“What the customer buys and considers value is never a product. It is always utility, that is, what a product or a service does for the customer.” – Peter Drucker, Consultant & Author Two weeks ago I conducted Product Management training for a team in a legacy industrial corporation. In the lively discussions during the training, we came to discuss „utility“ vs. „usability“ and how they relate to a product’s „value.“  Reflecting on this discussion on the long drive home, I came to the conclusion that it’s six components that contribute to a product’s value:  There are three fac ..read more

Dear all, 10 years after the publication of Eric Ries’ seminal “The Lean Startup”, the idea seems to have become an orthodoxy in startup- and tech circles. Research suggests that >80% + of all Silicon Valley startups more or less follow the concept. Talking about MVPs is now also commonplace in many of the enterprise organisations we work with. Even the behemoth of agile frameworks, SAFe, that’s employed mostly by large corporates, has meanwhile added Lean Startup concepts to its toolbox. So do launching an MVP to the public and then applying “Validated Learning” as well as “Innovation Ac ..read more

On this episode of  “Voices of OKR”, gtmhub’s VP of Product Management Jenny Herald interviews Godehard. He shares how he persuades traditional European companies to build products with intent, adopt OKRs, and release their leadership grip to allow teams on lower levels to make decisions. Godehard says that in these uncertain times, being safe in business is risky… The post On delegating decision making so it’s safe to be risky appeared first on go3consulting ..read more

Godehard discussing Product Management with Roman Paeske in Roman’s “The Agile Working Model Podcast”… The post The Agile Working Model Podcast: Product Management Insights appeared first on go3consulting ..read more

” ‘Unlearn’ – To move away from the mindsets and behaviors that were effective in the past, but now limit our success.” Barry O’Reilly – Business Advisor and Venture Builder Dear all, with a storm raging over large parts of Europe, I thought it might be a nice idea to cuddle up at home and watch some videos. With the new season of ‘Bridgerton’ only becoming available end of March, here are some programming alternatives that may keep you entertained for the meantime: The first video has product management luminary Marty Cagan (author of the best sellers ‘Inspired’ and ‘Empowered’) dissect the ..read more

Dear all, The year is almost over. The time to take stock and reflect. The good news: Despite the challenges posed by the environment (the dreaded virus continues to impose too many constraints upon all of us!), many of our clients have made a lot of progress this year. We have seen huge steps forward in product strategy and the resulting roadmaps, product planning, as well as an increased strategic clarity that in turn is mirrored and managed in OKRs. At the same time, we have also spent a lot of energy during the year to just get basics going. Fixing processes (even if they are ‘agile’) an ..read more

“No plan survives the contact with the enemy” – Helmuth von Moltke Dear all, it’s amazing. More than 20 years after the Agile Manifesto we are still discussing what Agile is. And – to my mind – often are getting it wrong. Some of the “wrongness” is out of convenience. If Agile is reduced to a delivery method – which it frequently is – it can easily be delegated to R & D or IT for implementation. Unfortunately, the “Agile Industrial Complex” selling certificates and scaling methods would have it appear that way. Endless discussions about optimising Scrum implementations among the cognosce ..read more

Dear all, hope your weekend has been as sunny as ours! While walking Moritz, our dog, in the snow (we do already have quite a bit of snow up here in the valleys!) yesterday, I came to the conclusion that we often think product development backwards. An example: Recently I had a conversation with a newly minted head of a product management department. One of his key concerns was “… to decide which scaling agile development methods should be permissible in their company.” At the same time, his team had not even laid out the product visions for most of their products… Let’s be blunt: product su ..read more

Dear all, it’s been a few weeks since I wrote the last Weekend Reading. Just too much going on. We have done a few Product Management-related projects recently. As Product Management is still somewhat less understood in Europe (some of our definitions here) – I have been asked a couple of times about sources for product management insight. So – ta-daaa – here’s my brand new and hand-curated product management blog list. Enjoy the interesting materials, and have a great weekend! Godehard One of my favorite places for insights from multiple sources (writers include Product Dave, Scott M ..read more

Dear all, over the past few weeks I have touched on a number of aspects of Product Management, but never defined the subject as such. This is not because I am shying away from this rapidly evolving field (as some of you are aware I have built and run sizeable – peaking with > $ 3B annual revenue – product organizations and product P & Ls before moving into consulting). On the contrary. With Product Management becoming ever more strategic while at the same time expanding also into corporate-internal IT territories, I wanted to take the time to cover it in more detail. At the risk of tl ..read more