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How to Achieve Product-Organization Fit

Two Tools for Mastering Stakeholder Management Through Trust, Loyalty, and Advocacy

This article, co-authored by Bruce McCarthy and Sean Flaherty, was inspired during a recent podcast episode from Product Momentum featuring Bruce as guest and Sean as co-host.

By Bruce McCarthy and Sean Flaherty

In a recent episode of Product Momentum, Bruce McCarthy explained that the hardest part about being a product manager is wrangling the needs of multiple stakeholders and saying ‘no’ to some things so that you can say ‘yes’ to others. But those are precisely the decisions that lie at the crux of the product manager’s job. And they’re fraught with risk – inadvertently suggesting a preference for one key stakeholder while alienating others.

As we recorded the episode, we quickly discovered the parallels between Bruce’s Stakeholder Canvas model and Sean’s Relationship Ladder framework – and how these tools can work in concert to help product managers navigate thorny decisions to arrive at workable solutions and preserve stakeholder relationships.

It’s not enough to have product-market fit to be successful; we also need product-organization fit. And that’s where the Stakeholder Canvas and Relationship Ladder render the greatest value.

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Objective Prioritization is Impossible

The prioritization of anything complex must be a collaborative process.

According to Dictionary.com, the first two definitions of priority are listed as:

  1. The state or quality of being earlier in time, occurrence, etc.
  2. The right to precede others in order, rank, privilege, etc.; precedence.

We use the term a little differently in the software development industry.

In our world, prioritization is –

The art of combining everything we think we know about the past with the fixed resources we have right now to predict the order in which to do things to improve our collective future.

It is complicated, imperfect, and messy. The most powerful prioritization schemes are those which align our teams and empower them to make better decisions.

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Great Visions Unlock Human Potential

Getting the Vision Right is Hard Work – But It’s Vital to Team Success

A great vision is one that unlocks human potential and creativity by painting a clear picture of what is possible. Stewarding, adapting, and continuously refining the product vision is the top priority of successful leaders because it is a key driver of the organization’s strategy.

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Where Are The Innovations?

In this blog, ITX EVP of Innovation Sean Flaherty explores where innovation comes from, obstacles that stand in its way, and a simple technique you can share with your teams today for capturing ideas that lead to more innovations.

This blog is a refreshed version of the original, which was first published February 15, 2022, on Medium.

 

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ITX Named a Rochester Top Workplace for 2023

2023 marks the fourth consecutive year of recognition.

March 28, 2023 Rochester, NY – ITX celebrates the fourth-consecutive year of being named a Top Workplaces in Rochester, NY. The company commemorated the achievement at the Rochester Top Workplaces award ceremony on Wednesday, March 22.

 

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ITX Named ‘Tech Company of the Year’ 2022

The win marks two consecutive years being honored

November 10, 2022 Rochester, NY – ITX won Tech Company of the Year honors at TechRochester’s GREAT Awards last night. The award, presented by the local non-profit trade organization for the technology industry, “recognizes excellence in achieving an engaged and productive workforce and for a company focused on the development or manufacturing of technology within the Greater Rochester Area.

 

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Logos of the Great Awards, Tech Rochester and the badge of Best Tech Company

When Teams Celebrate Constructive Feedback, They Win

I was recently given some amazing feedback on a talk that I gave to a group of CEOs in Oklahoma. I took too long and added too many details to my opening story before I explained the context and reason for the story. The CEO who provided the feedback was lost and found himself wondering where I was going. He found himself wandering off. I sometimes get lost in the story when I am speaking and often lose track of my audience. It is not good.

That feedback caused me to seriously revamp the opening of my speech, starting with some direct context early on in the speech. The last couple of talks I gave since the revamp were markedly better and gained more powerful, early engagement from the CEO groups. I was able to turn that feedback into gold immediately. In my early business career, that would not have been the case for me. This is the result of learning how to celebrate feedback when I get it. (p.s. I sent the CEO a small gift to thank him in this case.)

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Setting Objective Measurements Growth

One day, I had a good friend call my cell and say, “I need a team that can pick up the pieces from another vendor. I need help getting these small features out the door in three months or I’m going to lose my job. Can you help me?” For context, the teams I work with have been building software products for two and a half decades and this has happened on more than a few occasions. This time, my team had worked on this technology platform before, and, represented confidently that they would be able to knock the project “out of the park.” Everyone on my team expressed confidence that this was a no-brainer. You might guess where this is going next.

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