Unleashing Potential: How Continuous Learning Drives Product Team Success - Part I

Companies that invest in learning and development programs for their employees see a whopping 218% higher income per employee compared to those who don't, according to a 2019 study by LinkedIn Learning and Pearson. Creating a culture of continuous learning and improvement is also the cornerstone of developing successful product teams. When product managers are continuously learning and upskilling, it is not just beneficial—it's essential for navigating the rapidly evolving landscape of technology. This culture fosters innovation, adaptability, and agility, key attributes for any team aiming to deliver products that meet and exceed market demands. Let’s talk about why you need to implement a continuous learning culture in your product teams as well as some of the risks that come along with that.

What is a culture of continuous learning and improvement?

A culture of continuous improvement and learning refers to a system of shared values that drive people and organizations to believe what is good enough today, may not be good enough tomorrow. It’s a shift in mindset for product leaders and what they expect from their teams. 

Traditional organizational culture is centered on workforce development as a reactive procedure - it’s too little, too late. A continuous improvement culture assumes this development will be required and builds the systems and processes into the goals of teams and individuals. 

Does creating a culture of continuous learning and improvement matter?

As is often with the topic of company culture, this may sound wishy-washy and unclear how it will have a tangible impact on what matters to product leaders: Revenue, Profits, Product Metrics, and Customer Satisfaction. However, market research backs up that a culture of learning has real impacts on company success.

Companies that invest in learning and development programs generate higher profits - more than 3x income per employee. In addition, employees are 17% more productive and 5x more engaged.

Several notable examples and data points illustrate how organizations with this culture have been able to create innovative products and services with a direct impact on the bottom line. Here are but a few case studies and market research findings:

Google: 20% Time Policy

• Google’s famous 20% time policy allowed engineers to spend one day a week working on projects that weren’t necessarily in their job descriptions. This policy led to the creation of some of Google's most successful projects, including Gmail, Google News, and AdSense. The 20% time policy underscores the importance of fostering a culture of curiosity and continuous learning.

3M: Innovation through Flexibility

• 3M, known for its culture of innovation, encourages its employees to dedicate a portion of their work time to pursue their project ideas. This approach is similar to Google's but has been part of 3M's culture for much longer.

• One of the most famous outcomes of this culture is the Post-it Note, which emerged from an engineer's side project. This approach has helped 3M demonstrate the value of continuous learning and experimentation.

 Pixar: Continuous Learning and Collaboration

• Pixar Animation Studios places a strong emphasis on continuous learning and collaboration, integrating it into its corporate culture through a variety of programs, including Pixar University, which offers classes to employees on various subjects related to filmmaking and creativity.

• This culture of learning has contributed to Pixar's consistent output of critically acclaimed and commercially successful films as any parent may know. 

How does this relate to product managers?

You may be asking yourself, “OK Kevin, that is all great, but what does this have to do with product managers?” Well, a lot actually. Product Managers are in a unique position that requires a special blend of strategic, business, and technology acumen. A culture of continuous learning is needed to navigate a complex technological landscape - one that is quickly shifting and responding to market, regulatory, competitive, and customer forces. Continuous learning develops the attributes product teams need to thrive in this landscape, such as:

Innovation and Competitive Advantage 

• Continuous learning fuels innovation by encouraging the exploration of new ideas, technologies, and methodologies. Teams that are always learning are more likely to discover novel solutions to problems. Deloitte research highlights that organizations with a strong learning culture are 92% more likely to develop innovative products and processes than those that don’t prioritize learning.

Adaptability to Change

• The tech industry and market trends evolve at an unprecedented pace. Continuous learning enables teams to adapt quickly to new technologies and changing market conditions, 

Retention and Resiliency

• It’s no secret product management is a stressful career! Product Managers need time to make an impact in months if not years, and that can’t happen if PMs burn out and leave for greener pastures. A culture of learning contributes to higher levels of employee engagement and increased job satisfaction. LinkedIn’s 2020 Workplace Learning Report found that 94% of employees would stay at a company longer if it invested in their learning and development.

Enhanced Problem Solving and Creativity

• Product managers must be highly creative to succeed. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve been able to defer a feature request because I’ve generated creative ideas for simpler alternative solutions. Continuous learning expands the problem-solving toolkit available to product teams, enhancing creativity and the ability to tackle challenges effectively. Research by IBM identified creativity as the single most important leadership quality for business success, outranking even integrity and global thinking.

So why doesn’t every organization implement continuous learning for their product managers?

If creating a culture of continuous learning is so great, why isn’t it a priority for every product manager? There are trade-offs and risks in creating this type of culture in your product teams.

Time and Resource Allocation:

• Continuous learning requires time and resources that could otherwise be allocated to immediate product development tasks or projects. Balancing the need for ongoing education with the demands of product timelines is crucial to avoid overstretching resources or causing burnout.

Information Overload:

• There's a vast amount of information available, and the desire to stay abreast of all the latest trends, technologies, and methodologies can lead to information overload. This might overwhelm product managers, reducing their ability to focus and prioritize effectively.

Overemphasis on Learning vs. Doing:

• There's a risk of placing too much emphasis on learning and not enough on applying that knowledge. The real value of continuous learning is realized when insights and skills are applied to improve product management practices and outcomes. Product Managers are typically measured on what they ship, not necessarily their knowledge or expertise.

Keeping Learning Relevant:

• Ensuring that learning activities are directly relevant to the team's needs and the organization's goals can be challenging. There's a risk of investing in learning that doesn't contribute meaningfully to product development or business objectives.

Cultural Fit:

• Not all individuals may be comfortable or thrive in an environment that emphasizes constant learning and change. This could potentially lead to disengagement or turnover among team members who prefer more stable and predictable work environments where they are not asked to continuously grow themselves.

These risks can create a real drag on your product team if they are not properly addressed. To handle these potential downsides, consider using the following mitigation strategies.

• Prioritize and Focus: Help team members prioritize learning activities that offer the most value to their roles and the organization's goals.

• Balance Learning with Application: Encourage immediate application of new knowledge to real-world projects to reinforce learning and demonstrate value.

• Customize Learning Approaches: Tailor learning opportunities to fit individual styles and needs, allowing team members to engage in ways that are most effective for them.

• Set Clear Objectives: Define specific, measurable objectives for learning activities to ensure they are aligned with team and organizational goals.

• Manage Time Wisely: Allocate dedicated time for learning that doesn’t conflict with critical project timelines, ensuring a healthy balance between learning and executing.

Acknowledging and managing these trade-offs ensures that the culture of continuous learning strengthens rather than hinders the product management team's effectiveness and productivity.

Conclusion

Learning and development can have a huge impact on the effectiveness of product teams. Nevertheless, it needs to be implemented in a way that is regular and consistent while avoiding the downsides of learning cultures. 

So now we know the power of continuous learning in product teams, but not necessarily the methods to implement it. Teams may not have a culture of continuous learning or they have some aspects of L&D, but are not seeing the impacts managers expect. Then you’ll want to read my next post where I’ll address how to implement learning culture in your product teams. Stay tuned for that and thanks for reading this post! If you have any thoughts to share about this topic yourself, feel free to send me a note or drop a comment below.