Product Voices

In this episode, Chad McAllister, PhD, founder of Product Mastery Now and host of the popular Product Mastery Now podcast (formerly known as The Everyday Innovator) joins to discuss common challenges he sees in product management and ways to overcome these challenges.
We discuss:

• Not spending enough time with customers
• Focusing on the solution more than the customer problem
• A lack of understanding of the organization's strategy

To learn more, visit ProductVoices.com. You can find information on more challenges in product management in Chad's 10 Changes Product Teams Should Make Now to Consistently Launch Products Customers Love.

Product Managers without non-technical background often have a lack of confidence in their abilities, thinking technical knowledge is imperative for the PM role. That is not necessarily true, even with technical product likes data or machine learning (ML).
On this episode, Raj Muhar, Director of Product at Innovid, shares how she navigated her product management career in a technical field without a technical background.
We discuss the day in the life of a data / ML PM, advice for those wanting to get into this product area, and resources to help with the learning journey.

In this episode, Diana Soler shares key learnings from her efforts in creating the product ops function at AppDirect, where she is Senior Product Operations Manager.

"Simply put, Product Operations enables the Product Manager to do their best work. This is accomplished by ensuring they have access to the right tools, access to the right data and that the processes they follow make sense and are optimized to help drive customer happiness."

Saeed Khan joins to discuss five dysfunctions common across product teams. These include:

1. Poor Job Definitions

2. Under-skilled Product Managers

3. Poor Processes

4. Unclear Objectives

5. Weak Product Leadership

Melissa Perri and Denise Tilles, authors of Product Operations: How Successful Companies Build Better Products at Scale, discuss the concept of product operations and why it is crucial for product teams and organizations. Product operations is the enablement function of product management, providing data and insights for strategic decision-making and ensuring alignment within the product development lifecycle. As organizations scale, product operations become increasingly important in managing complexity, prioritizing strategies, fostering transparency, and facilitating collaboration across departments.

Melissa and Denise decided to write the book on product operations after realizing the need for a resource for product managers and stakeholders. Their goal was to share their framework, which revolves around three pillars: business and data insights, customer and market insights, and process and governance. They wanted to get ahead of the growing trend of product operations and provide a structure for enabling product teams.

We dive deeper into each of these topics, starting with business and data insights. This pillar focuses on extracting information from current systems and analyzing it through a product lens. Many companies focus on financial metrics in board meetings but fail to analyze the data in a way that benefits product development. By implementing cohort analysis and utilizing internal information from financial, sales, product development, and HR systems, leaders can make data-driven product decisions and effectively monitor product strategies and performance. To bridge the gap between business skills and technology skills in product management, financial acumen classes for product managers have been introduced.

Next, we discuss customer and market insights, which provide qualitative and anecdotal perspectives from users. Product operations help set up the infrastructure for research and enable teams to conduct repeatable research by building tools and finding ways to engage users. Product managers should maintain a strong understanding of market insights to stay connected with customers.

We then share a real-life case study on streamlining user research processes and discuss the importance of process and practice in the context of product operations. Establishing clear guidelines and consistency in working approaches helps product managers focus on strategic work rather than getting caught up in unnecessary tasks. Product operations, when done right, brings efficiency and consistency without adding bureaucratic processes.

We emphasize the need for transparency and tracking in companies and explain that product operations can be implemented gradually, starting with one pillar and then expanding to others as priorities shift. It is crucial to showcase successful case studies and demonstrate the potential benefits of product operations to gain buy-in from the organization. The decision to start a product operations team depends on factors such as the number of product managers, scaling plans, and the need for structure and efficiency in managing data and processes.

We conclude by advising listeners to start somewhere and focus on the pillar that provides the most value. The book mentioned earlier serves as a valuable resource, offering advice, insights, frameworks, and case studies for anyone interested in product operations.

Overall, this conversation provides a comprehensive overview of product operations and its importance in organizations, offering practical insights and guidance for implementation.