Product Ops: Response to recent statements on social media about the role of Product Operations
March 2024 - as I feel there will be more...
The week of March 11 2024 has been interesting, to say the least.
It started with the peddling of a new book, part of a tour, on several podcasts. In one, well-known faces in the Product world lumped Product Ops in with Product Owners, Business Analysts, Agile Coaches, and Project Managers - all valuable roles in their own right yet very different. I mean, the conversation of ‘what is a Product Manager and Product Owner’ has never ceased!
It was also claimed that these roles are overpaid for the value they bring. I’ll not comment on the monetary side of things as this varies between business, position and locale. But the overall insinuation is that ‘they are not real Product Managers’ and are of lesser value to PMs.
You can listen to the interview here: LinkedIn
We’ll get to all of this, but the Product community was divided, and those classed as ‘lesser Product Managers’ have been enraged. Rightly so.
Throughout the week, anyone and everyone have come out to bat on this conversation, myself included (despite my promise to myself to just let things play out) - and cutting through the passion, the stating of experience as universal fact and the face-saving retorts, there has been a single clear observation:
The divide seems to come down between those that have experienced Product Ops, and those that haven’t.
Those who have, whether in the role or worked alongside the role, past or present, seem to have universally valued what Product Ops is and brings. Those who have not, are dismissing it without taking a moment to engage with practitioners, businesses where it has been a success, and communities of practice. Or indeed, any real-world experience of Product Ops to draw from or compare it to.
On Thursday of this week, another author entered the mix, stating:
Product Ops adds unnecessary complexity
When we add rigid processes, people follow instead of leading.
A fear of coordination over collaboration, process over flexibility, following over leading
…feels like Product Ops prioritises establishing efficiency over accelerating learning.
You can read the post and a significant chain of counter comments, here: LinkedIn
Why has this enraged so many
Healthy dialogue is great - it is how Product Ops has evolved to the stable definition it is today. I encourage debate and passionate exploration of new ideas. I do not have all the answers, and at no time do I, or any of the Product Ops community, think that Product Operations is the answer to all the problems product teams face today. It isn’t - is the short answer!
However, the trend of the last 18 months seems to be ‘start a ‘spicy’ conversation by stating an opinion AS FACT’ - often revolving around the abilities of all professionals everywhere with a broad brush statement and segmenting them into seemingly immovable groups, based on their abilities, experiences and environment, which often they have very little control over. Even their personality traits are called into question as to their suitability to the Product Manager role
In the case of Product Operations, the broad brush has struck again reducing anyone without the title of Product Manager down to an assistant, not a real Product professional, overpaid for the value they bring - which given Product Operations professionals by and large are paid the same as Senior Product Managers, is suggesting they do not bring the same value.
This single set of statements disregards all the proven good Product Operations does for teams, leaders and businesses. It also dismisses professionals and their careers and puts a lot of doubt in their minds about their abilities. The notion that ‘Product Managers need some tough love’, that they need some sort of wake-up call, particularly from a handful of individuals that feel they know the profession more than anyone else, or the collective of everyone, is particularly prickly. And not for the first time.
What are my responses to the statements made
My initial reaction was one of rage and disappointment, like so many peers sharing similar sentiments. However as the days have progressed, others have shared their opinions both for and against, the lack of any retraction, clarification or willingness to engage with professionals in meaningful dialogue, my thoughts have settled around the following:
There is a BIG gap in understanding of the role of Product Operations, even with some of the most experienced and/or well-known ‘faces’ in the industry. There is a real need for further education to Product leaders globally to correct these misunderstandings and deliberate fallacies being paraded around. That is on us to solve, but it is also on the product community to engage, ask questions and not take one individual’s comments at face value (See What we should keep in mind, below).
