TL;DR — Folks, it’s a zoo out there, especially when it comes to feature prioritization. Below is my own O’Rly bookshelf to prove my point …
… each followed by at least one related blog post or news article on each of these 5 beasts that graze upon our prioritization process.
HiPPO — Highest Paid Person’s Opinion
RHiNO — Really High-value, New Opportunity
ZEbRA — Zero Evidence, but Really Arrogant
WoLF — Works on Latest Fire
Seagull Management
Are You A Seagull Manager? This Forbes article by the same name suggests we might be if we fly in, make a lot of noise, dump on everyone, and then fly off leaving everyone else to deal with your mess.
IMHO, this happens either out of low EQ on the part of a manager, or a leader whose best intentions to help actually hinder.
Some reading on this topic include:
- Have You Ever Worked For A Seagull Manager? — Travis Bradberry, Ph.D.
- 4 Examples of Seagull Management— John Spacey
- Dealing with a Seagull Manager — Gary Ludwig, MS, EMT-P
Travis Bradberry, Ph.D. has also recently published a book on this topic titled ‘The Seagull Manager: How to stop the swooping, squawking, and dumping.’
Keep in mind, all of the above is not meant to be an attack on stakeholders, customers, sponsors, engineering teams, etc. Rather, this is my call to all my product management peeps to adopt strategies, not tactics, but strategies for helping these individuals engage in the prioritization process in a way you ‘… have empathy for the symptoms, but a cure for the cause …’ and they retain their sense of agency.
If you don’t, you may find yourself looking in the mirror and asking yourself “When did I become a JIRA-Slinging Ticket Monkey?”
Additional Reading
- 20 Product Prioritization Techniques: A Map and Guided Tour
- Getting a grip on feature requests by loosening your grip
- 12 Signs You’re Working in a Feature Factory
- ‘Why “Yes” Doesn’t Scale’
- Grooming, Maintaining, or Refining your Backlogs
- Deliver It Podcast — EP48 — Picking Priorities
(note, this podcast was very inspirational to this post) - Son of a Product Management Prioritization Menagerie | by Dean Peters | Dec, 2020 | Dean On Delivery
How about you?
Got some additional links to podcasts, blog posts, & videos on this topic? If so, drop a comment below!
ATFV