Everything Everywhere All at Once
Did you know the multiverse was real?
Welcome to the multiverse
This multiverse is one you probably know quite well, its one you live in and its one you have to navigate already. The name of this multiverse? … The Product Organisation!
The challenges faced in each universe will be, at best complex, but quite often very chaotic. The product teams and their counterparts across the organisation will be faced with many operational challenges.
Product Ops is well placed to understand and attempt to solve those challenges. However, any newly formed Product Ops function, whether a team or individual, whether new to the organisation or being grown from within, is going to feel the pressure of this multiverse and its challenges.
The role of Product Ops
Leading a Product Ops function can often feel like we have to cover Everything, Everywhere, All At Once. This pressure can result in nothing, anywhere, at any time being given the right level of focus to ensure positive iterative change.
Product Ops is an enabling function and should be seen as a force multiplier, unlocking the superpowers of the product organisation so they can focus on their customers and achieve the goals set by business leadership.
As such, this pressure can be felt acutely by Product Ops; with an inherent desire to be impactful and to tackle every challenge, to add value in solving many problems all the time. Helping others is an important factor in the work we choose to do!
However, ultimately we know that too much change means at best, that nothing really takes hold and at worst, teams are burned out and actively lean away from future change (see the Lippitt Knoster model!).
The ultimate aim for Product Ops is to enact true organisational mindset change. Anyone can replicate what has been told or shown to them, it is not hard to adhere to new behaviours. Instead they need to know the deeper meaning behind why we need to evolve. We also need to see a trend towards continuous improvement, both within leadership, teams, individuals and even systems.
Travelling across the multiverse
We need to be able to effectively ‘travel across the multiverse’. Be able able to scale a Product Ops function without the people, to start looking at broader organisation challenges, to be the strategic partner that product leadership need to bring about that change.
To help move towards that mindset change Product Ops needs to provide clarity on their focus, both within the team so they understand their own purpose, and outwardly to the organisation in order to build trust in the direction towards operational excellence.
Like any other functions in the complex messy world of product development, Product Ops needs a clear strategy; actionable goals with intended outcomes that product leadership agree with. Like a good product strategy it needs to be easily accessible, referenced and actionable.
However, even with clear direction and a vision for mindset change and operational excellence, a Product Ops team is never going to reach either the depth or breadth required for sustainable positive change without a whole host of other people being directly involved.
We know that co-creation and collaboration are some of the levers we can pull in order to enact longer lasting positive change. Introducing ‘Operational Working Groups’ can be an effective way to not only get buy-in across all functions involved in building products, but also allows for the sharing of accountability and success of change management across the organisation.
These groups should be accountable to define their own mission and autonomous enough to identify the most impactful challenges within current operating practices and collaborate on how they might improve or optimise them at scale.
With these working groups in place Product Managers and their counterparts are treated less like ‘customers’ and more like ‘partners’. Without this support, and deep desire for positive continuous improvement, even the best Product Ops practitioners will ultimately fail to have the broader impact expected of them.
In order for these working groups to be formed the Product Ops team needs to have already built strong relationships across the organisation. Part of the role is to be a strong influencer, communicator, relationship builder and enabler. (Side note — these would be some of the key capabilities I’d look for when growing a team!)
Ultimately Product Ops teams are the ones accountable, both to themselves and the organisation, to ensure the pressure of focusing on Everything, Everywhere, All At Once doesn’t derail mindset change. Providing clarity on areas of focus that achieve a future vision and introducing operational working groups to build cross-functional accountability can help towards that.
Chris Compston, a Product Ops Coach & Consultant and creator of the Lean Capability Canvas — maximising the performance and impact of product teams. He has over a decade working in technology organisations. Enabling teams to build better products for their customers and the business.
