Empower Product Teams to Rock the World by Uncovering and Overcoming Dangerous Traps Untrapping Product Teams guides you to simplify what gets unintentionally complicated and equips you to overcome dangerous traps while steadily driving customer and business value. This isn't just another book about product management. It's a thought-provoking guide filled with simplicity, encouraging you to act today for a better tomorrow. This book is for anyone facing the challenges of working on or with product teams. It lays out leading best practices, combined with "secret ingredients" crafted by the author based on years of experience. Learn what makes or breaks product teams so you are ready to do what it takes to thrive with digital products. Learn the differences between coordinative and collaborative workflows Recognize dangerous traps and the strategies to overcome them Explore the product journey: simplify decision-making, apply mindful product discovery, use delivery to accelerate value, and measure results beyond outputs Craft product principles and set solid foundations for product teams Benefit from proven product health checks to uncover where to act today for a better tomorrow "This is my new favorite book on product management. Untrapping Product Teams covers everything you need to know to lead a product team and be successful as a product manager. Author David Pereira does an excellent job of pointing out biases and thinking traps that doom products. The book is full of many insights and tools that will be useful for years to come." --Mike Cohn, co-founder of Agile Alliance "David's book shares several hard-earned lessons of what happens when product leaders, product managers, and especially product owners are not trained to succeed in their jobs, and they go on to make predictable and avoidable mistakes. This book can help you avoid some of these pitfalls." --Marty Cagan, partner, Silicon Valley Product Group "This book touches on all the daily essentials for a product person. It's a practical guide and a meta-analysis rolled into one, serving as the 'Greatest Hits' album of Product Management. Ideal for newcomers and an excellent refresher for those already immersed in the field." --Petra Wille, author of Strong Product People Register your book for convenient access to downloads, updates, and/or corrections as they become available. See inside book for details.

Table of Contents:
Foreword by Ash Maurya xiii Foreword by Jim Highsmith xv Preface xvii About the Author xxi Introduction 1 Who Can Benefit from This Book 2 How to Read This Book 3 What to Expect from Untrapping Product Teams 3 Part I: Facing Dangerous Traps 5 Chapter 1: How Common Ways of Working Trap or Untrap Teams 7 How Feature Factory Companies Work 8 Coordinative Flow: A Logical Way of Working with Unexpected Results 12 Nine Out of Ten Ideas Will Fail 15 Collaborative Flow: A Simple Way of Working with Outstanding Results 16 Key Takeaways 21 Chapter 2: The Mindset Impacts on Dangerous Traps 23 What's a Growth Mindset? 25 What's a Fixed Mindset? 25 Identifying the Mindset's Impacts 26 Output over Outcome 27 Opinions over Evidence 28 Prescriptive Roadmaps over Embracing the Unknown 30 Meeting Deadlines over Achieving Goals 32 Implementing Solutions over Solving Problems 33 Key Takeaways 35 Chapter 3: What Distracts Teams from Creating Value 37 Facing the Real Enemy: Bullshit Management 38 Gathering Requirements: A Distraction to Value Creation 39 Extensive Product Backlog: When the Past Limits the Future 40 Output Reports: Wasting Time 42 Consensus-Driven Decisions: Slowing Down Progress 43 Output Approval: Limiting Team's Accountability 44 Meeting Marathon: Long Days with Little Value Created 45 Fear of Saying No: The Art of Getting Overwhelmed 46 Bridge Communication: Becoming the Bottleneck 47 Opinion-Driven Decision: Ignoring Evidence, Creating Waste 48 Failure Avoidance: Killing Innovation Chances 50 Bullshit Management Check 51 Key Takeaways 51 Part II: Overcoming Dangerous Traps 53 Chapter 4: Using the Right Ingredients for Product Teams 55 How a Simple Restaurant Became the World's Number One 56 Understanding the Right Ingredients for Product Teams 56 What a Solid Product Strategy Enables 57 Accelerating Learning with Product Discovery 59 Approaching Product Delivery Mindfully 61 Finding the Right Ingredients for Your Situation 62 Key Takeaways 63 Chapter 5: Crafting a Meaningful Product Strategy 65 Identifying Who You Serve 66 Understanding Your Product Stage 68 Product Vision: Knowing Where to Land 69 Lean Canvas: