Chris Butler has spent more than 20 years in product management, at companies including Google, Microsoft, Facebook, KAYAK and Waze. He created techniques such as Confusion Mapping to align teams building AI products. We asked him how the OODA loop applies to product work.
Facilitating decisions
Chris sees product managers as decision facilitators. We compare that with leader’s intent. Understanding the external environment comes first. Alignment is costly, and Chris explains why.
Strategy and playbooks
We look at product strategy, org charts and Agile, and whether product playbooks help. Chris offers a discourse on product management and asks whether executives are product managers too. He favors an apprenticeship model for growing product managers.
Narrative and design
Narrative has power. Chris explains provotyping, building something to provoke a reaction. He draws lessons from the architect Christopher Alexander and on AI and machine learning product management. He makes the case that John Boyd worked as a product manager, and he tells us about his own visit to Boyd’s archives.
Product work runs on orientation. A team that sees the environment clearly decides well together.
Where does your team spend effort on alignment that facilitation could save?
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Written by Ponch Rivera with AI assistance in production. The full conversation is in the player below.