Well, May was a full one! I kicked off a new six-part article series on AI, squeezed in four speaking and workshop events, and still managed to surface a couple of reads worth your time.

Grab a coffee, there is plenty in this one. ☕️

🎤 Events

🇭🇷 Product World // Opatija, Croatia The headline event of the month for me! I delivered the second day keynote in Opatija and it really was an amazing couple of days. The setting is genuinely hard to beat, right on the Adriatic, just beautiful.

👨🏻‍💻 Product Academy // Remote Workshop Facilitated a half-day workshop with the Product Academy. A focused session and a sharp group, the remote format worked well for the depth of conversation we managed to get to.

👨🏻‍💻 BAUX // Remote Masterclass Joined the BAUX community for a remote Masterclass, a great format for getting into the detail and a really engaged group of practitioners on the call. Thanks for taking part!

🇬🇧 Product Circle: Leaders // London Great to be back in the room with the London Product Circle crew. Always a grounded conversation with leaders who are dealing with the same challenges in real time.

🇷🇴 PROW // Romania Already looking ahead to October where I have signed up for PROW. More details to follow as it gets closer.

📚 From the Reading List

is making a straightforward case here in his article, that we should all find hard to argue with and yet doesn’t always happen within organisations.

The team that builds something should own what breaks in it. It’s the only arrangement that creates a genuine incentive to get quality right in the first place.

Joca’s Substack

Should we have a team dedicated to fixing bugs?

[Portuguese version…

Read more

2 months ago · 4 likes · Joca Torres

Next is a short one, but with a solid point that is worth sharing.

Most organisations treat change communication as something that flows downward. Leadership sets the message, managers pass it on and somewhere along the way the nuance gets lost.

The argument here is that the model needs to be circular rather than linear, with genuine feedback loops at each level rather than a relay race. What I find most useful is the practical framing around middle managers, who tend to carry the most communication burden whilst also being furthest from both the original intent and the front-line reality.

The prompt to turn meetings into conversations rather than briefings, by asking questions rather than fielding them, is the kind of small behavioural shift that's easier to act on than broader principles about "two-way communication."

Worth a read if you're currently in the middle of a change programme and wondering why the message isn't landing quite as you expected.

👩🏽‍🚀 Product Careers

New roles at Deliveroo, Adobe, SoSafe and more …

Head of Platform Product Operations / AI Transformation Consultant / Senior Product Operations Manager / Product Operations (Senior) Manager / Product Operations Specialist / Product Operations Manager / Director of Digital Products / Director, PLG Strategy / Senior Product Manager / Director of Product Management / Product Operations Manager

🤩 And finally …

Thank you to just some of the great conversations I’ve been having;

Shannon Vettes - CPO/CEO of Usersnap / John Griffin - Product Design Manager @ MBP / Graham Leto - Senior Product Ops Manager @ Staples / Christine Itwaru - Fractional Product Leader / Hugo Froes - Director, Product Strategy and Advisory @ Nagarro / Helen Bird - Lead Product Ops Manager @ MBP / John Skitt - Founder @ Third Product / Fred Calvez - Senior Product & Engineer Ops Director @ Smartly / Ignacio Canales - Principal Product Ops Manager @ Super / Katie Hudson - Product Ops Lead @ Yazio.

Fancy a chat? Book some time with me at chriscompston.com/letschat

🤦‍♂️ Did you know …

We are back with another Monthly Review and this month’s guest writer challenges the idea that AI is redefining product management. Making the case that the real work, aligning people around decisions that matter, has never changed, and is now more exposed than ever.

Have a read and let us know if you agree!

Guest article by Haleik Coleman

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⭐️ Product Management is Stakeholder Management, Still.

The Gig Hasn’t Changed

There’s a growing narrative that AI is redefining product management, which sounds compelling, especially when you look at how quickly teams can now build, test, and iterate. What used to take weeks can now happen in days, sometimes hours. So naturally, the assumption is that the discipline itself must be evolving alongside the tools. Meanwhile, in reality, the core of product management hasn’t changed at all. However, the cover, outer-layer that once hid weak product work has been removed - this is what’s changed!

For years, slower delivery cycles created distance between decisions and outcomes, making it harder to trace cause and effect. By the time something launched, market conditions, priorities, or stakeholders had already shifted, blurring accountability. Multiple decisions were layered over time, so no single choice clearly explained the result. This made misalignment feel like noise in the system rather than a direct consequence of earlier decisions. However, now that execution is faster, that buffer is gone. The relationship between decision and outcome is tighter, more immediate, and harder to ignore. This is why product work is beginning to feel different, not because its core has changed, but because it is now fully exposed.

The Bottleneck Was Always Alignment

As that exposure increases, it becomes clear that the constraint was never delivery. Product teams were rarely blocked by a lack of ideas, features, or even talent. Instead, product teams were blocked by organizational dynamics that are less visible and more difficult to address, such as competing priorities, shifting expectations, and internal misalignment. These have always been the real limiting factors, which are not problems that show up in a backlog, nor are they problems that can be solved through better processes.

Every product decision enters a system that is already in motion. Revenue targets have been set, operational processes are defined, and stakeholders are accountable for outcomes that exist independently of product strategy. When a product manager introduces a direction, it is evaluated against that reality. Meaning, there is already context, hence why product decisions shouldn’t happen in isolation. In other words, alignment is not something that can be assumed. It has to be built, deliberately and continuously, within a system that was not designed to make it easy.

The System Was Always in Control

Understanding this shifts how product work is perceived. The organization is not a neutral environment where good ideas naturally rise to the top. It is a system shaped by incentives, pressures, and constraints that influence how decisions are made. Every stakeholder has their own agenda, each perspective being valid, but they do not naturally converge.

When a product decision is introduced, it interacts with all of these forces at once. For example, a direction that makes sense from a user perspective may create friction commercially, whereas a technically sound solution may introduce operational complexity. The idea itself is only one part of the equation (and not the hard part!). Its success depends on whether it can exist within the system that surrounds it. This is the hard part, and the most essential, as it determines whether a roadmap gets funded.

The Counter-Intuitive Reality of Strong Product Thinking

This leads to a counter-intuitive realization that many product managers struggle with: stronger product thinking does not always lead to smoother execution. In fact, in many cases, it creates more resistance because it exposes movement disguised as progress. A clear strategy exposes misalignment that was previously hidden. A well-defined direction forces trade-offs that people were avoiding. A strong point of view challenges existing incentives that are deeply embedded in how the organization operates.

This is often misinterpreted as a problem with the thinking itself, and so the instinct is to refine the strategy, add more data, or improve the narrative. However, the thinking in itself is often not the problem, but the result or inconvenience afforded by said thinking is. Said differently, the system is being challenged! The friction is not a sign of weakness in the thinking, but a signal indicating that the thinking is interacting with reality. Recognizing that distinction is critical because it changes how product managers respond to resistance.

Can you hear the footsteps of “corporate politics” approaching?

Speed Is Amplifying the Real Problem

As execution continues to accelerate, this dynamic becomes even more pronounced. AI increases the number of potentially viable ideas that can be explored and built, thereby more options entering the system, resulting in more decisions needing to be made. If alignment does not improve at the same rate, the system becomes congested. Teams produce more, but progress becomes harder to sustain.

This is where many organizations find themselves today. They have optimized for speed without addressing how decisions are made. The result is not faster “progress”, but increased complexity. More features are built, more trade-offs are introduced, and more alignment is required to maintain coherence. Without a mechanism to manage this, the product begins to reflect the fragmentation of the organization itself.

Stakeholder Management Is the Work

This is why stakeholder management has always been central to product management. It is not a complementary skill. It is the core function! Product managers are not just responsible for defining what should be built. They are responsible for making that decision real within an environment that does not naturally support it. That requires navigating incentives, translating perspectives, and creating shared understanding where none exists by default.

A product decision only becomes real when it is supported by the people who need to act on it. Until then, it remains a perspective, regardless of how well it is articulated. This is where the role becomes less about control and more about influence. The ability to move a decision through the system becomes more valuable than the ability to define it in isolation.

Another Counter-Intuitive Insight on Alignment

Even alignment itself is often misunderstood. It is easy to equate alignment with agreement, especially in structured settings like meetings or planning sessions. In practice, alignment is reflected in behavior, not in conversation. Teams can leave a meeting aligned in principle and still act differently when pressure is applied. Real alignment shows up in how decisions are reinforced over time, how trade-offs are handled, and whether direction remains consistent under changing conditions.

This is why alignment often feels fragile, as it’s seldom fully established at the level required to sustain execution. Building that level of alignment requires more than radical candor, but ensuring that stakeholders can operate within the chosen direction. This is where stakeholder management moves from being reactive to proactive, intentionally designed to complement progressive product development.

The Silver Lining in the Shift

While this shift is uncomfortable, it brings a level of clarity that product management has often lacked. The parts of the gig that could be obscured by process or execution are no longer enough. What remains is more demanding, but also more meaningful: the ability to understand the system, navigate complexity, and shape decisions. This is the primary source of impact.

This creates an opportunity for product managers to operate at a higher level, focusing on what actually drives outcomes. The work becomes less about managing tasks and more about enabling decisions. Less about delivering features and more about aligning people. This is leadership.

Closing Thought

Product management is stakeholder management, now and before modern AI. The difference now is that it’s more obvious. The tools have improved, the speed has increased, and the expectations have risen. What remains is the same core challenge: aligning people around decisions that matter (i.e., deciding what to build and why). This is how you really go from product manager to “product builder”, because if stakeholders are not convinced to co-sign your efforts, it’s unlikely that you’ll be “building” anything.

… and yes, customers are your stakeholders too!

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About the Writer

Haleik Coleman is a Product Leader, Educator, and Speaker helping Fortune-500 style companies optimize product execution at scale and turning digital transformation into measurable business outcomes.

You can connect with Haleik on LinkedIn.

📚 From the Reading List

What the final section of ’s article describes is, essentially, an unsolved structural problem that Product Ops is uniquely positioned to own.

Someone needs to hold the translation layer between strategic, delivery, and growth logic as a structural responsibility, not an assumed one.

That’s precisely what good Product Ops does, it makes the product system legible, surfaces where intent has drifted, and creates the connective tissue between the people setting direction and the people closest to what’s actually live.

The part that I find most recognisable from practice is the observation that many organisations already have this function! They’re just not giving it the mandate, the language, or the visibility to do this work properly.

Product Atlas

On Product Coherence

Figma opened, the mouse scrolled, the trackpad zoomed. The window narrowed into specific frames. Right there, the UI said the journey would move in one direction. But the screenshots mapped to the Miro board told a different story. The Figma file said one thing. The live product said another…

Read more

2 months ago · 1 like · Julia Petretta

Really resonated with this article from , particularly around the point of job descriptions being a fiction that everyone maintains collectively. It’s something I recognise immediately from conversations with hiring managers and candidates. Nobody believes the document, but nobody wants to be the one to say so, because the whole process is built around it being defensible rather than accurate.

I wrote about some related patterns in tech hiring a few months ago, looking specifically at how pressure and urgency are reshaping what companies value and how interviews actually get run in practice.

One of the things I still keep coming back to is the shift away from broader, adaptive experience towards ultra-narrow specialism, which I think produces a similar outcome to what Paul is describing in his article. Capable people being filtered out before a human gets involved, because the process is measuring proximity to a template rather than genuine fit for the actual work.

Sense Labs

It's Time to Kill Recruitment.

The machines are writing CVs to impress other machines and HR is calling it innovation. But it’s just an expensive and pointless acceleration of stupidity…

Read more

2 months ago · 9 likes · 3 comments · Paul Sweeney

👩🏽‍🚀 Product Careers

New roles at Uber, Calendly, Paxos and more …

Technical Chief of Staff / Director, Product Management / Director, Product Operations & Analytics / Product Operations (Senior) Manager / Senior Product Operations Manager / Product Operations Associate / Staff Product Operations Manager / Associate Director, Product Operations

🤩 And finally …

Thank you to the great conversations I’ve been having;

Christine Itwaru / John Skitt / Hugo Froes / Vladyslav Pohorielo / Haleik Coleman / John Griffin / Julia Petretta / Nergiz Görür / Femi Ogun / Harry Seymour

Fancy a chat? Book some time with me at chriscompston.com/letschat

🤦‍♂️ Did you know …

She walks us through a deceptively simple framework that could change how you run retrospectives, handle tough conversations, and learn from experience.

