Sunday Rewind: Organizing around complex products at the intersection of physical and digital by Matthew Cornford

This week’s Sunday Rewind is a 2021 ProductTank London talk from Matthew Cornford, then Head of Product at Ocado, who shares some advice on how product managers can get teams organised when dealing with complex physical and digital products.

Provide autonomy

The first step to providing autonomy is to think about splitting the organisation into groups or teams.

Embrace Conway’s Law

This law states that when organisations design a system, it is designed to mirror their communication structure. Matthew explains how his team makes use of this law to take advantage of autonomy.

Align teams with strategy and KPIs

Align teams with a common strategy and KPIs. Matthew explains that top-level KPIs are applicable for the entire warehouse in Ocado’s case and other KPIs for smaller teams.

Appoint directly responsible individuals

By giving individuals responsibility, product managers can help their teams fight against the bystander effect, Matthew says.

Promote systems thinking

For everything to work, someone needs to look at the bigger picture and be a system’s thinker.

Watch the original talk: Organizing around complex products at the intersection of physical and digital by Matthew Cornford