5. Governance and Monitoring Product Strategy

To effectively monitor your product strategy, it’s essential to establish a well-defined governance structure. Governance might seem unrelated to product strategy execution, but a clear framework with structured routines and meetings enables smoother tracking and decision-making. Here’s how to implement effective governance and routines that align with your product goals.

1. The Importance of Governance in Strategy Execution

Governance helps create consistency and efficiency in decision-making processes. It might not be common in all organizations, but a structured approach ensures productive monitoring and reduces miscommunication. Well-established routines (rituals) provide clear structure, making communication with key stakeholders more effective. Here’s how governance benefits strategy tracking:

Formalized Meetings: Organized meetings ensure that all necessary voices are heard, and actions are documented.
Secured Stakeholder Participation: A consistent meeting schedule secures time with stakeholders like heads of marketing, product, or other critical areas, so essential decision-makers are present.
Reduced Ad-Hoc Meetings: A defined governance structure reduces the need for spontaneous check-ins, leading to more efficient communication.
Open and Inclusive Communication: Governance ensures all relevant parties are informed and understand the rationale behind decisions, leading to more cohesive strategy implementation.

2. Types of Governance Meetings: Expository and Deliberative

Effective governance involves using both expository and deliberative rituals:

Expository Meetings: These are for sharing status updates and highlighting progress. They’re ideal for senior management updates, where information sharing is the primary focus. This meeting type is quick and to the point, focusing on results rather than deep discussions.
Deliberative Meetings: Deliberative meetings are designed for decision-making, where team members actively discuss, adjust priorities, and make rapid decisions. These are ideal for quick tactical decisions, trade-offs, or priority shifts.

Key Considerations for Deliberative Meetings:

Real-Time Decision Making: Deliberative meetings should lead to immediate, actionable decisions.
Finality of Decisions: Decisions made in these meetings are binding. Participants need to accept and follow through with the outcomes.
Clear Decision-Making Criteria: Establishing a clear process for how decisions are reached (e.g., majority vote, senior leader final say) is critical to ensure productive and actionable meetings.

3. Case Example: Governance at Memed

Memed uses a three-tiered governance structure to ensure smooth alignment across different departments and product lines.

1. Strategic Product Committee

Frequency: Biweekly.
Attendees: Directors and heads of each department, including the CEO.
Purpose: Provides a high-level overview of product progress, OKRs, and roadmap alignment, helping senior management make informed decisions. The committee functions with a quick, executive-level focus.
Decision-Making: Major product decisions, trade-offs, and priority adjustments are discussed here to maintain alignment with company goals.

2. Tribal Product Syncs

Frequency: Weekly or biweekly at the team (tribe) level.
Focus: Covers squad-level progress on OKRs, roadmaps, and current challenges.
Flexible Issue Management: Each sync includes a “hot topics” section for addressing unexpected issues or prioritizing urgent matters.

3. Departmental Committees (e.g., Marketing, Sales)

Attendees: Relevant PMs and stakeholders from marketing, sales, or other departments.
Focus: Aligns specific department OKRs with product development goals, ensuring each department understands and supports product objectives.

This governance structure creates a structured flow from executive alignment to squad-level execution.

4. Synchronous vs. Asynchronous Routines

A mix of synchronous (real-time meetings) and asynchronous (document-based communication) routines offers flexibility and efficiency.

Synchronous Meetings: Ensure immediate input from all stakeholders and promote faster decision-making. They’re ideal for high-stakes or time-sensitive topics.
Asynchronous Documentation: Useful for providing a written record of updates and decisions, allowing team members to stay informed at their convenience. Asynchronous updates can prevent overburdening team members with meetings while keeping them informed.

At Memed, a weekly product newsletter is shared with all employees. It summarizes key highlights, recent product decisions, and progress across squads. This document keeps everyone in the loop without requiring additional meeting time.

5. Tips for Effective Governance in Product Strategy

To establish an effective governance structure, here are some best practices:

Timebox Meetings: Limit meetings to a set duration, with specific time allocations for different agenda items. This keeps discussions focused and ensures that all topics are addressed efficiently.
Base Discussions on OKRs and Roadmaps: By using OKRs and roadmaps as reference points, you can ground decisions in strategic priorities and make discussions more data-driven.
Commit to Decisions Made in Governance Meetings: Avoid undermining the governance structure by changing decisions made in these meetings without a follow-up discussion.
Prepare Discussion Points: Ensure that issues brought to governance meetings are well-prepared, with proposed solutions, potential trade-offs, and relevant data.
Allow Representative Participation: If a key member can’t attend, encourage them to send a knowledgeable representative, ensuring continuous alignment without disrupting workflows.
Celebrate Milestones: Recognize and celebrate achievements to build team morale and foster a sense of shared purpose across departments.

Conclusion

Governance structures in product management are vital for maintaining alignment, tracking progress, and enabling efficient decision-making. By leveraging strategic rituals, Memed ensures that its product teams are always aligned with the company's broader goals, thus fostering an environment of transparency, agility, and collaboration. Combining structured synchronous and asynchronous methods further enhances flexibility, helping all stakeholders stay informed and engaged in the product’s journey.