Both at work and maybe beyond. Enjoy!

Guest article by Esra Yetis

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🧠 Rewire Your Product Team (and your brain!)

We talk a lot about Agile teams and continuous improvement in the Product world. We obsess over velocity, shipping features, and optimising operations.

But let’s be honest, most product teams aren’t ‘continuously improving’. Instead, they become continuously trapped in an endless loop of sprints. Running from one cycle to the next, making the exact same mistakes, just faster.

And this isn’t just a workplace issue. Have you noticed how we do the exact same thing in our individual lives? We get trapped in our own personal loops. Rushing from one meeting, one major career decision, or one tough conversation to the next, never actually taking a breath to process what just happened.

Why? Have we completely lost the ability to stop and reflect?

Today, I want to share a framework with you that will fundamentally change how you lead. It is a tool that will not only improve your retrospectives but also make you a better leader, and honestly, a better partner and friend in your personal life too!

It is the practice of Critical Reflection.

And here is a warning: this is not something you can unlearn. Once you start practising this, it becomes a permanent habit. You will start seeing these patterns in your meetings, in your 1:1s, and at your dinner table.

The Engine: Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle

We encounter many different scenarios at work and in our personal lives as we grow. But experience alone doesn’t teach you anything! It is reflecting on your experience that actually drives growth.

I’ve found that to do this effectively, you need a structured framework. The gold standard is Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle. (While I use Gibbs here, there are other fantastic, well-known models with similar DNA, such as Kolb’s Experiential Learning Cycle and Borton’s “What, So What, Now What?” model. The specific framework matters less than building the habit!)

It’s a 6-step loop to process any event, failure, or success:

1. Description: What objectively happened?

2. Feelings: What were you thinking and feeling?

3. Evaluation: What was good and bad about the experience?

4. Analysis: Why did things happen that way?

5. Conclusion: What else could you have done?

6. Action Plan: If it happens again, what will you do differently?

It really is a brilliant framework. But still, I’ve found that even the most well-intentioned product teams (and individuals) often miss the bigger picture. We live in a world that feels like a race, where we have to get a lot done so quickly that it is incredibly easy to skip crucial steps. It isn’t that people are consciously and actively getting it wrong, it’s simply down to a lack of awareness and practice.

Whether you are running a post-mortem with your engineering squad or driving home, replaying a frustrating conversation in your head, you have to watch out for these Three Traps I see people fall into over and over again.

Trap 1: The Venting Trap

The Symptom: All emotion, zero analysis.

A team will describe the failed launch (Step 1) and then move to Feelings (Step 2). And they stay there. They sit with the frustration, anger, or annoyance of a missed deadline. They treat the retrospective like a group therapy session.

But as Mel Robbins brilliantly highlights in this quick video, venting is actually a massive trap. According to a study from Ohio State University, when you vent and replay the drama over and over, you’re not releasing the anger, you’re simply reinforcing it. Feeling your emotions is of course valid, but sitting in those emotions without moving into Analysis (Step 4) just hardwires the frustration. It changes nothing.

Trap 2: The Process Trap

The Symptom: All analysis, zero action.

This is the team that successfully navigates the emotions and conducts a brilliant Analysis. They figure out exactly why something failed. They write a beautifully formatted, pages-long post-mortem document in Confluence. But they never consider the Conclusion or create an Action Plan (Steps 5 & 6).

This is a classic example of what Stanford researchers Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert Sutton famously coined the “Knowing-Doing Gap.“ In their research, they highlight how organisations are phenomenal at gathering data and writing reports, but terrible at actually translating that knowledge into execution. Without an action plan, your deep analysis is just a document that no one will ever read or act on.

Trap 3: The Reaction Trap

The Symptom: All action, zero analysis.

This happens when a team experiences a failure, panics, and immediately jumps from Step 1 directly to Step 6. They completely bypass emotions, skip deep analysis, and just implement a fix. They believe that if they move quickly, they will make progress.

This is called “Action Bias.” Research shows that when faced with a problem, humans have a psychological urge to do something (anything!) because taking action makes us feel in control, even if that action is counterproductive. But when you implement a solution without actually understanding why the system broke in the first place, that solution will inevitably fail.

So what does leadership do? They react again. Another new tool, another new process. Suddenly, your team is trapped in a doom-loop corporate version of whack-a-mole. This sounds like a nightmare.

Building the Reflection Engine

In a world obsessed with speed, taking time to pause and reflect feels like a luxury or a waste of time. In fact, the cost of not taking time to reflect properly is far higher.

Whether you are a Product Manager trying to align a fractured engineering squad, or simply trying to have a better conversation with your spouse after a long day, the rules are the same:

Don’t just vent. Don’t just intellectualise. And don’t just react.

Run the cycle. Process the feeling, analyse the root cause, commit to an action plan, observe and start your cycle again. Once you develop this muscle, it will come very naturally to you.

Your challenge for this week: Take one recent friction point, a bad meeting, a missed handoff, or a tough conversation, and run it through all 6 steps of the Gibbs cycle on a single piece of paper. See what happens.

Until next time,
Esra

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About the Writer

Esra is a Product Innovation Catalyst with extensive experience in helping organisations navigate complexity and build impactful products.

You can read more about Esra on her website esrayetis.com and connect with her on LinkedIn.

🎤 Upcoming Events

🌍 Product Academy May 7th - ‘Make the Product Shift’ half-day workshop
🇭🇷 Productworld May 8th - ‘Make the Product Shift’ opening keynote
🇹🇷 BAUX Istanbul May 12th - ‘Make the Product Shift’ keynote

I’m available throughout 2026 to speak at your organisation, conference, podcast or masterclass webinar, contact me on hey@chriscompston.com

📚 From the Reading List

The Product Heart

(Good) Product Ops is Still the Backbone

We’re all in this weird moment where everything feels so damn loud and fast. AI is everywhere, every tool is suddenly “transformational,” and product management is evolving so quickly that even the most seasoned PMs are struggling to keep up. I open LinkedIn and feel my brain buzzing…and not in a good way. It’s the Instagram way, where everything feels …

Read more

5 months ago · 10 likes · Christine Itwaru

👩🏽‍🚀 Product Careers

New roles at Monzo, Manual, Pion and more …

Director of Product Operations / Strategy & Operations Manager / Product Operations Manager, Payments & Open Banking / Lead Product Manager / Head of Digital Delivery / Principal Product Manager / Senior Product Operations Manager

🤩 And finally …

Just some of the great conversations I’ve been having;

Hugo Froes, Phil Hornby, Katie Hudson, Yi-Hsuan Lin, Zoltan Patai, Andrei Cosmin Munteanu, Sheen Yap, Amanda Colpoys, Andy Greenhalgh, Chiara Gardner, Aly Mahan, Gerisha Nadaraju, Rebekah Carere, Katja Starks, Bronwyn Allanson, Stephen Edwards and Terry Courtney

Fancy a chat? Book some time with me at chriscompston.com/letschat

In the current landscape of organisational transformation, I’m seeing a pattern emerging mostly among legacy companies that are attempting to ‘modernise’ their product delivery.

Many organisations that spent the last decade transitioning from traditional waterfall methods to Agile frameworks are now looking to the next horizon, which of course is: Artificial Intelligence.

However, in the rush to adopt AI, a critical evolutionary step that is the transition to a true product operating model, is quite simply being bypassed. This leap from “Agile” directly to “AI-driven” is creating a weird illusion of progress while fundamentally entrenching inefficient behaviours even further.

The shift in industry terminology often outpaces the shift in actual practice. We are observing a widespread rebranding where anyone involved in building the product is now an “AI Builder”, just like we saw “Agile Coaches” renamed “Product Coaches” and “Product Owners” becoming “Product Managers”. Yet, unsurprisingly the underlying mechanics of their approach remains unchanged.

When an organisation relabels its workforce without addressing the governance and mindset that govern how value is defined, the result is a just a cosmetic transformation.

For example, a Product Manager operating within a rigid, framework-heavy environment like SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework) is often still just managing delivery timelines and ritual compliance rather than developing stronger product discovery or customer-centric practices.

The industry is also seeing a trend where executive leaders declare themselves and their organisations as “Fintechs” or “Product-led” on their brand marketing and talent acquisition pages, while the teams they lead continue to operate in siloed, 30-minute meeting blocks that preclude the deep work necessary for genuine innovation to happen.

A great example of the danger in skipping the product step is Product Requirement Documents (PRDs). In a traditional Agile or project-based organisation, the PRD is a hand-off mechanism. A dense document intended to bridge the gap between “the business” and “the builders.”

Many organisations now view AI as the ultimate efficiency tool for this process. They use Large Language Models to generate PRDs, user stories, and acceptance criteria in seconds. On the surface, this looks like a massive win for velocity; the documentation phase is shortened, and the “builders” get their instructions faster.

However, this ignores the fundamental principle of a product operating model: in a high-functioning product team, the exhaustive, upfront PRD is largely unnecessary. In a product-centric environment, the “document” is a byproduct of continuous discovery, shared context, and collaborative framing.

The value lies in the thinking and the alignment that occurs during the creation of the strategy, not in the artefact itself. By using AI to automate the generation of these documents, organisations are simply accelerating the production of waste.

They are making a bad process faster rather than evolving into a model where the process is no longer required.

True progress is not found in the speed at which an AI can generate a document or a roadmap, but in the organisational courage to stop writing these documents altogether in favour of stronger and closer collaboration and decision making.

This is a place where defining and developing roadmaps moves from merely glorified feature listing, and instead to shared intent to deliver products that achieve real customer value and business impact outcomes.

Until an organisation moves through the “Product” phase by learning to focus on outcomes over outputs and discovery over documentation, AI will remain a tool that simply helps them do the wrong things more quickly.

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How to Woo!

You too can develop the muscle to lead and
drive impact without direct authority

Following the success of my recent talk “How to Woo” and the high interest shown from event participants afterwards, I’ve now created a structured coaching programme specifically designed to help you win others over and drive impact without direct authority.

We often treat “Woo” as a rare gift, something you’re either born with or you aren’t. But in my experience developing high-performing product teams, I’ve seen that it’s actually a muscle. It’s a repeatable practice of mapping human dynamics, identifying overlapping motivations and turning friction into genuine partnership.

This 12-session journey is designed for those who are tired of “pushing requirements” and ready to start leading through connection. We’ll move from your foundational core capabilities through the CliftonStrengths™ assessment and into real-time relationship building and influencing where we tackle your specific workplace challenges together.

My goal isn’t just to give you a temporary boost in confidence, but to equip you with a permanent toolkit to navigate complex politics and align goals so effectively that the right decision becomes the most obvious one for everyone involved.

Could coaching unlock your potential?

Find out how you can Woo!

🎤 Recent Events

Earlier this month, I had the pleasure of introducing my new talk, “How to Woo!,” to the London crowd at Product Unleashed, which is easily one of the best product events in the UK.

I went back in time to 1999 (the year The Matrix premiered and the first BlackBerry was launched!) to tell my own story of navigating the world and developing a growth mindset.

What started out as an activity in gaining new found confidence, quickly turned into something else as I realised that “winning others over” was about so much more than just being self-assured. It was my first real lesson in active listening, building genuine trust and navigating the messy human dynamics that make or break businesses today.

The talk focused on the practical approach I’ve developed since then to influence people, even when you have no direct authority over them.

It’s about moving away from “pushing requirements” and instead pulling people toward a shared vision where everyone feels they’ve won.

