Good, Better, Best: What the Chicago Bears Teach Product Leaders About Outcomes

I am ridiculously proud of my Chicago Bears right now. They went from one of the worst teams in the league to one of the most dangerous, and they did it much faster than anyone expected. That kind of turnaround does not happen by accident, it happens because leadership decides to run the team differently.

As a founder and product leader, I cannot help but watch this Bears season like a live masterclass in product strategy. New coach, new culture, same players for the most part, completely different outcomes. The way Ben Johnson runs this team is exactly how high performing product and strategy orgs should run their work.

The mantra: good, better, best

After every win, Johnson repeats the same line: good, better, best. Never let it rest till the good gets better and the better gets best. I love that, because it is not about hype, it is about optimization.

Even with world class athletes on the roster, he refuses to let anyone believe they have already arrived. The message is simple: we are not there yet, and we are going to get better every single day.

Great product teams need that same mindset. Not the fake urgency that burns everyone out, but a clear expectation that we are always sharpening how we work, how we decide, how we execute. If you are interested in how that shows up in product management, I wrote more about it in this piece on moving from velocity to value on Iteright: stepping into true product leadership.

Complex playbook, brutally simple outcomes

Here is what really stands out to me about Johnson. His playbook is complex, just like your product portfolio. Tons of formations, personnel packages, audibles. The football version of your stakeholder meetings, dependencies, and roadmap.

But when you listen to players talk about any given week, it sounds incredibly simple. For each game, they lock in on one to three key results: neutralize a specific player, hit a big shot down the middle, control the clock, put up a certain number of points. Everything flows from those outcomes.

According to coverage from outlets like FOX 32 Chicago and Marquee Sports Network, that clarity is a big part of why the 2025 Bears feel so different. Same league, same opponents, but now they walk into each week knowing exactly how they plan to win.

That is the move most product orgs still resist. You have a complicated environment, but instead of cutting through the noise and setting one to three measurable outcomes per quarter, you let the team chase twenty priorities at once. No one is quite sure what matters most, so everything gets a little attention and nothing gets the sustained focus that creates real movement.

If this sounds familiar, you might appreciate this deep dive on whether we are actually tracking outcomes at all: are we really tracking outcomes.

Tell the truth, study the film, change the plan

Another thing Johnson does that I respect a lot, he tells the truth. When they run five plays that were supposed to create a specific result and it does not happen, he does not spin it. The staff and players look straight at the tape and ask the hard questions.

Why did we miss the outcome. Where did the risks show up. What did we misread about the opponent. Did we call the right plays but execute them poorly, or was the plan itself wrong.

Then they adjust. Sometimes that means trying five new things. Sometimes it means leaning harder into a concept that almost worked. The point is they are not just doing the same thing every week because that is how they have always done it.

This is exactly where many product teams get stuck. We run the sprint review, nod through the metrics, declare success because features shipped, then roll the same plan into the next cycle. No one slows down long enough to ask whether any of this actually moved the outcome we care about.

My recommendation is simple: build your version of studying the film. A short, focused, fifteen minute review with the core team every week or two. Forget the slide theatre. Just ask three questions.

• Did we move the outcome we said we would move.
• What did we do that clearly worked or clearly failed.
• What will we change in the next cycle based on what we learned.

Those conversations are not status updates. They are how you shift from activity to learning, from motion to progress.

Practice the work, not just the talk

The other thing I love about how this Bears team operates, they do not stop at talking. Once they know what has to change, they run the drills over and over until the new behavior is real.

In product, we rarely practice. We ship, we present, we escalate, but we do not rehearse. We do not run mock customer calls, practice critical roadmap conversations with sales, or dry run the new pricing story with leadership. Then we are surprised when those moments go poorly.

Great teams make practice part of the system. They simulate launch readiness. They walk through failure scenarios. They pressure test the narrative around a big strategic bet. That is how you turn insights from your metaphorical film review into new muscle memory.

If you want to go deeper on how narrative and repetition shape leadership, I unpack that in this piece on product storytelling: how storytelling elevates product leaders.

Discipline, standards, and one language

Underneath everything, what I see in this Bears turnaround is discipline. Clear standards. Real accountability. When someone is supposed to do something and it does not happen, that gets addressed. Not as blame, but as a commitment to the standard the team agreed to.

Reports from Sports Illustrated and the official Bears site talk about how that mindset has reshaped everything from offseason upgrades to playoff expectations. Better line play, better game management, better results. It is all connected.

Inside a company, this looks like one team instead of a turf war. Product, engineering, design, sales, marketing, success, finance, they are your offense, defense, and special teams. Different responsibilities, same scoreboard.

That only works if everyone speaks a common language. The wide receiver does not describe routes in a way the defense cannot understand, and your product managers should not talk about success in terms that finance cannot map to the model.

This is why I care so much about consistent, outcome based language across the product life cycle, from concept to sunsetting. If you are wrestling with that in your org, this breakdown might help: navigating the product life cycle.

How to run your product team like a good football team

Let me pull this together into something you can actually use with your team next week. Here is a simple framework inspired by this Bears season.

• Set one to three outcomes per cycle, not twenty priorities. Make them visible, measurable, and understood by every function.
• Translate complex plans into simple intent. Everyone should be able to answer, in one sentence, how you plan to win this quarter.
• Schedule short, honest film reviews. Regular fifteen minute checkpoints focused purely on outcomes, learning, and adjustments.
• Turn decisions into practice. Rehearse launches, pricing conversations, customer narratives, escalation paths, instead of improvising under pressure.
• Hold the standard as a team. Agree on what good looks like, track it, and address the gap when you miss, without politics.

This is the kind of operating system we build with teams through Iteright. Clear outcomes, visible accountability, simple language, less noise. If that resonates, you can learn more about our approach here: Iteright solutions or browse other articles on the Iteright blog.

The real question for leaders

Watching the Bears go from bottom of the league to serious contenders in such a short window is a sharp reminder that teams are rarely constrained by talent alone. They are constrained by clarity, discipline, and the courage to tell the truth about what is and is not working.

So here is the question I would leave with you. If your product org ran with the same level of outcome focus, weekly honesty, and shared language as a well coached football team, how different would your next year look.

You probably have the players. The real leverage now is the playbook, how you call the game, and how tightly the whole organization rallies around the result.