Things are changing so fast in our industry, technology and product practices that I need folks in my team who can pivot quickly and learn. If you can’t communicate well, it is not the right fit. So much of building a product is storytelling to leaders, to customers, and to others. If I want my team to be truly empowered with a lot of discretion, they need to be comfortable with uncertainty. One, the person has the ability or skill set, or has proven that the person can deal with ambiguity and solve problems. Regardless of their background and title and specific role I am hiring for, I always look for the following qualities in a product manager. A big part of my job is to look for both the right experience and aptitude. Most do not have strong product management experience and many have traditional project experience or deeper domain expertise. What specific qualities are you looking for? It’s not like you can find good PMs, they just don’t exist So you really have to look hard. So I am always on the lookout for top talent, internally and externally.ĭeba this talent is hard to find. My team has all three – product, engineering, and design – sitting in them. Which is why I spend a ton of time finding and grooming the right folks to sit in these teams.Īnd, it’s not just product folks that I am looking for. It’s one thing to define the model, it is another thing to find and mobilize the right talent to staff this model.ĭS: You are absolutely right. I am curious, how do you go about finding these people to put into the teams. And believe it or not, their list comes very close to the four dimensions you just talked about.
Google a few years ago did a study on high performing teams. Collectively, as a team, they have the right balance of domain expertise, functional expertise and experience. They have a lot of discretion.įourth, they have the right skills and right balance of skills. But how the teams then achieve their goals is really up to them. They get direction and alignment from a business strategy and top level perspective, of course. They are all pitching in and helping each other. Day in and day out, they are all working together to solve the problem at hand. Second, they need to operate like one team. For me high performing teams usually entail the following four qualities.įirst, for me, it is a cross functional collaborative team that has representation from all the right groups, whether it’s product management, design, architecture, engineering, sometimes customers, sometimes business stakeholders. Before we get into the specifics, can you please share with us what is your definition of a high performing team?ĭeba Sahoo: Mustafa thanks for inviting me.Īnd yes let’s dive right in. You have built a 200+ FTE strong high performing product team from scratch. Given the short time we have together, if it is ok with you, let’s jump right in. What follows is a condensed and lightly edited version of our interview.ĭeba, glad to have you on the show. He was recently awarded to be among top global CPOs by Products That Count (one of the largest network of product managers) for leading innovation and digital transformation. Deba also sits on Forbes Technology Council, member of AI4 leadership council, and a distinguished thought leader and speaker on topics of product leadership, product management, digital transformation, customer journeys and artificial intelligence. Prior to this role, Deba has held senior leadership roles in Product, Strategy, Analytics/Data Science and Technology. He leads a 200+ product organization and is responsible for setting the overall product vision, strategy, roadmap, and execution.
He built a 200+ strong product organization from scratch.ĭeba Sahoo is currently SVP, Head of Product at Fidelity’s Workplace Business Unit, the market leading provider of retirement plans and other workplace benefits in US. To help us figure out how, I interviewed Deba Sahoo.
And the ones who do have the skills are simply too expensive or will be difficult to attractīut what if it does not have to be that way.Many don’t have the skills and training.You wrote the perfect job description, worked with HR, jumped through all the hoops, looked both internally and externally. Have you tried hiring product managers, only to find yourself disappointed?
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