Product Growth Leaders | Topic of the Week: Recent Episodes
Grant Hunter
Product Growth Leaders presents Topic of the Week
A podcast that explores product management and leadership topics through interactive conversations with our product leader panelists. Conversations that will challenge you to think about your thoughts on the topic and perhaps get you to change your mind.
This episode is on possible use cases for AI in product management. Grant and Steve are joined by May Wong, Dutch DeVries, Dominique Signorel, Richard Samela, Clint Daly, Ari Franklin, Dominique Galliard, and Julia Busch.
Monday Question - What are the product management use cases you have seen for AI?
Poll Question - Where will AI reduce the most grunt work, while providing the most value, in the near term for product management?
Friday Question - Will AI be a competitive advantage for product management, or table stakes?
This week's episode is on explaining product management. Grant's joined by Nils Davis, Jason Weber, May Wong, Ari Franklin, Clint Dally, and Aimee Kim Griffin.
This episode is on validating ideas. This week, Grant and Steve are joined by Paul Hatala, Clay Nichols, Clint Daily, Dutch DeVries, and May Wong.
This episode is on product management and Agile. This week, Grant and Steve are joined by May Wong, Danie Maravelas, Saeed Kahn, Dominique Signorel, DJ Dailey, Ari Franklin, and Clint Dally.
This episode is on the importance of market discovery. This week, Grant and Steve are joined by Saeed Khan, May Wong, Dutch DeVries, Danielle Maravelas, Dominique Signorel, Clay Nichols, Clint Dally, and Dj Dailey.
This week's episode is on market discovery. Grant and Steve are joined by Dominique Signorel, Chad Eckes, Clint Daily, Danielle Maravelas, Calvin Marshall, Saeed Khan, Ari Franklin, and May Wong.
Monday Question - What are the keys to successful market discovery?
Poll Question - What is the hardest thing about market discovery?
First Question - How do you get your organization (leadership, sales, everyone) to understand the value of market discovery?
Second Question - What is your biggest win from doing market discovery?
Key Takeaways - What is your biggest learning or takeaway from this conversation?
This week's episode is on AirBNB's recent product management decision and the future of product managing. Grant and Steve are joined by May Wong, Clay Nichols, Elliot Golden, Danielle Maravelas, Ari Franklin, Jon Harmer, Dutch DeVries, and Calvin Marshall.
Monday Question: What would you advise a CEO without a product management function about adding product management to their organization?
Poll Question: When adding product management to an organization [for the first time], what background would you prefer for the initial product manager?
First Question: When is the right time to add product management to an organization?
Second Question: What is the biggest mistake companies make when adding product management?
Lightning Round: What is your biggest learning or takeaway from this conversation?
This episode is about advice to CEOs without a product management function. This week, Grant and Steve are joined by May Wong, Marco Tillman, Dominique Signorel, and Dutch DeVries
This episode is part one of a discussion on advice to CEOs pertaining to product management. This week, Grant and Steve are joined by May Wong, Marco Tillman, Dominique Signorel, Calvin Marshall, Eva Beasley, Danielle Maravelas, and Dutch DeVries.
This week's episode is on managing a portfolio. Grant and Steve are joined by May Wong, Marco Tillman, Clay Nichols, and Elliot Golden.
This week's episode is about product leadership in crisis. Grant and Steve are joined by Cory Bryan, May Wong, Calvin Marshall, Eva Beasley, Dutch DeVries, and Marco Tillman.
Monday Question: Why do so many companies suffer from a lack of product leadership?
Poll Question: What is the leading contributor to the lack of product leadership?
First Question: How did we get to this product leadership crisis?
Second Question: What does good product leadership look like?
Lightning Round: What is your biggest learning or takeaway from this conversation?
This week's episode is on the act of empowering an organization. Grant and Steve are joined by May Wong and Marco Tillmann.
This week's episode is on market problems. Grant and Steve are joined by Cory Bryan, Dominique Signorel, Dutch DeVries, Eva Beasley, Calvin Marshall, and May Wong.
This week's episode is on the topic of buyers vs users. Grant and Steve are joined by Cory Brian, May Wong, Elliot Golden, and John Elstad.
This week's episode is about delivering business value. Grant and Steve are joined by Jason Vincelette, May Wong, Dutch Devries, Richard Samela, Paul Hatala, Dominique Signorel, Shaughnessy Speirs, Cory Brian, Nils Davis, and Elliot Golden.
This week's episode is about tough product management decisions in 2023. In this episode, Grant and Steve are joined by Saeed Khan, Jason Vincelette, Cory Brian, May Wong, Dominique Signorel, and Richard Samela.
Monday Question - What is the toughest product management decision you have had to make, and where did you go for advice?
Poll Question - What is the most frequent type of tough product management decision?
Friday Question - What is your process for making a tough decision?
Key Takeaways - What is your biggest learning or takeaway from this conversation?
If you want to add your thoughts to this topic: Check out the answers to the Monday question in the community at https://community.productgrowthleader... and add your thoughts. Check out and vote in the poll in the community at https://community.productgrowthleader...
This Topic of the Week episode is about AI's impact on product management. In this episode, Grant and Steve are joined by Glen Ford, Karen Cullom, Cory Brian, May Wong, Dutch DeVries, Eva Beasley, Spencer Shulem, and Zach Harris.
