Hippo

  

What is a HiPPO?

A common conundrum for product managers is figuring out how to influence without authority. Product managers can’t hire or fire—they answer and report to stakeholders—and VPs or CEOs ultimately control the budget and business decisions. When these VPs, CEOs, or other high-performing individuals listen to the product manager’s perspective and engage in open dialogue about the direction of the product, this is the bestcase scenario. But sometimes, leaders can turn into HiPPOs. What does this mean? “HiPPOs are leaders who are so self-assured that they need neither others’ ideas nor data to affirm the correctness of their instinctual beliefs. Relying on their experience and smarts, they are quick to shoot down contradictory positions and dismissive of underlings’ input,” writes Chris DeRose in Forbes. 

Why are HiPPOs dangerous?

Since their jobs are on the line, product managers can find it hard to contradict HiPPOs. 
 This leads to those with more budget and power always making the rules. Working in an environment where HiPPOs rule is disheartening for product managers. 
 And HiPPOs don’t just hurt morale, they introduce risk by pushing through products or features that haven’t been validated. The situation might escalate into what John Cutler calls a “Feature Factory.” In a Feature Factory, teams hyperfocus on output—the code and features they’re shipping—without understanding or assessing the impact their work is having.

HiPPOs in the wild

The story of Ron Johnson, former CEO of JC Penney, shows us what can happen in a worstcase HiPPO scenario. While Johnson had previously been highly successful in leadership 
 roles at Apple and Target, he made some serious errors at JC Penney. As Forbes reports, 
 "When making changes, Johnson trusted his gut rather than the data in front of him."

Although he reportedly was shown focus group results clearly indicating consumers’ strong preference for discounts, Johnson pressed ahead with mandating a fixed pricing matrix 
 for all merchants to follow. The ensuing confusion and consumer defections were at the heart of the company’s 25 percent sales drop. 

During Johnson’s time at JC Penney, the company burned through $1 billion in 17 months.

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