The Product Guy

JULY 4, 2019

My career started at Hewitt Associates which was a human capital and management consulting firm that operated 500 offices in 120 countries. We provided consulting, insurance brokerage, information technology and business process outsourcing services. The four memorable moments below taught me, and continue to teach me these lessons.

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Mind the Product

JUNE 18, 2021

In this #mtpcon Digital APAC session, Product Leadership Consultant Anthony Marter shares with us a three-step guide for getting product discovery right, which can lead to highly motivated teams that build great products. Creating the right environment Anthony begins by sharing one of the agile [.]

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Mind the Product

MAY 13, 2020

Jeffrey Fredrick and Douglas Squirrel know this well, and their new book Agile Conversations , focuses on the five critical conversations you’ll have and how to perfect them. Lily enjoys working as a consultant product manager with early-stage and growing startups and as a mentor to other product managers. Quote of the Episode.

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Roman Pichler

SEPTEMBER 11, 2023

This individual leads the product team, not by being the boss but by exercising emergent leadership. Last but not least, the product team should include a coach who might be an experienced Scrum Master , agile coach, or product coach. To effectively staff the product team, I recommend including the people shown in Figure 1. [1]

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Roman Pichler

APRIL 19, 2017

Challenging situations are great opportunities to grow as a human being and by doing so, you increase your leadership power. Do regular research, attend trade shows and conferences, and consult journals, magazines, and user forums, for example. Ask your ScrumMaster or agile coach to help you with this. Trust me.”.

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The Product Guy

SEPTEMBER 27, 2016

He is passionate about Lean and Agile Product management, innovative business models and business and product strategies. Paul is a member of the Boston Product Management Association, Boston CTO Club, the Boston-NY CTO HIT Club, co-founder of the Boston Jewish Outdoors Club and product management consultant.

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The Product Guy

OCTOBER 25, 2016

He is passionate about Lean and Agile Product management, innovative business models and business and product strategies. Paul is a member of the Boston Product Management Association, Boston CTO Club, the Boston-NY CTO HIT Club, co-founder of the Boston Jewish Outdoors Club and product management consultant.

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Johanna Rothman

NOVEMBER 9, 2023

Strategy and Product Feedback Loops Many of my middle-management and senior leadership clients want certainty about future work. However, I don't do long consulting contracts—by design. But most of my business focuses on coaching, workshops, or consulting. Does that sound like an agile team to you?

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Johanna Rothman

MAY 24, 2021

I like agile approaches because I can separate lots of deliverables into small, coherent pieces. Same with workshops or consulting. Now, as I challenge myself with more writing and consulting, I have fun as I learn how to explain and support my readers and clients. In fact, agile approaches make this kind of culture possible.

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The Product Coalition

APRIL 20, 2019

What is Product Leadership?—?really? Photo by rob walsh on Unsplash With so many Product Management articles out there, let’s talk ‘Product Leadership’ for a change. It’s NOT about running a perfectly synchronized Agile process?—?Yes, Yes, Agile is a way of being more effective. What is Product Leadership?—?really?

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Johanna Rothman

NOVEMBER 23, 2021

Or even the “standard” agile approach everyone should use. See Leadership Tip #9: See & Stop Micromanagement—Learn to Trust Instead.). Agile cultures require much more power-with management actions. This is a part of the series of leadership tips. Or what the team board should be.

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Johanna Rothman

DECEMBER 2, 2022

On the ANE panel last night, an agile coach asked, “What's my path forward as an agile coach? Focus on business results, not agility per se. Nobody wants to “be agile.” ” People want the results agility offers them. Agility can help achieve these results. What do I do next?”

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Mind the Product

JULY 28, 2020

That’s another level of difficulty and in her new book, The Team That Managed Itself: A Story Of Leadership, Christina Wodtke does just that. That’s another level of difficulty and in her new book, The Team That Managed Itself: A Story Of Leadership, Christina Wodtke does just that. Drawing [.]. Using feedback effectively.

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Mind the Product

DECEMBER 13, 2018

He works as a coach, consultant, and keynote speaker helping companies bridge the gaps between business agility, digital transformation, product management, and human-centred design. She also spent three years as VP Product at HotelTonight and has held product leadership roles at Prezi, Snagajob, and Eclipsys.

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Johanna Rothman

JANUARY 14, 2021

I had a great time with Jeff and Squirrel on their podcast, Troubleshooting Agile. The post Great Fun on the Troubleshooting Agile Podcast, Part 1 appeared first on Johanna Rothman, Management Consultant. They focus on what our conversations can tell us about ourselves. We had a wide-ranging and fun discussion.

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Mind the Product

JANUARY 3, 2018

He’s now a product consultant who works with a range of companies: “I plug into companies that have delivery teams, and I advise the teams on what they should do and in what order.”. Joe’s role as a product consultant means he needs to do his homework thoroughly before he even walks into a client’s office. No Magic Bullets.

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Johanna Rothman

MARCH 11, 2021

Worse, most career ladders assume we can assess what a person can do, not on their contributions to an agile team. That means most career ladders don't fit agile teams or an agile culture. Instead of individual achievements, we can reward the types of agile leadership we want to see in agile teams.

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Johanna Rothman

SEPTEMBER 1, 2020

Several of my clients want to use some sort of maturity assessment for their agile transformations. For agile transformation, an assessment can help people see how they change—how they innovate the products and the culture. Is agility even possible?) Some of those practices and processes work for my clients now.

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Mind the Product

MARCH 6, 2019

Tim is Product Director at Iridion, a trainer and coach, a co-organiser of ProductTank Hamburg, a frequent speaker, and the author of Lateral Leadership. Links mentioned in this episode: The Agile Peer Canvas. Lateral Leadership – Buy the book now! Links mentioned in this episode: * The Agile Peer Canvas.

