In the Episode video presentation Adrienne Tan, made the rallying cry to start a Rebellion. A Product-Led rebellion. Here’s a summary of her talk…
I’m going to start with a story about John Muratore, a young engineer who started working at NASA in 1983. When he started he was surprised by the archaic computer architecture that was in operation in the shuttle mission control centre. It was still in the Apollo-era mainframe system, with one big central computer and black and white displays with very limited graphics. Any change to the mainframe computer took months to implement and John was also sceptical that the system could stand up to the rising complexity of the shuttle program.
John was convinced things needed to change.
He recruited a new group of engineers, that felt as he did, and they presented their vision to the executives. Initially it fell on deaf ears. Then John and his fellow rebels developed what they call the “pirate paradigm.” As John said:
“The idea behind the pirate paradigm was to switch the way we looked at the problem from ‘this is a big facility and it’s our job to protect it’ to ‘if we don’t make radical change, everything’s going to go away.”
They also implemented the “Pirate’s Code” which emphasised things like the importance of:
- Personal responsibility
- Open communication
- Action – no “analysis paralysis”
For John and the other pirate rebels this became an extremely exciting time where they built a very strong culture of self-reliance, of trying new things out, which was totally against the current NASA way of working. This resulted in a paradigm they called “build a little, test a little, fix a little.”
What I also want to further emphasise today, is the attitude, commitment, fortitude and tenacity of John Muratore. He was no different to us, he wanted the best for his team, his organisation, his users and of course, customers and he was absolutely committed to change. He achieved so much Not only did he develop Mission Control in record time, but he also developed a Space Exploration Vehicle, and the Shuttle while operating in a “superheated political environment.”
The tactics for a product-led rebellion
To lead a successful product-led transformation you need TACTICS. Unlike other conventional transformation programs, this approach begins with a self-evaluation.
You need to WANT to make changes and you need to be COMMITTED to change. You need to be able to keep going when things are hard. You should ask yourself:
- Are you prepared to give an extra hour of your day to making change happen?
- Are you prepared to re-prioritise your work?
- Are you prepared to fight for what you believe to be the new norm?
If you answer no to any of these, think about whether you really have what it takes to lead a product-lead rebellion.
Recruiting and arming your fellow rebels
You also need allies to kick off a rebellion. You cannot do this alone. I like the approach Ernest Shackleton, an Antarctic Explorer, followed to recruit team members for his attempt to reach the South Pole in the early 1900s. He ran an ad in the newspaper which said.
“Men wanted for hazardous journey. Low wages, bitter cold, long hours of complete darkness. Safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in event of success.”
Why not write your own ad on your company intranet, slack channel, newsletter? Whatever is the best way to reach out to a large group of people within your company. It could read:
Once you have your team together you need to set a team purpose, your why, to make sure you’re all clear on why you’re doing what you do. Then you need to set the team’s operating principles, here’s an example:
- Trust the crew
- Appreciate the (organisation’s) rules but challenge the status quo
- Work small, test, iterate and show
- Bow out if it’s not for you. No hard feelings
- Commit and start
Then you need to set the team’s meeting cadence – when, where, how often and for how long you’ll meet.
Three simple steps for a Product-Led Transformation Rebellion
Once you have your crew and you’ve set out the principles of how and why you’ll work together there are three simple steps you can continue to repeat as your rebellion gains momentum.
- Scout the scene. Make sure you clearly understand the environment and the problems (both internal and customer problems). Then ask probing questions, assemble the data, find common patterns and write clear, succinct problem statements.
- Fix as you go. Create a loose transformation plan, not a perfect plan, but somewhere to start. At a minimum, the plan should contain a prioritised list of problems to solve, name whomever is responsible for solving each problem and a suggest a model to solve that problem.
- Point and show. To get endorsement from key stakeholders, you need to show them evidence, backed up by hard metrics, of what your transformation is achieving. You can do this through emails, videos, presentations, town halls, demonstrations, physical signs and objects around the office – any way to communicate what you’ve achieved to large numbers of people. Don’t be afraid of over-communicating, people need to be told a lot of times to sink in.
Yes, rebellions take time, and dedication.
No doubt you’re already very busy. You need to find the time from somewhere. Claim time for the rebellion and take time away from less important work. Here’s some tactical ways you could do it:
- Schedule the Rebellion meetings in your calendar and don’t move them
- Make all your meetings shorter and use the extra time for rebellion
- Add an extra half an hour to the start or end of your working day
- Replace some of your less important operational work with more strategic, rebellion work
Managing opposition and cynicism
As the rebellion progresses, inevitably there will be problems. Some people won’t like what you’re doing and will push back. Be ready. Know how you will respond. Prepare your crew by:
- Getting them to recognise their own defensive patterns and prepare, and practice, how they will respond to criticism.
