One of the best questions I’ve ever been asked when interviewing for a product leadership role is; “how do you manage the power change dynamic when you bring a product management process to an organization that’s been building software directed by a founder or another senior leader?”

This is something the leadership at McKesson taught me. At the time, I didn’t have a theme for the activity.  A founder or senior leader can also be called a “highest-paid person.”  They definitely have opinions on what the product needs.  And needs now now.  Not now, later.

How do you manage the “HIghest-Paid Person’s Opinion?”  Or how do you manage your HIPPOs?

Since about 2005, I’ve been bringing product management practices to organizations.  Essentially, I‘ve created a Way of Working (WoW) for developing products.  I’ve invented nothing.  I’ve only pulled together practices of the last 15 years into a framework that has worked for my organizations. 

Product management frameworks move an organization away from “gut feelings and emergencies” to prioritized, researched, data-driven roadmaps.

Here’s how you manage your HIPPOs.

#1 – Collect your HIPPOs into an Investment Steering Committee. 

• Meet monthly with your HIPPOs.
• Present to them monthly:
  • “What we are working on now, and why,”
  • “What we want to work on next, and why,”
  • “Success, and failures, on released features.”  In other words, did we create the benefit we promised, or not?

Then we have them vote.  We have them approve or disapprove of what’s inflight now and what’s coming next in the queue.  I like to use PI’s (program increment) vs. Sprints for time blocks.  By the way, Poll Everywhere is an excellent tool for voting and many other interactive presentations.  A topic for another day.

You can use the inertia of the herd of HIPPOs to deflect another HIPPO’s request.  HIPPOs aren’t bashful about challenging each other.  It could be in that meeting the idea is approved for research.  We need to talk about Stage Gates® another time.  I.e., how items get into the “what we want to work on next, and why” bucket.

#2 – Data and Research

To manage HIPPOs, you need to present data and research.  Our roadmaps aren’t indiscriminate choices.  Right?  We are pursuing outcomes of revenue, retention, or cost savings with our roadmaps.  We have a “whole offer map” on our “stairway of value strategy.”  Where would this idea fit?  Or not fit?

#3 – Understand Existing Commitments

A HIPPO understands an existing promise to a customer or internal/external stakeholder.  We may have to explain what would change with the roadmap to accommodate their idea.  Who would we disappoint, disrupt, or discourage with a roadmap change? 

Last Thought

HIPPOs are well-meaning.  We all are trying to do the right thing. 

Your CTO, and much of the rest of the organization, are counting on you not to enable big swings in the roadmap.  Swapping out objectives on an engineering team is demoralizing.  The engineering team loses trust that they are now working on the priority. 

NOBODY LIKES TO MAKE SHELFWARE.

An organization has asked you to create a product management process because it has recognized waste (i.e., no outcome for the work), the demoralizing impact on engineering, or some other negative impact to “gut feelings and emergencies” as the way to build something.

Be brief.  Be bright.  Be done.

Rob

Photo by Bibhash Banerjee on Unsplash