Summary: I am bringing back my guest from episode 17, which was about creating the ProdBOK – The Guide to the Product Management and Marketing Body of Knowledge and how Greg Geracie led that effort. I also shared on that episode that he is a co-author of the annual Study of Product Team Performance and the 2015 report is now available. Greg joined me to share the key findings from the study and help all of us better understand team performance and changes that could improve performance of product teams.<br> <br> Practices and Ideas for Product Managers, Developers, and Innovators<br> Highlights from the discussion include…<br> <br> * To date, a total of 19 factors have been identified to be strongly associated with product team performance.<br> <br> <br> * Product management was directly impacted in three areas – requirement backlog ownership, time spent in the field with customers, and accountability metrics. Only 29% of respondents associate backlog ownership with product managers. Interestingly, customer satisfaction is the most commonly used metric to judge product management performance. Only about 20% of product managers have financial accountability for product.<br> <br> <br> * A correlation was found between product development method and product profitability with agile/scrum being most associated with higher product profitability and waterfall being least associated with profitability.<br> <br> <br> * The product development methods organizations are using breakdown as: 43% blended methodologies (waterfall plus agile), 26% agile/scrum, 14% waterfall, 11% did not know what they were using, 3% kanban, and the rest chose “other.”<br> <br> <br> * 39% of product team members indicated that they deliver value consistently on scope, schedule, and cost (up from 12% in 2012) while 47% reported that they deliver value inconsistently.<br> <br> <br> * 1100-1400 people have participated in the survey each year. People on and associated with product teams complete the survey. This includes product managers, product owners, project and program managers, engineers and development managers, UX professionals, quality assurance professionals, business analysts, and product marketers. Organizations from small to very large were represented.<br> <br> <br> * 4th year for the annual Product Team Performance report. Twenty factors to date have been associated with highly productive product teams.<br> <br> <br> * 4 new factors were added in this year’s study that are associated with product team performance.<br> <br> * Strategic decision-making — product teams that develop their capacity for strategic decision-making and following strategic objectives are aligned with higher performance.<br> * Standup frequency – teams that regularly and frequently hold standup meetings are much more likely to be higher performing.<br> * Quick problem recovery – teams that are nimble and can adapt to unforeseen issues quickly are correlated with higher performance.<br> * UX collaboration – active and early participation and product development with user experience professionals leads to more successful product teams.<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> Useful links:<br> <br> * <a href="http://www.actuationconsulting.com/the-study-of-product-team-performance/" target="_blank">Product Team Performance Report</a><br> * Accompanying <a href="http://www.actuationconsulting.com/product-management-infographics/" target="_blank">Infographic</a><br> * The report is created by <a href="http://www.actuationconsulting.com/" target="_blank">Actuation Consulting</a><br> <br> <br> Innovation Quotes<br> “Any product that needs a manual to work is broken.” – Elon Musk<br> <br> Listen Now to the Interview<br> <br> Thanks!<br> Thank you for being an Everyday Innovator and learning with me from the successes and failures of product innovators,
