Episode 33: Dear Melissa - Answering Questions About IT Department Transformation

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In this Dear Melissa segment, Melissa answers subscribers’ questions about transforming IT departments and legacy businesses into agile frameworks, reframing leaderships’ “May I take your order” approach towards their product teams, and making your case for strong product management practices within an IT-minded organization.


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Q: Our President and VP of IT want to switch the entire company from project management to product management. What advice do you have for a prospective lead product manager with no prior PM experience? [2:04]

A: I frequently see this in companies, and I have to say that I don't think this is the right role for you… I’ve observed this in a lot of companies that I've worked with… People look at the project managers and say ‘We can just set up everybody to be product managers; we'll train them and have them learn stuff, and then they can lead it,’ but the type of change that you’re asking for… is incredibly hard to lead if you’ve never done it before…  if you don't have anybody to learn those from inside the company, it's gonna be hard for you to level up and create a career in that.  [3:15]

Q: How can line workers and IC’s help our management see the value of iterative product development? [10:17]

A: So, the biggest thing you have to do here is take a step back and start to figure out who the profiles of leadership are. In order to change minds and convince people, you first have to identify their agendas. Look at your new leadership. How did they get their positions? What happened to the old leadership? What are the expectations for success put on this new leadership?... Now [you] can start putting your case about intuitively working together as product teams into their framework for how that helps them reach their goals. [11:29] 


Q: How do you approach arguing to an IT-minded legacy media company to introduce product discovery when they actually have only one product team to work with and multiple media assets or websites? How do we start building trust so that they are willing to hire more teams? [18:21]

A: It sounds like they see you as the team that just takes care of the IT… They probably don't see digital as a channel that can help bring their goals out there. You’ve got to find out what the goals are of this media company… You can maybe carve out five hours a week to do some experiments, to show them the proof of what you could possibly do… It’s gonna feel like overtime but if you passionately care about this and you want to get more teams and show that you're not just a cost center, you’ve got to carve out the time. [19:00]

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