We leverage Product Mindset Maturity Assessments when a Product Leader is new to the role and wants to better understand the strengths/challenges of themselves or their team, or when the team is not performing well and there is a concern about the mindset of the team being a part of the challenge.
We work with the key Stakeholder of the project to make a recommendation of who should be included in an assessment. This is usually determined by the challenge to be solved. This has ranged from the CPO and Product Leadership team to all Product Managers in the organization.
We’re looking for ways to understand (and then improve) the efficiency of the Product organization. This may mean that there are consistent gaps in one trait that can be seen across the majority of the team. There may be areas for improvement that you can share with your team that gives them targeted skills they can “level up”. There may be opportunities in your hiring practices to improve the blend of skills on your team.
Often times in larger organizations, Product Managers are people who have been “promoted” into the role as a result of having done well in another position.
(Juan, you’ve been a great BA, so we’ll “promote” you to a Product Manager as a next step. Radwa, you are an expert in Supply Chain and Logistics, we’d like you to to move to the Product team and support the Supply Chain products we are supporting…)
Just because these people were skilled in another role or specific organization of the company does not ensure their success as a Product Manager.
Here are some of the best practices acquired after doing this for QVC and others.
You’ll want to be sure you help your client communicate about this process— A LOT. People will naturally fear that they are being questioned and that their job can be impacted by their answers. If applicable, make it clear at every interaction that any answers will be provided without attribution to an individual.
Our client Executive Sponsor sent a well-worded email to everyone explaining the goals for the project. Our client Project Coordinator sent the interview requests to interviewees, which also included reminders that the interviews were to support the project and that no attribution would be given to the answers.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WWhpiIxKDYy3Amw8E1YNpln_ZLvsZtGa/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=106382585920781896624&rtpof=true&sd=true
If you are coordinating a large group, be sure your client Project Coordinator is primed to do the heavy lifting, or you will waste tons of hours on administrivia. Get your Project Coordinator to gather a list of names, titles and time zones for the interviewees.
If using multiple TCGen interviewers, determine estimated workload. (20% John, 40% Krista, 40% Teresa).