One Knight in Product

Welcome to CPO Stories! In this new "podcast within a podcast", I'll be speaking to executive product leaders from the UK's biggest companies as well as up-and-coming stars of the future. I'll be digging into how they approach product management within their organisations, how they approached the leap into executive product leadership and trying to get some deep insights into how they view product management practices and culture. If you're a CPO and would like to come on, drop me a line! Or, forward this episode to your CPO and tell them you want them to come on

Kanika Tolver is a Senior Product Manager by day and the founder of Career Rehab. She's also the author of a book of the same name, "Career Rehab: Rebuild Your Personal Brand and Rethink the Way You Work" Kanika's hot take? That some project managers out there are actually product managers in disguise. Their responsibilities have changed, their job titles have yet to catch up, and it's up to them to seize the opportunities of the new world of product management. Find Kanika on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kanikatolver/ or check out her website: https://kanikatolver.com/.

Welcome to CPO Stories! In this new "podcast within a podcast", I'll be speaking to executive product leaders from the UK's biggest companies as well as up-and-coming stars of the future. I'll be digging into how they approach product management within their organisations, how they approached the leap into executive product leadership and trying to get some deep insights into how they view product management practices and culture. If you're a CPO and would like to come on, drop me a line! Or, forward this episode to your CPO and tell them you want them to come on

Alex Rastatuev is a Senior Product Manager for Keyhole, a social media insights company, and is passionate about product-led growth. He's also an active mentor, looking to pay it forward to the next generation of PMs. Alex's hot take? That thoughtful product onboarding and education is more important than showing all your features all at the same time, and will lead to better activation rates and product growth. Find Alex on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-rastatuev/ or check out his mentoring profile: https://partnerup.intelligentpeople.co.uk/mentor/alex-rastatuev/.

Welcome to CPO Stories! In this new "podcast within a podcast", I'll be speaking to executive product leaders from the UK's biggest companies as well as up-and-coming stars of the future. I'll be digging into how they approach product management within their organisations, how they approached the leap into executive product leadership and trying to get some deep insights into how they view product management practices and culture. If you're a CPO and would like to come on, drop me a line! Or, forward this episode to your CPO and tell them you want them to come on

Returning guest Rich Mironov is a B2B product management legend, long-time blogger and author of "The Art of Product Management". He's recently moved to Portugal to sample the best of European product culture, and is currently actively coaching and mentoring product leaders. His goal is to help them understand what business leaders really care about and ensure that they make an impact by speaking the same language as the rest of the executive suite. Episode highlights: 1. No one in the leadership team cares about how products are made; they care about making money We product people can often be so in love with our craft and our terminology that we forget that no one else wants to hear it. We need to craft a narrative that moves beyond esoteric, fuzzy concepts about delight and happiness. These are important, but not as important to the leadership team as how those things make money for the company. We need to get off our high horses and meet our stakeholders where they are, just like we would with our users. 2. Product Managers need to know how their product and their company make money Too many product managers are not aware of how their company makes money, how things are priced and packaged, and the effect that this will have on the types of decisions they can make. We need to up our game when it comes to financial literacy and understand the growth levers that we can pull if we want to have an impact at the top level. 3. It's important to build internal coalitions to get support early, rather than being the one person who dissents It's always hard when there's a seemingly blockbuster deal on the table that has big revenue numbers attached, but is going to derail the roadmap for months. It's important to understand the positions of other non-product stakeholders and get their buy-in so that you're not the only person against the deal. Make sure you build bridges with your colleagues and go in with a united front. 4. Learn to tell "Money Stories" to get alignment around your roadmap and calculate the true cost of trade-offs There are four different types of money stories: Cost savings, Upselling, New Market and Customer Satisfaction. These all use simple heuristics to sense-check the revenue impact of any initiative. Product people can get obsessed with accuracy, but your colleagues are guesstimating all their numbers, so get comfortable with directionally correct numbers. You can still make prioritisation debates clearer by "counting the digits" or comparing orders of magnitude. 5. Organisational context is everything, so you need to understand it There are big differences between how Private Equity-funded and Venture Capital-funded startups work. They have different timeframes, different goals and, ultimately, a different mindset. There's no right or wrong here, simply an acknowledgement that your company's investment context will dramatically impact the types of decisions the leadership team will make. If you know this context, it can help you make better decisions (as well as decide whether it's the type of company you want to work for) Check out Rich's essay "Business Cases are Stories about Money" Rich's original essay, which has led to conference talks as well as this interview, can be found here: https://www.mironov.com/moneystories/ Buy "The Art of Product Management (2nd edition)" "The Art of Product Management takes us inside the head of a product management thought leader. With color and humor, Rich Mironov gives us a taste of Silicon Valley's tireless pursuit of great technology and its creation of new products. He provides strategic advice to product managers and tech professionals about start-ups, big organizations, how to think like a customer, and what things should cost. He also reminds us to love our products and our teams." Check it out on Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Art-Product-Management-Second-Innovator-ebook/dp/B0CVL45F36. Contact Rich You can catch up with Rich on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richmironov/. Or check out his website: https://mironov.com.

Tami Reiss (aka "Tami from Miami"!) is an executive leadership coach, corporate trainer and upcoming author of a children's product management book. Tami's hot take? That all product managers are leaders, even if they don't feel like it. As a PM, whatever your situation (and however high or low your sights) it's your job to inspire the team and influence your colleagues. Find Tami on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tamireiss/ or check out https://tamireiss.com/. If you'd like to appear on Hot Takes, please grab a time: https://www.oneknightinproduct.com/hot

Alexandar Murauski is an expert in all things related to product localisation and the CEO of Alconost, a platform that aims to help product teams unlock global growth through AI-enhanced localisation. Alexander's hot take? That the language your product "speaks" is a fundamental part of the product's user experience, and is often left lacking. It's important to consider localisation upfront, and ensure that you take cultural considerations into account, not just Google Translate the text as an afterthought. Find Alexander on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amurauski/ or check out his company, Alconost, at https://alconost.com/en. If you'd like to appear on Hot Takes, please grab a time: https://www.oneknightinproduct.com/hot

Andriy Burkov is a renowned machine learning expert and leader. He's also the author of (so far) three books on machine learning, including the recently-released "The Hundred-Page Language Models Book", which takes curious people from the very basics of language models all the way up to building their own LLM. Andriy is also a formidable online presence and is never afraid to call BS on over-the-top claims about AI capabilities via his punchy social media posts. Episode highlights: 1. Large Language Models are neither magic nor conscious LLMs boil down to relatively simple mathematics at an unfathomably large scale. Humans are terrible at visualising big numbers and cannot comprehend the size of the dataset or the number of GPUs that have been used to create the models. You can train the same LLM on a handful of records and get garbage results, or throw millions of dollars at it and get good results, but the fundamentals are identical, and there's no consciousness hiding in between the equations. We see good-looking output, and we think it's talking to us. It isn't. 2. As soon as we saw it was possible to do mathematics on words, LLMs were inevitable There were language models before LLMs, but the invention of the transformer architecture truly accelerated everything. That said, the fundamentals trace further back to "simpler" algorithms, such as word2vec, which proved that it is possible to encode language information in a numeric format, which meant that the vast majority of linguistic information could be represented by embeddings, which enabled people to run equations on language. After that, it was just a matter of time before they got scaled out. 3. LLMs look intelligent because people generally ask about things they already know about The best way to be disappointed by an LLM's results is to ask detailed questions about something you know deeply. It's quite likely that it'll give good results to start with, because most people's knowledge is so unoriginal that, somewhere in the LLM's training data, there are documents that talk about the thing you asked about. But, it will degrade over time and confidently keep writing even when it doesn't know the answer. These are not easily solvable problems and are, in fact, fundamental parts of the design of an LLM. 4. Agentic AI relies on unreliable actors with no true sense of agency The concept of agents is not new, and people have been talking about them for years. The key aspect of AI agents is that they need self-motivation and goals of their own, rather than being told to have goals and then simulating the desire to achieve them. That's not to say that some agents are not useful in their own right, but the goal of fully autonomous, agentic systems is a long way off, and may not even be solvable. 5. LLMs represent the most incredible technical advance since the personal computer, but people should quit it with their most egregious claims LLMs are an incredible tool and can open up whole new worlds for people who are able to get the best out of them. There are limits to their utility, and some of their shortcomings are likely unsolvable, but we should not minimise their impact. However, there are unethical people out there making completely unsubstantiated claims based on zero evidence and a fundamental misunderstanding of how these models work. These people are scaring people and encouraging terrible decision-making from the gullible. We need to see through the hype. Buy "The Hundred-Page Language Model Book" "Large language models (LLMs) have fundamentally transformed how machines process and generate information. They are reshaping white-collar jobs at a pace comparable only to the revolutionary impact of personal computers. Understanding the mathematical foundations and inner workings of language models has become crucial for maintaining relevance and competitiveness in an increasingly automated workforce. This book guides you through the evolution of language models, starting from machine learning fundamentals. Rather than presenting transformers right away, which can feel overwhelming, we build understanding of language models step by step—from simple count-based methods through recurrent neural networks to modern architectures. Each concept is grounded in clear mathematical foundations and illustrated with working Python code." Check it out on the book's website: https://thelmbook.com/. You can also check out Machine Learning Engineering: https://www.mlebook.com and The Hundred-Page Machine Learning Book: https://www.themlbook.com/. Follow Andriy You can catch up with Andriy here: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andriyburkov/ Twitter/"X": https://twitter.com/burkov True Positive Newsletter: https://aiweekly.substack.com/

Sam Greenwood is an emotional resilience coach who works with product managers to help them survive at the intersection of emotional stress and product leadership. His goal is to help product managers build EQ, communication and leadership and AI-proof their careers. Sam's hot take? That we are on the cusp of societal collapse and product managers, as well as people in tech in general, have taken their eye off the ball. Product people need to adopt new mindsets and build different kinds of products to help us weather the storm... although, maybe the storm can't be weathered at all. Find Sam on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samuel-greenwood/. If you'd like to appear on Hot Takes, please grab a time: https://www.oneknightinproduct.com/hot  

