So far, this series has focused on smaller efforts, such as one or two products or one or two teams. But what if you have a larger effort, where several teams need to collaborate to deliver the business value? That's a program. (I wrote Agile and Lean Program Management: Scaling Collaboration Across the Organization to address that problem.)
Solo product leaders cannot possibly succeed in a program. That's because programs require several collaborative teams to deliver the overall product.
That collaboration can take several forms. Sometimes, several teams collaborate on a given feature set. That encourages a given product leader to affiliate with a feature set, not necessarily a team. When product leaders affiliate with a feature set, they—as a team—can decide how to collaborate with the customer or across the organization. (Yes, each product leader might create their own Vertical Product Value Team or Cross-Functional Product Value Team.)
Now, because the various product leaders take responsibility for their feature set (or their product), all the product leaders can work as a program team to discuss the business value of the entire program. Each member of that team can focus on how their feature set contributes to the overall value.
Program Management Offers a Collaboration Model
In a program, everyone has the same overarching goal: to increase the business value of the entire product. Not the feature sets alone. That's because the program can only succeed when all the teams optimize “up” to make a valuable product. That's why I've changed my wording from the “Product Owner Value Team” to all of these various kinds of “Product Value Teams.”
It's not about the product owner. It's about the product value.
We get the most product value faster when we work in flow efficiency. Flow efficiency helps everyone learn how to create short feedback loops to deliver value as fast as possible. Short feedback loops allow us to focus on the flow of work, not what an individual does or does not do.
Focus on the Work, Not the People
When teams work in flow efficiency, they don't care what any one person has done or is doing. Instead, they care about how well the team finishes its work. The team focuses on the product. Often, the flow metrics help the team see how “well” the team is doing.
It's the same idea for the Program Product Value Team. The Program Product Leader/Product Manager/Product Champion focuses on the product strategy. But strategy is useless unless you can marry it to tactics. That's where the feature set Product Leaders come in. They often see a different side of what the customers and various organizational people need from the Program Product Leader. That can lead to some very interesting conversations!
However, all those conversations focus on increasing the overall product value. Sometimes, that means refining or changing the Product Vision. If the product vision changes too much, I might cancel this program and start a different one. That's why the Program Product Value Team works with the project portfolio team.
An Example of How the Program Product Value Team Might Work
Imagine your program has the three product leaders in this image: Search, Engine, and Admin. Each of those is a very large feature set and has at least three cross-functional teams to deliver that value. (Note: this image is strictly about the inside view of the product strategic and tactical product decisions. It is not about the strategic and tactical decisions across the program as the image at the top of this post does.)
But what if the MVP for this month requires more in Search and less in Admin? Then, the Program Product Value team can decide which teams to assign to which feature sets. (See Alternatives for Agile and Lean Roadmapping: Part 3, Flow-Based Roadmapping for more information.)
Will two of the Admin teams have the same cycle time on the Search feature set? Certainly not for the first time they work on Search. Maybe not even the third time they work on Search, because the Search teams have changed the code, and probably some of the design. Maybe even the architecture, assuming they shorten their feedback loops.
Will the Admin teams want to work on Search? Maybe not. But here's the thing with an overarching goal: People love to see their work outcomes—meaningful work. You can invite people to contribute to the overall business value of the product. Will some of them whine? Maybe. That's why teams need a coherent and meaningful goal.
When teams have interesting problems to solve and the autonomy to do so, they often deliver. And remember, teams can swarm, pair, and mob, too. That's why I changed the this Product Owner Value Team image to the image at the top of this post. All teams in programs need collaboration across the organization, often with their small-world networks.
Product leadership requires collaboration. Collaboration rarely requires hierarchy.
Beware of Hierarchical Thinking and Roles
This
“Product Owner Value Team” image is how I originally described the program product value team in Agile and Lean Program Management. When I wrote that book, I needed to explain the various horizontal and vertical collaborations. But this image is missing the idea of small-world networks in the program and across the organization.
That's why I updated that image to this one.
The Program Product Value team still has to define the product strategy within the context of the organizational strategy. That work interacts with the project portfolio work.
In addition, the Program Product Value team has to work across the program to shepherd a coherent product strategy and make daily tactical decisions. That's why this team uses each product development team's decisions, their small-world networks, and all the customer feedback. That's tactical work that feeds back into the strategic work.
We don't need “Chiefs” or “Masters” of anything, especially not in a product leadership role. We need collaborative product leaders. Yes, they might make an executive decision—often to create an experiment. (See Programs, Titles, and Business Value for more information.)
I think I'm finally ready to wrap things up.
The Product Value Team Series:
- How to Avoid Solo Product Leadership Failure with a Product Value Team, Part 1
- Part 2: Why Teams Need Both Strategic and Tactical Product Leadership
- How a Vertical Product Value Team Shares Strategy and Tactics for One Product, Part 3
- The Cross-Functional Product Value Team Collaborates for Strategy and Tactics, Part 4
- How the Program Product Value Team Focuses on Overall Business Value, Part 5
- Product Value Teams: Collaborative Leadership for Faster Learning and Delivery, Part 6