A great product counsel/lawyer has a significant impact on your product quality, shipping speed, risk profile and ideas. I've read very little about this, but after working with several product counsels (luckily) in highly regulated industries, I've learnt how to spot them (1/9)
Great product counsel: you can do this 10x cheaper and quicker if you frame it like X, and optimise the product/ feature set as such
Good product counsel: you can do this but you'll have to do these other things first
Not so great product counsel: you can't do this (2/9)
Great product counsel: here's a list of your proposals with associated risks, shall we go through the opportunities together?
Good product counsel: Deprioritise A, B proposals as they are quite risky, rest are great!
Not so great product counsel: Your proposals are risky (3/9)
Great product counsel: have you thought of this <creative, new idea> that is legal and would add a lot of user value?
Good product counsel: this idea is great, maybe you can extend it to <more countries, user segments etc.>
Not so great product counsel: where do I approve?
(4/9)
Great product counsel: We should proactively work with the regulator to frame this policy paper
Good product counsel: <Government body> is asking for experts to join, are you available?
Not so great product counsel: we should avoid proactive engagement
(5/9)
Great product counsel: Gets added to PRD/proposal when its just the title on the doc
Good product counsel: Gets added to the PRD/proposal on V0
Not so great product counsel: Gets sent the PRD/proposal for 'approval'
(6/9)
Great product counsel: I'll do the commercial, regulatory, and policy counsel chats
Good product counsel: Here are the commercial, regulatory and policy counsels you should speak to
Not so great product counsel: Have you spoken to commercial, regulatory and policy counsels?
(7/9)
Ultimately, it comes down to:
Great product counsel: proactive, creative, flexible partner who informs you of risks and helps you tradeoff
Good product counsel: collaborative partner who guards you from risks
Not so great product counsel: approval authority (8/9)
Hope this was useful - have you worked with amazing product counsels also? What are some of the traits you've seen in them? (9/9)