Defining the Key Aspects to Thrive 72 Value Curve: Designing to Differentiate 80 Roadmap: Establishing Clarity on What to Achieve 82 Key Takeaways 86 Chapter 6: Forget What You Know to Get Ready for the Unknown 89 My Unforgettable First Date with Product Discovery 90 Biases: Blocking Learning Opportunities 91 Confirmation Bias: The Art of Missing Opportunities and Creating Waste 92 Commitment Escalation: Making a Bad Situation Even Worse 92 Sunk-Cost Fallacy: The Fear of Losing Triggering More Losses 93 Bandwagon Fallacy: Following the Masses Without Knowing Why 94 Value Drivers: Doing What Matters for Customers and the Business 95 Do What's Right, Not What's Easy 97 Key Takeaways 98 Chapter 7: Embarking on a Journey to Discover What Matters 99 Understanding the Discovery Journey 99 Clarify the Goal: Know What Success Looks Like 101 Understand Your Audience: Know How Customers Use Your Product 102 Uncover Value Drivers: Identify What's Worth Pursuing 104 Prioritize and Focus: Take One Value Driver at a Time 107 Reinvent the Future: Diverge and Converge 109 Deal with Assumptions: Drop Bad Ideas Fast Enough 110 Use Evidence to Progress: Experiment, Learn, Decide 116 Key Takeaways 118 Chapter 8: Enabling Product Delivery Beyond Outputs 119 How the Wrong Approach to Product Delivery Leads to a Feature Factory 120 Product Backlog: Organizing What Drives Value 121 Refinement: Building Shared Understanding 125 Alignment: Setting the Next Goal 127 Getting Things Done 129 Using Tech Debt: Accelerate Learning to Avoid Poor Investment 131 Review: Getting Business and Product Aligned 134 Improve: Strive to Continuously Become a Better Team 135 Key Takeaways 136 Chapter 9: Defining and Measuring Actionable Metrics 139 Data Traps: Avoid Common Traps 140 Leading versus Laggard Metrics 141 Input versus Output Metrics: Understanding Control and Influence 143 Defining Metrics: Focus on Signs While Ignoring Noise 144 Measuring Results: Be Careful, You're Not a Stockbroker 146 Sharing Results: Spread the News about Outcomes 147 Pro Hints: Saving You Hours per Week 148 Usual Metrics: The Bread and Butter of Analytics 149 Key Takeaways 151 Chapter 10: Getting the Teams Right 153 Common Product Teams Setup 154 Roles and Responsibilities: Who Takes Care of What 160 Product Managers versus Backlog Managers 162 Software Engineers versus Coders 165 Product Designers versus Pixel-Perfect Designers 167 Agile Coaches versus Agile Rulers 168 Key Takeaways 169 Chapter 11: Building Solid Relationships 171 Who the Stakeholders Are 172 Power and Interest: How to Improve Collaboration with Business Stakeholders 173 Sharpening Communication: How to Ensure Shared Understanding 175 Establishing Alignment: No More Confusion 177 Breakthroughs Occur with Real Interactions Instead of Shallow Ones 179 Key Takeaways 180 Part III: Remaining Untrapped 183 Chapter 12: Establishing Product Principles 185 Why Product Principles? 186 How to Craft Product Principles 186 How to Ensure Principles Are Kept Alive 188 Evolving the Product Principles 190 Principles That Helped My Teams 190 Key Takeaways 196 Chapter 13: Assessing Your Company's Dynamics 197 Leadership: Creating a Space Where Great Ideas Can Happen 198 Product Perception: Are You Ready to Thrive? 200 Product Leadership: Coordination or Collaboration? 201 Team Topology: Setting Teams Ready to Rock 202 Risk Tolerance: From Fear to Courage 203 Key Takeaways 204 Chapter 14: Evaluating How Your Product Strategy Implementation Simplifies Decision Making 205 Ownership: Clear Accountability, Better Results 206 Prioritization: Moving from Serving to Partnering 207 Decision Making: Progress over Analysis 208 Goals: Clarity on Where You Want to Land 208 Collaboration: Getting Together to Create What Matters 210 Key Takeaways 211 Chapter 15: Understanding How Quickly You Can Drop Bad Ideas 213 Value Proposition: Clarity on What's Most Important 214 Customer Interviews: Creating Insights to Unlock Learning 215 Identifying Assumptions: Knowing What We Don't Know 216 Testing Assumptions: Confronting Reality 217 Ideation: Creating a Better Future 218 Key Takeaways 219 Chapter 16: Examining How Fast You Can Drive Business and Customer Value 221 Implementation: Prioritizing Learning over Scalability 222 Measure Results: Focusing on What Moves the Needle 223 Feature Removal: Getting Rid of Distractions 223 Facing Failures: Learning versus Blaming 224 Product Backlog: Past Promises versus Future Opportunities 226 Key Takeaways 227 Wrap-Up 229 Appendix: Untrapping Lessons 233 Bibliography 235 Index 237