The Product/Org Officer system, covered fully in Flag Executive Briefing Course tapes, contains the key phrase for any Product Officer. This is

Breaking this down into its parts we find that the most common failure of any Product Officer or staff member or Purchaser lies in the first item, NAME YOUR PRODUCT!

On org boards and even for sections, one has products listed. Departments have valuable final products. Every staff member has one or more products.

IF PRODUCTION IS NOT OCCURRING, THE ABILITY TO NAME THE PRODUCT IS PROBABLY MISSING.

Misunderstood post titles were collected once on a wide survey. Whenever it was found a staff member did not seem to be able to do his job, it was checked whether he knew the definition of the word — or words — that made up his post title. It was found, one for one, that he could not define it even though no unusual or special definition was being requested. In other words, the first thing about the post could not be defined — the post title. This may seem incredible, but only until you yourself check it out on staff that habitually goof.

The ability to NAME the product required goes further than a mere, glib definition. Some engineers once drove a Purchaser halfway up the wall by glibly requesting “one dozen bolts.” The Purchaser kept bringing back all different thicknesses and lengths and types of bolts. The Purchaser was going daffy and so were the engineers. Until the engineers were forced to exactly name what they were seeking by giving it ALL its name. The Purchaser trying to purchase could not possibly obtain his product without being able to FULLY name it. Once this was done, nothing was easier.

A Product Officer can ask, beg, plead, yell for his product. But maybe he isn’t naming it! Maybe he isn’t naming it fully. And maybe even he doesn’t know the name of it. A Product Officer should spend some time exactly and accurately naming the exact product he wants before asking for it. Otherwise he and his staff may be struggling around over many misunderstood words!

When you see a staff whirling around and dashing into walls and each other and not producing a thing, calmly try to find out if any of them or their Product Officer can NAME what products they are trying to produce. Chances are, few of them can and maybe the Product Officer as well.

Handle and it will all smooth out and products will occur.