Challenging Myths — Part 4: Does the perfect product organization exist?

There are two reasons why PMs should work at one of the glorified tech companies at the beginning of their career. First, you learn a lot about good product management. Second, it will probably help to get rid of the myth of the perfect product organization. Why is this?

Stakeholders of content

Most of the writing, conferences and blog posts are produced or organized by consultants, trainers, certifying companies, and similar stakeholders. On the one hand, their work helps you create a foundation for achieving better work results. At the same time, they glorify the possible results in the explanations and base them on prototypical examples that are catchy and work particularly well. This is understandable, didactically useful, and marketing-wise. However, the reality that surrounds us is so diverse that these prototypical examples rarely accurately reflect one’s situation and company. I am aware, by the way, that this is exactly the excuse that is also used to prevent necessary changes. Both can be true. Sometimes at the same time.

Marketing vs. Reality

If you talk to employees from the quoted and often glorified companies, two of the following three statements will usually be true:

• “Yes, we do it that way, but not everywhere” or “Yes, we did it that way, but now we do it a little differently because *reason*”
• “This works well, but instead *something else* doesn’t work at all for us.”
• “Well, it doesn’t work that well for me either, because *reason*”

The truth is that not everything works well for any company. It doesn’t mean that maturity levels in product management can differ significantly. But when PMs recognize this reality, they can work more liberated and confidently within their organizations and their constraints. It is possible to do a good job almost anywhere.

Methods, processes, and organizational designs are not laws of nature that always apply

Every organization, method, or process works particularly well in a certain environment. This environment is influenced by many factors:

• All senior leaders — though not as well known as Steve Jobs or Elon Musk — have a specific leadership style. This has a strong impact on the culture and the organization. Leadership, organization, and culture in turn have a significant influence on whether methods and processes find a fruitful ground or not.
• Business models have different success criteria, which in turn define organizational needs. In a marketing company like Red Bull, for example, product management will be subordinate within the marketing organization because marketing defines value creation. In a technology-driven company, it will probably be the other way around. And in an agency that works on behalf of clients and charges by the hour, there will be dynamic team compositions based on client needs. It cannot be the case that all these types of companies can succeed with the same processes and methods.
• Product types such as B2C, B2B, B2B2C, open, regulated, or closed markets, local or global markets, and other dimensions have a significant impact on how products need to be developed and distributed. And thus they also require a different approach and ways of doing things.

Therefore, it is not advisable to copy successful methods (of other companies) without understanding why.

Yes to learning, no to copying

Using good ideas from others or learning from them is efficient and useful. But we should question and adapt this knowledge to our context. Adaptation, in turn, requires a high level of proficiency:

• A comprehensive understanding of the success criteria of one’s own company.
• Profound knowledge of the respective area of expertise.

Anyone who is not a master of the subject and/or has not sufficiently grasped what is special about the company should not be given or accept an assignment to implement changes to methods, processes, or organizations. Otherwise, the probability of making things worse is high.

In contrast, well-proven change processes should be effective:

• Sufficiently diverse staffed change-team, including management positions, to take into account all specific company requirements.
• The team has sufficient expertise in the area of the desired change through its employees or additional consultants.
• Planned changes will be tested in advance with pilot projects and motivated teams and adjusted where necessary.
• Professional change management is prepared for implementation to the whole organisation

This article was first published on Medium by Traian Kaiser