Founder-Led Organizations: When Founders Are De Facto Product Leaders

Product at Heart always runs some interesting experiments… this year, Arne and Petra thought up the Hard Problem Club.  A few of us would moderate short, low-tech sessions on topics of interest… mine was Founder-Led Organizations: When Founders/CEOs Are De Facto Product Leaders, with about 20 attendees in a circle.  No slides, no screens, just a flip chart.

My lightweight agenda:

• What founder actions or behaviors are most challenging for your product team?

• How can we understand those from the founder's point of view?

• Share observations, approaches, coping strategies

Top challenges (concerns) were the constant stream of new requests from the execs, when the maker team was already overcommitted; trying to build trust between product and founders, especially when talking about the unpleasant long-term costs of short-term decisions; and how real user/market validation takes much longer than founders/CEOs want. Not a surprise.

I was thrilled to have a few founders in the room, so that we didn't just complain. Tone was respectful, constructive.  There were no magic answers, of course, but we touched on:

• appreciating that founders/CEOs are under tremendous pressure for short-term results and immediate revenue

• framing choices and trade-offs in financial terms and customer consequences

• founders are often subject experts, with deep insights

• recognizing that product folk are (ultimately) in an advisory role, since founders get to make final decisions

Overall, a lot of fun!  (I wish I had pictures of our scrawled notes.)  

Can't want to see what Petra and Arne will invent next year!