What Makes a Great Product Culture? A Guide for Product Leaders
I recently began working with a new client eager to start a product Community of Practice (CoP). Our initial workshop, a leadership team outcome session, delved into the core question: "Why a CoP? What do we hope to gain and what would be the ideal impact on our company?"
As we listed ideas on Post-its and shared our thoughts, I noticed a recurring theme. Many points raised were less about the community itself and more about their leadership approach and the overarching product culture of the company. These issues seemed too deep-rooted to be addressed by simply initiating a CoP.
Interestingly, I had a similar conversation with another client's leadership team weeks later, revealing a pattern. Often, teams jump to solutions (like "Let's start a CoP") before fully understanding the underlying problems they're facing—like a lack of directional clarity or having a lot of conflicts between the product teams because they are not aligned towards a bigger mission.
This realization led me to reshape the CoP Leadership Workshops, starting with exploring why everyone thinks starting a CoP could be beneficial. We discuss broader challenges of the product organization and sessions include a discussion on what constitutes a great company or product culture and how employees experience this culture.
If you’re a product leader, here’s an important lesson for you: While a CoP is a valuable aspect of a product culture, it's just one piece of a larger puzzle.
My mission as a product leadership coach is to help as many product leaders as possible build robust product organizations. But I recognize that not everyone can afford the full CoP workshop series, so I'll be sharing some key insights from these leadership sessions in this post.
Step 1: Defining what makes a great product culture
A truly effective product culture is shaped by leadership behavior and the reinforcement of certain behaviors and values throughout the organization. What leadership chooses to reward, the example they set in terms of aligning actions with the company's strategy, and their willingness to make tough decisions that prioritize the customer and company vision all play a pivotal role.
It's not just about what's discussed amongst product folks (e.g. in a CoP) that makes the product culture, but how the entire product organization operates in alignment with the company's overall culture and goals.
Here are the pillars that I go through with workshop participants if we want to review the current product culture. We discuss if the following things exist, and if so,to what extent:
Company purpose: A well-defined company purpose, beyond profit, inspires employees and gives meaning to their work. It articulates why the company exists and the positive impact it seeks to make in the world.
Directional clarity: Providing a clear sense of direction is vital. Employees should understand where the company is headed, why it is headed in this direction, and how their work contributes to the overall mission and vision. Explore the topic of directional clarity in a little more detail by exploring our themed sessions on this topic at Product at Heart.
Effective decision-making: A great culture encourages effective and inclusive decision-making processes, where input from various levels and departments is valued, decisions align with the company's values and objectives, and leaders are adept at the art of saying no when necessary.
Clear communication: In companies with effective communication, employees know whom to include in a decision-making process, whom to invite to meetings, whom to ask for feedback, and whom to seek help from if they are stuck. Effective communication extends beyond just conveying information; it empowers employees to navigate the organization efficiently and collaborate seamlessly. If you know this is an area where you’d like to develop your skills, I’ve written and spoken frequently about storytelling for product leaders.
Shared values and beliefs: A strong culture is built on a foundation of shared values and beliefs that guide decision-making and behavior throughout the organization. These values are not just words on paper but are deeply ingrained in the company's DNA.
Empowerment and trust: A culture that empowers employees and trusts them to make decisions fosters a sense of ownership and accountability. When employees feel trusted, they are more likely to take initiative and contribute their best to the organization.
Inclusivity and diversity: Embracing diversity and promoting inclusivity is a hallmark of a great culture. Companies that value diverse perspectives and create an inclusive environment tend to be more innovative and better equipped to solve complex problems.
Recognition and learning: Recognizing and appreciating employees' contributions is essential for a positive culture. This includes regular feedback, praise, and acknowledgement of achievements, which go a long way in motivating and engaging employees. Additionally, one aspect of recognition is allowing employees to invest some of their working hours in reflecting, learning, and gaining mastery. (Again, a CoP can help facilitate many of these activities, but employees must find their own intrinsic motivation to participate.)
Now that we’ve considered some of the key pillars of culture, let’s think a bit more about how employees experience these elements.
How employees experience culture
When we discuss the pillars mentioned above, it’s often an eye-opening activity for product leadership teams. However, it's primarily a theoretical exercise. Employees don't experience culture in the way leadership tends to conceptualize it. Culture is like water to fish and air to humans: it's constantly around us, invisible, and only perceptible when we direct our full attention towards it.
A company’s culture is like water to a fish—it’s constantly there, but only perceptible when we turn our attention to it.
So, the way employees experience culture is inherently vague and challenging to design. If you ask them to describe their company's culture, their answers will vary significantly, if they can answer at all.
However, research shows that certain artifacts and actions impact how employees feel and absorb culture. These are elements that leadership should evaluate and possibly redesign to enhance (product) culture:
Onboarding and orientation programs: New hires often receive information about the company's culture during their onboarding process.
Company values and mission statements: Employees can learn about the company's culture through official statements of its values and mission.
Leadership behavior: How leaders in the organization behave and make decisions sets a significant example for the company's culture.
Peer interactions: Colleagues and coworkers influence an employee's understanding of the workplace culture.
Company policies and procedures: The rules and policies in place convey the company's priorities and expectations.
Workplace environment: The physical office space and its design can reflect the company's culture and values.
Communication and communication channels: The way information is communicated, whether through open forums or formal channels, reflects the company's culture.
Recognition and rewards: How employees are recognized and rewarded for their contributions provides insights into the company's cultural priorities.
Company events and activities: Participation in company events, team-building activities, and social gatherings can reveal aspects of the culture.
Communities of Practice: Participation in Communities of Practice (CoPs) allows employees to engage with others who share similar professional interests and learn about the organization's culture through collaborative knowledge-sharing and problem-solving within these communities.
From that list, leadership behavior, recognition and rewards, and Communities of Practice are the elements I've observed to be consistently underrated—and often neglected—in many organizations.
Over the last decade as a product leadership coach, I've seen time and again how pivotal these aspects are, yet they don't receive the attention they deserve. Effective leadership behavior sets the tone for the entire culture. Recognition and rewards validate and motivate employees, reinforcing desired behaviors and practices. Communities of Practice are not just forums for sharing knowledge, but are crucial for fostering a sense of belonging and collective growth. Paying closer attention to these aspects can bring about significant positive changes in a company's product culture. But again, they are only one piece of the culture puzzle.
Based on my observations and hands-on experience as a product leadership coach, leadership behavior, recognition and rewards, and Communities of Practice are the aspects of culture that are consistently underrated.
I hope that what I’ve shared here will inspire you to think a little more deeply about the culture at your organization and determine whether a Community of Practice is really the right next step or whether you might want to do some more fundamental work on your culture first.