Episode 119: Going from Project to Product

May 1, 2019

Cesar Abeid and Dr. Mik Kersten talk about the necessary shift from project to product thinking.

Project to Product

My conversation with Dr. Kersten stemmed from my reading of his book Project to Product: How to Survive and Thrive in the Age of Digital Disruption with the Flow Framework.

I’ve been interested more in product management lately, and this book seems like it was written for those in project management who are interested in learning more about product. It was a page turner, and I highly recommend you get a copy.

Project to Product

Here’s a description from Amazon: In the Age of Software, will your business dominate and maintain relevance―or will it become a digital relic?

As tech giants and startups disrupt every market, those who master large-scale software delivery will define the economic landscape of the 21st century, just as the masters of mass production defined the landscape in the 20th.

Unfortunately, business and technology leaders are woefully ill-equipped to solve the problems posed by digital transformation. At the current rate of disruption, half of S&P 500 companies will be replaced in the next ten years. A new approach is needed. 
In Project to Product, Value Stream Network pioneer and technology business leader Dr. Mik Kersten introduces the Flow Framework―a new way of seeing, measuring, and managing software delivery. The Flow Framework will enable your company’s evolution from project-oriented dinosaur to product-centric innovator that thrives in the Age of Software. If you’re driving your organization’s transformation at any level, this is the book for you.

Dr. Mik Kersten

From IT Revolution:

Dr. Mik Kersten started his career as a Research Scientist at Xerox PARC where he created the first aspect-oriented development environment. He then pioneered the integration of development tools with Agile and DevOps as part of his Computer Science PhD at the University of British Columbia. Founding Tasktop out of that research, Mik has written over one million lines of open-source code that is still in use today, and he has brought seven successful open-source and commercial products to market.

Mik’s experiences working with some of the largest digital transformations in the world has led him to identify the critical disconnect between business leaders and technologists. Since that time, Mik has been working on creating new tools and a new framework for connecting software value stream networks and enabling the shift from project to product.  

Mik lives with his family in Vancouver, Canada, and travels globally, sharing his vision for transforming how software is built.  

In this episode we talk about

  • What is product management?
  • Cynefin Networks
  • How is product management different than project management?
  • What is the age of software?
  • What is Value Stream?

Click the “play” button above to listen, and leave a comment below if you’d like to join in the conversation.

To buy the book, please click here.