Super Bowl Sunday: Life is a game of inches. So is Football. So is Product Management.
~ 700 words. 4 minute read.
Congratulations to the Philadelphia Eagles!! What did they do better then the Chiefs? They did the little things right. They were chasing value, no matter how small, in every play. They blocked the Kansas City pass rushers for a split second longer. They ran their routes a little more precise. They read Mahomes’ offense a little faster.
If product management were a sport, then delivering features would be the warm-up. The real game?
Chasing value.
Yet, too many product teams are stuck in the feature factory—heads down, cranking out tickets, measuring success by velocity rather than by impact. Sound familiar?
Chasing value means shifting from “What can we ship next?” to “What outcomes matter most?”, but for this conversation it is also: “How do we most effectively and efficiently create these outcomes?” (Remember Moneyball? Wins come from runs. But where do runs come from? Baseball Teams shouldn’t buy players. They should try to buy wins.)
Understand the DNA of your organization, create processes that foster collaboration, and become the cultural glue that ensures alignment across stakeholders.
So, how do you go from a feature-factory mindset to a value-driven one? Let’s break it down.
If you remember only one thing from the 4 minutes it takes to read this, let it be this:
Value Hides in the Small Things
In the movie Any Given Sunday, Al Pacino’s character delivers a legendary speech about how football is a game of inches. How the difference between winning and losing is just a few inches gained in every play, every block, every tackle. Product management is no different.
We often think of value in terms of big, bold product bets—huge features, massive launches, sweeping changes. But in reality, value is hiding in the details. The small decisions. The way we collaborate. The precision in execution.
Value hides in the small things.
Your operating model. Is everyone running after the ball or are team members skating to where the puck will be? (Okay, brutal blend of sports analogies throughout this article, can you count them all?)
The way a meeting is run. A clear, focused agenda with concise takeaways saves hours of confusion later. (Turn AI summaries on already!)
How teams communicate. A well-structured Slack message or a short Loom video prevents a dozen unnecessary meetings.
The way we scope work. A few extra minutes refining requirements can prevent weeks of rework. Sprint zero anyone?
The cleanliness of our handoffs. A properly documented user story ensures the development team builds what’s actually needed the first time.
These aren’t flashy things. You won’t find them in case studies or keynote speeches. But they are the inches that add up to a winning product team.
Stop Shipping, Start Solving
Feature factories happen because we focus on output over outcomes. It’s easier to measure “We shipped X features last quarter” than “Our NPS went up 15 points because users love our new onboarding flow.” But if you’re not solving real problems, shipping products doesn’t matter.
“Love the problem, not the solution.”
Become a detective. Go out into the field, observe your users, and ask uncomfortable questions like, “What’s broken?” or “What’s the one thing you’d never use again?”
When you frame your work around solving meaningful problems, you start delivering value—not just code. And those problems could be anywhere – not just in your product, but in your processes and your product management practice!
Oh, and: Ask your stakeholders to describe a problem or opportunity at the time of intake. I bet your intake is full of solutions, not well articulated problem statements.
Value Is a Team Sport
Value emerges from seamless collaboration, from reducing friction between teams, from clear communication and ownership. The best teams obsess over these little things:
Stakeholder alignment: Everyone moving in the same direction, no last-minute surprises. There will be a separate article about this, given that you could fill warehouses with books about this topic.
Product-Design-Engineering harmony: If you figure out how to run this trifecta seamlessly, you win. (Hint: make sure the leaders of these three disciplines are so thick as thieves, they want to get matching tattoos).
Clean processes: PR reviews that actually catch issues before they reach production.
Knowledge-sharing rituals: Short retros, quick syncs, and effective documentation that prevent mistakes from being repeated. One of my favs: The Product Huddle.
Chasing value means understanding that no one person or team delivers it alone. It’s the sum of all contributions, executed with precision.
Be the Glue
Great product managers are more than backlog wranglers; they’re cultural agents. You are the bridge between engineering, design, marketing, and leadership. To chase value, you need to champion it relentlessly. Be the voice that asks:
“How does this solve the user’s problem?”
“How does this make us faster/better?”
“What does stakeholder [X] need from us? How can we provide this seamlessly?”
Maybe share your confluence page. Maybe start a newsletter for your stakeholders. Maybe hold open product office hours. Speak at another’s team meeting and invite others to speak at yours.
Bring clarity to ambiguity. Be the one who connects the dots others miss. It’s exhausting, yes, but it’s also the best part of the job.
The Inches Between Winning and Losing
When you focus on chasing value, you stop feeling like a hamster on a wheel—you’re making an impact. And that’s how you transition from being a reactive “order-taker” to a strategic driver of change. It’s worth it.
So, next time you’re about to dive into a sprint planning session, ask yourself: Are we chasing features, or are we chasing value?
