Commander's Intent - A Military Principle for Product Leadership

Organizations often describe themselves as matrix-type structures where employees can communicate directly with the CEO. In my experience, this is more myth than reality. The truth is that hierarchy exists in every organization – imagine a company where everyone in the “matrix” earned the same salary! While hierarchical organizations have somehow gained a negative connotation, making it fashionable to claim a flat structure, the real challenge isn’t the hierarchy itself but how effectively vision flows through it.

The Power of Clear Intent

Every organization, product, and project needs a vision. This vision typically emerges from the higher levels of the hierarchy, whether through bottom-up feedback collection or, sometimes, through what’s known as the “Highest Paid Person’s Opinion (HIPPO).” However the vision forms, it’s worthless unless it permeates the entire organization effectively.

This is where I find the U.S. Army’s concept of “Commander’s Intent” (CI) fascinating and incredibly relevant to product leadership. I first encountered this concept in Dan and Chip Heath’s excellent book “Made to Stick.” The Army discovered in the 1980s that while plans and vision statements help think through issues and set direction, they often fall apart in battlefield conditions. Their solution? Commander’s Intent.

Understanding Commander’s Intent

CI appears at the top of every order as a clear statement that outlines the operation’s goal and desired end-state. Its beauty lies in its simplicity – CI never includes so much detail that it becomes obsolete when unexpected events occur. As one colonel explained, at high levels, CI might be abstract: “Break the will of the enemy in the Southeast region.” At the tactical level, for colonels and captains, it becomes more concrete: “My intent is to have Third Battalion on Hill 4305, cleared of enemy forces with only ineffective remnants remaining, protecting Third Brigade’s flank during their advance.”

Applying CI to Product Leadership

Let’s see how this applies to product management. Imagine an educational technology company that sets a product vision to make its learning applications interoperable with learning management systems according to the latest standards. At the tactical level of a product manager leading a team, this might translate to: “My intent is to make all our single-choice multiple-choice questions compliant with Question and Test Interoperability (QTI) specification V3.0 by quarter’s end.”

The Balance of Leadership Styles

I’ve witnessed product leaders across the entire spectrum – from those who seem to lack any product mindset to those who micromanage down to specific font choices. The Commander’s Intent concept offers a balanced approach to cascading product vision from top to bottom while providing autonomy at each level to add the details needed to make the intent a reality.

Practical Implementation

Think of CI as a hierarchy of intents, each becoming more specific as it moves down the organization. At each level, teams maintain the freedom to determine how best to achieve their objectives while staying aligned with the broader vision. This approach combines clear direction with flexibility in execution – exactly what modern product development needs.

Looking Forward

Could this hierarchy of Commander’s Intent serve as a product roadmap itself? I believe it’s worth experimenting with. The clarity and flexibility inherent in the CI approach might offer a more effective way to communicate and execute product strategy across an organization.

The key lesson from Commander’s Intent is that effective vision communication requires both clarity of purpose and room for adaptation. In product development, where conditions constantly change and unexpected challenges arise, this balance is crucial for success.

The objective of CI isn’t to dictate every detail from the top but to ensure everyone understands the ultimate objective while having the freedom to determine the best path to achieve it. This approach enables teams to adapt to changing circumstances while maintaining alignment with the overall product vision.