Olha Yohansen-Veselova is a product growth and product optimisation expert who has now gone solo and is helping companies with their onboarding. Olha is also a startup mentor and advisor, and is passionate about product managers living up to their full potential. Olha's hot take? That product managers need to beyond being facilitators and unblockers, and move towards being true growth partners to the business. Too many people are working in a bubble and not taking account of the commercial impact of their roles, and the ones that do will outpace the ones that don't. Find Olha on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/oyohansen/. Or check out Olha's newsletter: https://oyogrowth.substack.com/. If you'd like to appear on Hot Takes, please grab a time: https://www.oneknightinproduct.com/hot

About the Episode Elena Verna is a renowned growth consultant who has worked at and with a glittering array of well-known tech companies. She's a strong advocate of career optionality and solopreneurship, as well as the author of a popular growth newsletter, Reforge instructor and popular LinkedIn content creator with her insightful posts and searing memes. Just don't call her an influencer. Episode highlights:   1. Solopreneurship is about having optionality; it doesn't mean you never take a full-time job again. You can build a portfolio career with a variety of different offerings, and get involved in the types of problems that excite you. This feels risky, but people get laid off from "real" jobs all the time. The most important thing is to optimise for what you're passionate about, and it may well be that you move between full-time employment and advisory or fractional roles. It's not a one-way street, and you're in control. 2. Humour disarms people, so memes are a great way to talk about difficult topics and build empathy Content creators should not be scared of poking fun at meaningful topics. Using humour is a great way to help build connections with people around potentially sensitive areas. That doesn't mean you should make everything a joke, but you can certainly mix it up. You might think it's risky for a solopreneur, needing to build credibility, to be seen as an unserious clown. But, do you really want to work with people who can't take a joke? 3. Product-Led Sales is all about using self-service as a lever to fill up your sales pipeline with healthy, qualified leads Speaking of knowledge (nice segue!), Elena has written a lot about Product-Led Growth (PLG) and Product-Led Sales (PLS). PLG is the strategy of using your product as its own acquisition channel through enabling a great self-service experience, quick time-to-value and all the other things that B2C apps have had to worry about for years. PLS, on the other hand, is about filling your sales team's pipeline with high-quality leads that have already experienced your product through PLG, and demonstrated enough usage to make it worth having a data-backed conversation with the buyers at that organisation. 4. There are signals that it's time to try out Product-Led Sales Don't adopt PLS for the sake of it; instead, look for signals that it's appropriate for you. Traditional sales-led motions focus on the buyer but, if you solve a problem that matters more to end users than buyers, you should consider Product-Led Sales as a method for building internal champions and advocacy for your product. You should also be conscious of competitive threats; your traditional, top-down buyer-led sales motion may work today, but keep your eyes open for new PLG players attacking your underbelly. 5. You probably need new capabilities (and talent) within your organisation if you want to get started with Product-Led Sales. Let's face it, most sales-led organisations are terrified of giving sales prospects access to their product without supervision. The user experience is almost certainly terrible and there's no "Aha!" moment to speak of, just a pile of features that got added to satisfy procurement teams. You need to get a good product manager in to overhaul the experience, good product marketers to work on optimising acquisition, and great data analytics so you can make sure you aren't just sending garbage to the sales team. If you don't send them high-quality leads, they'll stop trying to sell to them. 6. Product-Led Sales is not an on/off switch but a dial. Traditional sales-led organisations that are crushing their quotas don't need to go down the product-led growth or product-led sales route if it doesn't work for them. Similarly, product-led companies shouldn't have to go upmarket to succeed. The most important thing to consider is how to build on your existing strengths and complement them, and getting the mix right. You can run both at the same time, and this is better than throwing all-in on a go-to-market motion where you have no credibility, experience or right to win. Contact Elena Check out Elena's newsletter and other work: ElenaVerna.com Follow Elena on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elenaverna/

Zoe Laycock is the Product Marketing Lead for Diffblue, an AI-powered testing platform, and is passionate about promoting and elevating the role of product marketing, as well as advocating for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the tech sector. Zoe's hot take? That product people need to get serious about ethical AI, and put people, processes and protections in place to ensure that AI products create the impact that we all want to see in the world. Find Zoe: ...on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zoelaycock/. ...on "X": https://x.com/firestartr. ...on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/firestartr. Or check out Diffblue: https://www.diffblue.com/. If you'd like to appear on Hot Takes, please grab a time: https://www.oneknightinproduct.com/hot

Myles Sutholt is a Germany-based product leader working for an Africa-based startup where he's helping to digitise the health supply chain across the continent, with a "laser focus" on creating user value alongside business value and fostering motivated, dynamic teams. His hot take? That leaders too often rely on gut feel and recency bias when performing performance reviews, relying on point-in-time assessments and trying to be nice rather than supporting the career growth of their teams. Find Myles on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/myles-sutholt/. If you'd like to appear on Hot Takes, please grab a time: https://www.oneknightinproduct.com/hot!

Martin Eriksson is the co-founder of Mind the Product, and co-author of the "Product Leadership" book. Martin has worked with a multitude of companies and has been heavily involved in the VC side of product management. These days, he's advising and coaching companies as well as trying to help us all make good decisions by writing a new book, "The Decision Stack", alongside its supporting website. Episode highlights: 1. The vast majority of company employees don't know what their company strategy is... It's important for everyone in the company to be aligned on what's important, where the company's going and how they're going to get there. It's crucial for product and business leaders to do the work; both to create a vision and strategy and to share it with everyone who is needed to execute it. 2. ... but, worse still, the vast majority of companies don't even have a strategy to speak of Strategy is about making a coherent set of choices about how we're going to achieve our goals or make our company vision real. But, too many companies have fluffy, vague vision statements that could mean anything, and leaders who want to do everything all at once and don't want to make choices. This limits their ability to actually achieve anything. 3. It's hard to create a product strategy if you don't have a company strategy, but you should do it anyway A product strategy should support the company strategy and vision but, if there's no company strategy or vision, it's hard to create or defend such a strategy. On the other hand, you should still do the work to create one; either you'll get to go and execute the strategy or you'll have a straw man proposal to provoke further discussion around what the strategy should be. 4. A lot of product people are pretty bad at strategy, and we need to get better Back in the day, a lot of product managers were expected to write specifications and get stuff done. They weren't even expected to be strategic, and many still aren't to this day. These skills are learnable; product people need to do their best to up their game, and company leaders need to get more comfortable both delegating responsibility and coaching their employees to have these skills. 5. The answer is not "Founder mode" "Founder mode" can be used to justify just about any behaviour, invites "hero syndrome" and can lead to micromanagement and single points of failure. Good leaders absolutely need to be deeply involved in their business, but this should not be at the expense of creating strong, aligned teams that can take many day-to-day decisions without them. Contact Martin You can catch up with Martin on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/martineriksson You can also check his website: https://martineriksson.com Keep up-to-date with The Decision Stack: https://www.thedecisionstack.com/

Martijn Versteeg is the founder of Group Effort, an organisation that fosters connections & facilitates the growth of scale-up leaders through peer groups, offsites and workshops. His hot take? That product people should stop looking for the "golden nugget" of knowledge. Martijn argues that instead of seeking a single breakthrough insight, product managers should focus on consistent iteration and learning through small, incremental steps. Find Martijn on LinkedIn or check out Group Effort. Also, remember to check out the conference that he's organising, and we'll both be speaking at: Product Mastery Conference If you'd like to appear on Hot Takes, please grab a time!

Martijn Moret is the founder of DataSquirrel.ai, a company focused on leveraging AI to humanise and simplify data analysis for product managers and non-tech managers. His hot take? Most product managers neglect data—not because they dislike it, but due to a lack of time and skills, which can lead to wrong priorities and poor decision-making. He also highlights the current limitations of AI in data analysis, emphasising that while AI accelerates workflows, it still requires human oversight for reliable outcomes. Find Martijn on LinkedIn or check out DataSquirrel.ai. If you'd like to appear on Hot Takes, please grab a time!

Adam Dille is the SVP of Product Engineering at Quantum Metric, a company specialising in experience analytics for some of the world's biggest brands. Despite his engineering roots, Adam's relentless curiosity about the WHY behind building products led him to embrace product thinking and how to build products better. His hot take? The traditional product trio - PM, design, and engineering - isn't enough anymore. He advocates for transforming the trio into a square by adding a customer-facing, "operational" team member. This person, deeply connected to customer needs and speaking to customers every day, can help to bridge the gap between the product team and the customer and enable stronger customer focus and faster iteration cycles. Find Adam on LinkedIn or check out Quantum Metric. If you'd like to appear on Hot Takes, please grab a time!

Grace Yusuff is a London-based "reluctant product manager" and introvert who thought she could never do the job. She has since fallen in love with the role and now works as a product manager and early-career mentor, helping others get into tech. Her hot take? That introversion is a superpower for product managers and something to be embraced rather than overcome. She is a strong advocate for people to find their own way in product management, and not having to live up to clichés or stereotypes. Find Grace on LinkedIn. If you'd like to appear on Hot Takes, please grab a time!

Assaph Mehr is an Australia-based product & people leader as well as a published fantasy author, who also uses his writing chops to produce a newsletter, "Rise of the Product Leader". His hot take? That LLMs and other generative AI tools are the equivalent of an angle grinder. For those who don't know, angle grinders have big, spinning metal discs that make them ideal tools for certain use cases (like cutting up concrete) but are terrible for anything else. Assaph believes that LLMs have a large number of use cases where we should use them, but that there's still an inevitable need for human decision-making and a sense of taste that AI will never have. Find Assaph on LinkedIn or subscribe to his newsletter. If you're interested in fantasy novels, check those out too. If you'd like to appear on Hot Takes, please grab a time!

