In the first post on leadership in Product Management I laid out the case for leadership in product management and outlined three primary aspects of a company [Leadership in Product Management – Effecting Organizational Alignment].   This post will address the importance of effecting leadership within the context of two of those aspects: people and organizational culture.

In most organizations, alignment of people around a common initiative in the context of product management immediately involves multiple stakeholders in terms of decision makers and influencers.  With respect to people and personalities, the immediate task is to identify the stakeholders relevant to product management.

As with prospective customers, these will include both decision makers and influencers.  Also material with respect to people is the need to approach people differently.  Some stakeholders will require no more than being asked for support, while others will need more formal persuasion in terms of market assessments, pitches and business cases.  It should be recognized on occasion there will be those stakeholders you will not be able to inspire or persuade and for them you should identify a means to mitigate their impact.

Continue reading this post »