Real Talk about Empowered vs. Feature Product Teams | Chris Jones (SVPG)

My guest today is Chris Jones, partner at Silicon Valley Product
Group. Chris and Marty Cagan wrote the best-selling book
Empowered based on their 30+ years of experience working with
200+ companies. Their definition of “empowered vs. feature
product teams” has created controversy, so I knew I had to chat
with them.


Chris and I had a heart-to-heart chat about empowered vs. feature
teams, how to avoid becoming a feature factory, and how to take
back control of your career. Timestamps:


(00:00) What empowered really means (01:13) The difference
between empowered and feature teams (04:58) Why companies stop
being customer-focused (06:12) OKRs, processes, and bureaucracy
(13:47) Be the go-to person to build trust with leaders(18:13)
Quarterly metric targets lead to bad trade-offs (21:40) The trend
towards small teams (23:00) Does empowerment matter in wartime
(Airbnb)? (27:24) 3 types of product operating principles (30:23)
Is Google still empowered? (33:40) How to avoid product review
hell(36:15) The right way to push back on execs (41:08) Take back
control of your career


Where to find Chris:


LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisjonessvpg/


Get the interview takeaways:
https://creatoreconomy.so/p/empowered-vs-feature-product-teams-chris-jones
Subscribe to this channel – more interviews coming soon!