams and deliver outcomes. Check out Product People to book a free intro chat and quote code OKIP to get a 5% discount.
Episode highlights:
It's important to support promising new product managers
Mirela is committed to bringing talent into product management with the Product People operating model which gives APMs real-world product experience whilst maintaining quality for clients
You don't have to start a SaaS startup to be an entrepreneur
Mirela wasn't excited by building a SaaS product to solve everyday problems, and she found lots of problems through her own consulting which showed her the real problem and why a product agency is needed
Companies can be pretty bad at onboarding in general
But it's not always the case that good onboarding = a good experience. There are plenty of examples of great onboarding into poor company culture and bad onboarding into a great culture. It's the culture that's important!
Onboarding for product managers is harder than for most roles
Product managers are at the centre of everything and the requirements of the role can be really ambiguous depending on the company. The product culture is often underdeveloped which can drag product managers down.
There's a playbook for this stuff and a structured approach that PMs can take
You need to come up with a plan. There are things you can ask for in advance, stakeholders to map and sensitive topics to uncover. These can help you work out where you need to focus to be successful.
Contact Mirela
You can check out Mirela's blog post, Blazing Fast Onboarding for Product Managers.
You can connect with Mirela on LinkedIn.

Using Tech to Change Culture and Un-f**king the Design Industry (with Mackenzie Daisley, CEO & Founder at Brieft)

Mackenzie Daisley is a former designer & design account executive who has decided that the design industry is totally f**ked. She's started her own company, Brieft, to un-f**k it and she's not afraid to use expletives along the way.
A message from this episode's sponsor - Product People
This episode is sponsored by Product People. If you’re a company founder or product leader who needs to get a product management team up and running quickly or cover parental leave check out Product People. They’ve got a thriving community and 40 in-house product managers, product ops pros, and product leaders. They onboard fast, align teams and deliver outcomes. Check out Product People to book a free intro chat and quote code OKIP to get a 5% discount.
Episode highlights:
The Design Industry is F**cked
In Australia, staff turnover in design agencies is around 30%, and she's seen similar patterns around the world. A big part of the problem is around communication & collaboration, both internally & externally, and she wanted to fix that
Swearing and Cursing in your Mission Statement attracts the right kind of people
Mackenzie has had negative pushback from industry figures about her mission to "un-f**ck the design industry" but also a lot of positivity from innovators & disruptors who know exactly how f**cked it is.
When you're super early it's all about staying close to customers & not being afraid to pivot
Mackenzie has had feedback that has led her to pivot, or entirely rewrite parts of the application, and she's been able to get really strong signals of Product/Market Fit early.
You need persistence in the face of adversity
Mackenzie went to a pitch event without knowing it was a pitch event, fluffed her first pitch, and got blanked by the judge. She regrouped, came back, and won the event. Don't give up!
You need to be honest, and sometimes vulnerable, to start a company
Mackenzie had never started a company before and she has learned on the job. She's found it helpful to be a straight-shooter & direct, but there remains a pressure for women to act differently to men
Contact Mackenzie
You can connect with Mackenzie on Twitter, or check out Brieft.