Product Leadership

Bring Me Problems, Not Solutions

Counterintuitive advice for product development

It is an often-repeated piece of management advice to demand that team members “bring solutions, not problems”. The reason for this advice is to empower employees to solve problems they encounter, reduce management bottlenecks, and thereby to improve the…

by Jens-Fabian Goetzmann

19 Jul 2020

Setting up Product Development Processes

How product leaders can help their organization effectively execute

One of the essential areas of responsibility for product leaders is setting up the processes of the product development department. For an overview, read my high-level article on product leadership responsibilities, or continue reading for a deep dive…

by Jens-Fabian Goetzmann

5 Jul 2020

Establishing a Product Organization Structure

Product teams and functional leadership

One of the essential areas of responsibility for product leaders is setting up the organizational structure of the product development department. For an overview, read my high-level article on product leadership responsibilities, or continue reading…

by Jens-Fabian Goetzmann

24 May 2020

Developing the Team as a Product Leader

Growing your people to build the highest performing team

One of the crucial areas of responsibility for product leaders is building the team, and one crucial part of that is developing your team members. For an overview, read my high-level article on product leadership responsibilities, or continue reading…

by Jens-Fabian Goetzmann

1 May 2020

Hiring the Team as a Product Leader

Achieve leverage through hiring the right people

One of the crucial areas of responsibility for product leaders is hiring to build up the team. For an overview, read my high-level article on product leadership responsibilities, or continue reading for a deep dive on recruiting and onboarding.…

by Jens-Fabian Goetzmann

15 Mar 2020

Owning the Product Direction as a Product Leader

From vision to roadmap, from 1:1 feedback to evangelism

One of the crucial areas of responsibility for product leaders is owning the product direction. For an overview, read my high-level article on product leadership responsibilities, or continue reading for a deep dive on product direction.…

by Jens-Fabian Goetzmann

16 Feb 2020

The Three Responsibilities of Product Leadership

What the heck does a product leader do, anyway?

In the past years, a lot has been written about product management: about the role definition and how it varies between industries and companies, the skills required, best practices and so on. Product leadership is much less well covered…

by Jens-Fabian Goetzmann

26 Jan 2020

Should Your Product Have a North Star Metric?

One metric to rule them all?

Product “north star” metrics provide benefits in team alignment and product improvement. However, boiling down all stages of the user lifecycle to a single number also has the risks of lack of ownership, disempowerment, and metric “hacking”…

by Jens-Fabian Goetzmann

28 Apr 2019

How Do You Create a Product Roadmap?

Moving away from a GANTT chart of features and dates

I was recently asked, “How do you create a product roadmap?” In a world where we want to prioritize outcomes over outputs, run a continuous discovery process, and iteratively deliver while constantly learning, the answer to the question is…

by Jens-Fabian Goetzmann

20 Apr 2019

Most Product Improvement Attempts Fail

What should product organizations do about that?

One of the most fascinating and least discussed facts about product development is that most attempts to improve the product fail to deliver value. Notably, depending on the source, between 2/3 and 3/4 of A/B tests do not lead to an improvement…

by Jens-Fabian Goetzmann

2 Mar 2019

Product Vision, Strategy, Roadmap

We keep using these words, but what do they mean?

Product organizations often discuss needing a (new) product vision or strategy, or will talk about what is on their roadmap. However, what is sometimes lost in these discussions is the unfortunate fact that none of these terms have clear definitions…

by Jens-Fabian Goetzmann

13 Feb 2019