Untrapping Product Teams: Simplify the Complexity of Creating Digital Products

Auteur

David Pereira is a product leader with more than 15 years of experience. He has sharpened his skills by leading diverse teams, from startups to giant corporations. Since 2020, he has openly shared his mistakes, failures, and insights on product management, reaching over 10 million readers worldwide. His thought-provoking courses have more than 15K satisfied students across 120+ countries.

Texte du rabat

Empower Product Teams to Rock the World by Uncovering and Overcoming Dangerous Traps

Untrapping Product Teams guides you to simplify what gets unintentionally complicated and equips you to overcome dangerous traps while steadily driving customer and business value. This isn't just another book about product management. It's a thought-provoking guide filled with simplicity, encouraging you to act today for a better tomorrow.

This book is for anyone facing the challenges of working on or with product teams. It lays out leading best practices, combined with "secret ingredients" crafted by the author based on years of experience. Learn what makes or breaks product teams so you are ready to do what it takes to thrive with digital products.

• Learn the differences between coordinative and collaborative workflows
• Recognize dangerous traps and the strategies to overcome them
• Explore the product journey: simplify decision-making, apply mindful product discovery, use delivery to accelerate value, and measure results beyond outputs
• Craft product principles and set solid foundations for product teams
• Benefit from proven product health checks to uncover where to act today for a better tomorrow
  "This is my new favorite book on product management. Untrapping Product Teams covers everything you need to know to lead a product team and be successful as a product manager. Author David Pereira does an excellent job of pointing out biases and thinking traps that doom products. The book is full of many insights and tools that will be useful for years to come."
  --Mike Cohn, co-founder of Agile Alliance

"David's book shares several hard-earned lessons of what happens when product leaders, product managers, and especially product owners are not trained to succeed in their jobs, and they go on to make predictable and avoidable mistakes. This book can help you avoid some of these pitfalls."
--Marty Cagan, partner, Silicon Valley Product Group

"This book touches on all the daily essentials for a product person. It's a practical guide and a meta-analysis rolled into one, serving as the 'Greatest Hits' album of Product Management. Ideal for newcomers and an excellent refresher for those already immersed in the field."
--Petra Wille, author of Strong Product People

Contenu

Foreword by Ash Maurya xiii
Foreword by Jim Highsmith xv
Preface xvii
About the Author xxi

Introduction 1
Who Can Benefit from This Book 2
How to Read This Book 3
What to Expect from Untrapping Product Teams 3

Part I: Facing Dangerous Traps 5

Chapter 1: How Common Ways of Working Trap or Untrap Teams 7
How Feature Factory Companies Work 8
Coordinative Flow: A Logical Way of Working with Unexpected Results 12
Nine Out of Ten Ideas Will Fail 15
Collaborative Flow: A Simple Way of Working with Outstanding Results 16
Key Takeaways 21

Chapter 2: The Mindset Impacts on Dangerous Traps 23
What's a Growth Mindset? 25
What's a Fixed Mindset? 25
Identifying the Mindset's Impacts 26
Output over Outcome 27
Opinions over Evidence 28
Prescriptive Roadmaps over Embracing the Unknown 30
Meeting Deadlines over Achieving Goals 32
Implementing Solutions over Solving Problems 33
Key Takeaways 35

Chapter 3: What Distracts Teams from Creating Value 37
Facing the Real Enemy: Bullshit Management 38
Gathering Requirements: A Distraction to Value Creation 39
Extensive Product Backlog: When the Past Limits the Future 40
Output Reports: Wasting Time 42
Consensus-Driven Decisions: Slowing Down Progress 43
Output Approval: Limiting Team's Accountability 44
Meeting Marathon: Long Days with Little Value Created 45
Fear of Saying No: The Art of Getting Overwhelmed 46
Bridge Communication: Becoming the Bottleneck 47
Opinion-Driven Decision: Ignoring Evidence, Creating Waste 48
Failure Avoidance: Killing Innovation Chances 50
Bullshit Management Check 51
Key Takeaways 51

Part II: Overcoming Dangerous Traps 53

Chapter 4: Using the Right Ingredients for Product Teams 55
How a Simple Restaurant Became the World's Number One 56
Understanding the Right Ingredients for Product Teams 56
What a Solid Product Strategy Enables 57
Accelerating Learning with Product Discovery 59
Approaching Product Delivery Mindfully 61
Finding the Right Ingredients for Your Situation 62
Key Takeaways 63

Chapter 5: Crafting a Meaningful Product Strategy 65
Identifying Who You Serve 66
Understanding Your Product Stage 68
Product Vision: Knowing Where to Land 69
Lean Canvas: Defining the Key Aspects to Thrive 72
Value Curve: Designing to Differentiate 80
Roadmap: Establishing Clarity on What to Achieve 82
Key Takeaways 86

Chapter 6: Forget What You Know to Get Ready for the Unknown 89
My Unforgettable First Date with Product Discovery 90
Biases: Blocking Learning Opportunities 91
Confirmation Bias: The Art of Missing Opportunities and Creating Waste 92
Commitment Escalation: Making a Bad Situation Even Worse 92
Sunk-Cost Fallacy: The Fear of Losing Triggering More Losses 93
Bandwagon Fallacy: Following the Masses Without Knowing Why 94
Value Drivers: Doing What Matters for Customers and the Business 95
Do What's Right, Not What's Easy 97
Key Takeaways 98

Chapter 7: Embarking on a Journey to Discover What Matters 99
Understanding the Discovery Journey 99
Clarify the Goal: Know What Success Looks Like 101
Understand Your Audience: Know How Customers Use Your Product 102
Uncover Value Drivers: Identify What's Worth Pursuing 104
Prioritize and Focus: Take One Value Driver at a Time 107
Reinvent the Future: Diverge and Converge 109
Deal with Assumptions: Drop Bad Ideas Fast Enough 110
Use Evidence to Progress: Experiment, Learn, Decide 116
Key Takeaways 118

Chapter 8: Enabling Product Delivery Beyond Outputs 119
How the Wrong Approach to Product Delivery Leads to a Feature Factory 120
Product Backlog: Organizing What Drives Value 121
Refinement: Building Shared Understanding 125
Alignment: Setting the Next Goal 127
Getting Things Done 129
Using Tech Debt: Accelerate Learning to Avoid Poor Investment 131
Review: Getting Business and Product Aligned 134
Improve: Strive to Continuously Become a Better Team 135
Key Takeaways 136

Chapter 9: Defining and Measuring Actionable Metrics 139
Data Traps: Avoid Common Traps 140
Leading versus Laggard Metrics 141
Input versus Output Metrics: Understanding Control and Influence 143
Defining Metrics: Focus on Signs While Ignoring Noise 144
Measuring Results: Be Careful, You're Not a Stockbroker 146
Sharing Results: Spread the News about Outcomes 147
Pro Hints: Saving You Hours per Week 148
Usual Metrics: The Bread and Butter of Analytics 149
Key Takeaways 151

Chapter 10: Getting the Teams Right 153
Common Product Teams Setup 154
Roles and Responsibilities: Who Takes Care of What 160
Product Managers versus Backlog Managers 162
Software Engineers versus Coders 165
Product Designers versus Pixel-Perfect Designers 167
Agile Coaches versus Agile Rulers 168
Key Takeaways 169

Chapter 11: Building Solid Relationships 171
Who the Stakeholders Are 172
Power and Interest: How to Improve Collaboration with Business Stakeholders 173
Sharpening Commu…