When conversation dives into the detail, detractors get hung up on process - either that any process is an ugly word, or that process has no degree of scale. We all work with process, we just do not know it. The SDLC is a process, without it or a variation of it, nothing gets built. There is an assumption that with Product Ops, process will grow and grow and will be [————] this much bigger. The reality, of course, is that Product Ops will put in process that is needed, and agreed upon by the teams in place - reducing it down in equal measure most likely. We’ll refine existing processes to make them more efficient. The lack of any interest in finding out the facts on this is disappointing.
There is no doubt that there are good implementations of Product Ops, and bad ones, and everything in between. Just like in every other role in businesses worldwide. Some have embraced the value the role can bring and dive deep into the core The Pillars of Product Operations and others have seen it as a catch-all for the work Product Management doesn’t want to do - something the Product Ops community is both cautious about and advises against.
Conversations also completely overlook the value OUTSIDE of Product that Product Operations offers. Alignment across the business, high-value communications and feedback loops, robust discovery processes and information sharing. We should not focus purely on ‘what makes product teams great’ but ‘what makes businesses great’, and Product Operations looks outside of Product as much as it looks inside. We do not operationalise Product and say ‘bugger everyone else’!
The Product Operations book by Melissa Perri & Denise Tilles seems to have more and more to answer for, but this is not a surprise. Many in Product Operations agree that it is a great entry-level and high-level overview of the role providing examples of how it can work well. There are some great extracts from real-world Product Operations legends. But there are gaps, and like all books, it is limited by the experiences at the time of writing and of those of the authors. Of course, there will be questions to answer as more people read it and more professionals emulate it. It is not a blueprint for implementing Product Operations and should not be interpreted as such. It is disappointing that the loud detractors have simply read this book as the only resource, once again doing no more research on the topic.
There are some big lessons to learn now, in how we regard individuals on social media. It amazes me how we can be so guarded against influencers on other platforms, yet on professional sites such as LinkedIn, we fail to ask the most basic of questions around evidence, counterpoint and bias. And you must do the same of my comments - Product Operations is a big part of me, I am passionate about it and I am very good at it - but I do bring a lot of experience, success and failures to the surface. Ask yourself - why do you value one person’s opinion over another? What are your criteria?
There is little empathy from these self-appointed leaders of the industry for the damage they do with their comments, their opinions are stated as fact. Unfortunately, so many business leaders hold said individuals with such reverence they design their teams around their teachings, with the potential that such comments now can elicit restructuring and redundancies at a time already fractious worldwide with layoffs in tech. I’m trying hard not to use the cliche ‘With great power comes great responsibility’, but…
Above all, Product Operations never will be for every business. I have always maintained this. It’s not for startups, for example. Regardless of the size of your business, your staff, or your setup, you will be best placed to know if Product Operations will work for you. Understand the value it offers to you before you discount it, do not blindly dismiss it, or blindly take it on assuming it will fix all your problems. My The Pillars of Product Operations outlines what is and isn’t on the table.
What have other professionals said
With these statements being made about where Product should be it really discounts the journey of growing from infancy to maturity. everyone can say "One day I want to be here" but it takes a lot of work and it looks different for everyone. With the bold statements being made about what Product should look like it really really discounts and puts down the efforts and struggles that we face in these different stages.
“The biggest problem I have with Product Ops is the focus on processes
The focus is on the "how", not "why" and "what"“
Actually, these are two of the biggest misconceptions people have about the role. If you would just actually listen to what we have to say instead of immediately going ☠️ PROCESS BAD ☠️ you'd understand how transformational Product Operations can be.
So without further ado, here are 10 things we do that aren't "process":
- Enabling PMs to access & understand product data
- Breaking down silos between commercial & tech teams
- Giving people time to document
- Ensuring every new joiner has what they need
- Facilitating strategy conversations
- Making sure our OKRs are top of mind in everything we do
- Allowing anyone to contribute to the roadmap
- Making sure PMs take full advantage of their education budget
- Sharing a product mindset with the whole org
- Fostering community
I am fascinated by the fact that no one has mentioned scale in this conversation. I would imagine a great deal of us on this thread have worked at companies that started as 10 people and then grew to 100 and suddenly you have valuable product knowledge just living inside PMs or devs heads. Who is managing this process and the process of documentation (so needed during this time of async work)? You think the SVP of Product is out here maintaining Confluence? Or how about making sure that there’s frameworks in place to drive consistency from the Product team so that every other stakeholder in a company can do their job effectively? I’ve watched this thread for days now and all I see are people who have never worked with a Product Operations team member so why is your feedback on something you’ve never seen considered so valuable?
