How we use clinics for product problems at GOV.UK
Originally published at https://visitmy.website on February 22, 2020.
Being a product manager can often feel like being a lone wolf. Despite working closely with a team of designers, developers and other digital specialists, you’re usually the only member of the group representing the product discipline. So who can you turn to for advice or help solving a product problem?
Communities of practice are a good remedy, loose structures that support people doing the same job to come together and help each other. The product community at GOV.UK, where I work, meet every Tuesday to talk about our practice, and a little while ago we ran a workshop to look at better ways to support our fellow product managers.
One idea that came out was the product clinic: a safe place to bring forward your product problems and receive knowledge, experience, emotional, social or practical help from your peers.
It works like this.
- A product manager has a problem (or a few)
- They raise it with a panel of 2–4 product managers they work with
- The panel steps into the PM’s shoes, responding on how they’d approach the situation
It’s pretty simple, there’s not that much structure. Topics can range from soft skills to…
