Product management culture is one of the first things that comes to mind with top tech companies. These organisations consistently deliver winning products, keeping their customers and investors interested. Let us define the term before we look at common factors among organisations with a good product management culture.

What is Product Management Culture? 

The term product culture means the mindset the company has toward product development. This culture results from the beliefs and experiences of key stakeholders. 

The project manager plays an essential role in maintaining the strategy. However, the  PM’s role is affected by the overall attitude of the organisation towards product development. Research suggests understanding product management functions is an issue with most industries (McKinsey). 

Good ideas and teams prosper if the decision-makers acknowledge them.

Types of Product Culture

We can separate companies creating great products into different categories, including:

1. Data-driven companies (such as LinkedIn) rely on data to define their products.
2. Engineering-based companies (Google, Microsoft, etc.) base their products on technical know-how.
3. Design-driven companies (such as Apple) place user experience at the core of their product culture.
4. Sales-based product culture (such as Salesforce) focuses on a deep understanding of the customer process leading towards sales.

Companies have different approaches to product management, but they managed to excel in their industries because of some core values they have.

3 Indicators of Good Product Culture

Here are three factors that contribute to developing the right culture in an organisation.

• Team Empowerment

Whether a company uses a product-led strategy or another approach, empowering often means acquiring the best talent and giving them the creative freedom to perform. Naturally, empowerment stems from executives prioritising product management and clearly describing the roles of the product team. More importantly,  team empowerment requires leadership to place their trust in that team. 

Successful teams are able to focus more on important product features instead of patchwork to solve pressing issues (damage control). As a result, they deliver quality products and increase their credibility within and outside the organisation. 

Whether a company is led by engineers or salespeople, the product management team must be given importance. After all, it is hard to build a product culture if the most relevant team is not involved in the decision-making process.

• Interdepartmental Synergy

A great product team is vital for success, but there are also other factors. Perhaps equally important is that the product team can communicate with departments across the organisers. Good product cultures, and consequently good products, are built on departmental managers allowing everyone to contribute. 

Silos often become a problem in a growing company. Different departments focus on their goals instead of the bigger picture. Therefore, the people working prioritise and protect their information. Successful companies tackle this issue by providing a singular vision for the company and providing tools and training for improving collaboration.

• Prioritisation of The Roadmap

Top performers understand which ideas are the most important to their customers. For most companies, prioritisation is imperative because it allows the company to spend finite time and capital in the best way possible.

Good product managers apply scientific techniques to prioritise. They combine input from decision-makers with established prioritisation frameworks for value delivered to customers, production requirements, etc. The Kano model, the RICE framework, and the Value vs Complexity model are some popular frameworks.

The Kano model, for example, is used to prioritise customer needs. The model measures customer satisfaction against the functionality of the product. Customer satisfaction ranges from delighted to frustrated and functionality from none to best. The Kano model also says customer loyalty depends on five emotional responses: must-be, performance, attractive, indifferent, and reverse.

Developing the right product culture is a collective effort requiring multiple different initiatives. Above all, it requires support from the very top of the organisation in supporting the product leaders.