Life of a Business Principal in Consulting

Outcome based product management seems to be taking off. Along with Hypothesis based development, this has turned around product development from detailed product roadmaps that we used to have to more customer and user focussed product development. However, We seem to fall under the trap of Build-Measure-Learn and not measure the right things. A lot of times, we measure lag indicators that do not help us learn faster. Lag indicators are history, they tell us what we did right and wrong post-facto after the event has happened. We need a way to understand and measure how features can go into a product roadmap as we are building it or as we are considering it. Lead measures help us with that.

Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution is best known for its quote on the survival of the fittest. The accurate Darwinian quote is as follows: Survival of the form that will leave the most copies of itself in successive generations. In Consulting , when we facilitate large group conversations, It becomes very difficult to herd every one together and try to channel their thoughts and ideas to one single conclusion.  Similarly , when we run large programs of works, it becomes very tricky to introduce change and make it stick. My experience has been to use the most famous and least understood idea of the “the survival of the fittest”.

Scenario: You have been working on a team where a team member has been throwing tantrums on every decision made. He has been involved in some of them but claims to not be engaged. He keeps complaining of not being kept in loop, does not react positively to feedback and generally shirks responsibility. These are symptoms that something else is wrong. How do you go about managing this scenario?