In my previous article Pitching Product Operations I explored how Product Ops as a role can save considerable time and effort for colleagues across the business across various disciplines. I also proposed that this saving has a monetary value based upon typical salaries for professionals, suggesting that the role saves more money than it costs.
This article is a follow up to this in collaboration with my friend and fellow long-time product professional from half way around the world, Tasneem Gould - Experienced product leader and Founder & Coach at GSD Alliance
“Doing a few simple things to kick start your product operations journey is the fastest, cheapest way from confusion to clarity. You cannot have empowered and innovative teams without having the structure and enablement to help them do their best work and grow everyday.” Tasneem
Tasneem read the article and ran her own exercise to both test the premise and identify the cost savings with fresh eyes on where the role of Product Operations best supports the business. The exercise focuses on the economies of scale savings where a single Product Ops professional, working across and aligning multiple product teams, can do the work being done individually (and identically) by multiple product managers.
The following is based on a product management professional working at £35 an hour (converted roughly from an original $70 Aus), and there are 10 product teams across the business.
Create, manage and improve operational processes
Hours per week: 2
Cost to the business (per week): £70
Cost for 10 teams (per week): £700
Cost for 10 team (per year/50 weeks): £35,000
Remove the need to build data dashboards, and just use them
Hours per week: 2
Cost to the business (per week): £70
Cost for 10 teams (per week): £700
Cost for 10 team (per year/50 weeks): £35,000
Create and manage product tools, training, support
Hours per week: 2
Cost to the business (per week): £70
Cost for 10 teams (per week): £700
Cost for 10 team (per year/50 weeks): £35,000
Create and manage frameworks, toolsets, templates etc for use during development
Hours per week: 2
Cost to the business (per week): £70
Cost for 10 teams (per week): £700
Cost for 10 team (per year/50 weeks): £35,000
Remove the burden of operational planning, coaching and support and allow them to focus on being leaders, strategists and line managers.
Hours per week: 4
Cost to the business (per week): £140
Cost for 10 teams (per week): £1400
Cost for 10 team (per year/50 weeks): £70,000
Provide support for KPI monitoring, performance management, problem solving support in teams
Hours per week: 2
Cost to the business (per week): £70
Cost for 10 teams (per week): £700
Cost for 10 team (per year/50 weeks): £35,000
Create, manage and improve communication frameworks and channels
Hours per week: 4
Cost to the business (per week): £140
Cost for 10 teams (per week): £1400
Cost for 10 team (per year/50 weeks): £70,000
TOTALS
Hours per week: 18
Cost to the business (per week): £630
Cost for 10 teams (per week): £6300
Cost for 10 teams (per year): £315,000
Tasneem has also shared her getting started steps for new Product Ops functions:
Create and communicate a new operating process for the product development lifecycle that merges the existing and new needs and processes, and roll out plan
Teams understand how they need to work, and have a referenceable, standard process that they can use to get started. The plan includes outcomes, key deliverable to consider, data and metrics to use, best practices, tools and frameworks to support work, etc. This allows teams to get started where they are, and adapt to change faster.
Create and rollout a standard planning and communications calendar and process
There is a clear plan and cadence across the entire business for good strategic planning, communication, and templates and frameworks for reporting of progress, feedback gathering and sharing completed work and outcomes that is followed consistently at every level of the organization. This will provide planning and communication guidance to people, and create alignment, visibility and consistency of reporting and communication.
Putting in place a model for Goals, metrics, and outcome measurement
Create a culture of customer insights and value, provide standard tools and support for each team to measure, monitor and report on their own work meaningfully.
Graham & Tasneem
My thanks to Tasneem for the collaboration on this article - please connect with her on LinkedIn.