🇬🇧 Product Unleashed February 19th - with Micaela Dixon and Erin Casali

Upcoming Events:

🌍 Product Academy May 7th
🇭🇷 Productworld May 8th
🇹🇷 BAUX Istanbul May 12th
🇬🇧 Atlassian Community date tbc

I’m available throughout 2026 to speak at your organisation, conference, podcast or masterclass webinar, contact me on hey@chriscompston.com

📚 From the Reading List

🤩 And finally …

Just some of the great conversations I’ve been having;

Katie Hudson, IniOluwa Abiodun, Christoph Steinlehner, Jiri Mocicka, Chiara Gardner, Hugo Froes, Kelly Ellis, Lucy Pitticas-Rothwell, Nick Greos, Phil Bergdorf, Yi-Hsuan Lin

Fancy a chat? Book some time with me at chriscompston.com/letschat

Loving these anti-AI memes right now

In a scaling product organisation, high delivery velocity can often mask a deeper issue of ‘strategic fragmentation’. When a company expands rapidly, the pressure to maintain speed frequently leads to a culture where long-term objectives are overshadowed by reactive stakeholder requests.

Without a mechanism to protect strategic intent, expensive product and engineering resources are easily diluted across competing interests.

In a recent engagement of mine a quantitative audit revealed a significant gap between annual objectives and the work actually reaching production. While delivery milestones were being met, the output was not moving the needle on the business outcomes committed to at the start of the year.

The core challenge was not a lack of effort by product teams, but a lack of shared accountability. Decision-making loops were heavily weighted toward the subjective opinion of key stakeholders in Sales and Marketing, rather than strategic filters.

To address this, we moved away from continuous negotiation over feature lists and deadlines, and instead introduced a set of strategic forcing functions. Together with the product leadership team I co-created a shared operating model built on four foundational principles:

• Strategically Aligned: Ensuring all investment supports top-tier objectives

• Value Driven: Requiring validated hypotheses before development begins

• Outcome Focused: Shifting focus from shipping features to customer behaviour

• Financially Impactful: Evaluating ROI through post-launch financial reviews

To make sure these were not just high-level values they were backed by “Commitment Statements” and specific new operating rituals that held leadership and product teams accountable to the strategy.

By embedding these into the monthly and quarterly rhythms, we moved from an IT service model to a genuine partnership with business stakeholders.

Over the next four weeks, I will break down each of these principles in detail. I will share the specific rituals we used to implement them, the challenges we faced during the rollout, and the measurable impact they had on the organisation’s ability to execute.

Next week, we will start with Part 1: Strategically Aligned, how to reclaim 80% of your roadmap for your top business objectives.

Subscribe now

Do you want to Make the Shift to an
Impact-Driven Product Operating Model?

It’s time to stop managing symptoms and start leading systemic change and unlock your product organisations true potential for impact.

Instead of focusing on your individual capabilities, my coaching enables you to view the system as a whole. Together we will optimise the operational capabilities your entire organisation needs to thrive, scale and deliver financial impact.

Could coaching unlock your potential?

Take the Quiz Today!

🎤 Upcoming Events

It’s only January, and I’m honestly a bit floored to have five speaking spots already lined up for the year!

Whether it’s a keynote conference stage or a community meetup, I’m so excited to get out there, share what I’ve been working on, and learn from all of you in person.

🇬🇧 Product Unleashed February 19th
🌍 Product Academy May 7th
🇭🇷 Productworld May 8th
🇹🇷 BAUX Istanbul May 12th
🇬🇧 Atlassian Community date tbc

I’m available throughout 2026 to speak at your organisation, conference, podcast or masterclass webinar, contact me on hey@chriscompston.com

📚 From the Reading List

Product Management IRL

Builder PMs When Product Pace Increases

Tammie isn’t a technical product manager…

Read more

5 months ago · 6 likes · 2 comments · Amy Mitchell

Rich Mironov's Product Bytes

Money Stories (The Book)

I’m very excited to announce my new book, "Money Stories: Communicating the Value of Product Work…

Read more

5 months ago · rich mironov

👩🏽‍🚀 Product Careers

New roles at Intercom, Rightmove, British Airways, and more …

Director of Product Management / Head of Product / Head of UX / Group Web Product Manager / Lead Product Operations Manager / Product Operations Lead / Product Lead / Senior Product Manager / Senior Product Manager / Senior Product Manager / Senior Product Manager / Product Strategy and Ops / Product Delivery Lead / Product Manager - Design System

Do you have Product Management, Design or Ops roles to advertise? Reach a new audience by sharing them with me for the next review.

🤩 And finally …

Just some of the great conversations I’ve been having;

Gil Zissu, Goran Krstulovic, Nesrine Changuel, Lucy Pitticas-Rothwell, John Skitt, Gene Kamenez, Parveen Downer, Hugo Froes and Liam Darmody

Fancy a chat? Book some time with me at chriscompston.com/letschat

❌ Phew! At least now I know what errors to correct ... oh wait

Yep it’s 2026 and we are still dealing with auto-generated error codes …

To remain competitive and ultimately successful in today’s market and challenging economic times, organisations of all types, shapes, sizes, and industries that are building technology, must do more than just embrace a product thinking mindset. They must also implement the operational structures and practices that allow their teams to build these products in the right way.

Non-digital native organisations (those founded before the digital era, and in some cases, a hundred or more years ago) need to decisively move beyond the outdated methods that helped them succeed in the past. Even Agile digital native organisations (those founded post-2005) need to be intentional about how they build products. Their often innovative and scrappy, ‘all-hands-on-deck,’ start-up approach inevitably begins to show cracks as the organisation scales.

This doesn’t mean that the creativity which drives innovative products is stifled when taking a more systematic approach to product development. In fact, the opposite is true. Allowing talented people the mental space to be customer-centric and experimental is at the heart of why a Product Operating Model is the most effective approach in an ever-changing landscape of customer and technology needs.

Let us not forget, however, that product development is also incredibly expensive!

Business leaders, founders, and shareholders all need to see a return on their investment. Even when teams are building products with the right customer-focused mindset and practices in place, their work still needs to connect to a tangible impact for the business. For many teams, particularly in the B2C space, that impact may be direct revenue generation, but it can equally be a focus on cost reduction and efficiencies, new customer acquisition and adoption, or continued engagement of existing customers.

We must also be intentional about how we build products together as unfortunately, when economic times are challenging, it can be tempting to let cultural standards or values slip amid the ever-increasing pressure to drive revenue.

Huge technology layoffs, the ongoing AI revolution, and a challenging hiring market continue to exacerbate the decline of care and intentionality regarding our organisations’ values, particularly in diversity and inclusion. It is crucial that we do not let this happen and a Product Operating Model must be clear about the culture we want to define and be actionable enough to allow it to thrive.

Finally, if you are a product or technology leader building a modern product organisation, you must know that product thinking is more than just a set of principles; it requires a whole new operating model.

And, every product organisation needs at least one person who is intentionally focused on how it operates, how the product development flows across teams and how that operational rhythm is defined and understood across the organisation.

Product practices exist whether we choose to define them or not. Every team has habits, rituals, rhythms and decision making patterns. The real question is whether those practices are intentional, explicit and effective, or whether they are inconsistent, improvised and shaped more by individual preferences than by organisational purpose.

So, be prepared for the hard work!

Regardless of whether you are a senior organisational leader or an established member of a product team, it is down to all of you to make the shift to product happen and that is never easy.

As a subscriber to my newsletter you’re already one step ahead, watch out for future email updates as I announce something new in January!

Do you want to Make the Shift to an
Impact-Driven Product Operating Model?

It’s time to stop managing symptoms and start leading systemic change and unlock your product organisations true potential for impact.

Instead of focusing on your individual capabilities, my coaching enables you to view the system as a whole. Together we will optimise the operational capabilities your entire organisation needs to thrive, scale and deliver financial impact.

Could coaching unlock your potential?

Take the Quiz Today!

📚 From the Reading List

The Beautiful Mess

TBM 398: Micromanagement? Or Staying Close to Reality?

I was recently talking with a CPO who asked their roughly 200-team (~2000-person) organization to put together a short biweekly report, made up of a direct update from every team, that they could scan…

Read more

6 months ago · 48 likes · 6 comments · John Cutler

👩🏽‍🚀 Product Careers

New roles at Intercom, National Grid, Revolut, and more …

Product Strategy Manager, Senior Product Operations Manager, Senior Product Manager, Software Engineer (Full-Stack), Group Web Product Manager, Principal Product Management, Head of Product, Head of Product Operations

Do you have Product Management, Design or Ops roles to advertise? Reach a new audience by sharing them with me for the next review.

🤖 Those days are definitely over …

I recently wrote that every product organisation needs at least one person who is intentionally focused on how the organisation operates. It doesn’t have to be a formal Product Ops role, but it does need to be a person whose primary responsibility, something close to 75% of their time, is spent improving how product work actually gets done. Product practices always exist, but they’re either intentional and useful or unknown and chaotic.

The 75% figure comes from is not scientific. It’s drawn from my experience watching operational change succeed only when someone senior has enough bandwidth to make it their real job rather than a side project. When no Product Ops function exists, anything under 50% simply doesn’t build the momentum needed to shift behaviours, processes or culture. And the person driving this work needs seniority, not for status, but because shaping the operating model requires sponsorship, cross-functional authority and credibility across product and engineering.

The challenge, of course, is that senior product leaders already carry a full load. Strategy, team leadership, delivery oversight and stakeholder management can very quickly expand to fill their time. Once you push their operational responsibilities past a certain threshold, either the change work stalls, or their core leadership responsibilities suffer. This is why 75% matters, not for precision but as a signal that operational excellence is serious work requiring dedicated attention, not leftover capacity.

There’s also the misconception that high-talent teams require less structure or oversight. In reality, talented people often make it harder to establish shared practices because their competence creates the illusion that the system will naturally self-organise. Instead, you get highly capable individuals optimising locally rather than collectively. Good decisions multiply, but cohesion weakens. The organisation feels active, even high-energy, yet still struggles to move in a unified direction.

Talent needs structure too. It needs strategic clarity, a shared operating rhythm, explicit decision lanes and well-designed feedback loops. All of this empowers and enables talent, allows them to be even more creative and impactful. When those foundations exist, talent compounds rather than cancels itself out. When they don’t, the organisation slips into reactive prioritisation, inconsistent decision-making and the kind of operational friction that people mistake for “growing pains.”

This doesn’t mean every organisation needs to hire Product Ops tomorrow. But it does mean someone must own how the system works; how decisions flow, how teams collaborate, how information moves, how learning happens and how all of that connects to commercial outcomes. Without that ownership, you’re not “letting the team figure it out,” you’re simply leaving your operating model to chance.

The highest-performing product organisations aren’t lucky. They are designed that way. And until someone is genuinely responsible for that design, the system won’t change on its own.

Who actually owns the operating model in your product organisation right now? If you had to choose one person to take on the 75% role, who would it be and why?

Leave a comment

🎯 Optimising your Capabilities

If you’re a product or tech leader building a modern product organisation, you already know that product thinking is more than just a set of principles - it requires a whole new operating model.

Instead of focusing on your own individual capabilities, start to think about the system and view it as a whole. When you realise that its the organisation’s operational capabilities that need to be assessed, the entire organisation will have the best opportunity to thrive, scale and deliver financial impact, even in tougher economic times.

The below graphic is just part of the systematic methodology that is built on my proprietary approach (detailed in the forthcoming book) and codifies 16 operational capabilities. Each capability is aligned to the principles that an organisation must aim to excel in to truly become a product thinking organisation; Strategically Aligned, Value Driven, Outcome Focused and Financially Impactful.

Ultimately, becoming a real product-thinking organisation depends on having someone relentlessly focused on assessing, improving, optimising and sustaining these capabilities over time. To become a true product-thinking organisation, someone must be accountable for making this system work end-to-end and ensuring it continuously evolves.

Do you want to Make the Shift to an
Impact-Driven Product Operating Model?

It’s time to stop managing symptoms and start leading systemic change and unlock your product organisations true potential for impact.

Instead of focusing on your individual capabilities, my coaching enables you to view the system as a whole. Together we will optimise the operational capabilities your entire organisation needs to thrive, scale and deliver financial impact.

Could coaching unlock your potential?

Take the Quiz Today!

