Hiring Product Ops? What are your problems to solve?
Questions to consider about your existing product setup before you start the hiring process.
Several months ago I had an interesting discussion with a fellow Product Ops professional (and I forget who, so if you are reading this, hit me up and I will edit!) about the reasons for hiring a Product Ops Manager or similar.
Like good product people, it got us thinking about the problems to be solved and drilling into those questions to ask ourselves before embarking on a Product Operations hire.
Do we use data well in our decision-making for our product roadmap, strategy and planning?
Do we have easy access to data/dashboards to monitor our product use, high-level sales and customer information, division or business KPIs and progress?
Are our OKRs aligned with the business goals and objectives? Is it easy to connect team or division objectives to those of the business?
Do we have a strategy for goal setting (Cascade Down/Ladder Up, or similar), and a schedule for monitoring and reviewing progress?
Are our teams aligned in ways of working, between product squads or between product/engineering/design/product marketing?
Do we have a strategy for documentation and information sharing, on-demand, around the business (particularly related to the product division)?
Do we have a comprehensive strategy for remote, asynchronous, distributed working (where required, even for Hybrid working practices)?
How are we utilising our key third-party tools and platforms that support our day-to-day working (Jira, Confluence, Miro, Pendo, etc)? Are we getting value for money, do we have the right licences and volume? Are power users, and non-power users, getting the most value from our current usage? Are there opportunities to merge, remove or rethink the platforms we invest in?
What value is being realised from the various product-focused meetings we currently run? Could we reduce? Do we need more? Are attendees getting the most value from the time invested in them? Do we have the right cadence and/or position in the week/month (in relation to other information-sharing activities)?
How are we communicating to our stakeholders? Are we aware of the needs of each team (Sales, Marketing, etc), what they need to understand and what they need to do their specialist job, or are we bombarding everyone with everything? What channels are we using and are they best suited for the information to be shared?
What is our strategy for product discovery? Are we speaking to a wide range of customers (or any customers!) regularly? Do we have a recruitment process to line up conversations? Do we have a plan for the questions to be asked, and how they relate to our product strategy? Where is the feedback being stored and how often is it being reviewed? Is this lined up to influence roadmap and strategy planning?
How are we enabling feedback from internal colleagues? Is this asynchronous and is it through controlled channels, or does anyone message multiple product team (or tech team) members as they feel like? What questions do we ask and what expectations are set for colleagues on their ideas and requests?
What support does product leadership need, or have, for the rollout of new projects and initiatives? What support is available in the logistics of operating a product team, in supervising and auditing all of the above items, in reporting to leadership and/or the board?
This is not an exhaustive list…
I am certain there are some or many small, or large, gaps based upon your review of these questions. That is fine. This is not suggesting that you or your team have in any way failed, or not met a standard. In fact, realising these gaps is a sign of great maturity and a desire to continually improve.
The gaps you have identified are also NOT an indication that you must go out and hire a Product Ops professional or team. A professional can and will help with these gaps, but so can others. It is all a question of scale and determination to improve.
Identifying areas of the Product Operations FUNCTION within your teams (all the things mentioned above) with gaps or aspects to improve is the bulk of the challenge - but not a directive to hire someone. It is more likely that with more areas to improve, a product ops role will prove to be the most efficient, long-term solution, particularly given the timescale to solve many of these is not days, but sometimes months to do properly.
What have I missed? What challenges do you have and what has been your experiences of making changes with or without a product operations team?
Graham