From the military into Product, part 3 In Part 1 and Part 2, I outlined two key lesson that I have manage to carry forward from my time in the military to my roles in Product. Servant leadership is not sacrificial leadership No one is going to die in Product (for the most part) In […]
Category Archives: leadership
May
24
What you could learn from ‘Drive’ by Daniel Pink (2009, 208 pages)
posted by Max
You can buy ‘Drive’ here on Amazon UK (all proceeds go to site upkeep and any extra go to veteran charities).
December
28
How to scale (5 of 5) – culture
posted by Max
In my last few posts I have discussed how successful scale-ups grow, and the fundamental components structure, process and architecture. In my final post, I look at possibly the most important aspect of company performance – culture. Great culture means that you need less bureaucracy and control measures to protect your customers and your company. […]
November
28
Leadership hack – what does a Chief Product Officer do?
posted by Max
In this post, I want to share my thoughts on what a Chief Product Officer/Head of Product does. Recently I moderated a ScaleUp Heros panel discussion in the role of Head of Product (you can find it on LinkedIn, Medium and Facebook). The host Ryan Foland and exceptional panellists John Connolly, Courtney Wylie and Ben Kim explored product […]
November
16
How to scale (2 of 5) – Product team structure
posted by Max
Welcome to the second part of my ‘How to scale’ series (you can find part 1 here). One of the first objectives when thinking about structuring your product teams is to ensure that Product is separated from Core engineering. The core engineering team can then focus on creating architecture that can scale, and services that can […]
November
09
How to scale (1 of 5) – the journey from garage band to Glastonbury
posted by Max
“Software ends up being shaped by the structure of the organisation that develops it” Conway’s Law One of the most animated discussions I often have with founders, CEOs and other product leaders is how to structure product teams when a company grows. While I think this is incredibly important (as Conway noted) I feel it misses […]
November
01
Product leadership part 2 – getting things done
posted by Max
“Actual productivity = potential productivity – coordination & motivation loss” Rich Kalgradd However, productivity is not the most important factor in team or company success. Like running a race, you will not win by running the fastest in the wrong direction. If you have chosen the right direction, .e., made a good decision about what […]
November
01
What does a product leader do?
posted by Max
Product leaders delight customers in hard-to-copy, margin-enhancing ways. Gibson Biddle, VP Product Netflix In my experience product leaders (PL, may also be called product owner or managers) lead the teams that build amazing experiences for customers. PL’s understand existing and target customers, the companies strategic context and then translate this into a prioritised list of […]
September
28
What you could learn from ‘Thinking fast and slow’ by Daniel Kahneman (2012, 300 pages)
posted by Max
What is intuition? How do humans think? Are humans rational or irrational and can we predict them? In the past economist built models that assumed that human beings are perfectly rational (what behavioural scientists joking refer to as ‘Homo Economicus’). Daniel Kahneman, a Noble Prize-winning author, showed that Homo Economicus does not exist and that […]
September
14
What you could learn from ‘Drive’ by Daniel Pink (2009, 208 pages)
posted by Max
You can buy ‘Drive’ here on Amazon UK (all proceeds go to site upkeep and any extra go to veteran charities).
How to scale product teams
posted by Max
One of the most contentious discussions I have with founders, CEOs and CPOs is how to structure product teams when a company grows. While I think this is important, I think it misses the wider point. Four things break when you get bigger, People, Process, Technology and Culture. Each of these will break at different […]
August
24
Intuition in decision making, lessons learnt from the British Army
posted by Max
In 2015 I wrote a dissertation on military decision-making to complete my MBA. You can find the executive summary below, and the full dissertation at the link at the bottom of the page. This dissertation was designed to be an independent analysis, and should not be seen as a critique of the military (in which […]
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