From Product Integration to Product Acceleration - Follow Up Story
Why IC product managers need a new operating model
What happened after writing a recent Product Management IRL article? These insights are for paid subscribers to Product Management IRL.
This week’s backstory is about product manager operating models:
What Prompted This Article?
I read an article by Elena Verna about her move to an individual contributor (IC) from leading growth at her company. She discussed how rewarding it was to handle a product change from start to finish as an IC.
But she didn’t say how she actually accomplished this.
I began to think about how I could do a product change by myself in my organization. It was overwhelming to consider permissions, collaboration, tooling, and processes.
But Elena didn’t have this problem.
She didn’t have this problem because she cut back her work to the bare bones needed to release the change.
Cutting back for me led to 5 changes:
These changes mean I have time to build things. But it feels weird to stop coordinating each initiative.
I will need to let go of some hard-won instincts and develop new ones.
