How to Influence Without Power – Tim Herbig on The Product Experience
Tim Herbig has made many mistakes (who hasn't?). Fortunately for us, Tim not only owns up to his mistakes, he's written a book to help the rest of us avoid making the same ones. We've all had issues with how to work best – not only within our individual teams, but with the rest of the organisation as well. In our conversation, he shares some simple and practical methods to diagnose when you have a problem and how to solve it.
Tim is Product Director at Iridion, a trainer and coach, a co-organiser of ProductTank Hamburg, a frequent speaker, and the author of Lateral Leadership. We're not sure if he ever sleeps.
Quote of the Episode
One warning sign is [that] if people just ask for more granular specs to simply get their job done – this shows that you have established an unhealthy hierarchy within your team.
Listen if you'd like to learn more about:
- How to create influence among your peers
- Building trust
- Empowering your team(s)
Links mentioned in this episode:
- The Agile Peer Canvas
- Lateral Leadership – Buy the book now! Overview / US / UK
- The Auftragsklärung framework
Tim's recommended reading list:
- Radical Candor – US / UK
- The Hard Thing About Hard Things – US / UK
- Reinventing Organisations (illustrated version) – US / UK
Hosts
The Product Experience is hosted by Lily Smith and Randy Silver.
Lily enjoys working as a consultant product manager with early stage and growing startups and as a mentor to other product managers. Lily has spent 13 years in the tech industry working mainly with startups in the SaaS and mobile space. She has worked on a diverse range of products – leading the product teams through discovery, prototyping, testing and delivery. Lily also founded ProductTank in Bristol, the Product Managers' meetup with regular events and talks on Product now with 800+ members and growing. This year Lily will be launching ProductCamp in Bristol and she joins the MTP team as co-host of The Product Experience podcast.
A recovering music journalist and editor, Randy has been working as an interactive producer and product manager across the US and UK for nearly 20 years. After launching Amazon’s music stores in the US and UK, Randy has worked with museums and arts groups, online education, media & entertainment, retail and financial services. He’s held Head of Product roles at HSBC and Sainsbury’s, where he also directed their 100+-person product community. He's also spoken at Mind the Product Engage (Hamburg), at a number of ProductTanks (London, Zurich, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, Oxford, & Brighton… so far!) and at conferences across the US and Europe.
Music
Our theme music is from Hamburg-based Pau, featuring ProductTank Hamburg’s own Arne Kittler on bass. Listen to more on their Facebook page
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About the author
The Product Experience
Join our podcast hosts Lily Smith and Randy Silver for in-depth conversations with some of the best product people around the world! Every week they chat with people in the know, covering the topics that matter to you - solving real problems, developing awesome products, building successful teams and developing careers. Find out more, subscribe, and access all episodes on The Product Experience homepage.
