Missionaries discover and execute

When developing products, having one team or part of a team focussed on Discovery and then others on Execution is a very bad idea.

It drives silo thinking and a throw-over-the-fence mentality.

People feel less committed when they weren’t there in the room from the beginning.

That’s why “cooperate innovation” labs mostly fail. Product teams have to go through the whole cycle. It will be much faster.

Avoid having teams of mercenaries. Have teams of missionaries.

———— Wise words that I paraphrased from a recent AMA session with the godfather of Product Management, Marty Cagan.

Nils Neubauer @nilsneubauer