🎧 Podcast of the Month

Thoughts Unravelled

TU:06 - Product Operations: The first 90 days

In this episode of Thoughts Unravelled, co-hosts Chris Compston and Hugo Froes (he/him/his) explore the the first 90 days in a Product Operations role. Whether you’re the first person on the team or joining an existing team. How do you show value quick, while setting yourself up for future success and growth…

Listen now

8 months ago · 1 like · Hugo Froes (he/him/his) and Chris Compston

📚 From the Reading List

Rich Mironov's Product Bytes

Answering Next Year's Revenue Growth Question...

Marc Baselga captured part of discussion I had last week with a Supra leadership group, so copying his transcript/my words here…

Read more

8 months ago · rich mironov

👩🏽‍🚀 Product Careers

New roles at Google, Monzo, Revolut, PandaDoc, Spotify and more …

Head of Product / Group Product Manager / Director of Product Management / Head of Product / Director of Product / Group Product Manager / Product Lead / Product Operations Associate / Senior Product Operations Manager / Principal Product Operations Manager / Senior Product Manager / Product Lead / Head of Product Operations / Senior Manager, Product Strategy & Operations

Do you have Product Management, Design or Ops roles to advertise? Reach a new audience by sharing them with me for the next review.

🤩 And finally …

Just some of the great conversations I’ve been having;

Krasi Bozhinkova, Kinga Magyar, Chris Silvestri, Chiara Gardner, Rowan Zagnoev, Dave Martin, Esra Yetis, Hugo Froes and Dave Baines.

Fancy a chat? Book some time with me at chriscompston.com/letschat

Lately it feels like every scroll through LinkedIn comes with an essence of blame.

“You’re doing product management wrong.”
“You don’t realise you’re failing at …”
“Here’s how to fix your incorrect approach.”

These kinds of posts, coming from those that call themselves leaders or industry experts, seem less about helping others and more about driving clicks and impressions.

And … that formula is incredibly simple; point at the reader, make them feel like they’re missing something, promise a fix conveniently offered by the author.

It’s attention marketing disguised as thought leadership.

What’s frustrating is how this approach undermines the very values our professional communities are supposed to stand for. Learning, collaboration and mutual growth.

Instead of sharing ideas in a way that welcomes others in, these posts frame their “advice” as blame. The tone is often accusatory, leaving less experienced people feeling attacked rather than supported. It’s like the people who should be guiding others have decided it’s more profitable to shame them instead.

And it works. Because outrage and defensiveness generate engagement and drives visibility.

Part of this comes down to marketing psychology. Marketers have long known that direct, action-oriented language and especially the use of “you” really grabs attention.

“Here’s how to move to a new product operating model” is passive.
“You’re failing if you haven’t moved to a new product operating model” is provocative.

It raises the blood pressure, sparks curiosity, even annoyance and sometimes, if we are lucky, debate. The shift from sharing insight to triggering reaction has overcome us in our professional thought leadership as social media algorithms reward engagement, not depth, so it’s no surprise that the loudest voices are often the least helpful.

And we need to believe that the consequences of this are actually serious, especially for those still finding their footing in their careers.

When the tone of professional spaces becomes one of constant correction and superiority, newer professionals start to question their abilities. They hesitate to ask questions or share ideas, fearing they’ll be called out for doing something wrong. That kind of culture builds insecurity and silence when really we need it to build better practitioners.

The social media landscape rewards the provocative over the practical, the catchy over the constructive. This approach is creating false idols, the loudest voices (those best at using GenAI to frame their posts for engagement) often become seen as authorities, regardless of their actual experience or insight. Meanwhile, genuinely thoughtful, collaborative leaders may be drowned out because their tone doesn’t provoke or polarise their audience.

If we truly care about strengthening our industry, we need to shift the tone.

We should encourage conversation, not accusation. Leaders should model openness, not superiority. Instead of finger-pointing, we need hand-raising. Gestures that invite others to participate, question and contribute. Professional growth happens through community, not LinkedIn impressions.

So next time you see another “You’re doing it wrong” post, take a breath. Recognise the tactic for what it is - engagement bait.

Real leadership doesn’t rely on guilt or fear to get attention. It relies on empathy, humility, and the willingness to learn alongside others. The more we resist the finger-pointing, the sooner we can get back to what actually matters; building better products together.

And finally, I’m reminded of the Retrospective Prime Directive, something I often talk with my clients about. It’s something that levels the playing field and very quickly introduces humility and empathy within a group.

We are all just trying our best here.

“Regardless of what we discover, we understand and truly believe that everyone did the best job they could, given what they knew at the time, their skills and abilities, the resources available, and the situation at hand.”

Norm Kerth, Project Retrospectives: A Handbook for Team Review

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this, are you feeling the same pressure?

Leave a comment

🎤 Speaking Highlights

This month I was speaking at two major product conferences in Europe, sharing my new talk “Make the Product Shift” with a combined audience of around 800 product leaders and practitioners.

In Lithuania I was the opening conference keynote, it was an incredible opportunity to set the tone for the event and explore what it really takes for product organisations not just to survive, but to thrive in challenging times.

Across both conferences, I spoke about how organisations can connect strategic intent to tactical change by making the “product shift” that aligns leadership, incentives, and operations around outcomes, not outputs.

It was inspiring to see so many people engaged in the discussion around building adaptable, learning-oriented organisations that deliver value consistently, even in hard times.

I also announced my upcoming book Make the Product Shift (with co-authors Esra Yetis and Hugo Froes), which expands on the ideas from the talk and offers a practical playbook for designing sustainable, contextually relevant organisational change.

Stay tuned as I’ll be sharing more about the book’s content soon. If you’d like to be the first to know when it’s available, join the early access list here!

📹 Live with UXCam

Missed my live session with Nicole Gottselig from UXCam? Watch the recording here!

Interested in bringing this talk to your teams? Let's chat, book a free call

📚 From the Reading List

Product Delight Tips

The Product Delight Model

Too often, companies focus solely on functional improvements, better speeds, lower costs, and added features, without considering how users feel when engaging with their product. While these functional aspects matter, they are not enough to create sustained loyalty. Users return to products that don’t just serve a purpose but also evoke trust, confidenc…

Read more

a year ago · 16 likes · 2 comments · Nesrine Changuel

👩🏽‍🚀 Product Careers

New roles at Ebay, Cint, Intercomm and more …

Product Operations Lead, Principal Product Manager, Senior Product Operations Manager, Staff Product Manager, Product Operations Manager, Principal Design Operations Manager, Senior Product Operations Manager, Director of Product, Group Product Manager, Head of Product, VP of Product, Director of Product Management

Do you have Product Management, Design or Ops roles to advertise? Reach a new audience by sharing them with me for the next review.

🤩 And finally …

Some of the great conversations I’ve been having;

Rudi Voller, Maria Nuno Marques, Jonas Kurzweg, Fernanda Marija Medziukaitė, Andrea Michalek, martin@pikmenu.com, Annika Grunewaldt, James Gunaca, Evie Brockwell, Hugo Froes, Martina McKee, Nicole Attridge and Danielle Scaduto

Fancy a chat? Book some time with me at chriscompston.com/letschat

Can an internal hackathon truly move a product organisations forward or do they simply give the illusion of progress?

Hackathons still seem to occupy an interesting space in product organisations. They are often positioned as kickstarting creativity and innovation, as a sign of a real ‘product company’, celebrated for bringing people together in a burst of energy and experimentation.

But underneath the excitement and the celebratory high-fives, there’s an important question; are they actually worth the investment?

This question surfaced in a recent conversation I had with a Product Ops leader working as a team of one in their company. They were preparing to help facilitate a large-scale hackathon and found themselves weighing the opportunity against the cost.

Just to be clear; hackathons are not cheap. Beyond the initial logistical outlay, they consume vast amounts of time and focus across the business. When you step back and list out the investment, hundreds of hours pulled from day-to-day delivery, you’re forced to ask what is the return?

Is this only an exercise in team bonding and morale building, or is there a deeper, more strategic purpose?

If hackathons are to be more than entertainment, they need to connect to something bigger. They should link to the organisation’s transformation journey, to its capability-building, or to its strategic product intent.

Without that connection, the significance of any hackathon output can seem highly ambiguous. While energising and enjoyable in the moment, this can quickly fade, leaving little more than the memory of a pizza-fuelled creativity sprint.

This resonates with what I see across many organisations. It is easy to adopt hackathons as a signal of being a ‘product company,’ as though the act itself demonstrates product thinking maturity.

Yet if the outcomes cannot be traced to tangible change, whether that’s new practices embedded, customer problems solved, or organisational capabilities strengthened, then the exercise risks becoming pure theatre.

That’s not to dismiss their value outright, I still believe that hackathons can be powerful when they unlock collaboration across the organisation, when they push teams to think differently about customer problems or when they surface ideas that would otherwise never see the daylight. They can shift product culture in subtle but meaningful ways, encouraging experimentation and a sense of shared ownership.

But even then, the question remains; is this the best bet for the organisation at this moment? For many of those in the middle of significant transformations the opportunity cost of investing time in a hackathon must be weighed against other more pressing needs.

This is where I believe Product Ops can play a crucial role. Rather than being asked simply “can you make the hackathon happen,” Product Ops leaders should be empowered to influence the why behind these types of initiatives.

Are we doing this because it looks like the right thing, or because it moves us closer to becoming the kind of organisation we aspire to be?

Hackathons may be one lever to pull, but they are just one among many. Used thoughtfully, they can accelerate change. Used carelessly, they can distract from it.

So, are hackathons worth it? The answer, as with many things in product, is that it depends. It depends on whether they are connected to the product strategy, whether their outcomes are developed beyond the event itself and whether the investment of time is the best possible bet for where the organisation is on its journey.

Without that alignment, they risk being little more than expensive fun. With it, they can become a kickstart for meaningful progress.

I’d love to hear your thoughts; are you running hackathons in your product organisation? How do you measure whether they are worth the cost?

Leave a comment

🎤 Talk: Make the Product Shift

This September I kicked off my conference speaking season! I got things going in Berlin as the opening keynote for the second track at ProductLab Conference, and wrapped up the month in London as the closing keynote for Product Weekend.

Both were amazing opportunities to share my new talk, ‘Make the Product Shift’, and I was blown away by the response from both of the audiences.

Thanks to , , Ahmed Wafaey and their respective teams for inviting me to speak and organising great events.

🇵🇹 🇱🇹 What’s next? Coming in October; I’ll be heading to Lisbon to speak at Productized for the second year and as the opening keynote at the Product Leaders Conference in Vilnius. Looking forward to see you there!

Interested in bringing this talk to your teams? Let's chat, book a free call

📚 From the Reading List

Mapper Club

How to Start Transforming Your Team

After seeing too many times product teams who struggle heavily between “We need to get out of this mess“ and “We are not allowed to change anything,“ I designed a workshop to support teams in adopting product model tactics. This workshop is a tool to help them break free from unproductive discussions and take actionable steps to improve their product de…

Read more

2 years ago · 5 likes · 5 comments · Christoph Steinlehner

👩🏽‍🚀 Product Careers

New roles at Monzo, Rightmove, Pleo and more …

Director of Product Management / Director of Product Design / Head of Product / Principal Product Manager / Group Product Manager / Lead Product Manager / Product Operations Lead / Head of Product Operations / Staff Product Operations Manager / Product Operations Manager / Director of Product Design / Head of Product Design

Do you have Product Management, Design or Ops roles to advertise? Reach a new audience by sharing them with me for the next review.

🤩 And finally …

Some of the great conversations I’ve been having;

Vince Pierri; finishing up my coaching sessions ahead of conference season. Tanja Lau; chatting through the content of my workshop for Product Academy. All the folks I met at Product Lab Berlin, just a few I can remember; Tim Herbig, Büşra Coşkuner, Christoph Steinlehner, Hayder Schneider, Jonas Kurzweg, Nicole Gottselig, Francesca Cortesi, Daniele Ronca, Ahmed Wafaey, Armin Krahl, Annika Grunewaldt, Erika Lauro and many many more. Louise Barton; discussing the cross-over between Finance and Product Ops.

