What do Product Managers and Environmental, Health and Safety (EHS) professionals have in common? In my ten-year career in the EHS industry I have worked as a consultant, as an EHS Manager (in both a field and corporate role) and most recently as a product manager for an EHS software provider. At first glance, it may seem like the job of an EHS Manager is miles apart from that of a Product Manager. However, in my experience there are many similarities. In this article I’ll outline a popular product management tool called the “Jobs-To-Be-Done” framework and describe how the components of this framework can help EHS Managers improve their understanding of how work gets done, identify critical problems to solve to reduce risk in the workplace and accelerate the continuous improvement process.
Both Product Managers and Environmental, Health and Safety Professionals are on an endless hunt to understand the work processes of their customers or their organizations. Both are looking to identify problems to solve for their customers or their workers and both are focused on iterative continuous improvement of their product or their process. Product Managers iterate on products based on user feedback and market trends. EHS professionals implement measures to enhance workplace safety and environmental sustainability over time. As I’ve gotten familiar with popular product management tools and frameworks, I started to see how these frameworks could be extremely impactful for EHS Professionals.