SWLW #621: Fluffy & Ambiguous, The Product Model and Org Design, and more.

Like always, sharing my best findings for the week.  

 

This Week's Favorite

Fluffy & Ambiguous
4 minutes read.

When planning your OKRs and roadmap for next year, can your leadership team cover both pragmatic aspects while ensuring it's inspirational enough for the team? This is relevant for all senior leadership, not just Product Managers, so I find this 2x2 framework by John Cutler extremely useful.

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Culture

Product Strategy These Days 🙈
1 minute read.

My humble effort to help you start the weekend with a smile on your face.

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The Product Model and Org Design
5 minutes read.

Re-orgs and org structures are generally considered adequate because they use authority to resolve everything. It can be effective yet highly fragile. They often push us to believe that with the right structure, we will solve talent (who we work with), maturity (how we work together), and execution (what we deliver) automagically. It's easier to exclude org structure types as a clear misfit for the business needs. Once you have cleared that out, choose something that makes sense and leverage your advantages. "For example, if your business calls for a portfolio of loosely related products, each pursuing their own product vision and strategy, then it’s likely that the GM model will be the natural fit. But if the business depends on a tightly integrated, holistic product experience, then the functional model is likely best suited. The main reason the hybrid model is so popular is that many companies do have a portfolio of loosely related products, yet they need the leverage and efficiencies provided by a common platform. Beyond these fairly straightforward heuristics, I often explain to company leaders that it’s tempting to think that a reorganization will fix their company’s issues, but in most cases, it’s simply rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic."

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How to Design Teams That Don't Suck (podcast)
38 minutes read.

"Trust emerges from a team that is operating well, not the other way around. [...] The bond between people is less important than the bond around the mission. Mission cohesion matter more than social cohesion." -- Adam Grant will make you think about team design (vs. team dynamics) with shared experiences and purpose, working tightly together for a shared goal.

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From Wait to Great: Leveraging LLMs to Boost Aleph’s Organizational Velocity
7 minutes read.

"Most organizations, whether they realize it or not, are often stuck in wait states — periods where progress stalls due to delayed decisions or inaccessible information. These wait states can be costly, leading to missed opportunities and diminished organizational momentum." -- This is a simple yet so powerful insight. Can you map out and reduce wait times? Aleph's approach is creating a clear tradeoff between speed and privacy. This implementation won't work for everyone, yet everyone should think about wait times.

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Peopleware

To the Crazy Ones
3 minutes read.

"Not crazy for the sake of crazy, but crazy for the sake of progress. Demonstrable, undeniable, awe-inspiring progress. And that's what Mr Musk has brought us and continues to bring us." -- This post by DHH is a pure joy to read, celebrating SpaceX's successful catching of Starship's returning booster rocket. We need more dreamers and builders. There are enough naysayers.

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Best Thing I Did Was Actively Surround Myself With Builders
2 minutes read.

The energy of doing, showing value, iterating with optimism and growth are all highly contagious. Peter Levels is spot on: "Talkers cling on to builders to suck their resources like leeches. They will put you in giant email threads, Zoom calls, endless DMs, to talk ideas and connect you with other people in the ecosystem. You quickly realize you're now the protagonist in some bullshit startup theater show where nothing is ever going to be built."

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Ground Rules of Fairness at Work
5 minutes read.

People want to be treated as adults. Our job is to be clear, not to convince. People often feel that others shouldn't be promoted (or that they should), and it's incredibly hard to justify actions for people with limited context. Same with compensation. A healthier goal would be to imagine that everyone knows everything about the compensation of others. They won't like it (as we always think we should get more), but will they feel it's within reason? Can you easily stand behind it? Do you think it's fair? Is it fair to existing teammates (we have many more of those!) or just for newcomers?

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And finally, inspiring tweets...

@azizantoun: “The past was not as good as you remember, the present is not as bad as it seems, and the future will be better than you anticipate.”

@JamesClear: Before you worry about how to win the game, figure out whether the game is worth winning.



p.s. if you're interested in joining SWLW's Slack channel, simply reply to this email and let me know. If you're leading a team, consider writing your Manager README (it's free) or getting my e-book and interviews Leading Snowflakes: The New Engineering Manager's Handbook. You can also support me by becoming a SWLW Patron. Thank you ❤️




Keep reading, keep learning.
-- Oren Ellenbogen.