When to Introduce a ProductOps Function by Chris Compston - Issue #18
This is a guest post by Chris Compston where he explores the introduction of ProductOps in organisations at different stages of growth. I suggest visiting Chris' Medium for more great content!
When to Introduce a ProductOps Function
Over the last three years being in the ProductOps world, understanding where we fit in and add value, identifying the need and growing the team, as well as being part of the ProductOps community I've been mulling over when and where a function like this is more relevant.
Startup - at this point having a ProductOps team is not going to be a major requirement, investment will be spent on the most important thing - product-market fit. Doubling down to get something built and in the hands of customers to prove value is paramount to success. Product, Design and Engineering leadership will not only be providing strategic guidance but also tactical plays to ensure speed to market is reduced. All operational aspects are either less important or handled by various members of the team.
Scaleup - where I see the starting point of ProductOps being most relevant is at organisations that are in hyper-growth mode. This is where operational efficiency will be a key differentiator with their competitions and drive them towards the unicorn level $100m annual recurring revenue target. Here ProductOps is going to focus on the biggest product development challenges and that need will be dependent on the organisation. ProductOps could be focused on cultivating a strong product culture, establishing a clear annual planning process or ensuring strategic alignment access teams or streamlining customer insight processes amongst many other challenges.
Established - the next level for ProductOps is growing a team within an organisation that has become more established. These organisations are still looking to scale but at a slower pace, they might be going into new business areas or acquiring other companies along with their people. A ProductOps team here is going to become a key part of how the organisation operates. They will be ensuring that product development 'good practice' become 'best practice'; that processes are scalable and repeatable, that the mix of consistency and variability is appropriate and that emerging practices can be amplified if proving valuable to the teams.
We should also consider Tuckman's Model for Nurturing a Team to High Performance (Forming, Storming, Norming, and Performing) with the above lens. When introducing any new function the team will be going through these stages. The 'forming' stage might already be happening, the leaders within the organisation may already have started. When the first ProductOps hire joins the team, the expectations are going to be high, moving to the storming stage quickly is paramount.
As with most things we are discussing in the community this view is certainly not going to be everyone's view of the world and can't be applied in a concrete fashion.
I'd love to here if this is or isn't what you're seeing and if you're looking to chat more on this topic there is a ProductOps Clubhouse chat Friday May 20th at 4pm GMT.
What type of organisation is your ProductOps team currently in? Does the above reflect your view of the world?