Shared Values
The 'Shared Values' element of Product Team management focuses on the establishment of core organisational values that guide the behaviour, decisions, and practices within a product. The goal is to ensure high quality, consistency and integrity across all activities and decentralised decisions.
Principles and Practices
Effectiveness
| Principles | Description | Practice |
|---|---|---|
| Culture differentiates companies | A strong company culture, focused on shared values, can impact performance, innovation, and employee engagement. | By defining the company culture through a set of core values, we can ensure that all employees are aligned and understand the expectations and norms of the organisation. |
| Culture is what people do when no one is looking | We need to ensure that the values are lived by everyone in the company | By incorporating the values into the interviewing process and the promotion process we can ensure that people are hired and promoted based on their alignment with the values. |
Efficiency
| Principles | Description | Practice |
|---|---|---|
| Quick decision making is a competitive advantage | We need to ensure that teams can react and make quick decisions as they learn about what is and isn't working as they build products. | By defining the leadership, product, and functional principles of how we work we can ensure that people have a framework to make high-quality decisions quickly and we can delegate more decisions with confidence. |
Sustainability
| Principles | Description | Practice |
|---|---|---|
| Culture needs care | We need to ensure that we are constantly reinforcing the culture we want because as companies grow, the culture of the company can change quickly. | By defining the company culture through a set of core values and leadership, product, and functional principles, we have a written record of what we want to reinforce. |
Criticisms
| Criticism | Description | Mitigation Approach |
|---|---|---|
| Too Abstract | Values may be seen as too abstract to implement. | Translate values into specific behaviours and actions to make them more tangible and actionable. |
| Misalignment | Potential misalignment between stated values and actual practices. | Incorporate value alignment into performance evaluations and feedback mechanisms. |
Anti-Patterns
- Set and forget: Lack of communication and reinforcement of values across all levels of the organisation.
- Values as a checklist: Treating values as a checklist rather than a guiding principle.
- Values as a marketing tool: Using values solely for external branding rather than internal alignment.