If your organization is going through the transition from projects to products for its internal software development efforts, you may ask some variation of this question:

Chances are you spiced up that question with an explicative or two for good measure.

The question is important, and is difficult to answer because it entails regulations, accounting principles, interpretations of those regulations and principles, software development theory, and two groups with different, but not conflicting, goals.

To properly address this question, I think it’s helpful to explore the different perspectives involved and split the question into three specific parts. With that in mind, here’s how I organized my answer.​

• Differing, but not competing perspectives (What finance wants, What product teams want)
• Funding products
• Ongoing funding decisions
• Accounting for the use of funds

My intent here is to raise awareness to some issues that you’ll want to work through with your finance area and some ideas on approaches you can take to get the finance folks what they want without putting an undue burden on your product teams.

>>Read Finance and Accounting for Internal Products<<

InsideProduct is going biweekly

March is my favorite month, mostly because of the wall to wall college basketball at the beginning of the month. This month I took advantage of that plethora of basketball and attended several in person. At the same time, I had a few freelance writing assignments.

Unfortunately, that meant I didn’t devote the time that I should have to this newsletter, so I made the decision to go to a biweekly schedule, starting with this issue.

I also put together a calendar for the next twelve issues so I can incorporate this newsletter in with my other writing assignments to make sure I can provide thought out, practical content every issue.

I think these changes will be better for everyone. I’ll have better control over my workload, and you’ll get better content as a result. As always, if you have any thoughts, comments, or questions just hit return and let me know.

From BA to Product Owner to Product Manager

As this newsletter goes out I’ll be jumping on LinkedIn at 11:30 am CDT to do a LinkedIn Live session with my friend Adrian Reed. We’re discussing my upcoming talk at BBC 2023 From BA to Product Owner to Product Manager.

Ever wondered about the difference between business analysis, product ownership and product management? Ever wondered how business analysis fits in? This is the session for you!

In this condensed and conversational session, we’ll cover some of the key differences between the different roles.

Hop on over to LinkedIn to check it out. Even if you don’t make it for the live broadcast you can watch the recording.

And as always, if you have any questions that I didn’t answer in the session, hit reply and let me know.

Thanks for Reading

Thanks again for reading InsideProduct.

If you have any comments or questions about the newsletter, or there’s anything you’d like me to cover, just reply to this email.

Talk to you in two weeks,

Kent J. McDonald
Founder | KBP.Media