Want to unlock real autonomy in your product teams? Start with three simple questions. I had Keith Lucas on the Product Thinking podcast this week, and he shared something that hit me: most teams struggle with autonomy because they're missing foundational clarity, not advanced frameworks. Keith, former product and engineering leader at Roblox and author of "Impact," swears by three questions that work whether you're onboarding to a new team or tackling complex initiatives: - What are we doing? (mission and focus) - Why are we doing it? (purpose, vision, strategy) - How do we know we're making progress? (alignment and course correction) As Keith puts it: "Those questions are simple, but they encapsulate a lot." I see this constantly. Teams think they're building "user onboarding improvements" but can't explain if it's to reduce churn, increase activation, or improve experience. Without that clarity, how can they make independent decisions? The magic isn't in complex planning. It's in ensuring every team member can confidently answer those three questions before you hand them the keys. If people start with clear vision, mission, and values, then work together on strategy and goals, autonomy follows naturally. How clear are your teams on their "what," "why," and "how"? Check out the full episode wherever you get your podcasts 🎧
Completely agree! Real autonomy doesn’t come from giving teams “freedom,” it comes from giving them clarity. In my agency’s projects I’ve seen how much smoother everything runs when developers and PMs understand not just the backlog, but the bigger context: what we’re building, why it matters for the business, and how success will be measured
The "WHY" question is where most teams stumble. We've had wins when our "why" was crystal clear, and honestly, some failures when we thought we knew but were actually just guessing 🤦♂️ . What's fascinating is how these three questions reveal the real blocker isn't usually resources or timelines, it's that we're not aligned on what success actually looks like..
This is so true... but the start point must always be "where are we?"... e.g. no point focusing on efficiency in introduction phase... no point focusing on satisfaction in post-PMF phase
Three questions, one path to real team independence. So true!
Brazen Leadership Development•7K followers
7moAnd: What does our ideal future state look like (so we share a picture of where we are heading)? 😀