- Calling out the elephant in the room. Don’t assume you’re all in agreement, make the implicit explicit. Do this during crew meetings and get-togethers. Address the emotional challenges you are all facing.
- Be open to discussing issues raised. But separate the issue from the person or the group that has raised the issue. The crew will need to be open to learning from the resistors.
- Learn to ‘read the room’. Get good at gaining perspectives on how people are responding to the ideas.
- Be curious about your opposition. The best way to deal with resistors and opposers is invite them in, view their resistance as a learning opportunity and way of furthering your rebellion.
Long live the rebellion
If you’ve embarked, or are about to embark, on a change rebellion I salute you. It’s a tough gig that I believe has many professional and personal rewards. It makes work, a place where we spend 8 to 10 hours a day, so satisfying and rewarding. And as a messenger of change, I’ll reiterate John’s words, it’s important to “make radical change, or everything’s going to go away.”
Highlights from the Town Hall discussion
On the third Wednesday of the month we hold a Town Hall for all of our Season Pass members. This is a chance to come together to discuss the content of each episode, ask questions, and get help and advice from our product experts. Here are the highlights from the Episode 1 Town Hall. Adrienne Tan and Brendan Townsend from the Brainmates team were on hand to share their advice with the Season Pass members.
Q. If you’re working on a program and following best product practice but then you need to bring that small program into a much larger business that is a long way behind where you are on being product-led, any tips on how to make that work?
A. Even in very large organisations, even if you’re just starting with one person, change is possible. Just look at John and NASA. But you DO need to be totally committed and believe change is possible. You usually won’t get permission to do it, at least initially, but mostly if you follow through and do what you say you are going to do and then you can show you’re having a positive impact, then people will come along with you.
It can be really slow, and it can be very disheartening, especially if you’re trying to change large numbers of people. But don’t forget to look back and celebrate those small wins. Because one person becomes 7 and then it becomes 70 and then 700. Now, if you’re trying to change 5000 people this is still small, but it’s still a massive achievement, so don’t undersell how much impact you really are having, even if it feels quite small.
But, if you’re doing this and you’re not making the change you want, and people aren’t coming with you and you don’t think it’s going to happen. Then, maybe, it’s time to look for another organization to work for.
Q. Where and how should you store the information you get from customer interviewing workshops?
A. When we do an interview we usually do it with two people, one taking notes and the other asking questions. During the interview I like to jot down notes on sticky bits of paper, the words that stand out to me, the main thoughts. Then we send the whole interview away to be transcribed by Rev.com. I then scan the transcripts of all the interviews and look for similarities and differences and compare these to the post it notes and put it all on big boards. Then I look for patterns and I ask others to look for patterns as well and then once I have a narrative forming, or multiple narratives, I put it in a journey map, so I can really understand where insights fit in the customers’ buying or using journey.
Q. How do you get the balance right of discovery vs doing?
A. Don’t get straight into doing, definitely, but it’s always a balance of when to start. It also depends on whether you have a product built or not. If you don’t have a product yet, then it’s also a question of risk appetite and money. How quickly do you need/want to move and how much money are you prepared to lose? If you do have a product then you should definitely be moving more quickly. For me, after 6-8 conversations I usually see patterns emerging. Then I decide whether to do more discovery or start doing. Of course, if you have multiple segments, you’ll need more conversations than that.
Q. Once you’ve built the first version of a product, and you’re getting customer feedback in, any tips on how to delve into bigger underlying problems that the product might surface?
A. Firstly, I suggest not to share a roadmap. Roadmaps are often very controversial documents, people think they’re a promise things will be built, even if you tell them it WILL DEFINITELY change. I think it’s better to share the vision of where you’re trying to go and share this vision in the form of a story where you use a customer persona that has certain problems and explain how your product could solve those problems.
Q. You talked about building a team to start the rebellion, if you had a choice would you start small and targeted or go bigger and try to get it through the whole team early?
A. It depends. If I was going to build something I’d usually start small and targeted. I’d go hard and build something to prove my results to people. If I was trying to build capability I’d go bigger, earlier to try to get that capability into the team earlier. But there’s no right way, you could do either, it depends on the people and the end goal.
Communicate your rebellion in a simple way where the customer is the hero.
One final point on communication. It’s really important to remember that when we’re communicating things to the rest of the company don’t use product management jargon. We can’t talk about customer discovery or user experience because we’ll lose people, they won’t understand and they’ll switch off. You need to use simple language that everyone will understand. And tell it as a story. A story where the customer is at the centre of any change that you make in your organisation. We’ve all grown up on stories, they resonate with us and stick with us and we remember them.