SiriusDecisions/Forrester is hiring!

The team that I lead at SiriusDecisions — our Product Management Research and Advisory service — is growing! We’re looking for an experienced product management leader who is ready for the next stage and challenge in their career. If you….

• Have a passion for b-to-b product management
• Love to solve challenging product innovation and lifecycle management problems
• Get a sense of accomplishment from helping others

…. then you could be the next addition to the SiriusDecisions product line team at Forrester. Read more about what the job entails and what we’re looking for in the full job description. If you’re interested and think you could be a fit, apply today!

Leveling Up Your Product Leadership Skills: August 22 in San Francisco

I’ll be in San Francisco in a few weeks to present at the August 22 ProductTank SF meeting, covering Product Management Excellence: What World-Class Product Management Teams Do Differently. Here’s a summary of the presentation:

Product management has not always been one of those evidence-focused fields. Product managers have historically “fallen” into the role, learning on the job by watching others who also learned on the job. Although product management leaders recommend and coach their teams on certain approaches that seem logical, the reality is that there has been little evidence to support certain product management practices or shed light on important aspects that may have gone unnoticed — until now.

We conducted research to identify the characteristics that drive product management excellence – product management teams that perform at a higher level than their peers. This session is for anyone leading or part of a product management team who wants to know what are the factors that are truly important in creating a product management function that can repeatedly produce products that achieve commercial success.

If you’re in the area, I hope you’ll join me at ProductTank SF meeting on August 22!

What’s Hot on Twitter

Here are some of my tweets that have generated the most interest (or I’ve enjoyed the most) recently. To read more, or get these in real-time, join the 9700+ others who follow me at @jefflash:

"Our #product managers are spending too much time understanding customer needs and not enough time discussing technical details with developers" is not a phrase that I hear that often from #prodmgmt leaders.

Just sayin'.

— Jeff Lash (@jefflash) June 5, 2019

Instead of #prodmgmt as CEO, think about it as the conductor of the #product orchestra. Here's a recap of my presentation at the inaugural @Product_Craft conference that explains why. https://t.co/wJoHljTxUc

— Jeff Lash (@jefflash) June 21, 2019

Faster delivery is all the rage. ("Let's push out new features/updates weekly… daily… hourly!")

BUT… this ONLY matters (A) if you monitor/learn/adjust post-launch & (B) if customers/users are actually aware of what's new.

Otherwise, it's just a vanity #prodmgmt exercise.

— Jeff Lash (@jefflash) June 6, 2019

I’m just a little bit too excited about this kit I (finally!) put together to use for client #prodmgmt workshops. So much facilitation/collaboration goodness in one little container. pic.twitter.com/ysToOGjtgY

— Jeff Lash (@jefflash) May 30, 2019

Organizational characteristics that support #innovation, according to @guyraz
1) Problem to be solved
2) Culture that encourages risk-taking
3) Shared sense of mission built around a shared story#ProductCraftConf #prodmgmt

— Jeff Lash (@jefflash) May 9, 2019

The easiest way to improve velocity of an agile development team is to have them work on features that customers actually want, will use and value.

Potential gains from operational/process improvements likely pale compared to gains from stopping work on low-value enhancements.

— Jeff Lash (@jefflash) July 9, 2019