PRODUCT LEADERSHIP PRINCIPLE: Many Execution Problems Begin Before Execution

When a product misses its schedule, struggles in the market, or fails to deliver the expected return, the natural reaction is to look at execution.

• Engineering was late.

• The launch was weak.

• Sales wasn’t ready.

• The supplier missed commitments.

Sometimes those are the problems.

But often, the real problem began much earlier.

The customer problem was never understood well enough.

The opportunity was attractive, but not attractive enough.

The product concept contained too many assumptions.

The economics only worked under optimistic conditions.

Or the organization committed significant resources before the evidence justified the commitment.

By the time those weaknesses appear as execution problems, the team may already have spent months—and substantial money—trying to execute a decision that was never sufficiently strong in the first place.

This is one reason I believe product leaders are business leaders.

Their responsibility isn’t simply to help the organization execute products well.

It is also to help the business decide which products deserve to be executed at all—and how much evidence is required before increasing the commitment.

Before asking: “How do we execute this better?”

Management may need to ask an earlier question: “Did we make a strong enough business decision before execution began?”

Before the Business Invests is a free decision guide for pressure-testing product opportunities before significant resources are committed. Click HERE to download.