Blog

Do you want to use data to make better product decisions? Of course, you do! Companies that make product decisions based on data outperform their competitors on average, but how do you embed this data-centric product culture at your company?

Through my consulting work at ThoughtWorks, I see a lot of product roadmaps. I’ve seen many different approaches, but one format I’ve seen one to many times is the timeline roadmap. These roadmaps, which are full of features and delivery dates, still seem to be standard practice – but they are far from best practice. By continuing to use dates, we as product managers are setting our teams up for failure.

Over the years, I’ve coached and worked with some fantastic companies, but I have seen very few true product teams. Most companies are not yet at the stage where they can operate product teams like Amazon, Google or Netflix. People often say these companies lack a product mindset or don’t have the right ‘culture’. However, I think it is about having the organisational readiness to operate product teams that empower people to work as they need to.

Creating a product roadmap is not easy. Every company seems to have a different approach, and most miss at least one of the critical components that make a roadmap successful. Here is my step by step guide to creating the three roadmaps you need to deliver your company’s objectives.

Last week I led my first fully remote product discovery. This was a step into the unknown as I took our co-located workshop techniques and tried to translate them into a remote-first world. Through this article, I’ll share this experience and what I learned in the process.

Here we are. 2019 has passed, and we are readying ourselves to enter 2020! Before we turn the page and start a new chapter, I’d like to share my Annual Review with you. I conduct my Annual Review at the end of each year. The process reminds me to look back on the previous twelve months, celebrate my victories and evaluate my failures. Inspired by James Clear, I have decided to share this year’s review for the first time. I hope it will make me more accountable, and maybe you will also find value in my stories.

Recently I was asked to facilitate a retrospective for 26 people. Of course I said yes, but only afterwards did I begin to realise the challenge I faced. The reality is people work better in smaller groups, but sometimes you have to bring a large groups together. In this post I'd like to share how I ran this retrospective along with some of the learnings I gained. I hope you find it useful!

An open startup is a company that has chosen to publicly share metrics about their company. Normally they share revenue, users, and traffic numbers but in some cases they will even share, logs and dashboards too. They refer to themselves as an Open Startup, but what does this mean and why would you run a company publicly?

Over the last few years, I've been watching the change at Liverpool Football Club with interest. It's not so much the success that intrigues me but more the change in culture that began with the arrival of manager Jurgen Klopp. Over the weekend, I listened to a great analysis of Klopp's leadership on the podcast Eat, Sleep, Work, Repeat. After listening to the show I think there are two critical elements that have supported change at Liverpool and I want to share these with you today.