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Product Thinking Newsletter by Melissa Perri

Avoid These Mistakes in Org Design

Published 5 months agoΒ β€’Β 2 min read

Hi Product people,

How do you design an organization that supports product management teams to deliver real customer value effectively?

This week on the Product Thinking Podcast, I explored this topic in depth. We discussed how critical it is to structure teams around value streams instead of architecture, ensuring that every team is strategically aligned with delivering customer value.

This Dear Melissa episode highlighted the importance of having platform teams that work collaboratively with customer-facing teams to scale services across an organization.

"Platform teams should not operate in isolation. They are not just order takers for customer-facing teams. They need to be strategic as well and ensure that the value they create goes all the way back to the customers."

We also delved into the pitfalls of having too many layers in decision-making processes, which can slow down efficiency and impede quick decision-making. It's essential to maintain short layers of control to enhance agility within large organizations.

Have you structured your product teams around value streams? I'd love to hear how it has impacted your organization's ability to deliver customer value. Reply to this email or join the conversation on LinkedIn!

🎧 Listen to the full episode here: Apple | Spotify​

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Until next time,

Melissa Perri

Founder Product Institute, Board Member, and Teacher
​

You’ll hear us talk about:

  • 01:33 - Organizing Around Value Streams

Melissa discusses the importance of structuring product management teams around value streams, ensuring clear ownership of roadmaps and effective delivery of customer value.

  • 02:32 - Avoiding Organizational Bottlenecks

Melissa explains the drawbacks of having too many layers in decision-making processes within large organizations, advocating for shorter control layers to enhance efficiency and decision speed.

  • 06:38 - The Role of Platform Teams

The episode highlights the strategic importance of platform teams in scaling services organization-wide, emphasizing the need for these teams to align closely with customer-facing value streams.

Other Resources:

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Product Management training at scale for teams and individuals, created by Melissa Perri.

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Product Thinking Newsletter by Melissa Perri

All things Product Management

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