Fancy a chat? chriscompston.com/letschat

What separates product organisations that merely survive, from those that thrive in challenging economic times? It isn’t just speed of delivery or the brilliance of individual teams, it lies in the ability to continually optimise organisational capabilities so that strategy, leadership, and day-to-day practices reinforce one another.

Most of August I’ve been focused on writing content for an upcoming book and series of conference talks where I’ve been exploring how organisations can make “the product shift”. By connecting strategic intent to tactical change, enabling leaders to balance incentives with resources, and embedding new behaviours through operational working groups.

The product operating model is often treated as an afterthought, something assumed to “just happen” once teams are in place and work begins. The goal isn’t just product delivery, it’s building an organisation that can adapt, learn, and deliver value consistently, even in hard times.

When designed well, it becomes a powerful enabler of adaptability, value creation, and organisational alignment. If it's neglected, even the most talented teams find themselves slowed, frustrated, and unable to deliver on their potential.

But it's far more than governance frameworks, strategic principles or team rituals. It is the deliberate design of how funding flows, how teams are structured, how decisions are made, and how value is measured.

I’ll be sharing more in the coming months as the book and framework take shape.

What has been your biggest challenge when trying to implement a product operating model?

Leave a comment

✏️ Recent Articles

🎤 Recent Podcasts

Danny

#5 Design culture in an age of change - Chris Compston

Chris Compston…

Listen now

10 months ago · Danny and Chris Compston

Thoughts Unravelled

TU:05 - Two Faces of Product Ops: Systems Keepers vs Change Enablers

In this episode of Thoughts Unravelled, co-hosts Chris Compston and Hugo Froes (he/him/his) dive into the evolving identity of Product Operations. Once hailed as the “silver bullet” to make companies more product-led, Product Ops is now at a crossroads…

Listen now

10 months ago · 1 like · Chris Compston and Hugo Froes (he/him/his)

📚 From the Reading List

The Beautiful Mess

TBM 376: Why Are We Organized Like This?

This post is about understanding why your company is organized and designed the way it is…

Read more

10 months ago · 12 likes · 3 comments · John Cutler

👩🏽‍🚀 Product Careers

New roles at Epic Games, loveholidays, Wolt and more …

Director, Product Operations / Director, Product Operations / Group Product Manager / Product Operations Lead / Product Operations Lead / Lead Product Manager / Product Operations Associate

Do you have Product Management, Design or Ops roles to advertise? Reach a new audience by sharing them with me for the next review.

🤩 And finally …

Some of the great conversations I’ve been having;

Eileen Soh; doing amazing things with the product operating model. Vince Pierri; my new public speaking coach. Anna Prevo and Jason Palter; who are building a new individual capability assessment tool. Chitra Jain, Graham Reed, Rebekah Carere, Shabnam Osman and Natasha Menon; fellow Product Ops professionals. Evie Brockwell; we’ll both be on stage soon in Lithuania! Gerisha Nadaraju and Kevin Sakamoto; hosts of the brilliant Product Ops Podcast. Danny Hearn; chatting about inclusive hiring on his new podcast (linked above). Daniele Ronca and Ahmed Wafaey; as they prepare for the upcoming Product Lab Berlin Conference. Ian Harvey; bonding over organisational transformation, sports and craft beer.

Fancy a chat? chriscompston.com/letschat

There’s been a lot of noise about mass layoffs, a tough global economy, and the growing influence of AI in tech. And while all of that is real, I don’t think its the whole story.

What concerns me more is how these pressures are distorting the hiring process itself. We’re not just seeing a more competitive job market in the current climate, we’re watching companies narrow their focus so sharply that they risk missing the bigger picture of what makes someone truly valuable in their team.

Right now, there’s a heavy bias toward deep, hyper-specific expertise where someone with limited broader experience but with a deeper specialism over people with 15 or 20 years of adaptable, cross-domain, more generalist experience.

That shift is leading to broken hiring processes with auto-rejections, poorly run interviews, and rushed hiring decisions based on keywords rather than culture fit or capability. Post-hire, those same “perfect” candidates are thrown into the deep end with no support, no onboarding, and often unrealistic pressure to prove value in just a few weeks.

All of this is creating a hiring environment that’s not just inefficient, but actively exclusionary, especially for those who don’t thrive in one-size-fits-all interviews, or who can’t afford to tailor every application like a marketing campaign.

If companies can’t offer security, growth, or care, why should people commit to them?

We’re not just choosing candidates anymore, we’re shaping the future of work. And if we’re not thoughtful about that, we’re going to lose a lot more than just top talent we’ll lose the ability to see the whole picture from culture to product.

What do you think? Have you been through a really great hiring process recently?

Leave a comment

✏️ Recent Articles

🎤 Recent Events

Last week I joined and on the Product Ops HQ panel on Strategic Planning, expertly moderated by Amy Rohan. Thanks to the Product Ops HQ team, Ana Raquel Andrade and Dragonboat.

Watch the recording here

📚 From the Reading List

Rich Mironov's Product Bytes

Customization Debt

There’s a pattern that I’ve seen at most B2B/enterprise software companies – and some B2C/mass consumer companies – that doesn’t seem to have a name or much recognition…

Read more

2 years ago · rich mironov

👩🏽‍🚀 Product Careers

New roles at Reward Gateway, Ford Credit, Talabat and more …

Director, Product Operations / Director, Product Operations / Product Director / Product Director / Head of Innovation / Head of Product Operations / Staff Product Operations Manager / Product Operations Lead / Lead UX Research Operations Specialist / Senior Product Operations / Senior Product Operations Manager / Senior Product Operations Manager / Senior Product Manager / Senior Product Manager / Product Operations Manager / Product Operations Manager / Product Operations Analyst / Product Marketing Manager / Senior Product Designer

Do you have Product Management, Design or Ops roles to advertise? Reach a new audience by sharing them with me for the next review.

🤩 And finally …

Some of the great conversations I’ve been having;

Fernanda Marija Medziukaitė, to organise my keynote at a product leaders conference Vilnius, Lithuania. Ross Webb, who showcased his new AI tool. Chiara Gardner, as we plan for the next Product Ops Leaders Forum. Katie Hudson, chatting about her new Product Ops role at Yazio. Kiratpal Randhawa, catching up properly for the first time since working with Reward Gateway setting up Product Ops. Anna Prevo, who is doing great things at Ceros. Adi Soesan Malishev, a fellow independent product coach. Suhasa Gottumukkala, discussing AI ethics. Esra Yetiş and Hugo Froes as we plan for an upcoming writing project together.

Fancy a chat? chriscompston.com/letschat

Every organisation building products today has either been born in the digital age or been through multiple transformations; Digital, Technology, Agile, Product and now (rushing towards) AI.

In nearly every case we are building products, services and software in an ‘Agile’ way, it’s just the default. Whether its true to the original principles or not. Whether its efficient and effective or not. Whether we are building better products or not. Whether we like it or not.

For me the Agile Manifesto still holds true and I fall back on it and the principles often when I’m working with my clients. Maybe, because Agile is now the norm for people joining the industry, or because we’ve seen Agile morphed into something inherently non-agile (looking at you SAFe) its just not cool to talk about anymore and I think we’re creating blindspots because of it.

Agile was supposed to be the enabler of agility, refocusing teams back to the customer, giving them the flexibility to be adaptable to changing needs. When we look at organisations now it seems to have somewhat of the opposite effect, with rigid procedures and rituals that force teams to only think about delivery metrics.

Now with Generative AI, and the desire of everyone to shove it everywhere its not needed, this lack of Agile thinking is becoming more apparent. Just because AI is helping us to build things quicker, doesn’t mean that we should. With the use of Generative AI tools the discussion teams should be having about ‘what the best thing to build next should be’ is dismissed to a chat window, cross-functional collaboration will undoubtedly be reduced.

Reducing a product team’s decision making won’t result in better products being built, it will result in more of the wrong things being built.

So here’s my ask; let’s revisit the Agile Manifesto and its principles. Let’s think more deeply about the work we’re doing and where Generative AI truly fits in. Because, when it’s used to increase the quality of decision making, rather than replace it, the products we build will be more thoughtful and successful.

Thanks to Leo Barnes for their input into this thinking.

Would love to hear your thoughts - Has Agile lost its meaning in your organisation? What does ‘Agile thinking’ mean to you beyond just process?

Leave a comment

✏️ Recent Articles

🎧 Recent Podcasts

In Ross Webb’s recent podcast I make the argument that we need AI to help us both ‘build the right thing’ and ‘build the thing right’, not just removing admin work.

Product Ops should be in the position of increasing the quality of decision making across the product development lifecycle, AI can enable that to even greater degrees, but it needs to start from a solid theoretical foundation.

📚 From the Reading List

InsideProduct

Understand your customers regardless of the product you work on

Customers are the people who give your organization money in exchange for some product (or service). In order for that product to appeal to those people, it should satisfy a need they have…

Read more

a year ago · 5 likes · Kent J McDonald

👩🏽‍🚀 Product Careers

New roles at Sonar, AutoTrader, Lego, Optimizely and more …

Director of Product and R&D Operations / Director, Product Operations & Launch / Director of Customer Experience / Strategy & Operations Lead / Strategy and Operations Manager / Product Operations Lead / Product Operations Lead / Product Operations Lead / Senior Product Operations Manager / Senior Product Operations Manager / Product Operations Manager / Product Operations Manager

Do you have Product Management, Design or Ops roles to advertise? Reach a new audience by sharing them with me for the next review.

🤩 And finally …

Some of the great conversations I’ve been having;

Nesrine Changuel, on the launch of her exciting new book Product Delight. Graham Reed, discussing Product Ops at HeliosX. Product Ops leaders; Danielle Scaduto, Diana Soler, Hugo Froes, Chiara Gardner, Kassim Alani, Kiratpal Randhawa, Koen Dubelaar, Mike Engel and Nicole Attridge. Gemma McCarthy-Maidment, as we discussed the main operational challenges in product leadership, more on this coming soon! John Cutler, discussing Product Ops in his role at Dotwork (now fully launched) and where more strategic elements fit, it got us thinking - is strategic level Product Ops a mix of Service Design and Org Design?

Fancy a chat? chriscompston.com/letschat

If feels like lately, maybe over the last five years, there’s been a growing skepticism towards frameworks in product work. While some of that pushback might be valid, I think we’re in danger of overcorrecting by missing the point.

The issue isn’t that frameworks are flawed; it’s how we choose, perceive and apply them. A good framework isn’t meant to generate the “right” answer for us. They are a collaborative, structured approach with consistent shared language that enables better conversations, deeper thinking, and evidence-based decision making.

Using frameworks allow us the opportunity to debate, negotiate and interrogate our own ideas to find event greater outcomes. These skills I feel are very much lacking in today’s product development world. Good frameworks don’t replace evidence based and group decision making, nor do they don’t reduce good quality judgment - they should sharpen it.

When we see industry leaders dismiss frameworks, it can create a “just do what I say” mentality and culture that shuts down cross-functional collaboration and continuous learning. Frameworks should be creating space for teams to slow down and be truly reflective.

The impact of this can be seen more intensely with newer team members or those still building up their experience. Here relying on a framework might feel like a sign of inexperience or a lack of capability. In reality, this should be recognised as the kind of thoughtful and deliberate decision making approach we want to encourage.

The problem isn’t frameworks themselves, it’s using them blindly or dogmatically. Applying the wrong tool to the problem will always result in a weaker solution.

Would love to hear your thoughts - are you seeing the same skepticism around frameworks in your organisation?

Leave a comment

🎤 Industry Events

Earlier this Year, Black UX & UI Designers hosted their first in-person event at USTWO in London. This community, created by former colleague and friend Ansbert Dodoo, is a space for new Black designers to connect, share, and grow their careers with confidence.

The last session focused on ‘Navigating the UX & UI Job Market’, with Ansbert sharing his personal experiences and tips for overcoming the challenges of job hunting. They were also joined by top recruiters, Grace Kisnorbo and Shreya Chauhan, who shared expert advice and answered audience questions in a dynamic Q&A session.

🎥 Check out the highlight reel below to relive the day!

