CLARITY for Product People ProductTank Berlin, February 2025

Clarity is a crucial success factor for product people. We can only be successful together with others. Effective collaboration requires clarity, especially in challenging times. Clarity is work—and it's never "finished.“ We, as product people, can contribute to the clarity of our teams and organizations.

All product people can provide more clarity in collaboration! PM HoP

We all want clarity—where's the problem? Time pressure: Clarity requires effort upfront. Misconception: We equate clarity with certainty Fear: Clarity can be painful and frightening. Harmony: We are worried to disturb collegial harmony.

Lack of clarity often goes unnoticed until it‘s too late ... ...or until we actively create clarity!

For succesful collaboration we need clarity on four layers Directional Clarity Situational Clarity Clear Communication Role Clarity

We need Directional Clarity …so everyone can independently work towards a common goal.

You need more Directional Clarity if… … everything is important … you lack arguments for saying no … too much is in progress, for too long … everybody‘s exhausted, but nothing really moves

Where are we going? How are we getting there? What matters now? What do we do? What do we do? What do we do? How we work * https://www.thedecisionstack.com/ What do we do? What do we do? 1. Create a Coherent Direction Decision Stack as a mental model

Vision Strategy Objectives Initiative Initiative Initiative Principles * https://www.thedecisionstack.com/ Initiative Initiative how? how? how? how? why? why? why? why? 1. Create a Coherent Direction Decision Stack as a mental model

1. Create a Coherent Direction Decision Stack as a mental model Vision Strategy Objectives Initiative Initiative Initiative Principles * https://www.thedecisionstack.com/ NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!

1. Create a Coherent Direction Decision Stack as a mental model Vision Strategy Objectives Initiative Initiative Initiative Principles * https://www.thedecisionstack.com/ NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! PM focus: ? ?

2. Be clear about your initiative …even if there‘s no coherent overall direction! What key insight is behind your initiative? What is your core hypothesis, and how will you test it? How will you measure success, and what is your level of ambition?

3. Reference for Context Use any chance to connect what‘s happening to direction „Because our priority for this quarter is….“ „This is a great example for what we mean by ….“

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Directional Clarity 1. Create a Coherent Direction 2. Be Clear about your Initiative 3. Reference for Context 4. Repeat Repeat Repeat

We need Situational Clarity …so that things keep moving forward

You need more Situational Clarity if… … you experience surprises when working with other teams … decisions take very long … conflicts are not resolved

1. Don‘t assume – ask & clarify!

2. Speed Up Decisions with Principles Long term guardrails for day-to-day decision making Be specific about your trade-offs: X over Y statements Are they helping you make decisions? 3-6 principles with short description or examples

2. Speed Up Decisions with Principles Examples* Product engagement over revenue optimization We‘re focused on showing our potential to grow by attracting, activating, retaining user through and engaging experience. (VEV) Activating teams over individuals Focusing on attracting and activating teams of user over individual designers as our focus is on collaboration. (VeV) Sensible defaults over configuration Every time we add a configuration option, we‘re implicitly saying we don‘t know what the user wants. We encourage sensible defaults & strong opinions over configuration, because people can resort back to the tool that they‘re used to (VSCode) if they want configuration. (CodeSandbox) * Shared during mtpEngage 2022

3. Escalate Gracefully Agree to disagree Joint escalation Be clear about what‘s unclear Take responsibility

1. Don‘t Assume – Ask & Clarify! 2. Speed up Decisions with Product Principles 3. Escalate Gracefully Situational Clarity

We need Role Clarity …so it‘s clear what we expect from each other.

You need more Role Clarity if… … you often need to do stuff that‘s not your job … you are disappointed by your colleague‘s work …it‘s not clear who‘s making which decision

Three ways to clarify your role PM HoP PM PM 1. Organization 2. Cross-functional team Dev UX QA 3. Cross-team initiative (“project“) … … … … …

1. Understand your competency profile What‘s expected of your role in your org – foundation for development dialogue * example Important: Not a checklist for promotions!

2. Sharpen role expectations in the team Clear framing helps to focus on the role, not the person What traits would the perfect have? What must know to work well with you? What can YOU do to help do a great job?

3. Clarify collaboration responsibilities DACI decision model Driver Aligns with the Approver on goals and decision criteria, seeks input from Contributors, and makes the decisions Approver Sets decision criteria, approves or rejects decisions by the Driver Contributors Add valuable information, including experts, implementers, and those significantly impacted Informed Updated about decisions by the Driver but do not contribute

1. Understand your competency profiles 2. Sharpen role expectations in the team 3. Clarify collaboration responsibilities Role Clarity

We need Clear Communication …so we enable others to collaborate well

You need Clearer Communication if… …newbies are lost with your internal lingo …there are many misunderstandings …your commercial colleagues ask you to join client calls

It's your responsibility to make yourself understood. Make it as easy as possible for your counterpart to understand you so that they can act and speak effectively! 1. Make yourself understood …even you have to repeat yourself

2. Be a translator! What‘s in for them? Use their terminology & mental models Nobody cares about our product lingo!

3. Adjust your storytelling Prioritize your listeners time over your own! Be prepared to adjust your storytelling to contexts & audiences: - Different lengths - Different modalities - Blending in vs. sticking out

4. Provide context and framing …especially in async, remote collaboration Make sense beyond the immediate moment Make work-in-progress & decision state explicit Clear framing: How do you expect your feedback to be used?

1. Make yourself understood 2. Be a translator 3. Adjust your storytelling 4. Provide context & framing Clear Communication

Ambiguity on one layer compromises all others Directional Clarity Situational Clarity Clear Communication Role Clarity

1. Make yourself Understood 2. Be a Translator 3. Adjust your Storytelling 4. Provide Context & Framing Clear Communication Directional Clarity 1. Coherent Direction & Context 2. Be Clear about your Initiative 3. Clarify Priorities 4. Reference for Context 1. Don‘t assume – ask & clarify 2. Speed up Decisions with Principles 4. Escalate Gracefully Situational Clarity 1. Understand your Competency Ürofile 2. Sharpen Role Expectations in the Team 3. Clarify Collaboration Responsibility Role Clarity arnekittler.de

CLARITY is your job!! arnekittler.de Make it your Superpower!

CLARITY for Product People bit.ly/arne_clarity Arne Kittler Product Leadership Consulting & Coaching [email protected]