Malte Scholz’s Post

In an era where companies globally are advancing their product management methodologies and focusing on robust operating models, the need for tools 🛠️ that drive and support these transformations is more crucial than ever. Many tools support product people in this transformation, but only one of the companies offering such a tool is based in my hometown, Hamburg. This company is called airfocus, and I fell in love with them and their modular platform over the last few months. Let me share why: 🔹They are committed to supporting us product people by offering a modular platform that empowers us to manage strategy, prioritize effectively, and align around clear, actionable roadmaps. (Or, as I would call it, they offer a tool that can become the heart and centre for all the product folks in your organization.) 🔹I'm impressed by how they innovate on behalf of their customers and by their commitment to creating flexible solutions that do not dictate one singular way of doing product. 🔹And, on a lighter note, my monthly lunch dates with airfocus CEO, Malte Scholz, are so much fun. During these 🍽️ sessions, we dive deep into product management practices and discuss future industry directions. So, I'm pleased to share that I will watch their journey closely and that I've made an angel investment with them. Joining airfocus as an investor is a promising step, and I'm looking forward to seeing how the company continues to shape the product management landscape. I'm sure the best is yet to come! Check them out here: https://airfocus.com/

When companies expand from one to many product teams, the way of running the show gets complex. Casual conversations on the strategic direction, dependencies, or customer insights lead to chaos. What it needs is formalization and structure. The structure of it is custom fit. The challenge is to balance out team-specific approaches with a common way of working. The performance of a team depends on many things. Some need quarterly outcome-based roadmaps while others need more free play. Some teams need to focus on evaluative research while others need to integrate an API. The variability of these approaches makes building a unified structure challenging. Still, it requires unification. Common things are aligning strategies, sourcing customer insights, or allocating resources. Designing such a system is a complex mixture of art and science. The real complexity emerges with the choice of tools for managing this system. Most tools specialize in one area, such as Delivery, Research, or OKRs. Coherent connections between roadmaps and tasks, goals, and teams create value, esp. without constraining teams to a specific method. The Airfocus-Team managed to create a tool that hones the balance. The software is not driven by one ideology but enables teams to create what they need. They are on a mission to build an "operating system" for product teams. I have joined airfocus.com as an Angel Investor because I believe in the mission. Thanks Malte Scholz and Team for being part of this journey #product #productmanagement #angelinvestment

Product management isn't about frameworks. It's about embracing the unknown. The more you explore, the quicker you uncover value drivers. Many people focus on frameworks. Only a few focus on the mindset. The core part of product management is adapting course based on evidence. What worked somewhere has no guarantee of working everywhere. First comes the questions, then the answers. This year, I decided to support organizations striving to simplify product management and help teams drive value faster. I'm happy to share that I'm joining airfocus as an Angel Investor. My goal is to provide insights on how to simplify what becomes unintentionally complicated, adding simplicity where most add complexity. I got excited about airfocus because it focuses on providing freedom to product teams instead of putting them inside boxes. I aim to contribute with more simplicity and value to product teams. Thanks, Malte Scholz, for making it possible. Let's rock it!

Why "what better looks like" in Product Management can be found anywhere. A fixation on aspiring to copy others' way of working can quickly get in the way of inspecting and adapting practices that help a product team right here, right now. For as long as I can remember, Silicon Valley-based companies have had an inspiring headstart in modern product management practices. But I think there's no need to limit one's perspective of where to look for inspiration. Every day, I work with practitioners who advance the craft in their own way, within or outside of Europe. Better practices can emerge anywhere, showcasing how the practice of building products can be improved in many different (and often underrepresented) contexts in which many teams find themselves. The same can be said for the tooling PMs use. A lot of tools either prescribe a specific philosophy about how "Product should be done" or are just a mix of impossibly hard-to-use features. Instead, having a strong functionality core with a lot of flexibility to integrate whatever tools help you make progress can be much more suitable for more teams. Combining these two core beliefs led me to join forces with airfocus as an Angel Investor. Because I see them as a company honing the product management craft flexibly and out of Germany to change a worldwide practice! Onward and upwards. 🚀 #prodmgmt #productmanagement #productmanagementools #productstrategy #productdiscovery  

How to go from Product Strategy to Quarterly OKRs in 3 simple* steps. Useful OKR Sets stand on the shoulders of high-quality inputs like Product Strategy. Here's how to use it: 𝟭. 𝗧𝘂𝗿𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝘆 𝗖𝗵𝗼𝗶𝗰𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 Summarize the choices you make in concise statements. Incorporate the most significant bits about your strategic narrative, defined playing field, and winning moves per choice. Depending on the company-/product-/feature-level, you need to consider different levels of granularity. Make sure they're real choices and not just repeating business as usual. 𝟮. 𝗗𝗲𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗮 𝗟𝗮𝗴𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝘅𝘆 𝗠𝗲𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗰 Then, ask yourself: How would we know this choice was successful in the form of a metric? Think beyond the "usual" revenue or activity metrics and go broader. How can you take on different perspectives on your choice? By design, these metrics are lagging indicators suited for an annual-ish company- or portfolio-level OKR set. 𝟯. 𝗜𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗳𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗜𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘀 𝗱𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗹𝗮𝗴𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝘅𝘆 𝗠𝗲𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗰 Using tactics like reverse-engineering the customer journey from the lagging events you just identified or KPI trees, identify more leading indicators. To make sure these turn into useful OKRs, consider two criteria in particular: How autonomously can you influence them, and at what pace will you be able to detect changes? Of course, this is overly simplified and leaves out all the messy Discovery, discussions, and iterations. But at the core, that's the path you want to follow, even though you might have to wander into the forests from time to time. *𝗠𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝘆𝗼𝘂, 𝗜 𝘀𝗮𝗶𝗱 𝘀𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲, 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗲𝗮𝘀𝘆. 𝗧𝗼 𝗮𝗻𝘀𝘄𝗲𝗿 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗾𝘂𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘀𝘆 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝗻𝗮𝘃𝗶𝗴𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗷𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗲𝘆 𝗶𝗻, 𝗷𝗼𝗶𝗻 𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗿𝗼𝘄 𝗮𝘁 𝟭𝟭 𝗔𝗠 𝗖𝗘𝗧 / 𝟭𝟬 𝗔𝗠 𝗚𝗠𝗧 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗮 𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗱𝘀-𝗼𝗻 𝘄𝗲𝗯𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗿: https://lnkd.in/euUA6VNF #productstrategy #okrs #outcomes #prodmgmt #productmanagement