Orchestration for Product Managers - Follow Up Story

Turning strategy into delivery without losing focus on what matters

What happened after writing a recent Product Management IRL article? These insights are exclusive to premium subscribers of Product Management IRL.

This week’s backstory is about orchestration for product managers:

The Orchestration Challenge for Product Managers

What Prompted This Article?

“That slide gives me a headache.”

This is my boss’s comment when I showed him my quick-and-dirty dependency map for an upcoming feature. Here’s a simplified view of the slide:

My boss’s comment got me thinking. This is something in between product, program and cross-functional teams. Am I diluting my product manager power by mapping my requirements into a dependency timeline?

As I went to research how other product managers handle complex initiatives, I found a few articles about “orchestrating” AI agents. With so many specialized teams coming into product, I decided my slide is my version of “orchestrating”.

I looked through my recent product work and spotted 3 ways I’m doing orchestration:

1. Map the dependencies that matter

2. Build orchestration rituals tied to milestones

3. Make risks visible early

As I published this article, my next step was applying orchestration to my next initiative.

Does orchestration help in real-world product management? Does it save time or keep me from doing more strategic work?

What Happened After This Article?