Stay tuned for the next event, connect with other designers and grow together by joining the community here: blackuxuidesigners.com/join

📚 From the Reading List

The Beautiful Mess

TBM 359: Process Person

I admit it. I’m a process person, in that I’ve intentionally designed processes throughout my career. Some of those have been baked into external products, and others have been internal…

Read more

a year ago · 45 likes · 5 comments · John Cutler

👩🏽‍🚀 Product Careers

New roles at Airbnb, Optimizely, Reward Gateway, Deel and more …

Chief Operating Officer / Strategy & Operations Lead / Product Operations Lead / Product Operations Lead / Senior Product Operations Manager / Senior Product Operations Manager / Senior Product Manager / Product Operations Manager / Senior Product Operations Manager / Senior Product Operations Manager / Product Operations Manager / Product Operations Associate / Digital Transformation Lead

Do you have Product Management, Design or Ops roles to advertise? Reach a new audience by sharing them with me for the next review.

🤩 And finally …

Some of the great conversations I had across May

João Moita as Product Weekend goes global. Chiara Gardner, collaborating on our new Product Ops Leaders community. Willie Lok to reminisce about our time at Sky over a decade ago. Purnima Bihari and Balaji Gopalan for their insights into key leadership challenges. Courtney Cunningham to discuss the value of mapping PDLCs. Nesh Rao friend and founder of Spin - the tennis app. Taylor Belchak and Jenny Wanger for separate Ops industry catchups. Mike Nowak, a new connection in the world of product consulting. Ana Raquel Andrade to chat through community building.

Fancy a chat? chriscompston.com/letschat

It all started after I gave the keynote at the Product Ops Summit in London. Director of Product Ops Kit Randhawa came to me afterwards with a challenge: how do you build and scale a multidisciplinary Product Ops team from 1 to 10+, and set the operational foundations for a high-performing product organisation?

Here’s how we did it …

📄 Case Study: Establishing Product Ops - Driving Scalable Growth and Operational Excellence

As Reward Gateway continues to accelerate its global expansion and SaaS transformation, the operational foundations laid during my engagement with them ensures long-term scalability and operational excellence.

While their product and technical capabilities were strong, the operational foundation needed to support such rapid growth was underdeveloped. Product Ops, as a function within the product organisation, was introduced to address the challenges of rapid scaling, establish a sustainable product operating model, and align cross-functional teams with strategic objectives.

To overcome these hurdles, Reward Gateway needed more than just technical expertise — they required an operational strategy that would drive efficiency and scalability across the organisation.

In January 2024, I joined as an experienced Product Ops leader, collaborating with the Director of Product Ops (Kiratpal Randhawa), Chief Product Officer (Laszlo Kardos) and other senior Product, Business and Technology stakeholders, to lay the foundations for operational success.

Together, we developed a multi-faceted strategy focused on:

Building the Product Ops Function
Created and supported a team of Product Ops experts (Product Ops Manager, Product Comms Manager, Market & Insight Manager, Knowledge Base and Product Support teams) to lead and support operational excellence across the organisation.

Together we defined a set of clear operating principles and goals, including focus areas based on operating models that drive business alignment, with the aim of maximising the product organisation's performance and impact.

Introducing Operating Models
Developed new models to standardise the interface between the product organisation, its teams and business clients. This included a comprehensive ‘Business Client Operating Playbook’ to provide guidance during implementation and ongoing business operations;

• Product Intakes: Streamlined process for new product opportunities, change requests, customer feedback and issues

• Product Support: Defined escalation pathways and service standards.

• Product Communications: Ensured transparent updates to teams and clients.

• Product Releases: Standardised release procedures for platform updates.

This approach was instrumental in establishing Reward Gateway’s Product Ops function and operational frameworks. Delivering tangible end customer results while developing strong collaboration and continuous improvement has left a lasting impact on the organisation and I wish everyone there the best of luck for the future.

By the end of 2024, the introduction of Product Ops and the rollout of the new operating models had transformed Reward Gateway operational capabilities and enabled their rapid growth.

Interested to know more?

• Read the full Reward Gateway case study here

• Check out my Product Ops consulting services

• Learn more about Product Ops

Testimonial

“ Partnering with Chris has been transformative. His collaborative and pragmatic approach reassured us we were heading in the right direction, even amidst rapid change. Without his guidance, the Product Ops function would not have been as impactful as we’d hoped. ”

Kiratpal Randhawa
Director of Product Ops at Reward Gateway

📚 From the Reading List

Disruption Space

FAKE GURUS: SIMON SINEK & THE SOUNDBITE SELLERS

In my view, even more suspect than the genre of ‘success’ books is the rise of the self-appointed ‘leadership guru’ whose simplistic soundbites are slavishly accepted as genius by their millions of adoring fans. What sets the self-appointed guru apart from the success genre author is that at least many authors of success books made some attempt to back …

Read more

a year ago · 83 likes · 19 comments · Paul Sweeney

🎤 Upcoming Events

ProductLab Conf, Berlin - 17.09 to 18.09
A fresh new conference with a bold mission: bringing the tech community together to navigate the ongoing shifts in our industry. It’s all about real connection, honest conversations and actionable insights. I’m excited to hit the stage alongside friends Tim Herbig, Büşra Coşkuner and Asya Kuznetsova, and a full lineup of other exciting speakers. I can’t wait to visit Berlin again this year to contribute, connect, and be part of shaping this new space.

Productized, Lisbon - 15.10 to 17.10
This year marks the 10th anniversary of Productized, and I’m thrilled to be part of the celebration! After leading a packed workshop for 50 attendees at last year’s conference I’m excited to be back. I’ll be joining an incredible lineup of speakers — including Bruce McCarthy, Radhika Dutt, Nesrine Changuel, Phil Hornby and Jason Knight — to share insights, stories, and energy on stage. I’m also hoping to catch Antonia Landi’s Product Ops for leaders workshop.

Interested in a sneak preview of my talk? Check out my podcast with conference founder, organiser and friend Andre Marquet.

👩🏽‍🚀 Product Careers

Do you have Product Management, Design or Ops roles to advertise? Reach a new audience by sharing them with me for the next review

Head of Product and Design Operations / Head of Operational Excellence / Global Product Operations Lead / Product Operations Lead / Operations Lead / Senior Product Operations Manager / Product Operations Manager / Product Operations Manager (Contract) / Product Operations Specialist / Product Craft Lead / Innovation Lead / Product Team Lead / Process and Continual Improvement Lead / Senior Program Manager

🎧 Join me and Hugo Froes on our new podcast!

Thoughts Unravelled

Lets explore together! This is a place to let your thoughts on the wild world of product unravel. We are passionate about all areas of product development, management, design, operations area leadership - come and join us!

By Hugo Froes (he/him/his)

🏔️ Leadership Coaching

Great for any current or aspiring Product Management, Design and Ops leaders.
I have some availability in Q2 2025, if you’re looking to raise your leadership game by building self-awareness, developing personal skills and clarity to unlock your full potential, my programme would be a great fit for you!

Read more here: chriscompston.com/coaching

“ I have found the sessions incredibly beneficial. Using the models Chris introduced, supported my deeper reflection and is something I would not have considered doing without these coaching sessions. ”

Alexander Hills
Product Communications Manager

🤩 And finally …

Some of the great conversations I had across April;

Amanda Ho Sang, part of the Product Ops function at CCC Intelligent Solutions. Lucy Pitticas-Rothwell leading Product Ops at FreeAgent (a product I use for my own business!) along with Angela Fleming. Oli Gibson an ex-Thoughtworks colleague now running his own consultancy - Calbrio. Chiara Gardner who heads up Product Ops at Ford Credit, we discussed a possible new Product Ops leadership forum, keep an eye out for more! Ahmed Wafaey and Daniele Ronca who are organising the Product Lab Conf in Berlin. Ross Webb, for a short podcast recording on ‘how Product Ops might be measured’ and ‘the role of AI in Product Ops’ - to be released soon!

Too often, the stories I hear from people building products—regardless of function, experience, seniority, or capability—end negatively simply because they weren’t set up for success from the start.

It no longer surprises me that teams fail to have meaningful early conversations about their goals, intentions, and the customer problems they aim to solve. Too many projects lack a clear understanding of return on investment—whether through revenue growth, cost reduction, or other business impact.

Since introducing the concept of Starting Conditions to the product teams at Farfetch in 2019, I’ve consistently used a set of fundamental questions to assess both my own work and that of those around me.

These questions may seem simple, but the discussions they spark—and the clarity they bring—are exactly what’s missing in the early stages of many product development efforts.

The most successful product development teams I’ve worked with not only have great experience and capabilities, but a deep understanding of what customer problems they are trying to solve and why that is important to the business.

By defining a set of conditions, in the form of straightforward plain language questions, that are consistent across the product development organisation they are able to ensure that early-stage product conversations are geared towards a process of learning. Moreover, it will mean that the whole team will be engaged earlier in the process, allowing them to open up other methods of assumption validation.

1. What is the customer problem? - the customer problem that the team is attempting to solve

2. What is the team’s goal? - what we intend to do to see if customer behaviour changes

3. Why does solving the problem matter? - defining early why it matters to both customers and the business

4. What does success look like? - the customer behaviour change that determines success

5. Who is it for? - the specific type of customer which we’re focussing on

With these starting questions answered it will allow the product team to start working on an initiative only when there is a deeper understanding of why it’s important.

Thoughts Unravelled

Episode Two is now live!

Join myself and as we discuss whether mapping and visualising your organisations product development lifecycle (PDLC) is worth the time and return on investment.

Thoughts Unravelled

TU:02 - PDLC Mapping: Worth the Effort?

Chris Compston and Hugo Froes (he/him/his) discuss whether mapping and visualising your organisations product development lifecycle (PDLC) is worth the time and return on investment…

Listen now

a year ago · Chris Compston and Hugo Froes (he/him/his)

We would love to hear from you! Have you been through this process? Was it worth the effort and was there a good return ion investment? What was the purpose of mapping the lifecycle and where did the original ask come from?

Leave a comment

Events

Product Unleashed, London - 20.03

In March, I had the pleasure of presenting the latest iteration of ‘The Art of Maximising Performance and Impact’ at what was one of the best events of the year so far for me. The organisers were incredibly accommodating, the new Wise office provided a fantastic venue, and the audience was both engaged and insightful. An all-around outstanding experience, one that I can recommend to other public speakers.

Careers

Do you have Product Ops or Product Management roles to advertise?
Share them with me for the next review

• Product Operations Lead

• Lead Product Operations Manager

• Product Ops Excellence Principal Specialist

• Senior Director of Product Operations

• Product Manager, Product Analytics

And finally … although its been a very busy month for me personally, I still managed to have some great conversations;

Daniele Spaccapeli chatting about his AI note taking tool Jimmy, Sapna Maheswari on the exciting new direction for Product at Thoughtworks and my first conversation with the amazing Diana Soler who is doing great work in the Latina community in Canada.

Fancy a chat?

New podcast just dropped folks! I’ve been holding off on sending this February review so that and I could get our new podcast up and running. This is something we’ve talked about for a while, but with busy personal and work lives, it took some time to make it happen!

We want to explore together. This podcast is a place to let our thoughts on the wild world of product unravel. We’ll cover topics related to our industry—all areas of product development, management, design, operations area leadership.

We’re taking a ‘back-to-basics’ approach. What does that mean? Minimal editing—you’ll hear our conversations as they unfold, raw and real. Each episode starts with a core topic, but we’re not following a strict agenda. We’ll let the conversation take us wherever it naturally goes.

We’re also taking an audio-first approach. No video, no distractions—just a real, unfiltered discussion.

There’s no set schedule for this either. We’ll record and release episodes when a topic feels worth diving into. Further down the line, we might even invite special guests to join us on our virtual sofa and unravel thoughts together!

Events

Product Tank Spain Tour

Throughout February I had the opportunity to visit the product communities in Malaga, Valencia and Madrid to talk about how to Maximise the Performance and Impact of product organisations at their Mind the Product Product Tank events.

