Our Head of Product development has the capacity and gets the seat, but her Kolbe profile shows she is a high Fact Finder who needs weeks of research. We need a high Quick Start to rapidly prototype our new software tools. Is she in the wrong seat?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Your Head of Product may have the intellectual capability and desire to do the job, but if her conative wiring is misaligned with the immediate needs of the seat, she will struggle. A high Fact Finder is naturally driven to gather deep details, mitigate risk, and build exhaustive specifications before taking action.

While this is incredibly valuable for stabilizing an existing product, it can paralyze a department that needs to rapidly prototype and iterate. If the primary role of the seat today is to move fast and break things, her natural striving instincts will cause friction and stress.

She is not necessarily in the wrong seat permanently, but the seat itself may need to be restructured. You can keep her in the strategic Head of Product seat where she can use her Fact Finder strengths to oversee system architecture and data models.

To solve the prototyping bottleneck, you can create a new seat on the Accountability Chart directly reporting to her, such as a Product Prototyper or R and D Lead. Fill this seat with a high Quick Start who thrives on trial and error.

This structure allows your high Fact Finder to provide the necessary guardrails and systems while the high Quick Start drives rapid execution. This utilizes the natural strengths of both individuals, ensures your software development does not stall, and keeps your Accountability Chart aligned with how people actually get things done.