One big issue I see hold scaled companies back from doing great #prodmgmt is the lack of team work in middle management and exec layers. /1

We promote “scrum” teams and collaboration in an agile transformation, but we rarely talk about how middle managers and execs need to work too. /3

I worked with one company of 5000 people, about 50ish Director levels, and 10 VPs. It was a massive platform that was highly interconnects.

Every single leader set strategy themselves in a bubble. Then they started duplicating each other. /4

When we surfaced it during a roadmap review everyone started laughing when they saw the same features pop up 10 times across the company. /5

Product strategy needs to not just be deployed down, but up and across. You figure out what you want to do as a team at your level, align it across all your products, capacity plan and adjust, and then deploy to teams and communicate up. /6

To do that well you need to be collaborative with your peer middle managers. That’s your team.

Same with execs. /7

When I come in and teach product strategy to leaders I always hear the same thing “wow, we never did this together before.”

And that’s why it’s not working.

Even just having a conversation that’s intentional about what your trying to do and why can help here. /8

This is why you have too many things going on. This is why you’re peanut buttering you’re people and spreading them thin. You need to brainstorm, communicate, prioritize, align, and then focus at every level. /9

So moral of the story is, you need cross functional teams at every level of your organization. At the middle managers level, those teams need to collaborate with other teams of leaders as well to set strategy. This makes sure your all aligned and focused on the right things. /10

You’re* ugh