Matt Maier is a product marketer and AI enthusiast from Irvine, California, with a background spanning the Air Force, aerospace, healthcare, and startup consulting. His hot take? Within 5 years, employment as we know it will sharply decline. Matt predicts that advancements in AI will render traditional employee-employer relationships obsolete, because why would companies hire people to do easily automatable tasks? On the other hand, Matt believes this is a good thing and will enable an entirely new way of working. Find Matt on LinkedIn or drop him an email at Solo Scale AI. If you'd like to appear on Hot Takes, please grab a time! Related episodes you should like: Is Product-Led Growth Really For You? (Leah Tharin, Product-Led Growth Guru & Head of Product @ Jua) Embracing Change to Innovate in Product Management (Greg Coticchia, CEO @ Sopheon) The Big Pivot to Reinvent Product Management (Yana Welinder, Founder & CEO @ Kraftful) Debbie Levitt's Hot Take - Democratising our Work means AI is Going to Steal all our Jobs Sooner (Debbie Levitt, CXO @ DeltaCX and Author "Customers Know You Suck") Greg Prickril's Hot Take - AI is going to change everything for Product Managers (Greg Prickril, B2B Product Management Coach, Consultant & Trainer) Andy Walters' Hot Take - We're Soon Going to be Living in an AI-Assistant-First World (Andy Walters, CEO @ Emerge Haus & Generative AI Expert) Bjarte Rettedal's Hot Take - AI Models Should Be Under Public Ownership or Completely Transparent (Bjarte Rettedal, UX Designer) Reinventing the Future of Customer Success with Human-First AI (Nick Mehta, CEO @ Gainsight)

Yael Mark is a behavioural scientist turned product manager, who is passionate about helping others unlock the power of user-centred product design by embracing behavioural science. She believes that understanding human behaviour and cognitive biases can drive better product decisions and stakeholder alignment, as well as make sure we do it ethically. Episode highlights:   1. Behavioural science helps product managers design for real-world users Behavioural science is the study of how people think, act, and interact with their environments. By understanding human "bugs" and irrational behaviours, product managers can create products that align with user needs, addressing pain points inside and outside the app. 2. Ethics matter when applying behavioural science It's important to align behavioural tactics with user goals. Ethical applications, like encouraging language learning with Duolingo streaks, contrast with manipulative design patterns that exploit users for profit without delivering real value. 3. Cognitive biases can be leveraged for better product outcomes Cognitive biases are the shortcuts our brains take to help us make decisions. Common biases like anchoring, cognitive dissonance, and the sunk cost fallacy have an impact in product decisions. For example, Amazon Prime uses cognitive dissonance to encourage consolidated deliveries, appealing to users' environmental consciousness while reducing costs. 4. AI offers opportunities and challenges in behavioural science AI can accelerate behavioural research by simulating user responses, though it is not yet capable of replicating cognitive biases fully, even when told to exhibit them. However, biases in AI training data may introduce new challenges, requiring vigilance in its application. 5. You can prove the ROI of behavioural science through small wins Some people will be sceptical, so it's important to tie behavioural science theory to measurable KPIs and you can use A/B testing to demonstrate value. Not everything has to be a big development effort. Even reworking copy to focus on gains instead of losses can drive changes in user behaviour. Contact Yael You can find Yael and learn more on YouTube at ProductBS or connect with her on LinkedIn Related episodes you should like: Valentine's Special! A Love Letter to Problems, not Solutions (Uri Levine, Founder @ Waze & Author "Fall in Love with the Problem, not the Solution") Understanding & Interrupting Cognitive Biases in Product Design (David Dylan Thomas, Author "Design for Cognitive Bias") Using Solution Tests to Make Sure You're Building Products Users Want (Jim Morris, Founder @ Product Discovery Group) Standing up for User Research... and User Researchers (Debbie Levitt, CXO @ DeltaCX and Author "Customers Know You Suck") Building Life-Centred Products with Collaborative Product Discovery (Sophia Höfling, Co-founder & Head of Product @ Saiga) Betting on the Value of Product Design at the Organisational Poker Table (Andy Budd, Executive & Design Leadership Coach & Founder @ Clearleft) Moving Beyond Survival and Paying Off Your Vision Debt (Radhika Dutt, Consultant and Author "Radical Product Thinking") Bjarte Rettedal's Hot Take - AI Models Should Be Under Public Ownership or Completely Transparent (Bjarte Rettedal, UX Designer)

Returning guest Eisha Armstrong is the co-founder of Vecteris and author of books like "Productize" and "Fearless", which talk about that tricky journey from a professional services to product organisation. She's back to talk about her latest book, "Commercialize", which gives us the skinny on how to monetise, sell, and market productised offerings in transforming B2B professional services firms. Episode highlights:   1. Product strategy is the heart of successful commercialisation A successful product commercialisation strategy needs five key elements: Clear market understanding, monetisation approach, marketing strategy, sales process and plan for renewability. More than anything, company leaders need to think about this stuff upfront and not just wing it. 2. Selling to existing customers is often the most effective strategy for B2B services companies The data shows that selling products to existing service customers, especially as bundles, is typically more successful than trying to enter new markets. It's tempting to try to go downmarket with cheaper, standardised offerings, but this is challenging due to lack of brand recognition and relationships. 3. Packaging is more critical than pricing for success Many leaders focus on pricing, but packaging is often the bigger challenge. Packages should be designed around market segment needs rather than defaulting to simple "good, better, best" tiers without clear rationale. There must be a clear story for why customers would upgrade from one package to another. 4. Companies need to invest in new capabilities for product success A common mistake is trying to commercialise products using existing service-oriented sales and marketing teams. Organisations need to plan and budget for different kinds of capabilities and talent, rather than expecting current staff to develop new skills while maintaining their existing responsibilities. 5. Moving to recurring revenue requires organizational change Shifting from one-time service engagements to recurring product revenue requires changes in how companies measure success, moving from annual revenue targets to customer lifetime value. This transition typically takes several years and requires sustained leadership commitment to stay the course. Buy "Commercialize" "More and more professional services firms are “productizing” their services to grow and scale. But successfully marketing and selling standardized services or products is very different from marketing and selling traditional professional services. Commercialize, a follow-on book to Productize, explores why commercializing new ideas is the most significant stall point when B2B services organizations productize. The book then outlines how the most successful firms commercialize packaged services and new products and get to revenue impact fast and efficiently." Check it out on Amazon or the book's website. Contact Eisha You can find Eisha and learn more on the Vecteris website or connect with her on LinkedIn (mention you heard her on the podcast when connecting!) Related episodes you should like: Survive the Feature Factory by Applying Product Thinking to Product Thinking (John Cutler, Product Evangelist & Coach @ Amplitude) The Seven Deadly Mistakes of Productization (Eisha Armstrong, Co-founder @ Vecteris & Author "Productize") Making Sure you REALLY Know your Customers and Pulling out of Growth Stalls (Adrienne Barnes, Founder @ Best Buyer Persona) Fearlessly Defeating the Four Horsemen of a Product-Friendly Culture (Eisha Armstrong, Co-founder @ Vecteris & Author "Productize" & "Fearless") OKIP LIVE! Is Product/Market Fit Really Dead, or Just Resting? (Andrea Saez & Dave Martin, Right To Left) Chris Locke's Hot Take - Product Leaders Need to Adopt a VC Mindset (Chris Locke, CEO @ Aspire) Jeremy Kirouac's Hot Take - Founders Need Product Management Training (Jeremy Kirouac, Fractional Product Leader) Servitising Product Management & Setting Up Product Teams For Success (Jas Shah, Product Consultant)

Andy Budd is a designer-turned-venture partner who founded one of the UK's first UX agencies before pivoting to help early-stage startup founders make good product decisions and get to product/market fit. He's recently released "The Growth Equation", a book that distils some of the common themes he sees across early-stage companies and aims to give them the best chance of success. We spoke all about the themes from the book, as well as where product management fits into the early-stage equation. Episode highlights: 1. The Growth Equation is made up of a combination of factors that both drive and drag growth efforts Driving factors include audience size, audience motivation, speed of value delivery, stickiness and virality. Dragging factors include friction and competitive pressure. There's no specific solution to the Growth Equation, it's about optimising the factors to deliver startup success. 2. Most founders massively overestimate the scale of their MVP, and it could kill their company What founders think is "minimal" often isn't. Startups burn months and months on what they think is a minimal solution, but it rarely is. There are stories of startups spending 18 months getting their first version out, getting excited, seeing no traction, and then repeating the doom loop. It's important to get stuff out there and into people's hands quickly to see if you can get traction rather than get stuck building things that no one wants. 3. Targeting sophisticated ICPs too early is a death trap Early-stage founders often aim to attack a broad Ideal Customer Profile, believing that it gives them the best chance of getting traction. They make the mistake of tackling sophisticated, mature customers with a never-ending list of "yes, but also..." requests. It's important for early founders to target beach-head customers so you can land and expand. You also need to ensure that you can respond and adapt your early ICP based on real-world feedback. 4. Founders might not enjoy things like Sales or Marketing, but they've got to do what's right for the company Being a startup founder means you get to do things you love, like building a product, but you're also responsible for getting it to market. Early sales efforts must be led by the founders; it's a mistake to hire experienced salespeople too soon and expecting them to build your GTM playbook, and external SDR agencies are not going to get your target customers excited about your vision. 5. In early-stage companies, the product manager is generally a project manager and has to bide their time It's a common problem: A startup founder is encouraged to hire a product manager, but they're still too close to the vision to want someone to join and start challenging everything. They just need to get the ideas out of their head and into the world. "Proper" product management can come later, developed over time, rather than arguing the toss upfront and never getting anywhere. Buy "The Growth Equation" "The Growth Equation is your roadmap to early-stage growth, designed specifically for founders navigating the toughest part of the journey: from zero to one. Finding your first customers, figuring out your go-to-market strategy, and scaling your revenue can feel overwhelming when you're up against limited resources and conflicting advice. That's why this book provides clear, actionable steps to help you break through those barriers and take your startup to its first $1M in revenue and beyond." Check it out on Amazon or the book's website. Contact Andy You can catch up with Andy on LinkedIn. You can also check his website. Related episodes you should like: Moving Beyond Founder-Led Product Development & Setting PMs up for Success (Jennifer Yang-Wong, VP of Product @ Contrary) Nailing your Product/Market Fit Strategy by Focusing on the Mission Critical (Maja Voje, Growth Strategy Expert & Author "Go-To-Market Strategist") The Big Pivot to Reinvent Product Management (Yana Welinder, Founder & CEO @ Kraftful) Building Great Companies through Community-Led Growth (Lloyed Lobo, Author "From Grassroots to Greatness") Nailing your Brand Marketing by Embracing your Zone of Genius (Orly Zeewy, Brand Strategy Consultant & Author "Ready, Launch, Brand") Helping Superhero Startup Founders Stay Away from their Kryptonite (Richard Blundell, Founder @ Vencha & Co-author "The Go To Market Handbook for B2B SaaS Leaders") Upping Your Odds of BEATING the LinkedIn Algorithm (Ivana Todorovic, CEO @ AuthoredUp) Jeremy Kirouac's Hot Take - Founders Need Product Management Training (Jeremy Kirouac, Fractional Product Leader)