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Johanna Rothman

AUGUST 12, 2021

Now, these same managers want business agility. The more we remove, the more agility or improvement we might see. As the teams used agile approaches, they requested more and more frequent deployments. A lot of the friction we see is anti-agility. This is a part of the series of intermittent leadership tips.

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The Product Guy

APRIL 18, 2025

What You’ll Learn: The Whiteboard Trap: Why early ideas often fail without customer validation From Overconfidence to Overcorrection: How Lean Startup led to a different kind of failure True Discovery: Why users often ask for the wrong thingand how to uncover the real problem Listening as a Craft: Why great PMs solve needs, not feature requests (..)

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Mind the Product

NOVEMBER 26, 2019

If you’ve got a background in waterfall processes, it can seem as if agile techniques are just about making it up as you go along. Lily enjoys working as a consultant product manager with early-stage and growing startups and as a mentor to other product managers. Collaborative Improv book. Pirate Robot Ninja , an Improv fable.

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Johanna Rothman

AUGUST 18, 2021

They think that the agile tools they use, such as boards, offer a strategic advantage. However, they adopt or “install” an agile framework or process without customization. Instead, agile organizations need flexibility, not rigidity. Commodity businesses don't need agility for product development.

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Johanna Rothman

FEBRUARY 22, 2021

When you're starting off as a consultant, you might take the first one or two engagements a client offers. A potential client wanted to engage many coaches with “deep” agile and lean experience. Each team was supposed to use a “standard” agile approach. It's wrong for the client. It's wrong for you.

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Johanna Rothman

FEBRUARY 17, 2021

And I have a discussion in Create Your Successful Agile Project about backlog items.). No requires that you exercise your leadership. That leadership has always led to better outcomes. This is a part of the series of leadership tips. If this is “just” a backlog item, the same ideas apply. I hope you do, too.

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Johanna Rothman

AUGUST 19, 2021

So when does it make sense to customize your agile approach to gain a strategic advantage? They want an agile approach, so they started with Scrum. We don't think we need to be “religious” about our agile approach as long as we get the benefit. Then, they Built their agile approach based on their needs.

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The Product Guy

JANUARY 5, 2017

He is passionate about Lean and Agile Product management, innovative business models and business and product strategies. Paul is a member of the Boston Product Management Association, Boston CTO Club, the Boston-NY CTO HIT Club, co-founder of the Boston Jewish Outdoors Club and product management consultant.

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Product Innovation Educators

JUNE 21, 2021

The Pipeline allows leadership to communicate a ranked list of priorities. One is using Agile with Scrum, taking the best of both practices. Learn more about Steve’s Lean Program Consulting. The Pipeline allows leadership to communicate a ranked list of priorities. Practice—how the team works together. [6:50]

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Johanna Rothman

APRIL 23, 2021

See Leadership Tip #4: Admit When You Don’t Know.). Don, a CIO, attempted to “install” a common agile framework. Meeting with senior leadership helped Don learn as part of a team. That's why asking for help is a sign of strength and leadership. This is a part of the series of leadership tips.

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Mind the Product

OCTOBER 30, 2019

David Bland is the CEO and Founder of Precoil, an author, and a long-time practitioner of agile and lean startup. Lily enjoys working as a consultant product manager with early-stage and growing startups and as a mentor to other product managers. Quote of the Episode. The Product Experience is hosted by Lily Smith and Randy Silver.

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Agile Velocity

MAY 14, 2020

Did you know you can maximize your chances of achieving desired business outcomes by combining DevOps with an Agile transformation? When you hear “Business Outcomes,” “DevOps,” and/or Agile transformation” – what comes to mind? Agile Transformation. Agile transformations and DevOps initiatives are complementary.

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The Product Guy

APRIL 4, 2017

He is passionate about Lean and Agile Product management, innovative business models and business and product strategies. Paul is a member of the Boston Product Management Association, Boston CTO Club, the Boston-NY CTO HIT Club, co-founder of the Boston Jewish Outdoors Club and product management consultant.

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Johanna Rothman

NOVEMBER 19, 2021

Daniel Vacanti and Prateek Singh graciously invited* me to be on an episode of Drunk Agile: Episode 37 Johanna Rothman Part Deux More Bigger Aging. Ordering the work by value, even though agile approaches hope the value changes. (Re)defining That's why agile approaches emphasize “finish something and get feedback on it.”

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Mind the Product

JULY 16, 2019

Realising it would be safer to diversify, he’s gone on to spend the last 30-plus years working with more than 90 organisations across the world in interim leadership roles and consulting. Lateral leadership. Organizational Thank Yous – your secret power for lateral leadership.

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The Product Coalition

MARCH 3, 2022

Why our industry needs Product Coaches Photo by Jeffrey F Lin on Unsplash Something I’ve observed over the last couple of years has been the rise in product coaching, also referred to as Product Management Consulting or Product Leadership Coaching, among others. Interim Product Manager Some consultants only play interim product roles.

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Johanna Rothman

JUNE 17, 2021

I see too much micromanagement, even in supposedly agile organizations. As an example, when managers don't bother to learn agile measures and what they mean and instead want a Gantt chart, “because how long could it take?” ” Or, when a manager imposes a “standard” agile approach.

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Johanna Rothman

SEPTEMBER 13, 2023

In Create Your Successful Agile Project , I recommend the team end an iteration in the middle of a week. You might be using an agile approach, but it's not Scrum. See What's Wrong With Wednesday? That day needs an agenda. The Wednesday Agenda 9:30- 10 am (or thereabouts) demo the progress the team made. You don't have to believe me.

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