Eisha Armstrong is a company founder, digital transformation consultant and author of "Productize" and new book "Fearless". This new book goes deep on the cultural underpinnings of productisation, and how company leader can align their teams and quell their own fears.
Episode highlights: 1. Many leaders are afraid of productisation...Leaders want the benefits of productisation, but are afraid to jump in because of the investment required, and whether the bets are going to pay off.
2. ... But their employees are afraid tooEmployees are afraid that they are going to lose their jobs, that their skills and knowledge will become less valuable, or that the client they have invested time in will reject the new model.
3. It's important to sell the vision and the "why" behind productisationIt's no surprise that products need a vision, but it's even more important to explain the "why" of productisation, and to connect an aspirational vision to the hard business metrics and KPIs that resonate with a service-mindset organisation.
4. The hallmarks of a successful services firm can kill a product-friendly cultureEisha talks about the four horsemen of product-friendly culture: Knowing, Perfectionism, Scarcity Mindset and Individual Heroics. Productisation changes the game and these traits can sink productisation efforts. The company needs to shift mindset and probably needs to bring in new expertise.
5. Product leaders in service-mindset organisations have to be differentProduct leaders in transforming organisations are not the same as product leaders in tech-first product organisations. Technical chops are secondary, and they need to have much better stakeholder management and communication skills to succeed. They need to ensure there is no tissue rejection by an organisation that just doesn't understand.
Buy "Fearless""Transforming a B2B services business model to a more scalable, profitable, productized company can have many points of failure - but the biggest and most underserved is the cultural transformation required to support successful productization. The encore book from Eisha Armstrong and her team at Vecteris, Fearless tackles this frequent point of failure and dives deep on the change management required to build a Product-Friendly Culture."
Check it out on Amazon. You can also check out the book website
Buy "Productize""More and more traditional professional services firms are turning to "productization" as a strategy to grow, improve valuations, and to fend off new digital-first competitors. However, many of them will fail and waste a lot of money in the process. Productize first outlines the "Seven Deadly Productization Mistakes" made when pursuing a product strategy, then provides the blueprint for overcoming each of these missteps. It is designed to be a practical playbook for any leader of a professional services business who wants to successfully accelerate growth."
Check it out on Amazon. You can also check out the book website
Contact EishaYou can catch up with Eisha on LinkedIn.
Getting to Product/Market Fit and Building Effective Product Teams (with Harpal Singh, Product Consultant & Interim CPO)
Transforming companies & instilling a product mindset (with Dave Martin, founder of Right To Left)
Avoiding the agency trap & ADHD in Product (with Janna Bastow, CEO ProdPad, co-founder Mind the Product)
Lifelong learning & the perils of time-based roadmaps (with Andrea Saez, Product Growth & Education @ ProdPad)
Managing Tension in Product Management (with Marc Abraham, author & Head of Product @ ASOS.com)
Product Processes & the Importance of Work / Life Balance (with Busayomi Omotosho, PM @ Softcom)
Growing a PM career & the importance of side hustles (with Victoria Tkatch, Senior PM @ Sonos)
Technical Product Management & the importance of mentorship (with Mark Yamashita, Technical PM @ Sensibill)
API Product Management & mountain climbing as a metaphor (with Elina Sokolovska, PM @ Flux)
AI Product Management & The Importance of Communication (with Mark Graham, Lead PM @ Sharktower)
Entrepreneurship & being a founder (with Matt Wilkinson, Founder @ Zenquiries)
The role of education in leadership (with Mac Maistrelli, Engineering Leader @ Blocket)
Building inclusive products for all (with Nidhi Wadmark, PM @ PayPal)
Making yourself heard in the workplace (with Priyanka Naik, Growth PM @ Advarisk)
Networking to start your Product career (with Anna Lieberman, aspiring PM)
Using your experience to teach the next generation (with Maanas Bukkuri, PM and educator)
Putting users back at the heart of UX (with Dr Nick Fine PhD, UX consultant)
Being an AI Product Manager (with Pouya Jamshidiat, author & Senior PO at Eagle Genomics)
Getting started in Product (with Becca Vibert, Product School speaker & PM @ Fiit)
Product leadership & how heroism doesn't scale (with Saeed Khan, product consultant @ Transformation Labs)
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