Jas Shah is a fintech product consultant based in London who helps small startups and management services organizations build winning products, whilst keeping his pulse on the fintech scene. His hot take? That product management is one of the least glamorous functions in an organisation. It's often portrayed as a sexy role where you're the "CEO of the product" with autonomy and responsibility, but for most product managers, the role is arduous and grating, involving invisible work like coordinating between teams, dealing with competing interests, and working with less authority than expected. Find Jas on LinkedIn or check out his newsletter, Fintech R&R. If you'd like to appear on Hot Takes, please grab a time! Related episodes you should like: Survive the Feature Factory by Applying Product Thinking to Product Thinking (John Cutler, Product Evangelist & Coach @ Amplitude) John Cutler's Hot Take - The Instagram-ification of Product Management is Driving us Crazy (John Cutler, Product Educator & Author @ The Beautiful Mess) The Five Dysfunctions of Product Management Teams (Saeed Khan, Founder @ Transformation Labs) Practice Makes Perfect: Embracing the Messy Reality of Product Management (Matt LeMay, Product Management Consultant & Author "Product Management in Practice") Applying Product Management Principles to Life (Miloš Belčević, Author "Build Your Way") Dean Peters' Hot Take - There's More to be Said About the Instagram-ification of Product Management (Dean Peters, Principal Consultant & Trainer @ Productside) May Wong's Hot Take - Product Management is a Team Sport (May Wong, Product Operations Consultant & Coach) Chris Butler's Hot Take - Product Managers DON'T Need to be Technical (Chris Butler, Staff Product Operations Manager @ GitHub)

Victoria Sakal is a growth and go-to-market expert who loves to turn customer, market and competitor insight in product, brand and business growth strategies. Her hot take? That companies are either paying the "research tax" - spending too much time and money on research and never making a move - or the "stupid tax" - making decisions based purely on gut feel and no evidence. Both of these taxes can get your organisation in trouble, and the best path is to strike the right balance of speed and quality. Find Victoria on LinkedIn. If you'd like to appear on Hot Takes, please grab a time! Related episodes you should like: Standing up for User Research... and User Researchers (Debbie Levitt, CXO @ DeltaCX and Author "Customers Know You Suck") Getting into the Habit of Continuous Discovery (Teresa Torres, Author "Continuous Discovery Habits") Making Sure You Make an Impact through User Research (Steve Portigal, User Research Consultant & Author "Interviewing Users") Product Leadership Principles for Tumultuous Times (Giff Constable, Author "Talking with Humans" & "Testing with Humans") How to Deploy Empathy to Truly Understand User Needs (Michele Hansen, Author "Deploy Empathy") Chinese Startup Culture & Putting the Minimum into MVP (Carlos Lastres, Creative & Marketing Director @ Kaiyan Medical) Reducing Waste by Only Spending Time on Really Good Ideas (Julia Shalet, Author "The Really Good Idea Test") Retail Product Management in a Global Pandemic (Rhiana Matthew, Senior Product Manager @ Publicis Sapient)

Boluwaji Alepaye is a product manager who works for Moniepoint, a Nigerian fintech firm that aims to power financial dreams in emerging markets. He's also an active mentor, aiming to help Nigerian product managers thrive. His hot take? That the classic product management advice that comes out of the US and Western Europe just doesn't apply to Nigeria, where market dynamics mean that you have to make very different product decisions, and even the local training courses are dominated by Western voices. Find Boluwaji on LinkedIn. If you'd like to appear on Hot Takes, please grab a time! Related episodes you should like: Supporting Product Managers & Standing Up for the Value of Product Management (Princess Akari, Founder "People in Product") Building Disruptive Products by Harnessing Power Users (Moustapha Seck, Founder @ Fluid) Making our Product Teams Stronger through Building Communities of Practice (Petra Wille, Author "Strong Product People" and "Strong Product Communities") From Physiotherapist to Product Manager (Samuel Ogunkoya, Product Manager @ ProducteevTech) Challenges & Opportunities for Africans Making Products for Africans (Abisoye Falabi, Senior Product Manager @ TradeDepot) Product Management in Africa & Dreams of an African Silicon Valley (Layo Ogunbanwo, Founder @ Practical Product) Product Processes & the Importance of Work / Life Balance (Busayomi Omotosho, Product Manager @ Softcom) Transforming your Organisation to the Product Operating Model (Marty Cagan, Author "Inspired", "Empowered" and "Transformed")

Christina Wodtke and Danielle Barnes join me to talk about their new book "Present Yourself" and their work with Women Talk Design, an organisation aimed at increasing diversity in public speaking. We went deep on public speaking, the importance of authenticity, storytelling, and finding your unique voice as a speaker. We also talked about the value of diverse perspectives in public speaking and the power of sharing personal stories to connect with audiences. Key takeaways:   1. It's important to embrace your unique voice Don't try to fit a stereotypical mould of a "good speaker" - authenticity resonates more with audiences. 2. Before you start speaking, make sure you know your "why" Everyone has their own motivation for public speaking, and anyone can fall in love with it if they're doing it for a reason they care about. 3. Share your unique perspective with the world Even if you feel that other people are already talking about your topic, or that it's all been said before, go and say it anyway. You're the only you. 4. Humans are hardwired to respond to stories You can make your presentations more engaging and memorable by incorporating stories, even in stuffy business settings. Your audience will thank you for it. 5. It doesn't matter if you're talking to a big crowd, as long as you're talking to the right crowd You don't need to be a big name to make a big impact. You just need to find the people who need to hear what you have to say. You can still make a difference. 6. Everyone has a bad talk but this is fine as long as you learn from the experience Every speaking opportunity is a learning experience. Some of them will go great, some of them will go terribly, but you can learn something from all of them. Check out "Present Yourself" "Present Yourself is for everyone who has ever fought for an equal shot at the spotlight. Christina Wodtke, Danielle Barnes, and a diverse group of accomplished speakers share stories that will inspire you to communicate with authority. This self-guided, step-by-step framework features practical, actionable advice for authentic and effective public speaking." Check it out on Amazon or the book website. Contact Danielle & Christina Catch up with Danielle on LinkedIn or check out Women Talk Design. Catch up with Christina on LinkedIn or check out Elegant Hack for details of all the other books she's written. Related episodes you should like: Diving into the Deep End as a Woman in Product (Darby Maloney, Product Manager @ Divvy & Occasional Swimming Pool User) Closing the Gender Pay Gap and Hiring Diverse Product Teams (Chris Mason, Co-Founder @ Intelligent People) Standing Up for Diversity & Inclusion When No One Looks Like You (Merina Khanom, Product Manager @ BBC iPlayer) Maintaining a Collaborative & Inclusive Product Culture at Scale (Anna Curzon, CPO @ Xero) Defeating Bias, Prejudice and Bullying in the Workplace (Kim Scott, Author "Radical Candor" & "Just Work") Building Your Product Muscles & Developing Strong Product Teams (Petra Wille, Product Leadership Coach) Product Management in Africa & Dreams of an African Silicon Valley (Layo Ogunbanwo, Founder @ Practical Product) Building Data Driven Products & Dodging Unsolicited Advice (Emily Reid, Product Manager @ FCT)

Mark Gray is a product manager with nearly 12 years of experience across various roles in the UK and Europe. He has worked in both B2B and B2C sectors, progressing from delivery-focused product owner roles to more strategic product management and leadership positions. His hot take? Product managers should stop defaulting to prioritisation through value divided by effort, which he argues can stifle innovation. Value and effort aren't unimportant, but they're just part of the puzzle. He believes the path to deciding what to build next should emerge from discussions with smart, diverse teams, focusing on the desired outcomes and business goals. Find Mark on LinkedIn. If you'd like to appear on Hot Takes, please grab a time! Related episodes you should like: OKRs: The Gateway Drug to Agility & Good Product Management (Jeff Gothelf, Product Management Consultant & Co-author "Lean UX" ) Adventures in Product Management (Dan Olsen, Author "The Lean Product Playbook") Fighting Fires in B2B Product Management (Rich Mironov, Author "The Art of Product Management") Your Product is a Joke - How to use Improv Comedy Principles in Product Management (Amogh Sarda, Co-founder @ Eesel) Putting Customers at the Heart of your Product Decisions (Hubert Palan, Founder @ Productboard) Servitising Product Management & Setting Up Product Teams For Success (Jas Shah, Product Consultant) Jordan Dalladay's Hot Take - We Should Build Roadmaps Of Risks, Not Features (Jordan Dalladay, Product Consultant @ inherent ventures) Build Better Products at Scale with Product Operations (Melissa Perri & Denise Tilles, Product Consultants & Co-authors "Product Operations")

