Almost all roles are at risk of having the rug pulled. Learn product ownership skills to be on the right side of the digital age
Mark McKee, 19 April 2022
Did you know your job is mostly replaceable? But surely as a lawyer, coder, accountant, graphic designer [insert white-collar role here] I’m immune from that, I hear you say? Unless you can demonstrably solve problems, you can’t expect to be commanding a premium salary. Two very smart people, James Dale Davidson and William Rees-Mogg, wrote this in 1997:
Success in business, as in most areas of life, depends upon being able to solve problems. If you can teach yourself how to solve problems, you have a bright career ahead of yourself. No matter where you live, you will find problems galore in need of solving. In most cases, those who would benefit from solutions of their problems will pay you handsomely to effect them.
James Dale Davidson and William Rees-Mogg, The sovereign individual, 1997, p400
Extrapolating current trends of firms seeking to manage their costs, you can expect to be offshored or outsourced, as you are too expensive if you are simply a middle manager who monitors staff or – heaven forbid – a programme manager or project manager. I replaced the last two with one-line queries of a reporting system called Jira!
With firms redesigning themselves for the digital age, you will see them organising themselves around value streams. These are the roles that truly change things within a value stream:
- Value stream owner
- Chief product owner
- Product owner
If you don’t know what a value stream is then check out my primer on this. All three of these roles are in the sweet spot of understanding the business environment, solving ‘problems galore’ and making changes happen. Only in this capacity can you justify a premium wage. Now that middle-class jobs are being hollowed out by automation, coupled with the erosion of purchasing power (skyrocketing price inflation and taxation) you need to position yourself for the future. How do you do this? Learn the skills of product ownership. This is how you bypass the implosion of big businesses that are household names. When they collapse, you want to be ahead of the curve and in a place where you can utilise your problem-solving skills. These will either be upstart start-ups or existing corporations that have become smart. Believe me, I’ve worked in and consulted for companies that are simply not going to survive as they cannot and will not acknowledge that the world has moved on from what once made them successful.
My offering is helping to create product owners who are world-class problem solvers! I do this with coaching, workshops and training. You won’t find many technology managing directors like me, who succeed in the cut and thrust of banking and can guide you to future success.
Get in touch to discuss.
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