I've met some great people along the way, eaten a tonne of great food and had my fair share of wine too! 🍷🦐

Huge thank you to organisers of Product Tank Valencia; Peto Martinez and Daria Rolina, Product Tank Madrid; Fernanda Sozinho and Alex Swiec, and Product Tank Malaga Juan Manuel Muñoz Caicoya for inviting, hosting and organising the events!

Now looking forward to future events across Europe; Product Unleashed in London (thanks to John Griffin), ProductLab Community & Conference in Berlin (thanks to Daniele Ronca) and PRODUCTIZED in Lisbon (thanks to Andre Marquet).

🇬🇧 Product Unleashed London 20.03.25
🇩🇪 Product Lab Berlin 13.09.25
🇵🇹 Productized Lisbon 16.10.25

Product Unleashed

First up a short trip to central London! Join myself and ex-Thoughtworks colleague Julia Petretta as we speak at Product Unleashed on the 20th March at the Wise office.

👉 Read more and book your space here 👈

London Designers X Developers

Also check out the London Designers X Developers happening at the end of March if you’re looking to break into the world of UX Design and land your first role. Featuring speakers from across the industry and organised by the fantastic Yi-Hsuan Lin.

Careers

It’s really great to see in increase in the number of product roles out there across Europe, here is just a small selection. Do you have Product Ops or Product Management roles to advertise? Share them with me for the next review

• Staff Product Operations Manager

• Product Operations Lead

• Product Operations Analyst

• Senior Product Operations Manager

• Product Strategy and Ops

• Head of Product

• Group Product Manager

• Product Lead

• Senior Product Manager

• Senior Product Manager

• Senior Product Manager

• Senior Product Manager

• Senior Product Manager

• Senior Product Manager

• Product Manager

I'm writing this while on the way to my Mind the Product - Product Tank Spain tour where I'll be speaking on 'The Art of Maximising Performance and Impact' in Malaga, Valencia and Madrid.

Since I've been evolving content from my talks and workshops throughout 2024, this new version introduces an actionable framework to keep product organisations strategically aligned, value driven, outcome focused and financially impactful.

It will be my first time speaking to the product community in Spain and my first time visiting both Valencia and Madrid! If you're coming along I'd love to chat - there may even be a special announcement coming!

🇪🇸 Product Tank, Malaga - 05.02.25
🇪🇸 Product Tank, Valencia - 20.02.25
🇪🇸 Product Tank, Madrid - 24.02.25

Thanks to Daria Rolina, Fernanda Sozinho, Juan Manuel Muñoz Caicoya and Alex Swiec for inviting me and organising the events.

How do you define a High-Performing Product Team?

This is a current hot topic, and while high performance is specific to each organisation, its people, and the products they develop, there are key factors that can define high performance. With focused leadership, these factors can help teams become even more efficient and effective.

High-performing product teams (HPPTs) should be able to confidently state what makes them such. The statement I always fall back on is; "We consistently get things to customers that they value enough to pay for."

It's a statement made of three main components; building products ('things'), customer value and business impact ('pay for'). These components may look different for you; it may be internal products or B2C, you may want to be specific with customer type you focus on or your business impact may not be directly linked to revenue.

Regardless of the context, the statement must include these three components. Product teams need a solid understanding of what they're building and why, who the customer is and what they value, and ultimately how that connects to an impact on the business.

There are still two more factors to take into account. If we believe that quality products can only be developed by 'building the right thing' and 'building the thing right', product organisations can only become truly high-performing by also considering their approach and their culture.

Simonetta Batteiger introduced a fantastic Venn diagram to help visualise the importance of the latter. You can read the full post here!

This clearly shows the importance of a 'great culture'. Something the world seems to be even more divided on today. Organisations that are built with clear purpose, high capability and favouring aligned autonomy, with strong values in inclusion and diversity, and with continuous improvement mindsets, are more likely to become high-performing.

If organisational leadership can create the right culture their teams are more likely to drive the customer value and business impact they need to become high-performing. However, to become leaders in their industry the organisation still needs an approach that empowers their teams, allowing them to experiment and learning iteratively.

Read: 'Becoming the Respected Leader' from my last newsletter.

This combination of a focus on both customer value and business impact, with the right culture and approach, are the defining factors in building a high-performing product organisation.

Be a 'Top Listener'

It has been six years since I left Thoughtworks, a global tech consultancy with a strong culture rooted in Agile practices and social good. Those people were some of the smartest and welcoming I've worked with and its no surprise that many of my close friends are ex-Thoughtworkers.

Something I've missed since leaving is the chance for strong debate and discourse around topics either related directly to client work or, even more often, general conversation. People had opinions, but they also actively listened and gave others their chance before responding, sometimes strongly!

There's many reasons why I could feel like that is missing now. Some personal and some down to the wider political, technological and socio-economic changes around the world.

I'm not saying this culture can't be found in other groups or organisations. I've certainly found them myself, albeit in pockets or smaller groups rather than being the norm or ingrained in the culture of an organisation.

The raise of political extremism across the world and toxic social media platforms has only fuelled the decline of healthy discourse and active listening.

But we have to find some fun somewhere along the way. Can we enjoy making technology together again rather than just shouting into the void and hoping someone its upset enough to shout back?

Maybe we need less ‘hot takes’ and more ‘coffee chats’.

Having a facetious conversation with an ex-Thoughtworks colleague Edward Mangini we came to the conclusion that we need less 'Top Voices'. Maybe LinkedIn should replace it with 'Top Listener'?

Careers

Do you have Product Ops or Product Management roles to advertise?
Share them with me for the next review

• Senior Program Manager for Product Operations

• Manager, Product Operations

• Staff Product Manager

• Senior Product Manager

• Product Support Manager

• Product Data Analyst

• Lead Product Designer

• Senior Product Designer

Conversations

Meg Porter, who recently relaunched her fractional leadership business. Tanja Lau, the Founder of the Product Academy. Camila Perine, who was one of 50 product folks who joined my workshop at Productized last year! Emily Webber, discussing diversity at conferences and the speaker experience. Martijn Versteeg, who is organising the Product Mastery Conference. Nare Danielyan, Product Operations Manager - Picsart. Alex Astafiev, who is interested to learn more about the world of Product Ops. Andre Marquet and Sandra Neeme for our upcoming podcast!

Fancy a chat?

And finally … Another Toxic AI Tool!

With the unstoppable and incessant rise of artificial intelligent the battle between the US and China continues as they build tools that fit their agenda and view of the world. This trend is only likely to continue. Numbing us further as they push their definition of the new world and remove history completely.

Do you want to be a respected leader in 2025? Have a read of this great article by Daniel Shiner ‘Finding My Fighting Words: How I Learned to Have Uncomfortable Conversations’. He introduces an approach to getting more comfortable with challenging conversations in a way that hopefully, through much hard work, leads to becoming a respected leader in the organisation.

I’ve found myself referring back to this matrix often with friends, clients and the people I’m coaching to be future leaders. There is a fine balance between being a respected leader in an organisation and being, crudely put, an asshole.

I think we can often find ourselves and those around us fitting neatly into each of these categories at any given time. That can be dependent on the situation, the organisation or the people you’re working closely with or being led by.

The important questions to ask; Where on the matrix are you currently? Is this where you want to be? How might you move to the top right quadrant? Do you see some of these negative traits in others around you? How might you help them?

I’d love to hear what you think, where on the matrix are you right now?

Leave a comment

Leadership Coaching

Ambitious goals for 2025?

I have some availability in Q1 2025, if you’re looking to raise your leadership game by building self-awareness, developing personal skills and clarity to unlock your full potential, my programme would be a great fit for you!

Read more here: chriscompston.com/coaching

“I have found the sessions incredibly beneficial. Using the models Chris introduced, supported my deeper reflection and is something I would not have considered doing without these coaching sessions.”

Alexander Hills
Product Communications Manager

Strategic Product Prioritisation

It’s that time of year when teams have been through the dreaded ‘annual planning’. Ideally, even as new long-term strategic objectives start to shape short-term commitments, the process should align closely with the rolling quarterly planning that teams already practice.

Every year, the same question arises: how should teams prioritise future product work? And, like many others, I find myself wondering—how are product teams approaching strategic product prioritisation? Specifically, how are they managing the monthly or quarterly prioritisation of product changes that align with strategic objectives, as opposed to the more granular sprint-level planning?

Where I see teams struggle most is in the belief that an overly complex and time consuming method or framework exists and can automatically determine what to do next. This belief often drives Product Managers toward the RICE prioritisation model.

Why doesn’t RICE quite work?

RICE has now permeated many product organisations, becoming the go-to method for deciding what to tackle first. However, in my experience, the model is flawed for several reasons.

It relies on arbitrary numerical inputs, which can be easily gamed by anyone with an agenda. Its subjectivity varies widely across an organisation, and it ignores critical factors like situational or market context, internal dependencies, and long-term customer value. Instead, it often shifts focus to short-term thinking, undermining alignment with broader business impact.

RICE is yet another tool among many that can assist decision-making. But there seems to be a heavy over-reliance on the model which I believe is a mistake.

Interestingly a number of years ago I spoke with Sean McBride, who initially introduced the model, to discuss in more detail how Intercom were using it. The answer? They weren’t, it was a concept that didn’t quite work out in practice. Flashbacks to the ‘Spotify Model’ anyone?

In most cases, I’ve seen RICE exercises lead to one of two outcomes. Either an ordered list that already aligns with what the team thought, making the effort redundant. Or it produces unexpected results, which are then forcibly reordered to suit team or stakeholder preferences with little evidence to push back with. In both scenarios, it’s often a waste of time and energy.

Introducing Matrix3 Prioritisation

I’ve started to use a more simple* yet powerful prioritisation framework I call Matrix3. This approach refocuses teams on the core reasons we build products: to drive customer value and generate business impact.

It uses three levels of matrix based activities to explore and examine;

1. Customer Value vs Business Impact

2. Customer Value + Business Impact vs Effort

3. Combined Opportunities vs Time To Value

By using Matrix3, teams can refine opportunities not just into an ordered list but into the most valuable and impactful initiatives. From there, the group discusses the level of effort and time-to-value that help determine a clear prioritised way forward.

Matrix3 balances objectivity (grounded in real quantitative and qualitative data with analysed insights) and subjectivity (the team’s collective intuition about what will drive the most value and impact quickly).

That prioritisation emerges not from rigid numerical formulas but from a structured collaborative evaluation of value, impact, effort, and timing. This approach avoids the pitfalls of static prioritisation models by balancing data-informed insights with the team’s expertise and judgment.

By focusing on these dimensions, teams don’t just produce an ordered list—they uncover the right opportunities to tackle at the right time.

This is a new approach and I’ll be sharing more details on how to use Matrix3 Prioritisation and the activities soon - watch this space!

How do you prioritise your strategic product objectives?

Leave a comment

* “Simple” refers to the clarity of the framework, though implementing it well requires the insights driven from the thoughtful analysis of customer, market and internal quant/qual data, and cross-functional collaborative decision making.

Join me on Bluesky!

Finally it seems we might have a replacement for the toxic wasteland that is ‘the other one’. I’ve been on Bluesky for only a couple of weeks, its still new and fresh but activity is building and at the very least the algorithm isn’t constantly forcing me to follow Elon Musk.

You can find me on Bluesky here: @chriscompston.bsky.social

Careers

Do you have Product Ops or Product Management roles to advertise?
Share them with me for the next review

• Product Operations Lead

• Product Operations Manager

• Senior Product Operations Manager

• Operations Manager (Process)

• Product Operations Manager

• Head of Tech Operations

• Product Operations Specialist

• Product & Innovation Manager

• Product Lead

• Senior Growth Product Manager

• Product Analyst

Finally a shout out to all the great conversations I had throughout the month;

Amy Rohan, a great conversation about the structure of Product and Design Ops at Vista Print. Hugo Froes, I’ll never tire of chatting through our ambitious plans - now its time for some action, watch this space folks! Julia Petretta, discussing the challenges and the future of good design leadership. Daniele Ronca, introducing me to the ProductLab Community Conference happening in Berlin. Ross Webb, aligning on the topic for my upcoming webinar for Top Prods. Sergiu Lazar, always amazed by the new ideas coming out of the Product Weekend gang, more things coming!

Fancy a chat?