Jordan Dalladay is a product strategist and leader who works with startup founders to help them turn ambitious ideas into market successes. He specializes in "dragging a vision kicking and screaming into reality" with his consultancy, inherent ventures. His hot take? We should invert our approach to product roadmapping. Instead of listing features to build, create a "risk-based product strategy" that outlines all the assumptions and potential pitfalls that could prevent success. This approach helps teams prioritize learning and experimentation, validating their riskiest assumptions first and dragging their vision into reality more effectively. Find Jordan on LinkedIn and you can check out his firm, inherent ventures. If you'd like to appear on Hot Takes, please grab a time! Related episodes you should like: OKRs: The Gateway Drug to Agility & Good Product Management (Jeff Gothelf, Product Management Consultant & Co-author "Lean UX" ) Adventures in Product Management (Dan Olsen, Author "The Lean Product Playbook") Fighting Fires in B2B Product Management (Rich Mironov, Author "The Art of Product Management") Your Product is a Joke - How to use Improv Comedy Principles in Product Management (Amogh Sarda, Co-founder @ Eesel) Putting Customers at the Heart of your Product Decisions (Hubert Palan, Founder @ Productboard) Servitising Product Management & Setting Up Product Teams For Success (Jas Shah, Product Consultant) Build What Matters with Vision-Led Product Management (Rajesh Nerlikar, Author "Build What Matters") Build Better Products at Scale with Product Operations (Melissa Perri & Denise Tilles, Product Consultants & Co-authors "Product Operations")

Chris Butler is a "Chaotic Good Product Manager" who has worked for companies like Microsoft, Google and Facebook. He's currently Staff Product Operations Manager at GitHub, and current running an online course on AI Product Design Patterns. His hot take? That product managers don't need to be technical and that it might even be a net negative to their relationship with the engineering team. Find Chris on LinkedIn and remember to check out his AI product course, "AI Product Design Patterns" . If you'd like to appear on Hot Takes, please grab a time! A message from this episode's sponsor - Leadfeeder This episode is sponsored by Leadfeeder. No more not knowing who's coming to your website, convert more leads and get a free trial at Leadfeeder.com: Check out Leadfeeder here. Related episodes you should like: Survive the Feature Factory by Applying Product Thinking to Product Thinking (John Cutler, Product Evangelist & Coach @ Amplitude) The Five Dysfunctions of Product Management Teams (Saeed Khan, Founder @ Transformation Labs) Practice Makes Perfect: Embracing the Messy Reality of Product Management (Matt LeMay, Product Management Consultant & Author "Product Management in Practice") May Wong's Hot Take - Product Management is a Team Sport (May Wong, Product Operations Consultant & Coach) Dean Peters' Hot Take - There's More to be Said About the Instagram-ification of Product Management (Dean Peters, Principal Consultant & Trainer @ Productside) Applying Product Management Principles to Life (Miloš Belčević, Author "Build Your Way") Product Processes & the Importance of Work / Life Balance (Busayomi Omotosho, Product Manager @ Softcom) Jeremy Kirouac's Hot Take - Founders Need Product Management Training (Jeremy Kirouac, Fractional Product Leader)

Jeremy Kirouac is a "Pan-Canadian" product leader and former startup founder who has thrown himself headlong into the world of fractional product leadership, as well as helping advise companies in all things product-related. His hot take? That startup founders live in information bubbles that concentrate solely on revenue and don't spend enough time teaching them good product management fundamentals. This impacts their chances of building a good product company and impacts their relationship with product management teams as they scale. Find Jeremy all over Canada, or on LinkedIn. If you'd like to appear on Hot Takes, please grab a time! Related episodes you should like: Moving Beyond Founder-Led Product Development & Setting PMs up for Success (Jennifer Yang-Wong, VP of Product @ Contrary) Build Products Businesses Want with the Lean B2B Pyramid (Étienne Garbugli, Author "Lean B2B", "Find your Market" and "Solving Product") Your Product is a Joke - How to use Improv Comedy Principles in Product Management (Amogh Sarda, Co-founder @ Eesel) Chris Locke's Hot Take - Product Leaders Need to Adopt a VC Mindset (Chris Locke, CEO @ Aspire) Upping Your Odds of BEATING the LinkedIn Algorithm (Ivana Todorovic, CEO @ AuthoredUp) Greg Prickril's Hot Take - AI is going to change everything for Product Managers (Greg Prickril, B2B Product Management Coach, Consultant & Trainer) May Wong's Hot Take - Product Management is a Team Sport (May Wong, Product Operations Consultant & Coach) Dean Peters' Hot Take - There's More to be Said About the Instagram-ification of Product Management (Dean Peters, Principal Consultant & Trainer @ Productside)

Chris Locke is a long-time product leader who has taken his passion for educating product managers into his agency, Aspire, with which he aims to help product teams bridge the skills gap and equip them with the skills and resources to build products customers love. His hot take? That product leaders need to adopt the mindset of Venture Capitalists to truly drive growth through their product initiatives; placing a series of bets, backed by data, with clear stage gates for decision-making and adopting a portfolio approach to product prioritisation. Find Chris on LinkedIn and remember to check out his training company, Aspire. If you'd like to appear on Hot Takes, please grab a time! A message from this episode's sponsor - Leadfeeder This episode is sponsored by Leadfeeder. No more not knowing who's coming to your website, convert more leads and get a free trial at Leadfeeder.com: Check out Leadfeeder here. Related episodes you should like: Moving Beyond Founder-Led Product Development & Setting PMs up for Success (Jennifer Yang-Wong, VP of Product @ Contrary) Paying Off Your Organisation's Human Debt Through Agility & Psychological Safety (Duena Blomstrom, Founder & CEO @ People Not Tech) Fearlessly Defeating the Four Horsemen of a Product-Friendly Culture (Eisha Armstrong, Co-founder @ Vecteris & Author "Productize" & "Fearless") Greg Prickril's Hot Take - AI is going to change everything for Product Managers (Greg Prickril, B2B Product Management Coach, Consultant & Trainer) May Wong's Hot Take - Product Management is a Team Sport (May Wong, Product Operations Consultant & Coach) Dean Peters' Hot Take - There's More to be Said About the Instagram-ification of Product Management (Dean Peters, Principal Consultant & Trainer @ Productside) Build Better Products at Scale with Product Operations (Melissa Perri & Denise Tilles, Product Consultants & Co-authors "Product Operations") Applying Product Management Principles to Life (Miloš Belčević, Author "Build Your Way")

Ivana Todorovic is the co-founder of AuthoredUp, the "Ultimate LinkedIn Content Creation & Analytics Tool", and wants to help YOU get better at standing out from the crowd and beating the LinkedIn algorithm. We spoke about all things LinkedIn, including the dangers of "engagement pods", whether it matters where you put your links in the post, how to engage with larger accounts, the power of secondary comments, and much, much more. We also spoke about her startup journey, the pros and cons of being reliant on a larger platform, and why she's so happy she bootstrapped rather than seeking VC funding. Check the episode out now! A message from this episode's sponsor - Leadfeeder This episode is sponsored by Leadfeeder. No more not knowing who's coming to your website, convert more leads and get a free trial at Leadfeeder.com: Check out Leadfeeder here. Episode highlights:   1. There's no "Quick Fix" for your LinkedIn profile Beware snake oil salespeople who claim to be making millions off of their LinkedIn content and are trying to sell you frameworks to be just like them. There's no cookie-cutter approach, the algorithm is changing all the time, and the majority of these people are basically lying about the results you will get and laughing their way to the bank. 2. It's Important to Soft Sell on LinkedIn Direct sales pitches underperform compared to content that offers value with a subtle call to action. Posts with a soft sell, focusing on the audience's needs and delivering value without the CTA, perform better. You can't just keep selling things or trying to get people to click links... LinkedIn hates you leaving the platform and they will de-boost your posts. 3. The Pros and Cons of "Link in Comments" Posts with external links often get down-boosted because LinkedIn wants to keep users on the platform. Adding links in the comments or at the very end of the post is a better strategy, though even this approach reduces post impressions. 4. LinkedIn doesn't want your posts to go viral However it might look, LinkedIn explicitly prioritises real conversations and interactions rather than people mindlessly sharing clickbait. Concentrate on having real conversations, replying to comments, and replying to the comments on comments. This will boost your own impressions. 5. LinkedIn Blue and Gold Badges are Statistically Meaningless There's no statistically significant impact on having either of these badges. The badges are just there to make you feel special and keep you coming back to LinkedIn so that they can keep advertising to you. People with blue badges don't obviously have better content than those without, and people with gold badges are just being rewarded for feeding the AI-training hamster wheel. 6. Beware Engagement Pods Engagement Pods are private groups of people who share their posts with each other so they can game engagement and try to defeat the dreaded algorithm. However, these are super-easy to detect and they show up quickly even to external analysis. There are better ways to win at LinkedIn than paying exorbitant fees to snake oil salespeople. Contact Ivana You can catch up with Ivana on LinkedIn or check out AuthoredUp. Related episodes you should like: How to Move Fast Without Breaking Things (Dani Grant, Co-founder & CEO @ Jam) Valentine's Special! A Love Letter to Problems, not Solutions (Uri Levine, Founder @ Waze & Author "Fall in Love with the Problem, not the Solution") Moving Beyond Founder-Led Product Development & Setting PMs up for Success (Jennifer Yang-Wong, VP of Product @ Contrary) The Big Pivot to Reinvent Product Management (Yana Welinder, Founder & CEO @ Kraftful) Nailing your Product/Market Fit Strategy by Focusing on the Mission Critical (Maja Voje, Growth Strategy Expert & Author "Go-To-Market Strategist") Nailing your Brand Marketing by Embracing your Zone of Genius (Orly Zeewy, Brand Strategy Consultant & Author "Ready, Launch, Brand") Helping Superhero Startup Founders Stay Away from their Kryptonite (Richard Blundell, Founder @ Vencha & Co-author "The Go To Market Handbook for B2B SaaS Leaders") Building Great Companies through Community-Led Growth (Lloyed Lobo, Author "From Grassroots to Greatness")

