Insight certainty 4/5 debate potential 3/5

Torres: Individual contributors should adapt personal habits rather than forcing org change

Teresa Torres · Build better products with continuous product discovery | Teresa Torres · Oct 6, 2022 · at 18:36

Product discovery coach Teresa Torres discusses how product managers can operate within rigid 'feature factory' organizations.

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“If you're an individual contributor and you're not at a 10 person company, I would say don't try to force the organizational change. Organizational change is such a hard and messy problem. I feel like what I would do in that situation is I would just change the way that I individually worked.”

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