The Product Development Vault
How Many People Have the Combination?
Most people manage money with two objectives: protect it, and invest to secure the future. Your product development team is like a financial portfolio. Are you investing to secure the future or spending like a shopaholic?
Product Development: Your Cash Vault
In a high technology product company, the product development team is the equivalent to a bank vault, but there are two key differences. First, the combination to the vault in a high technology company is often common knowledge and there are daily brawls to see who gets the lions share of the money, whereas in a bank, it's a top secret known only by a select few. Second, if a bank is robbed there is at least a chance the money can be recovered, whereas in a technology company, development resources can never be recovered once they're spent.
Safe Crackers
Who are the habitual safe crackers? If you're a typical technology product company, the usual suspects are Sales, because the only thing that matters is the next deal, Services, because they want to make customers happy and the Technology Gurus, because there is always something new and cool to create.
There are three common safe cracking techniques. First is the shock maneuver where dire predictions rule the day. Second is the political end-around where new projects are justified without a business case. Third and probably most common, is when someone goes directly to product development with a request and suddenly new features appear. "That was way too easy!" Collectively, these tactics set a dangerous precedent for how new solutions are created, and before you know it they become the norm.
Safeguarding the Combination
Ben Franklin must have seen this dilemma coming centuries ago when he said, "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." There are three elements that must work together to protect your product development vault from a heist.
1. Process
2. Ownership
3. Commitment
Process - There must be a well defined regimen for planning and prioritizing product development projects. Similar to a bank, there should be a standard protocol to prevent an inside job.
Ownership - The process must have an owner to lead and orchestrate. This is typically the function of Product Management and should represent the single door to the product development vault.
Commitment - There must be a top down commitment from the senior executive team. Even if the short term results are occasionally undesirable, the long term price for instant gratification can be debilitating.
A well protected product development vault yields great returns when it's utilized to solve the biggest problems for any given market, so spend the money in your vault wisely because once it's gone, it's gone for good.
If the combination to your product development vault is common knowledge, signup for Product Management University Onsite, Online or Open Enrollment. You'll learn simple processes for protecting your product development resources from an unwanted heist.
