Working in product for over a decade, as PMs and accelerating my career into the CPO of a medium-sized SaaS company, I have seen firsthand the challenges that can arise when a company is a "feature factory". Working in both feature factories and product-led organizations, I prefer the product-led approach because it is more in line with my personal commitment to providing excellent customer service. However, let's be honest: the vast majority of businesses are still unable to (fully) transition to a more customer-centric way of working. And that’s ok too. I attempted three times to transition an organization from feature factory to product led. I succeeded once and failed twice. Learning: In either case, it is not me; it is the organization.
This article is the first in a series of articles. I intend to write about subjects such a
Signs you are working in a feature factory (this article)
How to measure your success - Mapping out your strategy
How to empower your teams
How to spot early if a transition can be successful
Signs you are working in a feature factory
Why not every organization can become product led
Environmental factors that foster a successful transition
In this article I will highlight both obvious and subtle signs that you work in a feature factory and describe 16 indicators I've noticed in Product Management over the last 15 years. These can be divided into three major categories:
a dysfunctional process,
a shattered culture characterized by unclear roles and responsibilities leading to dysfunctional collaboration
a lack of strategy and vision (or at least both badly defined)
Indicators, that you are working in a feature factory
The dysfunctional process
The product roadmap is focused on adding new features, with little consideration for improving existing ones. This can lead to a cluttered and confusing user experience, with a multitude of options and settings that are difficult to navigate. The result is often a poor user experience, which can negatively impact customer satisfaction. It also puts your product and development teams under constant pressure to deliver new features, with little time for strategic planning and long-term vision. This can lead to a product that lacks direction and focus.
People are unable to describe how you build products: If team members are unable to describe how the company builds products, this is a clear indication that your process is complex and dysfunctional, slowing delivery while contributing to siloed work.
There is a lack of focus on user feedback and customer satisfaction and at the same time research often just validates product decisions, rather than to understand the needs and wants of the user. This leads to biased decision making and features that do not solve a users (first / key) problem.
Releases are pushed out frequently, with little time for thorough testing and bug fixing. This can lead to a product that is full of bugs and frustrating for users to use.
Improvements get pushed to v2 and everyone knows it never happens: When improvements are constantly pushed to a future version, it can indicate that the company is focused on delivering features without considering their impact on the user or the company.
Features are released but never measured: If features are released without being measured, it is a sign that the company is not focused on delivering value to the user.
A shattered culture characterized by unclear roles and responsibilities leading to dysfunctional collaboration.
There is little collaboration between teams, with each department working in isolation to add their own features. This can lead to a disorganized development process and a product that is difficult to use.
Finger pointing instead of learning from each other: When teams are not collaborating, they may start blaming each other instead of learning from their mistakes. This can lead to a negative work environment.
Another point is unclarity on roles and responsibilities across the organization. Having clearly defined responsibilities and expectations for each team member, as well as clear communication channels and collaboration between teams. prevents confusion, duplicated efforts, and a lack of accountability. It enables team members to focus on their specific responsibilities and work together to create a high-quality product.
A lack of strategy and vision (or at least both badly defined)
People in your teams don't understand the vision but leadership is convinced it is well defined and understood or there is not even a vision defined at all. If your team members do not understand the vision of the product and how it aligns with the company's goals, it is a sign that the leadership may be pushing features without considering their impact. This can lead to a product that lacks direction and focus, and challenges in prioritization of upcoming work.
People are unable to tell you which issue you are resolving for your customer: If your team members cannot explain which problem the product solves for the customer, they may deliver low impact features, jeopardizing your product's product-market fit.
People are unable to articulate how they contribute to the company's success: If team members are unable to explain how their work contributes to the company's success, they frequently feel a lack of responsibility and ownership and wonder if their day-to-day work is meaningful enough to make an impact.
No one in the company can explain the value you deliver to your users or the AHA Moment of your product. This often leads to a “one size fits all” approach. Products are more build following a watering can principle instead of focusing the roadmap on the most impactful outcomes to deliver.
Conclusion
The list is only a sampling of potential indicators, but in my opinion, the ones described above are the most common. Finally, if your company is exhibiting any of these symptoms, it may be time to re-evaluate your product development focus and ensure that you are providing value to your users.
In the next article, I'll go over how to approach this transformation, what to avoid, and how to measure your success.