Not seeing the value of Product Ops at one company shouldn’t tarnish another’s choice to invest in the roles and team. We didn’t always have a need for Ops but when growth is fast and gaps occur, new roles will develop and that’s exciting.
What should we keep in mind?
We have seen this time and time again in the Product world - those with a voice and following, regardless of how they achieved it (most of them through a lot of hard work over many years), say things for the attention, the likes, to get on more podcasts.
We should also keep in mind that the reason this started, was to peddle a new book, in which new ways of working are promoted. I cannot comment on these ways of working, but I suspect the follow-up to this will be expensive consultancy or a live event tour to implement it too. Regardless of this, there is no doubt the attention this has drawn has improved sales.
This is mirrored by many others getting in on the act who sell books, consultancy and courses often that promote a ‘their way or the highway’ stance that often employ fear towards product professionals that they will fail or are failures by not working ‘extreme’ or employing a list of 30 core skills at all times.
In some cases over the past 6 months, it has also become clear that Product Operations is a fundamental threat to some consultants' business model - the tripe they have peddled for years and are now known for, have written books about, is incompatible with Product Operations.
Overall, we must take a step back and question the motives of the vitriol being directed at Product Operations right now.
But the big one - these individuals HAVE NOT WORKED WITH PRODUCT OPS. Their comments should be taken in this context, regardless of the name, what books they have written, and what podcast they have been on. Ask yourself - are they qualified to comment with such authority and reverence?
What is the damage
The sheer outpouring of support from the Product Ops community, I believe, has taken many by surprise - I believe there are many more, fired up and know the value of the role than many expected. And boy are we fired up. Ironically, this has unknowingly allowed the community to showcase what the role is really about, where there is value, the new-found alignment between professionals that was not there a year ago. We have also set the record straight on some misunderstandings and out-and-out fallacies, particularly that the role is all about setting a framework or bunch of processes, stifling innovation, learning and experimentation. To be fair, our self-alignment on the core of the role has perpetuated this in the early days, but the word is out now - and we have the dismissing comments to thank for this!
I fear the damage to those making the comments is longer lasting - it has been more obvious than ever this week that their words are often associated with something they are selling. Long has it been known that Silicon Valley does not represent the entire world when it comes to software businesses, teams or practises - the push for everyone to be like FAANG (without FAANG resources) has been seen for what it is. Melissa Perri herself, in response to the furore this week, says just as much:
The reality is, that not every organization operates like Amazon or Netflix, and these places can only hire so many Product Managers. Every company has the potential to excel in product management, but not if we don't fix our Product Leadership pipeline issue.
You can read the full statement here: LinkedIn
But I believe now there is genuine fatigue at hearing that so many good, hard-working professionals (those criticised in the original podcast) are overpaid, obsolete or just second-rate/not good enough. That fatigue is hitting the credibility of these ‘icons’ of the industry and people are seeing through the mantra.
Ultimately, what do I know? I have only done this role for over three years, building teams from scratch and marginally helpful in evolving the community and practice. But I do not know what the future holds - perhaps the book paddlers are right, or perhaps their words hold more weight than those with actual experience.
Now What?
Last year we knew we needed more dialogue between professionals to enhance the Product Ops practice. This year, we need more dialogue with those that have their doubt.
To that end, this is an open invitation to anyone with doubts or strong feelings against Product Operations to discuss and have an open conversation. I am not the only one offering this too, so there is an opportunity to further your understanding, ask questions and explore the realities of the role - and there is no excuse for writing off swathes of professionals uneducated.
Graham
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