Welcome to Chris’ Newsletter November Review

As we come to the end of the year we’re usually all thinking about what the next one might hold and this newsletter will focus on an aspect of that - the dreaded annual planning season.

Why do we fear this? Having been part of many annual planning exercises, what I’ve noticed is that there is often a huge disconnect between the people involved on the ground doing the planning (cross-functional teams) and those that are asking for a view of what might be coming (business leaders, shareholders, finance teams).

From my understanding, these groups actually want the same thing .They’re just viewing it from different perspectives, which is exactly what you’d expect. However the issue often lies in the fact that these groups rarely sit down to understand each other’s perspectives and that viewpoint becomes mangled through various large-scale meetings, keyboard warrior communications and personal perspectives.

More clarity and transparency of why annual planning is important to business leaders, shareholders and finance teams and how cross-functional teams might get involved, would improve this situation.

There’s a perception from cross-functional teams that business leaders and finance teams want a sprint-by-sprint play of everything that will be delivered - that is most often not the case. Providing a quarter-by-quarter potential revenue impact is expected and I don’t think that is too much to ask for.

What cross-functional teams and product leadership need to be clear on is that their understanding at a given time will most likely change as they experience and learn new things about their customers and the business. All organisations have to be adaptable to changing needs and annual planning, used as a broader tool for forecasting revenue impact, has its place in that.

What are your thoughts on successful annual planning?

Leave a comment

Join me on Bluesky!

Finally it seems we might have a replacement for the toxic wasteland that is ‘the other one’. I’ve been on Bluesky for only a couple of weeks, its still new and fresh but activity is building and at the very least the algorithm isn’t constantly forcing me to follow Elon Musk.

You can find me on Bluesky here: @chriscompston.bsky.social

Leadership Coaching

Ambitious goals for 2025?

I have a couple of slots available for coaching in Q1 2025. If you’re looking to raise your leadership game by building self-awareness, developing personal skills and clarity to unlock your full potential, one of my programmes might be a great fit for you.

Read more on my coaching programmes here: chriscompston.com/coaching

Community Conversations

Leading Indicators of Successful Planning

Coming to the end of the year we all know that next years plans are fully on our mind. What will 2025 hold for your product organisation? Is your vision shifting, objectives being carried over, individual aspirations evolving?

I had an interesting conversation with a client of mine earlier in the month about the ‘leading indicators’ of successful annual planning. Planning is something that most product folks really don’t enjoy and often actively lean away from or at least grumble about. However, annual planning in larger organisations is not going away given that its intrinsically linked to financial forecasting.

And as Jason Knight described (over on Bluesky no less!) “The planning might be successful but it doesn't mean the plans will be.”

So how might we try to make sure upfront, as best we can, that annual planning is successful and that the plans we make are achievable and have a positive impact on the business?

Here’s some ideas that were shared by May Wong;

• Do people across the impacted teams have an idea of what they’re going to do and why?

• Are the operational and sales teams aligned with this plan? Will they support it publicly?

• Are your teams confident that they can implement this plan within the timeline?

• How long did it take you to get this plan together?

• How pessimistic are people about the longevity/feasibility of this plan?

• Is it just a list of features, or does the whole plan tell a bigger story?

And I also loved Jason’s idea of ‘confidence poker’, once the planning sessions are over, how confident are we that these plans will be succesful? Fibonacci is making a comeback!

Overall what this ultimately means is that we should be planning with three key factors in mind;

1. Strategic alignment - so that the needs of the business can be met

2. Data-informed decision making - so that the needs of the customer can be met

3. Stakeholder engagement - so that our approach is collaborative

This might seem straight forward, however how many of us can truly say we’re measuring these leading indicators pre- and post-planning to ensure that next time we can improve or optimise?

My hunch is very few and I’d love to hear your thoughts, ideas and stories on this!

Leave a comment

Events & Conferences

I’m starting to plan my speaking engagements for 2025 and I need your help!

🤔 What are the best product conferences to consider in 2025?
🆕 Do you know of any newly founded meet-ups or events?
⭐️ Have you seen me speak before and would be happy to recommend?

Realised that I’ll soon have spoken at events in 9 countries, would be great to increase that! 🇵🇹 🇩🇪 🇳🇱 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🇹🇭 🇮🇪 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🇷🇴 🇪🇸

And my most recent was …

Product Weekend, Cluj-Napoca - 09.11

Early in November I was invited to speak at my third Product Weekend event and what an incredible time I had in Romania giving the key note presentation at in the beautiful city of Cluj-Napoca! There is a burgeoning product community in Romania and I was so happy to have met some really inspiring Product Managers, of all experience levels, over the few days I was there.

Huge thanks go to Sergiu Lazar Angelescu, co-founder of Product Weekend, for inviting me to speak and creating a really great event yet again. To Wolfpack Digital for hosting us and finally to Monica Zara for her uplifting tunes before we got started!

Thanks to the other speakers for sharing their great actionable insights and frameworks for effective product management; Ana Burciu (Oarga), Bogdan Doaga and Adrian Cristian.

Just some of the great people I met over the weekend; Andreea Anitei, Baricz Emil, Bianca Cezara Panait, Oana Adelina Bănică, Roxana Eftene, Bianca Fagaras, Alina Dalia Sandu, PMP®, PSM I, Cristiana-Francesca Neamț, Cristian Virciu, Raz Burciu, Diana Raita, Titus Cherecheș, Alexandra Dochia, Ioana Muntean, Alexandru Butnar, Moruzi Mihnea

Do you have an event you’d like me to speak at? Let’s Chat!

Careers

Do you have Product Ops or Product Management roles to advertise?
Share them with me for the next review

• Product Ops Analyst

• Product Operations Lead

• Product Operations Associate

• Product Ops

• Product Operations & Strategy

• Core Product Management Lead

• Product Manager (Payments)

• Product Manager - Player Engagement

• Staff Product Manager (Global Benefits)

• Product Manager

• Product Manager

• Product Manager

Finally a shout out to all the great conversations I had throughout the month;

Jeff Gothelf, reminding me that to ‘sense and respond’ is also applicable to consulting. Ben Whitfield-Heap, offering Product Ops to his public services clients with Methods consultancy. Malte Scholz, bringing us great product management tools with Airfocus. Chantal Botana, sharing her approach to coaching. Kate Mortenson, chatting about OKR approaches. Ana Varakine, new to London and in the learning experience space. Bruno Torres Boeger, catching up with my good friend from Farfetch. Büşra Coşkuner, talking through her new workshop - look out for it as it sounds great. Joanna Ou, in the greentech and sustainability space, interesting things coming!

Fancy a chat?

Welcome Chris’ Newsletter October Review

Encouraged by the great work being done by the co-founders of Product Weekend, João Moita and Sergiu Lazar Angelescu, this month I've been focused on the topic of 'psychological safety'.

Check out their podcast series on the topic here

Building a culture of psychological safety is crucial to the success of an organisation, it takes time but its time worth taking. As leaders in the field we need to take action to build the type of culture we want, we can't just have principles and values hidden on a company careers website or new employee onboarding deck - we need to live them.

Looking to build a culture of psychological safety? Check out these articles;

Events & Conferences

UX Crunch, London - 30.10

This month I had the pleasure of being invited to speak at UX Crunch at the Skyscanner office in central London. It is the second UX focused meet-up I've had the pleasure to speak at this year, following my talk at UX Oxford in June. I'm always reminded of what great communities designers build, always welcoming and curious!

The overall theme for the event was 'Mastering Agile UX'. When preparing for my talk - ‘Enabling a Product Thinking Mindset’, I realised it was 10 years since my first ever public speaking event! The topic back then was 'Agile UX Design' and we're still having the same conversations a decade later.

Is it time for a new conversation? Rather than 'How can design be more Agile?' can we switch focus instead to ‘How do we define and build high performing product teams?

My talk goes into that topic and I was overjoyed to hear the content was insightful and actionable for the crowd, the feedback "Your talk was truly inspiring" is always something you want to hear.

Do you have an event you’d like me to speak at? Let’s Chat!

Shout out to the other great speakers, providing real life insights into practices and processes that enable Agile teams; Anna Palgan, Daniel Gost, Mayokun Ogungbola, Lucille Harvey and Jiri Mcc. Thanks to Iconic Agency and founders Luke Reed for hosting us, Myles McMorrow for organising the event, Akshit Khandelwal for expertly hosting the panel and Q&A and finally Skyscanner for hosting us.

Product Ops HQ Meet-up, Online - 22.10

It has been a while since I joined any online Product Ops community meet-up and I was really happy to see how much this particular one had grown. In the early days, 2-3 years ago, there were usually less than 10 people on the call. Now they're up to nearly 50! Testament to the great work done by Ana Raquel Andrade and the team behind the community.

This month's topic was on cross-functional collaboration, I really enjoyed the introduction from Maria Van Wambeke and the approach for the remainder of the call; opening up 3 key topics for the attendees to discuss. Participation was high and it was great to hear people’s Product Ops stories and opinions.

Join the Product Ops HQ community Slack channel here or message me directly.

Upcoming Events

Community Conversations

A Strategic Approach to Product Ops

Myself, Chiara Gardner and Hugo Froes were having a great discussion on the different approaches to shaping Product Ops in an organisation that fears the word 'process'. I shared previously on LinkedIn my Principles > Practices > Processes > Procedures approach that helps drive that conversation.

Can be summarised further as;

Both product leadership and their product teams should be talking about operational change, particularly in scaling organisations. What I’ve seen is that the former often wants to impose and the latter is usually fearful of it. In my experience both groups talk about 'process' and it's often the wrong word.

"But product can't be standardised, we must be flexible!". Totally true. When leadership ask for 'process' what they actually mean is standardised ‘practices’, that allow for team flexibility and creativity. When product teams fear ‘process’, its actually a fear of 'procedures', those that go into the detailed practical elements of the process.

Approaching Product Ops without a clear definition of these terms, and how we operate differently when introducing and utilising each of them, is the cause of this problem.

Look out for more content on this topic coming soon!

And a shout out to all the other conversations I had throughout October;

Diana Bernardo, an experienced ghost writer I may be working with in the future. Phil Hornby, a product coach and advisor, you may also know him from his podcast series on roadmapping. Hannah Hughes, a Product Manager interested in the world of Product Ops. Kelsey Pienaar, founder of a virtual assistant service, worth checking out if you're looking for support. Mat Winegarden, we had a great chat about the product operating model and the differences between European and American Product Ops. Fo Neale-May, an experienced leader in the Product Ops community and Senior Director of Product Ops at Branch, finally we had the chance to talk, its taken a while for us both to find the time but we had a fantastic conversation! Becky Flint, the founder of Dragonboat, we discussed consulting approaches and where their tool fits into understanding and mapping the 'taxonomy' of a product organisation, more content to come on this soon! Daniele Spaccapeli, a Product Manager and friend I bonded with at the Product Weekend Leadership retreat last year in Portugal, he's made the bold move to start building his own products, looking forward to seeing what happens next! Clare Hawthorne, another amazing woman leading in Product Ops, we discussed the connection between Product Ops and Dev Ops. Michael Gyi, a friend and independent UX consultant looking to run an effective ways of working retrospective with his client, he reminded me of Conway's Law;

Fancy a chat? Book some time with me

Lovely to meet a bunch of new people this month; Anna Palgan, Daniel Gost, Lucille Harvey, Mayokun Ogungbola, Jiri Mcc, Lilian Lin, Bahadir Yargin, Yi-Hsuan Lin, Alex Bacoyannis, Cathy Wang, Natasha Montgomery, Te Lan, Rado Stolarcik, Sara Gaffarelli. Along with some familiar faces Danyu Long, Bruno Borella, Natalie LeRoy and Gareth Young.

Careers

Do you have a Product Ops role to advertise? Share them with me for the next review

• Senior Product Operations Manager

• Product Operations - 6 months internship

• Product Operations Lead

• Principal Product Operations Manager

• Product Manager

• Staff Product Designer

• Product Owner

There’s a few Product Ops roles coming down the line with clients I’m working with, if you’re looking for a Product Ops role please do let me know!