A mini-guide to product operations and their importance.
This past year, we’ve seen a surge in interest and quest for product operations roles. I recently read a fascinating report from ProductBoard on remote product management and collaboration. It revealed that 40% of product teams surveyed now had a product operations function. You might wonder what product operations are. Here’s the short version.
Product operations optimize the processes, communication, and sharing of resources across functions within product teams. It covers a broad spectrum, from data analysis, customer insights, prototyping, prioritizing features, road mapping to even conducting product experimentations.
Product operations are a more recent phenomenon than their equivalent in the sales or marketing worlds. Consequently, product leaders often struggle with how to consider product operations for their organizations. Here’s a mini-guide to help you assess your situation and make the right call. It’s based on how my teams approached our operations for years and the world-class practices that inspired us.
POM vs. PM: what's the difference?
There’s a question I frequently hear in coaching calls and product management forums. What’s the actual difference between product management and product operations management? Aren’t they closely related?
They typically work hand-in-hand, yet at different levels. There can be much overlap, so think of it as a matter of scale. When companies start their product effort, the priority is to establish a core product team. It has three core functions: a product manager, a product design, an engineering manager, and a few engineers. In such situations, the product manager role is likely taking a lot on their plate.
The product manager is the voice of the customer and the market. As such, she will organize and analyze insights from the market, and all the data captured around product usage behaviors. All of this is on top of product management’s usual duties. These typically include product vision, execution, and alignment with business imperatives.
Most companies in growth mode need to excel in how they go about customer and market insights. It means better coordination of the product team’s efforts and rationalizing the tools and processes. In areas like team alignment on goals, prototyping, road mapping, and user onboarding. That’s product operations.
So, to sum it up, the product operations role highly complements product management. Yet, it’s more micro than macro, digging deeper into insights and how the product teams will get things done.
When do you need product operations?
Companies reaching a particular scale and building products carrying much data to analyze tend to have product operations in place. Here are a few of the questions to ask yourself before considering product operations:
- Are my product managers drowning in a sea of product and customer data? Can’t they turn into actionable insights?
- When did my product managers last talk to customers or potential customers?
- How aligned are the different functions in the product team?
- Do they share the same product vision?
- Do they execute smoothly?
- Or are they fighting over processes and outputs to the point of missing the business outcomes?
- Have the different product teams standardized over essential tools around customer insights, data analysis, prototyping, road mapping, feature prioritization? Are key participants fully trained and operational on these tools?
You get it. If your teams lack alignment, coordination, and depth of analysis – you either need to elevate their skill set, find new players, and-or add product operations.
Watch for product operations skills
Like their counterparts in marketing operations, the best product operations managers tend to be very analytical. They need to dive into a lot of data, analytics and build proper insights. They also need to master all the operational aspects. This ranges from defining roles, responsibilities, goals, setting up processes, driving scorecards, and ensuring proper follow-up on execution. The best product operations managers also have soft skills. They need to show empathy, credibly articulate the vision, and understand each function’s sensitivity.
Most companies still don’t have product operations. Remember, many are still just starting with product management – or they organize their efforts differently. That’s fine, as long as the typical attributes of product operations are present in the existing product teams.
In most cases, product teams are an aggregation of different organizations. The product manager might report to the head of the product. The product designer to the director of design, and the engineering manager to the head of engineering. What’s bringing them together is the product to build.
It requires special coordination and I’ve experienced different ways to handle it. Some functions are well-positioned to take the lead here. It goes from the chief of staff, to program management, and even a combination of product management and engineering. The most important is to ensure you have built proper alignment within the product team. Everyone should embrace the product vision, the team’s goals, and how they’ll execute.
Get ready for a new reality
The 2020 pandemic has triggered a new reality. Product teams are now hybrid and more distributed than ever. It all happens in an increasingly complex world as we keep throwing more data, analytics, and sophisticated tools at the product teams. All of this makes it harder to focus on strategy, vision, and innovation.
If your product teams struggle with alignment, barely scratch the surface on data and analytics insights. If they have disjointed processes and tools, then, now is probably the time for you to add product operations. Before you do so, ensure you do a full skill set and mindset inventory, as product operations alone won’t fix a dysfunctional team. And if you feel stuck, reach out to me at tanguy@theproductsherpa.com and let the Sherpa be your guide.