Fractal stacks and where to split teams

Martin Eriksson is a Product Leader, Co-founder of Mind the Product and ProductTank, and Author. His new book, The Decision Stack, offers a mental model for connecting every layer of organisational strategy — from vision to the decisions teams make every single day.

We discuss:
— Why 95% of employees cannot name their organisation's strategy — and what that costs
— The five questions every company must be able to answer, from vision to principles
— Why strategy is the most commonly missing layer in the stack, and why exec teams are often reluctant to fill it
— How to challenge upwards and surface strategic gaps without calling leadership out
— Why empowering teams without context sends them running in every direction
— How principles — not values — are the tool that eliminates recurring debates
— The "this or that" technique for making trade-offs visible across a team
— Why you cannot communicate strategy often enough

Chapters
— 00:00 Introduction
— 01:11 Martin's background in product
— 02:19 The origin of The Decision Stack
— 03:44 The five questions the stack answers
— 04:27 Why strategy is most often missing or unclear
— 08:18 Who should be making strategic decisions
— 09:44 Time horizons: how long should strategy last
— 11:43 Using the decision stack in practice
— 13:36 How to surface gaps from lower in the organisation
— 16:01 Why context is the prerequisite for empowerment
— 19:32 How the stack reduces decision-making overhead
— 21:04 Language, frameworks, and avoiding rigidity
— 23:43 Where to start: top-down or bottom-up
— 26:34 Fractal stacks and scaling across teams
— 28:44 Strategy for maintenance work and existing products
— 31:41 The role of principles at the foundation of the stack
— 33:38 How principles emerge — top-down and bottom-up
— 37:07 The "this or that" technique for surfacing trade-offs
— 39:26 Communicating strategy continuously across the organisation
— 43:34 The most common mistake when getting started

Featured links
The Decision Stack — Martin's new book: https://www.thedecisionstack.com/
The trade-off poll tool mentioned in the episode: https://thisorthat.thedecisionstack.com/
ProductTank: 
Martin Eriksson on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/martineriksson/
HBR: The Office of Strategy Management — source of the 95% statistic cited in the episode: https://hbr.org/2005/10/the-office-of-strategy-management

Our Hosts
Lily Smith enjoys working as a consultant product manager with early-stage and growing startups and as a mentor to other product managers. She’s currently Chief Product Officer at BBC Maestro, and has spent 13 years in the tech industry working with startups in the SaaS and mobile space. She’s worked on a diverse range of products – leading the product teams through discovery, prototyping, testing and delivery. Lily also founded ProductTank Bristol and runs ProductCamp in Bristol and Bath.

Randy Silver is a Leadership & Product Coach and Consultant. He gets teams unstuck, helping you to supercharge your results. Randy's held interim CPO and Leadership roles at scale-ups and SMEs, advised start-ups, and been Head of Product at HSBC and Sainsbury’s. He participated in Silicon Valley Product Group’s Coaching the Coaches forum, and speaks frequently at conferences and events. You can join one of communities he runs for CPOs (CPO Circles), Product Managers (Product In the {A}ether) and Product Coaches. He’s the author of What Do We Do Now? A Product Manager’s Guide to Strategy in the Time of COVID-19. A recovering music journalist and editor, Randy also launched Amazon’s music stores in the US & UK.