Episode 127: Answering Questions About Digital Transformations

In this Dear Melissa segment, Melissa Perri answers subscribers’ questions about digital transformation, including how to set up a successful digital strategy for a Fortune 500 company, how to keep your digital transformation under control without pushing it too far, and how to transition product owners into product managers.

Q&A:

Q: Hey, Melissa, I've worked for a new team that has managed to resist adopting the heavier parts of Scrum and Agile as we mature and grow. We've been pushing the boundaries and simplifying our approach based on modern product design and development practices. That said though, I'd love to move away from having dedicated product owners because I firmly believe, and I think you do too, that the PO is more of a role that should be shared versus an assigned title. My goal is to shift our POs into PM roles, assuming it's a good match to their interests and skill sets. So, looking ahead, what are a few things that we should be thinking about as POs start transitioning to PMs? What risks should I anticipate? I don't know that this won't be an overnight transition. So what are some good ways to evaluate the performance of our POs until the transition can finally happen? Thanks for everything you do!
A: So this is a great question and one that I think is relevant as we're talking about what a product manager is out there in the world today. So if you haven't heard, it's been all over Twitter and LinkedIn, and if you are a product manager, this could be concerning. But Airbnb did a big conference a couple of weeks ago, and Brian Chesky said, "Hey, we're getting rid of product managers," to which everybody said, "Oh my God, we don't need product managers anymore." And all the designers, of course, were like, "Yay!" But product managers started to panic. What he actually said was, "We are trying to go more towards a product marketing role with the product managers," and I think this ties into what we're talking about here with product owners versus product managers.
Q: Hello! First off, I just want to say your podcast has been really helpful in honing my product management skills. I've gone from a product manager to a lead product manager role. And now, I am a digital product strategist. My question is about building a digital strategy for a Fortune 50 company. And what I mean by that is we seem to lack a digital product strategy right underneath the corporate strategy, the enterprise-level strategy that can tell our business units and leaders how to build and engage members digitally. You have marketing folks creating their own digital experiences. You have other organizations going off and partnering with different vendors to create digital experiences for our members but never working with their internal digital teams and product teams to see if we should build it within our existing digital platforms or even innovate something new and keep it within our brand. Thank you so much! Looking forward to hearing your answer.
A: Now, this is a common thing for companies that are going through digital transformations. A lot of times, we leave strategy to the last thing. I see this happen a lot. I've been involved in a lot of them, especially with Fortune 500 companies. I worked with a tonne of Fortune 500 companies. So do not be discouraged. This is the next learning step on your journey. Typically, what happens is we go out, and we train all the product managers. And then we realize that we don't know which way the product manager is actually running. So there's nothing to tie that corporate strategy back into what the teams are doing. And then we get into arguments with leadership about whether are we building the right thing? So you are at this point. This is what I would do in those companies.
Q: A year ago, I joined an older enterprise business undergoing digital transformation. While many product leaders have elements of the right vision, the whole product, org read, inspired just before I got here. They're trying. There's still a lot of need to change the way we work. I get plenty of positive feedback and excitement about the changes I'm bringing from my prior roles at digital native companies. But I'm also experiencing some tense pushback from certain groups. I know transformation will ruffle some feathers. But how do I know if I'm pushing too hard? Should I give up and go back somewhere where I fit in?
A: I can really empathize with this question because, before I started consulting, I was a ruffer, and I ran into a lot of problems. But then, as a consultant, I ruffle all the time. I ruffle feathers. That's what I'm hired to do. But you gotta do it carefully. And I have learned my lesson because I have ruffled too many feathers before, and I've made people angry. So from multiple years of doing this since I've been consulting since 2014, these are my tips when you get in, and you start to evaluate a new company going through a transformation, and you see people not doing things they're supposed to do.

Resources:

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