Jenny Wanger is a product consultant and coach who loves to educate PMs around the world and is doing just that with her product operations course on Reforge. Her hot take? Product leaders send their teams off for training but then don't do anything when they come back, and nothing changes. This leads them to question the value of the training, but it's almost never the quality of the training that's at fault, it's what they (don't) do with it. Find Jenny on LinkedIn and remember to check out her course on Reforge. If you'd like to appear on Hot Takes, please grab a time! Related episodes you should like: The Role of Product Management on Truly Agile Development Teams (Allen Holub, Software Architect, Consultant & Outspoken Twitter Agilist) Survive the Feature Factory by Applying Product Thinking to Product Thinking (John Cutler, Product Evangelist & Coach @ Amplitude) Escaping the Build Trap with Product Operations and Strong CPOs (Melissa Perri, Product Management Leader, Educator & Author "Escaping the Build Trap") OKRs: The Gateway Drug to Agility & Good Product Management (Jeff Gothelf, Product Management Consultant & Co-author "Lean UX" ) The Five Dysfunctions of Product Management Teams (Saeed Khan, Founder @ Transformation Labs) Going Beyond the Dreaded Product Demo and Creating the Perfect Sales Pitch (April Dunford, Author "Obviously Awesome" and "Sales Pitch") Enabling Strategic Product Decisions through Product Operations and Portfolio Management (Becky Flint, CEO of Dragonboat) Transforming your Organisation to the Product Operating Model (Marty Cagan, Author "Inspired", "Empowered" and "Transformed")

Nick Mehta is the CEO of Gainsight, a leading customer and product experience platform that aims to be the operating system for your customer journeys. He's a passionate advocate for Customer Success as a function and as a business strategy, an author of several books on the topic, and recently super-excited about the future of Customer Success in an AI world. We talked about all of these topics and much more. A message from this episode's sponsor - Leadfeeder This episode is sponsored by Leadfeeder. No more not knowing who's coming to your website, convert more leads and get a free trial at Leadfeeder.com: Check out Leadfeeder here. Episode highlights:   1. Customer Success is not the same as Customer Support Yes, they both have the same "CS" initials, and this can confuse people, but it's not the same role. Customer Success conceptually sits somewhere in between Sales and Customer Support and drives customer value and retention. Customer Success is also more than a role, it's a company strategy. It's also part of the product you sell. 2. The end of the zero-interest-rate climate has had a profound impact on Customer Success These days, CEOs and investors value profit today over profit tomorrow. Retention is a huge driver of pure profit, and it's one of the highest-leverage activities you can invest in for a recurring revenue business. On the flip side, leaders are looking to become as efficient as possible and reduce the human effort to drive this retention, leading to a requirement for digital customer success strategies. 3. Yes, you probably do need a Customer Success team in your organisation Chris Degnan (CRO at Snowflake) recently opined on the 20VC podcast that he sees no use for Customer Success teams and would immediately get rid of them. That doesn't work for everyone though, and there are many companies that legitimately need Customer Success teams. It's fair enough to say "Customer Success is a strategy" but someone needs to wake up thinking about this and having it as their biggest priority. Customer expectations are rising all the time, and not all products can look after themselves. 4. Product teams and Customer Success teams need to have a good relationship Too many teams have almost no relationship, or only speak when there's an escalation. Both teams have a legitimate claim to own the customer experience, but they should own it together. The best Customer Success teams don't just bring escalations, or even the "What" but the "Who" and the "Why". This makes the relationship strategic and helps build a great product. 5. AI is going to change everything, but it has to be human-first If you're not keeping up with AI you're going to be left behind. It's important to focus on the evolutionary and revolutionary changes that you can bring to your product. There need to be guardrails in your product to ensure that the customer experience doesn't degrade, and you need to be sensitive to the fears and paranoia of internal teams that might feel threatened... but it's going to happen so you need a strategy to survive and thrive in the AI-powered future. Check out "Digital Customer Success" "In Digital Customer Success: The Next Frontier, a team of trailblazing Customer Success professionals and digital entrepreneurs delivers an insightful discussion of the next stage in Customer Success management. In the book, you'll discover how to design and deploy touchless and automated digital interventions that help your software users learn and grow as they use your product and unlock the value trapped within it — without ever needing to reach out to a live Customer Success Manager. " Check it out on Amazon. Contact Nick You can catch up with Nick on LinkedIn or check out Gainsight. You can also check out the blog post that Nick mentions, The One Thing Billionaire Frank Slootman Got Wrong. Related episodes you should like: Is Product-Led Growth Really For You? (Leah Tharin, Product-Led Growth Guru & Head of Product @ Jua) Embracing Change to Innovate in Product Management (Greg Coticchia, CEO @ Sopheon) The Big Pivot to Reinvent Product Management (Yana Welinder, Founder & CEO @ Kraftful) Helping Superhero Startup Founders Stay Away from their Kryptonite (Richard Blundell, Founder @ Vencha & Co-author "The Go To Market Handbook for B2B SaaS Leaders") Andy Walters' Hot Take - We're Soon Going to be Living in an AI-Assistant-First World (Andy Walters, CEO @ Emerge Haus & Generative AI Expert) Bjarte Rettedal's Hot Take - AI Models Should Be Under Public Ownership or Completely Transparent (Bjarte Rettedal, UX Designer) Greg Prickril's Hot Take - AI is going to change everything for Product Managers (Greg Prickril, B2B Product Management Coach, Consultant & Trainer) Debbie Levitt's Hot Take - Democratising our Work means AI is Going to Steal all our Jobs Sooner (Debbie Levitt, CXO @ DeltaCX and Author "Customers Know You Suck")

Rina Alexin is the CEO of Productside, a leading product training and consulting company (formerly known as The 280 Group). Rina is passionate about furthering the craft of product management around the world. Her hot take? Product managers complain about stakeholders, but they're just doing their jobs and we need to spend some of our energy on understanding them and properly collaborating rather than treating them as annoyances. Find Rina on LinkedIn or check out Productside If you'd like to appear on Hot Takes, please grab a time!   Related episodes you should like: May Wong's Hot Take - Product Management is a Team Sport (May Wong, Product Operations Consultant & Coach) Untrapping Product Teams and Getting Rid of Bullsh*t Management (David Pereira, Author "Untrapping Product Teams") Dean Peters' Hot Take - There's More to be Said About the Instagram-ification of Product Management (Dean Peters, Principal Consultant & Trainer @ Productside) John Cutler's Hot Take - The Instagram-ification of Product Management is Driving us Crazy (John Cutler, Product Educator & Author @ The Beautiful Mess) Build Better Products at Scale with Product Operations (Melissa Perri & Denise Tilles, Product Consultants & Co-authors "Product Operations") Knowing your Customers, Seeking Evidence and Sticking up for Continuous Discovery (Hope Gurion, Product Leader and Team Coach @ Fearless Product) Transforming your Organisation to the Product Operating Model (Marty Cagan, Author "Inspired", "Empowered" and "Transformed") Applying Product Management Principles to Life (Miloš Belčević, Author "Build Your Way")

Andy Walters is a long-time consultant who has recently focused his consulting work on supporting companies with GenAI adoption with his new firm, Emerge Haus. His hot take? Within the next few years, we're going to be moving to an AI-assistant-first operating model, and we can't stop it. There are too many financial incentives, but it might actually be better for users too; as consumers, but also potentially for their private lives too. Find Andy on LinkedIn or check out Emerge Haus If you'd like to appear on Hot Takes, please grab a time!

Bjarte Rettedal is a photographer-turned looking to take his interest in behavioural economics and systems thinking and pursue a career in UX design. His hot take? AI models should be under public ownership or at the very least fully transparent. We don't let people release supplements or medicines without extensive testing, so why are we OK with something as potentially high-impact as AI models? Find Bjarte on LinkedIn or bjarterettedal.com If you'd like to appear on Hot Takes, please grab a time!

Greg Prickril is a B2B Product Management coach, consultant and trainer who has gone all-in on AI and is bullish about the impact that he thinks it'll have on product management. His hot take? AI is going to change everything about product management. It's going to mean fewer jobs are required to deliver products, but it also opens up opportunities for business-focused product managers to make a real impact in their jobs, and accelerate them in doing so. Find Greg on LinkedIn, Prickril.com or https://www.coachpms.com/ If you'd like to appear on Hot Takes, please grab a time! A message from this episode's sponsor - Leadfeeder This episode is sponsored by Leadfeeder. No more not knowing who's coming to your website, convert more leads and get a free trial at Leadfeeder.com: Check out Leadfeeder here.

