Should you take on a turnaround?

Analyze urgency vs. commitment and whether you want to be a Hero, Prophet, Maestro or Pathbreaker

Considering tackling a turnaround?

A turnaround, whether it’s an individual team, product or a whole company, can be an incredible opportunity for impact and personal growth.

However, not all turnarounds are created equal, and you should make sure your own goals and personality matches what the situation requires.

And if not, feel free to say “thanks, but no thanks”.

In a recent Product Thinking podcast, Melissa Perri hosted Mauricio Monico (CPO of Wish) to discuss his experiences with product leadership and turnarounds at Wish, Indigo and eBay. 

I was particularly struck by his acknowledgement of how fortunate he had been to be part of executive teams that were already committed to change. 

“We had a lot of conflicts in terms of how to do it… But fighting the status quo was not a problem we had”

Having worked on a number of turnarounds and product reboots, as well as advising other leaders through them, I can tell you that level of executive commitment is far from guaranteed.

This lack of commitment can manifest even when the urgency of the situation is quite high, i.e. when there are strong signs that your product or business will be impacted soon, or is already being impacted.

Commitment vs. Urgency

When presented with the opportunity to take charge of a turnaround, you can take those two concepts—commitment and urgency—to shine a light on the likely conditions and the type of leadership required. 

And whether or not the opportunity is a good fit for you personally.

To do this, estimate the degree of commitment to the turnaround—from the company’s leadership and key stakeholders—on one axis of a 2x2 framework, and put the level of urgency the company is facing on another axis. Each axis ranges from low to high.  

Note, the level of importance or impact here is separate. You’re considering a turnaround because it matters to you or someone in the company.

Commitment considers the degree to which the company has internally rallied to address the importance, while urgency considers the more external factor of how soon your company will be impacted.

For example, imagine a company providing an SEO service that is observing the impact of Generative AI content on its business. Urgency is high if the company is already experiencing significant impact on its business, but is lower the further out into the future those impacts appear.

Using this framing, there are four extremes you can find yourself in, along with a different archetype that thrives in each:

I. Low commitment, low urgency / “Prophets”

Change is coming, and the business could be upended some day, but few stakeholders are concerned about it at the moment, often due to more pressing near-term priorities. 

Taking on a turnaround here is the land of “prophets”: people who have a deep belief in what’s coming, the capacity to tackle a problem that very few leaders in the company prioritize, and the ability to build the case for increased commitment. 

Take this on if you’re passionate about the domain/problem and if you have the endurance to work on building the case for an extended period of time with minimal support.

You may need to “keep a day job” while doing this, where you are addressing near-term priorities for the business to justify your employment. 

II. Low commitment, high urgency  / “Heroes”

Change is here, with disruptive impacts already being felt, but stakeholders are resistant to change and highly protective of the status quo. That protectiveness can be due to a variety of factors, often due to strongly established revenue or operations. Or a critical stakeholder is unwilling to change (founders, various CxOs, etc.) 

This situation requires “heroes”: people with a high risk tolerance—or who are protected from risk—because given the extreme urgency, they will typically have very few attempts to get it right. Meanwhile, the lack of commitment increases the probability for failure. There are fewer resources and potentially even people fighting to maintain the status quo. 

Only take this on if you believe the experience will be worthwhile even if you fail… because you might be made to fall on your proverbial “sword”. 

III. High commitment, low urgency  / “Pathbreakers” 

Change is further out on the horizon, but stakeholders believe its impacts are coming. How those impacts manifest is generally not yet understood, and despite the promise of investment, what exactly to invest in is not clear. 

This is the world of “pathbreakers”: people who are comfortable with discovering the path forward but also with building the structure for others to follow and the spaces to learn and grow. Also, high visibility tends to go hand-in-hand with high commitment, so continuously demonstrating progress towards the right path is critical… especially when the right path itself is not yet clear. 

Tackle turnarounds in these conditions if you are comfortable with high visibility roles where the way forward is unknown. You also need to be comfortable changing directions and demonstrating progress outside of standard metrics. 

IV. High commitment, high urgency  / “Maestros”

Change is already disrupting the business and stakeholders are committed to doing something about it, frantically so. You have limited time to find and validate new strategies, so execution and prioritization are critical. 

This is the realm of “maestros”: people with deep expertise in the domain, as well as ingrained intuition and creativity for potential solutions in that domain. The number of turnaround attempts are very limited, so leaders here also need the trust and authority to “conduct” the team or organization through a series of rapid, high-impact changes.  

Take this on if you’re comfortable with “the buck stops here” authority and accountability,  and moving rapidly with intention. Furthermore, as Mauricio advises “be very clear on what you're turning around from” as accurate understanding of the core problem is critical to the pace required.

If there are significant obstacles to obtaining such understanding, you may want to think twice.  

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It’s important to note that the four examples above should be extremes, and you may find that your own scenario—or your own ideal—is somewhere more in the middle.

In my own career, I have also found this decision to be highly dependent on the company and my standing there. For example, I’ve successfully taken on a “maestro” turnaround at some companies, but wouldn’t consider it at others. Likewise with the other three roles. Consider the type of support and assurances you would want in each. 

In summary, turnarounds can be fantastic opportunities to upscale your impact and to learn rapidly, but do your best to evaluate if it matches the role and experience you will thrive  in.