I don’t disagree on taking the finance wonks out .. but not sure I agree on putting product in ... I know lots of companies that lead with product .. and it doesn’t work unless there is wider purview which is often missing in product thinking. Our friends in Cupertino don’t lead with product .. though many pundits do .. they lead with vision, experience and story that the product delivers against.
The top needs to be market, future market, visionary oriented. Disciplines that used to fall under marketing ... though sadly not anymore .. as they are all chasing data and models and RoI .. but those people exist. In all of those disciplines. The dude at the top can still be a focussed finance wonk ... their skill is to listen to everyone, take advice and pay attention.
Again .. the man at the top of Cupertino is ‘operations and supply chain’ ( by history ) but to the casual observer, it’s isn’t so obvious. Meanwhile, the man before him was vision and experience and story .. sure he definitely had a say in product ... but from an holistic viewpoint.
Just one slice of the holisticism (is that even a word)... how many ‘product’ people get what good design can do.
If they do .. I mean REALLY do .. why are there so many badly designed, poorly performing products out there?
I don't think Holden's speech is calling for product to lead alone. I think he agrees with you.
I don’t disagree on taking the finance wonks out .. but not sure I agree on putting product in ... I know lots of companies that lead with product .. and it doesn’t work unless there is wider purview which is often missing in product thinking. Our friends in Cupertino don’t lead with product .. though many pundits do .. they lead with vision, experience and story that the product delivers against.
The top needs to be market, future market, visionary oriented. Disciplines that used to fall under marketing ... though sadly not anymore .. as they are all chasing data and models and RoI .. but those people exist. In all of those disciplines. The dude at the top can still be a focussed finance wonk ... their skill is to listen to everyone, take advice and pay attention.
Again .. the man at the top of Cupertino is ‘operations and supply chain’ ( by history ) but to the casual observer, it’s isn’t so obvious. Meanwhile, the man before him was vision and experience and story .. sure he definitely had a say in product ... but from an holistic viewpoint.
Just one slice of the holisticism (is that even a word)... how many ‘product’ people get what good design can do.
If they do .. I mean REALLY do .. why are there so many badly designed, poorly performing products out there?