May Wong is a product operations consultant and coach who also runs

David Pereira is a product leader, speaker and regular blogger who loves to contribute to the wider Agile and Product communities with insights from his own career, including some of the mistakes he's made and not just the successes. David was recently tempted into writing a book, the newly released "Untrapping Product Teams" where he provocatively rails against "bullshit management" and tries to inspire us all to affect change in our organisations (but step-by-step). We talked all about themes from the book, as well as what it meant to have an endorsement from Marty Cagan. Episode highlights:   1. When someone starts doing something differently and delivering value, people get curious Sometimes it can seem almost impossible to change things yourself, but you don't have to change it all at once. If you can start showing the impact of smaller changes that deliver value then you can get both interest and buy-in from stakeholders. This gives you permission to try more things. 2. The more bullshit you handle the less value you create David coined the term "bullshit management" to represent the work you have to do in many low-performing product companies. Bullshit management is where you spend all your time working on the work around the work, prioritising requirements with no context and being actively prevented from delivering value to your users, and it has to stop. 3. Collaborative flow trumps coordinative flow Coordinative flow is when you spend more time in meetings about the work and struggle to align people than you do actually doing the work. It's focused on outputs and gives you someone to blame when it goes wrong. Collaborative flow is when teams come together to work on problems... collaboratively and use what they know to uncover what they don't know. 4. You don't need to die on every hill Sometimes you have to hold your nose and do things in ways that you don't believe are effective, or actively destructive. This is part and parcel of the job and something you have to get used to. As long as you can find small ways to make an impact in some areas, you can give way in other areas. Rome wasn't built in a day. 5. If you really want to make an impact, ask more questions than you give answers We're all primed to look clever and give answers as quickly as we can but product people need to think deeper than that and ask good questions. Why do we really need that? What does success really look like? What don't we know? Check out "Untrapping Product Teams" "Untrapping Product Teams guides you to simplify what gets unintentionally complicated and equips you to overcome dangerous traps while steadily driving customer and business value. This isn't just another book about product management. It's a thought-provoking guide filled with simplicity, encouraging you to act today for a better tomorrow." Check it out on Amazon. Contact David You can catch up with David on LinkedIn or check out his website. Related episodes you should like:   Survive the Feature Factory by Applying Product Thinking to Product Thinking (John Cutler, Product Evangelist & Coach @ Amplitude) Build High Growth Products by Following the Product Science Success Path (Holly Hester-Reilly, Founder @ H2R Product Science) Pragmatic Digital Transformation in Traditional Industries (Dan Chapman, Director, Product Line Leader @ Merck) Optimising Product Planning with the Quartz Open Framework (Steve Johnson, Product Coach) Servitising Product Management & Setting Up Product Teams For Success (Jas Shah, Product Consultant) Surviving a Lack of Product Thinking & Riding the Product Maturity Curve (Nis Frome, VP Product @ Feedback Loop) Is this Seriously Game Over for Scrum? (David Pereira, Editor @ Serious Scrum) Transforming your Organisation to the Product Operating Model (Marty Cagan, Author "Inspired", "Empowered" and "Transformed")

Dean Peters is a former opera singer turned product management leader, coach and educator who works with Productside to uplevel teams. His hot take? That there's more to say about the Instagram-ification of product management, the root causes and contributory factors. If you'd like to appear on Hot Takes, please grab a time! A message from this episode's sponsor - June This episode is sponsored by June. June is a user retention hub for early-stage B2B SaaS companies that enables early-stage B2B SaaS companies to understand and act on their product usage, dig into activation, churn and key feature usage. Check out June here. Related episodes you should like: Survive the Feature Factory by Applying Product Thinking to Product Thinking (John Cutler, Product Evangelist & Coach @ Amplitude) The Five Dysfunctions of Product Management Teams (Saeed Khan, Founder @ Transformation Labs) Practice Makes Perfect: Embracing the Messy Reality of Product Management (Matt LeMay, Product Management Consultant & Author "Product Management in Practice") John Cutler's Hot Take - The Instagram-ification of Product Management is Driving us Crazy (John Cutler, Product Educator & Author @ The Beautiful Mess) Applying Product Management Principles to Life (Miloš Belčević, Author "Build Your Way") Nils Davis's Hot Take - Product Managers Need to Tell Better Stories on their Resumes (Nils Davis, Resume Coach & Go-to-Market Consultant @ Confidence & Impact LLC) Debbie Levitt's Hot Take - Democratising our Work means AI is Going to Steal all our Jobs Sooner (Debbie Levitt, CXO @ DeltaCX and Author "Customers Know You Suck") Build Better Products at Scale with Product Operations (Melissa Perri & Denise Tilles, Product Consultants & Co-authors "Product Operations")

Aakash Gupta is a product leader turned author and professional newsletter writer, with a huge following on LinkedIn and Twitter. He writes regularly on product management principles, and personal and career growth and recently put out an article about nailing the product leadership job search. We also recently collaborated on an article about fractional product leadership! In this interview, I spoke to Aakash about his journey into full-time content creation and some of the lessons he learned about the product leadership job search. Episode highlights:   1. The product leadership job market is slowly coming back to life It's been tough out there, and loads of amazing people have been laid off and struggled to find new roles. Some might doubt they'll ever get another job again! But there are good and great jobs available if you know where to look. 2. Many of the best jobs aren't advertised in public and relationshps are everything There's a "dark web" of networking and personal relationships, without which you might struggle to get introduced to some of the jobs. At the highest level, the majority of jobs are not posted publicly. Whether you like it or not, you need to play the game and build strategic relationships with boutique recruiters and especially investors. 3. You need to prioritise the type of job you want and it's not all about money Most people are trying to optimise for something in their new job. Maybe it's a big pay packet. Maybe it's a mission they believe in. Maybe it's the stage of company, influence and impact. There's no wrong answer, but make sure you know what you're getting yourself into and what success looks like. 4. Try to make your career look linear to land the role you want Many of us have squiggly careers and we've bounced between industries or types of company. This is fine, but if you're looking to get a job in a particular niche then you need to optimise your career narrative to tell a story about why YOU are the person for that niche. 5. Many leaders are still biased towards Big Tech employees, but you can beat the odds Some founders or business leaders will always prioritise someone with a stellar name on their CV, and this can leave people who have worked for lesser-known companies feeling adrift. However, you can take a strategic view of your job search, outwork and outsmart your competition. Contact Aakash You can catch up with Aakash on LinkedIn, or Twitter or check out his newsletter. Related episodes you should like: Connecting Product Management to Business Goals by Mastering your Product Strategy (Gabrielle Bufrem, Product Leadership Coach & Advisor) Moving Beyond Founder-Led Product Development & Setting PMs up for Success (Jennifer Yang-Wong, VP of Product @ Contrary) How to Build Products when the Founder IS the Product (Saagar Bains, Fractional Product Leader & Former Head of Product @ The Body Coach) Landing That Perfect Role by Finding Your Inevitable Edge (Erika Klics, Job Search Strategist & Founder @ ErikaKlics.com) Supporting the Next Generation of Female Product Managers with Women in Product UK (Namrata Sarmah, Founder @ Women in Product UK & CPO @ INTO) Making our Product Teams Stronger through Building Communities of Practice (Petra Wille, Author "Strong Product People" and "Strong Product Communities") Nils Davis's Hot Take - Product Managers Need to Tell Better Stories on Their Resumes (Nils Davis, Resume Coach & Go-to-Market Consultant @ Confidence & Impact LLC) Transforming your Organisation to the Product Operating Model (Marty Cagan, Author "Inspired", "Empowered" and "Transformed")

Nils Davis is a resume coach who wants product managers to realise they're AMAZING, and help others realise it too. His hot take? That the majority of product managers are doing themselves a disservice by producing resumes that simply list a bunch of tasks that pretty much all product managers have done. If you'd like to appear on Hot Takes, please grab a time at https://www.oneknightinproduct.com/hot Visit Nils's site: https://perfectpmresume.com/ Nils on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nilsdavis/

John Cutler is a systems overthinker, product educator and author of "The Beautiful Mess" newsletter. His hot take? That the Instagram-ification of product management sets unrealistic standards, and is driving us all crazy. If you'd like to appear on Hot Takes, please grab a time!    

Debbie Levitt is a UX and CX consultant, the author of a few books, including "Customers Know You Suck" and runs a thriving community of UX professionals. Her hot take? That if we are all fine doing each other's jobs (and maybe not doing them well) then AI can do all of our jobs today. Also available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lT5IBKsIE-E&ab_channel=OneKnightinProduct  

Melissa Perri is the renowned author of "Escaping the Build Trap" and a well-known product consultant and educator. She has worked for a long time with Denise Tilles, another seasoned product leader, with whom she has been evangelising Product Operations to help scale product companies effectively. They recently collaborated on a book, coincidentally called "Product Operations", and we spoke all about the story behind the book and the themes within it. Saeed Khan and I are planning a new course - please give us your feedback! The relationship between product management and sales teams is traditionally tricky, and a common complaint from B2B PMs. Saeed Khan and I are looking to help with this with an online course and we'd love your feedback on your relationship with sales. This will help shape the course and, if you want to take part when the course is ready, we'll give you a special discount. Please fill in the survey here. Thanks! Episode highlights:   1. Product Operations is about helping product managers make faster, better-quality decisions It's important to dispel the myth of multi-armed product managers who can just do everything. There's too much for everyone to do! This creates barriers to doing great product management work and pulls product managers away from doing the real, value-add product management work that they're judged on. 2. There are three pillars of product operations... The three pillars are ways to think about how to organise enablement. They are "Business & Data Insights", "Customer & Market Insights" and "Process and Practices". They are all the foundation of good product decision-making, and all companies will have a certain level of maturity already. 3. ... But you don't need to build all the pillars all at once You don't need to fix everything at once. If you already have good capabilities in one or more areas, fix the ones that you don't have good capabilities in! You don't need to boil the ocean, just find the biggest gaps and opportunities to improve, and start to work on them. 4. Process shouldn't be seen as a dirty word There's such a thing as too much process but, even if you don't call it process or try to define it, all work involves a process. It's important to have people to oversee the process at scale, prevent duplication or rework, and make sure that process is right-sized rather than ever-expanding. 5. The first step is being honest about your current state There are plenty of ways to go with product operations as you scale, but the most important thing is being really honest with yourself about what your most important limiting factors are, what your product managers are spending time on and what's going to work for you. Check out "Product Operations" "Many companies want to reap the benefits of economies of scale that comes with being a product-led company. As our businesses change shape to focus more on software, so do our ways of working. We need to make sure we're breaking down these silos of information and capabilities that arise at scale. To react quickly and set great Product Strategies, leaders and team members alike need access to high-quality data and a process to implement their decisions." Check it out on Amazon or the book website. Check out "Escaping the Build Trap" "To stay competitive in today's market, organizations need to adopt a culture of customer-centric practices that focus on outcomes rather than outputs. Companies that live and die by outputs often fall into the "build trap," cranking out features to meet their schedule rather than the customer's needs. In this book, Melissa Perri explains how laying the foundation for great product management can help companies solve real customer problems while achieving business goals. " Check it out on Amazon. Contact Melissa & Denise You can catch up with Melissa at melissaperri.com, check out https://productinstitute.com or follow her on LinkedIn. You can catch up with Denise at denisetilles.com or follow her on LinkedIn. Escaping the Build Trap with Product Operations and Strong CPOs (Melissa Perri, Product Management Leader, Educator & Author "Escaping the Build Trap") OKRs: The Gateway Drug to Agility & Good Product Management (Jeff Gothelf, Product Management Consultant & Co-author "Lean UX" ) Achieving Product Excellence with the Product Operations Manifesto (Antonia Landi, Product Ops Consultant & Co-Author "Product Operations Manifesto") Adventures in Product Management (Dan Olsen, Author "The Lean Product Playbook") Going Global! When and How to Take your Product International (Chui Chui Tan, International Growth Adviser & Director @ Beyō Global) Your Product is a Joke - How to use Improv Comedy Principles in Product Management (Amogh Sarda, Co-founder @ Eesel) Leading & Evolving Product Teams Through Hyperscale (Brian Shen, Product Director @ ClickUp) Optimising Product Planning with the Quartz Open Framework (Steve Johnson, Product Coach)

