A proposed definition for product management + Sustainability
About a decade ago, my job was to build sustainability programs for golf’s major championships. Sounds pretty fun, right!? Fun it was! I got to participate in the process of hosting some of golf’s most renowned events. Events I had been watching since I was 8 years old. For me, it was like being backstage at… I feel like the end of this sentence goes “Rolling Stones”, but I’m pretty sure the only credible finale to this phrase in 2023 is “Taylor Swift.” Anyway, sustainability for golf’s major championships. We referred to it as a program, but it was essentially a product - Enroll in our sustainability product and we will provide you with a clear path towards getting your event eco-certified.
At the time, I wouldn’t have been able to tell someone what product management means. My charter was simple. Convince golf’s major championships to get involved. It didn’t take me long to realize that the stakeholder I needed to convince wasn’t the Event Manager. The person I needed to convince worked for the marketing department of the Corporate Partner spending $10 million to sponsor the event. In case you don’t tune into the PGA Tour every week, these corporate partners are extremely generous within the sport of golf. You may assume it’s all about the marketing return, but many of these corporate partners sign these extraordinarily high checks because the foundations running the event (often serving as the event manager as well) go to tremendous lengths to run these events in a manner that contributes the highest possible benefit to the community. That’s the return everyone involved is working so hard for, and it’s also reason #1 alongside so many other reasons that it’s okay to not hesitate being 100% against LIV Golf. Through the PGA Tour, millions of dollars are raised for important causes ranging from St. Judes Hospital to your local YMCA. This happens week in and week out because of how these events are structured and operated. The events succeed because of the foundations that run them, the teams of volunteers that come onsite to serve the spectators, and the corporate partners that generously open up their wallets.
Who are the customers and what do they need?
Truth is, we got some things right. We came up with some creative ideas to celebrate the hard work the event managers put in. We produced fun marketing + communications collateral for corporate partners to use throughout the weeks of the event. But, I am curious how we would have designed our product differently had we spent more time understanding what our customers’ needs were.
As Product Managers, when we set out to create products, we set out to please our customers - the people that use our product. If we make good products, we improve the bottom line. That’s success. For the sake of maintaining integrity with the existing product management field and it’s definition, it should remain this simple.
However, in the sustainable business world, we define success through the triple bottom line - People + Profits + Planet. Therefore, I think when we talk about Product Management + Sustainability we have to redefine success to be more broad. For example:
When we set out to create products, we set out to please our customers - the people using our product the entities that use our product as well as the entities impacted by the use of our product. If we make good products, we earn profits all entities benefit and the triple bottom line improves. That’s success.
This distinction is extremely important because in Product Management, the customer is at the center of product strategy, so expanding the definition of customer has significant implications.
Organizing Around Value
My training as a Sustainability Professional focused heavily on process. This is totally understandable, and I would argue that it is totally responsible, as many of the key tenants of sustainability derive from the widely held belief that institutionally, the lack of intention throughout the business community is heavily responsible for the climate impacts we face today.
Thinking about the example of my work experience summarized above, I am curious how I might have approached the work differently with a product management mindset. Remember, a good product manager is committed to consistently organizing around value. Taking into account the more robust definition above for Product Management + Sustainability, we can expect organizing around value to be more challenging because value now includes all entities impacted by our products in addition to entities using our products. I think this is perhaps a really big distinction worth spending some time to better understand, which I hope to do over the weeks ahead. Good product managers are highly trained to organize around value. That’s the job. There are going to be challenges. There is going to be interference. A good product manager figures out how to keep bringing the team back to value.
For a better understanding of how we organize around value, let’s look at the Agile Manifesto, aka a Manifesto created by the Founding Fathers of Agile Software Development in the 90’s. Naturally, these purists have also committed to not evolving the website, which I personally think is amazing. At the top of this manifesto is Individuals and interactions over processes and tools. I can tell you for certain that when I was creating our Sustainable Tournaments product, I was not focused on individuals and interactions. I was following a process and focused on leveraging the tools available at my disposal.
How We Did the Work (An Approach Heavy on Processes + Tools)
Below is a summary of how I approached the work over the span of 2 1/2 years.
I conducted hours of stakeholder mapping exercises to identify impacted stakeholders as well as potentially impacted stakeholders. I workshopped sessions with various individuals to ensure completeness.
Then, I recruited experts spanning industries + disciplines to form a balanced Steering Committee capable of representing the Stakeholder Matrix.
Next, I established the Steering Committee and onboarded them with the subject matter as well as their responsibilities in overseeing the development of our product.
We hosted several workshops as well as collaborated asynchronously to develop the product.
We hosted 3 separate public consultation windows (ranging from 90 to 180 days) over the course of 2 years to provide ample opportunity for members of the public to provide input, feedback, and express any concerns.
During the open consultation windows, I proactively sought the input of individuals, organizations, and associations that could represent our Stakeholder matrix.
The Steering Committee met on a regular basis to review feedback received by the public.
Ultimately, after completing these exercises and much more, we released a product to the industry.
How Might I Have Gone About the Work (An Approach Heavy on Relationships + Interactions)
Referencing the first three lines that summarize the approach that was taken, below are some thoughts as to how I might have gone about the work had I applied product management concepts + principles such as: organize around value, apply a lean mindset, focus on individuals + interactions, as well as several others.
From: I conducted hours of stakeholder mapping exercises to identify impacted stakeholders as well as potentially impacted stakeholders. I workshopped sessions with various individuals to ensure completeness.
To: —-> An example of a lean approach could have been simply creating 3 columns: 1) customers, 2) environmentally impacted entities, and 3) socially impacted entities in order to identify user personas (representative characterizations of the people who use the product + entities impacted by the product. Read more about user personas)
From: I recruited experts spanning industries + disciplines to form a balanced Steering Committee capable of representing the Stakeholder Matrix.
To: —-> Using the output of #1 above, I could have used Empathy Maps to think through the anticipated impacts. We could have used our early understanding of how our customers think and feel to produce a prototype, then engage with clients through testing the prototype. (Read more about empathy maps.)
From: I established the Steering Committee then onboarded everyone on the subject matter as well as their responsibilities in overseeing the development of our product.
To—-> Rather than forming a steering committee focused on oversight, we could have created a delivery team that was focused on maximizing the delivery of value and utilized people’s time to focus on the highest value activities rather than utilizing their time to oversee processes and review status reports.
This work experience is only one example of a sustainability initiative that could have benefited greatly from more of a product management mindset. There are many other examples. There are also many examples of people and organizations applying a product management mindset to sustainability challenges. These are the examples I look forward to exploring over the weeks ahead.
