How to Discover Another Sneaky Problem: Product Leaders Under Pressure

This is the October 2024 Pragmatic Manager Newsletter, from Johanna Rothman. The Unsubscribe link is at the bottom of this email.

Back in my August newsletter, Two Tips to Tease Apart Sneaky Problems and Make Progress, Axel, a project manager, and Barbara, part of the portfolio team, realized they had a sneaky problem of too much WIP. That led to an increase in cycle time. The result? A significant slowing of the team's ability to release new features and finish projects.

After using the tips in that newsletter, Axel and Barbara realized the product leaders were under pressure to add more to the backlogs and change what the teams did.

As we reviewed the various signals, we saw three areas that needed clarification:

• Titles did not reflect roles. That caused a lot of confusion about who was responsible for what.
• The product leaders did not feel they could say no to anyone. (See Create More Success: How to Say No to “Everything” to Say Yes to What’s Necessary Now for specifics on how to say no.)
• Too many executives wanted to fit new ideas into a months-long backlog and roadmap. (See How We Can Stop Confusing Long Term Goals with Short Term Plans for more information about long backlogs.)

While I was not surprised by the “No” problem and the need to adjust the too-long backlog, I was a little surprised by the titles and role problem. Then I realized the title and role problem indicates a person's influence in the team and the greater organization.

The title and role problem was an outcome of this organization's approach to creating more agility.

Agility Does Not Require Title Changes

The executives in this organization wanted to limit their bureaucracy to increase agility. That's a great idea. They chose to limit the number of titles available for the people. As an example, Barbara was a “Senior leader,” and Axel was a “project manager.” In reality, Axel was a program manager, shepherding the work of several project- and feature-focused teams.

Changing titles was fine, but not useful. There was no increase in agility because people had different titles.

Worse, the company did not have a senior product leader and had not hired enough product people at all levels. So when the execs tried to change titles, they did not understand what the product people did. (See Product Roles, Part 1: Product Managers, Product Owners, Business Analysts for how to think about the possible responsibilities of a product person.)

The more agility an organization wants, the more the organization needs people who can work at the product strategy and product tactics levels. I'm not suggesting a team needs a product manager, product owner, and a business analyst, but the team needs access to all those strategic and tactical product skills.

In addition, the product people had opinions:

• The product managers wanted recognition for their experience. And they didn't want to get dragged into the tactical work because who would understand what the market needed?
• Because there were so few product owners, they were supposed to work with several unrelated teams.
• The company had purposefully hired new people into the business analyst role. Most of them did not know how to think strategically about the product.

As a result, too few product people could lead the way they needed to. Even though the execs called everyone a “product leader,” most of the product owners and business analysts did not have the necessary influence to be a product leader.

Changing titles did not help the influence problem. That was why the product leaders felt they could not say no to many senior leaders.

The Sneaky Problem of Insufficient Influence

Title-based influence can carry a person only so far. People need to show their competence. (See the three-part series about influence starting here: Three Secrets to Building Your Influence, Part 1, Competence.

Most of the product leaders did not have the competence that their title assumed. That allowed people with more power in the organization to bully the product leaders into agreeing to more requests.

Even though the execs had created a flatter organization, the internal power structures did not change. That's why stopping multitasking at the portfolio and project/program level was insufficient. The product leaders did not have enough influence to be effective as they dealt with other people with more power and influence across the organization.

That was the sneaky part of the too-long cycle time.

This problem requires change at several levels in the organization:

• Barbara facilitated the product leaders doing the same work as she had in the project portfolio. Assess what was still valuable. Finish that, one feature at a time. In addition, the product leaders, moved all the long backlogs to parking lots. Then, Barbara, along with the product leaders reassessed the product strategy for all the products.
• Axel supported Barbara for the product strategy for the program. He also asked the product leaders to suggest a Program Product Owner, so Axel could work with that person to continue focusing on the highest value work.
• Then, Axel asked all the product leaders to work as a community of practice, so they could learn with and from each other. That helped everyone learn more strategic skills and how to apply them to the product.

It took about a month, but people finally stopped badgering the product leaders to do more. The cycle time is lower and the throughput is higher. Even better, there's a lot less aging.

Organizations Are Full of Sneaky Problems

Here's how to think about sneaky problems:

• Look for systemic issues and draw pictures of them. The pictures do not have to be perfect—they help start conversations.
• Consider using tools such as the Force Field Analysis to visualize the forces that drive and restrain change.
• Be aware of the social and cultural issues that reinforce the status quo. If you can see them, you can address them.

Be aware that changing what you call people does not change their ability to exert influence. That's another sneaky problem! Collaboration tends to help everyone see options.

The Sneaky Problem Series:

• Two Tips to Tease Apart Sneaky Problems and Make Progress
• How to Start to Solve Problems That Appear to Have No Solution
• How to Discover Another Sneaky Problem: Product Leaders Under Pressure

This newsletter touches on topics in these books:

• Project Lifecycles: How to Reduce Risks, Release Successful Products, and Increase Agility.
• Manage Your Project Portfolio: Increase Your Capacity and Finish More Projects.
• Agile and Lean Program Management: Scaling Collaboration Across the Organization.
• Practical Ways to Lead an Innovative Organization and the other two Modern Management Made Easy books.