Hope Gurion is a seasoned product coach and one of Marty Cagan's recommendations from his new book, "Transformed". Hope also works closely with Teresa Torres, teaching continuous discovery, as well as working directly with incoming product leaders to help them make an impact in their organisations. We spoke all about knowing your customers, gathering evidence, and whether continuous discovery is really a threat to user researchers. Episode highlights:   1. Product coaching is more than just being there to ask good questions When working with incoming product leaders, potentially without a product background at all, it's important to have a coach who has product experience who can help you identify your weaknesses, assess the state of play and provide actionable advice. Ultimately, it's important to empower the coachee. 2. It's really hard to make decisions if you have no idea who your customers are It's important to define who your target customer is and what are their key attributes. This could be demographics, firmographics or whatever characteristics you need to know who you most need to learn from to calibrate your decisions as a product team. But, too many product teams end up resorting to proxies in other functions who "know the customers". 3. Many leaders are overconfident, but evidence is everything Some people are just naturally confident about everything and can react badly if their ideas are challenged. But, as product people, we absolutely need to look beyond innate confidence and work out what informed the perspective. Which customers are we basing it on? Can I speak to some of those customers? It's not about trashing people's ideas but moving forward with confidence. 4. It's important to get comfortable with making bets and understanding the difference between one-way and two-way-door decisions Sometimes teams get stuck into cycles of trying to do "perfect research", possibly because they're afraid that they're only going to get one shot at it. This means that they end up not making any moves at all, and everyone ends up getting frustrated at the amount of time product teams take to do anything. 5. Continuous discovery is about removing as many blind spots as possible and probably isn't responsible for mass user research lay-offs All teams have an imperfect understanding of their product, the pain points associated with their product and their customers. Continuous discovery helps address this by removing blind spots but doesn't aim for perfection - simply evidence about how to make your next move. Is it contributing to user researcher lay-offs? It feels difficult to argue this when it feels like the majority of companies don't do any user research in the first place. User researchers and continuous discovery can co-exist. Contact Hope You can catch up with Hope at Fearless Product or follow her on LinkedIn. Related episodes you should like: Data-Informed Decision Making and the Three Cs of Product Management (Roger Snyder, VP of Products & Services @ 280 Group) Adventures in Product Management (Dan Olsen, Author "The Lean Product Playbook") Getting into the Habit of Continuous Discovery (Teresa Torres, Author "Continuous Discovery Habits") Build High Growth Products by Following the Product Science Success Path (Holly Hester-Reilly, Founder @ H2R Product Science) Selling Product Thinking by Influencing Companies at the Right Time (Anthony Marter, Product Coach) Putting Customers at the Heart of your Product Decisions (Hubert Palan, Founder @ Productboard) Servitising Product Management & Setting Up Product Teams For Success (Jas Shah, Product Consultant) Build What Matters with Vision-Led Product Management (Rajesh Nerlikar, Author "Build What Matters")

Marty Cagan is the founder and a partner at Silicon Valley Product Group, a leading product consultancy that aims to get companies to work "the way that the best companies work". He is the author of two desk references for product managers: "Inspired", aimed at product teams, and "Empowered", aimed at product leaders. He has since come to realise that "the way the best companies work" is too vague a term, and also that many companies have no idea where to get started. He's now back with "Transformed", a book that aims to get companies to adopt the Product Operating Model. A message from this episode's sponsor - New York Product Conference Join hundreds of other product people in New York City on April 18th 2024 for the New York Product Conference! You'll learn from some of the best minds in product today — including Dennis Crowley (Founder of Foursquare), Sahil Lavingia (Founder of Gumroad), April Dunford (product positioning expert and bestselling author) and so many others through masterclass keynotes, interactive working sessions, small group discussions and more. Topics covered include Product Strategy, Product Leadership, AI for Product Managers, Customer Research, and more.  Pricing increases on the first of the month, so you'll want to register soon. Plus, use the code OneKnightInProduct and save another $50 when you register! Episode highlights:   1. It was finally important to give the Product Operating Model a name Whilst Marty doesn't like to unnecessarily label things, or have any sniff of "process" for the sake of process, he started to realise that just saying "the way the best companies work" was too vague and handwavy. However, the core principles of great product companies and product teams have not changed, and this isn't a framework. 2. Marty and SVPG didn't invent any of this stuff, and you shouldn't listen to him (or anyone) uncritically These days, it's fashionable to beat up product "thought leaders" and complain that they're being too dogmatic, idealistic, or unrealistic. But, SVPG didn't invent any of these principles, they just observed them in the best-performing product companies. It's still important to apply critical thinking and make sure they make sense to you and your organisation. 3. Product managers and product leaders have more power and more responsibility than they realise It's not always easy to transform, and there are limits to how far you can go bottoms-up, but you can generally make progress one step at a time. There's an incredible amount of onus on product leaders to evangelise and champion this change and, if they can't (or won't) do it, they shouldn't be product leaders. 4. Not everyone in an organisation will understand why it's transforming, or want to be transformed It's easy to see this as something that just affects product teams, but the whole organisation needs to buy into the change. Reading bits of "Inspired" at them, or talking about the number of experiments you've done this week, is unlikely to sway them, You need to show business results and real impact and make them care about it on their terms. 5. There are four key competencies for a successful transformation, and they need investing in The competencies remain the same... Product Managers, Product Leaders, "proper" Product Designers (not just pixel pushers) and Tech Leads who care as much about what they're building as how they're building it. If you just expect to get results with a disengaged, outsourced engineering team, graphic designers and product owners, you're going to be disappointed. 6. Sometimes you need help to know what good looks like It's easy for people like us to sit there and talk about the benefits of product transformation and how we should all definitely do it but, for some people, this is all alien. In cases like this, a good product coach can be the difference between success and failure. But, there are so many product coaches these days, so make sure you get a good one. Check out "Transformed" "The most common question after reading INSPIRED and EMPOWERED has been: "Yes, we want to work this way, but the way we work today is so different, and so deeply ingrained, is it even possible for a company like ours to transform to the product model?" TRANSFORMED was written to bridge the gap between where most companies are right now and where they need to be. The leaders of these companies know they must transform to compete in an era of rapidly changing enabling technology, but most of them have never operated this way before. " Check it out on Amazon. Check out "Empowered" "Most people think it's because these companies are somehow able to find and attract a level of talent that makes this innovation possible. But the real advantage these companies have is not so much who they hire, but rather how they enable their people to work together to solve hard problems and create extraordinary products. The goal of EMPOWERED is to provide you, as a leader of product management, product design, or engineering, with everything you'll need to create just such an environment. " Check it out on Amazon. Check out "Inspired" "How do today's most successful tech companies―Amazon, Google, Facebook, Netflix, Tesla―design, develop, and deploy the products that have earned the love of literally billions of people around the world? Perhaps surprisingly, they do it very differently than most tech companies. In INSPIRED, technology product management thought leader Marty Cagan provides readers with a master class in how to structure and staff a vibrant and successful product organization, and how to discover and deliver technology products that your customers will love―and that will work for your business. " Check it out on Amazon. Contact Marty You can catch up with Marty at Silicon Valley Product Group or follow him on LinkedIn. Related episodes you should like: Survive the Feature Factory by Applying Product Thinking to Product Thinking (John Cutler, Product Evangelist & Coach @ Amplitude) The Five Dysfunctions of Product Management Teams (Saeed Khan, Founder @ Transformation Labs) How to Build an Effective Product Organisation (Marty Cagan, Author "Empowered" & "Inspired") Pragmatic Digital Transformation in Traditional Industries (Dan Chapman, Director, Product Line Leader @ Merck) Optimising Product Planning with the Quartz Open Framework (Steve Johnson, Product Coach) Surviving a Lack of Product Thinking & Riding the Product Maturity Curve (Nis Frome, VP Product @ Feedback Loop) Is this Seriously Game Over for Scrum? (David Pereira, Editor @ Serious Scrum) Transforming companies & instilling a product mindset (Dave Martin, Founder @ Right to Left)