Monday Question: What impact will AI have on the strategic role of product management?
Poll Question: In the next 18 months, where do you think product managers will see the most impact from AI?
Friday Question: What can a product manager do, that AI cannot?
Lightning Round: What is your biggest learning or takeaway from this conversation?
If you want to add your thoughts to this topic: Check out the answers to the Monday question in the community at https://community.productgrowthleader... and add your thoughts. Check out and vote in the poll in the community at https://community.productgrowthleader...
This Topic of the Week episode is on continuous improvement in product management. This week, Grant and Steve are joined by Cory Bryan, May Wong, Calvin Marshall, Richard Samela, Leah Campbell, Tracy Hollister, and Chaitanya ASK.
This Topic of the Week episode is on Product Management in Digital Transformations. This week, Grant and Steve are joined by May Wong, Calvin Marshall, Karen Bell-Dewitt, Leah Campbell, Dutch DeVries, and Chris Poore.
This topic of the week episode is on Product Management Survival Metrics. In this episode, Grant and Steve are joined by Domonique Signorel, Leah Campbell, Dutch DeVries, May Wong, Eva Beasley, Paul Hatala, Cory Bryan, Adam Thomas, DJ Dailey, and Karen Bell-DeWitt.
Monday Question: What is your approach to evolving your product strategy when facing challenges and/or changes in the market?
Poll: What is the hardest pillar to build on when changing product strategy?
Lightning Round: What does success in pivoting product strategy enable?
If you want to add your thoughts to this topic: Check out the answers to the Monday question in the community at https://community.productgrowthleader... and add your thoughts. Check out and vote in the poll in the community at https://community.productgrowthleader...
This topic of the week episode is on Making Product Success Repeatable. In this episode, Grant and Steve are joined by Dutch DeVries, Jason Weber, Jason Vincelette, Brenda Blazek, Leah Campbell, Joy McCaffrey, Richard Samela, Dominique Signorel, Cory Bryan, DJ Dailey, and May Wong.
Monday Question: How can you make delivering product success repeatable?
Poll: Which part of product success is hardest to make repeatable?
Friday Question: What role should product management play in making product success repeatable?
Lightning Round: What word or phrase is the key to achieving repeatable product success?
If you want to add your thoughts to this topic: Check out the answers to the Monday question in the community at https://community.productgrowthleader... and add your thoughts. Check out and vote in the poll in the community at https://community.productgrowthleader...
This topic of the week episode is on Keeping Product Management on Course when Dealing with Cuts. In this episode, Grant and Steve are joined by Dominique Signorel, Leah Campbell, Calvin Marshall, Richard Samela, Cory Bryan, May Wong, Eva Beasley, Joy McCaffrey, and Paul Hatala.
Monday Question: How do you keep product management on course when dealing with downsizing and budget cuts?
Poll: What is the hardest impact of downsizing and budget cuts to overcome?
Friday Question: As a product leader, how should you advocate for your team and function if cuts are being discussed?
Lightning Round: What words of wisdom would you share with a new product leader dealing with headcount and budget cuts?
If you want to add your thoughts to this topic: Check out the answers to the Monday question in the community at https://community.productgrowthleader... and add your thoughts. Check out and vote in the poll in the community at https://community.productgrowthleader...
This topic of the week episode is on Measuring the Impact of Good Product Management. In this episode, Grant and Steve are joined by May Wong, Karen Bell-DeWitt, Cory Bryan, Richard Samela, Zach Harris, Leah Campbell, and Dutch DeVries.
Monday Question: How do you measure the impact of good product management?
Poll: What metric should senior leadership look at first when assessing the impact of product management?
Friday Question: What positive impact from product management is the hardest to measure?
Lightning Round: What is the impact of good product management?
If you want to add your thoughts to this topic: Check out the answers to the Monday question in the community at https://community.productgrowthleader... and add your thoughts. Check out and vote in the poll in the community at https://community.productgrowthleader...
This topic of the week episode is on Dealing with Toxic Companies and Bosses. In this episode, Grant and Steve are joined by May Wong, Cory Bryan, Joy McCaffrey, Jason Vincelette, Brian Weber, Richard Samela, Pamela Schure, and Eva Beasley
Monday Question: What is worse in product management, a toxic company or a toxic boss?
Friday Question 1: Where does toxicity have the biggest business impact?
Friday Question 2: As a product leader, how can you best shield your team from a toxic corporate culture?
Poll Question: How does being in a toxic situation make you feel?
If you want to add your thoughts to this topic: Check out the answers to the Monday question in the community at https://community.productgrowthleader... and add your thoughts. Check out and vote in the poll in the community at https://community.productgrowthleader...
This topic of the week episode is on bouncing back after losing your product management job. In this episode, Grant and Steve are joined by Joy McCaffery, Eva Beasley, Brian Weber, Jason Weber, Cory Bryan, Pravin Kancherla, Shaughnessy Speirs, and Pamela Schure.
Monday Question: How do you bounce back from being fired or let go from your product management job?
Poll Question: How can we best support product management professionals who have been fired or let go?
Friday Question 1: What is the hardest part of being fired or let go from your product management job?
Friday Question 2: How can you keep a positive outlook when going through a transition?
Lightning Round: In a word or short phrase, how does a community help in these times?
If you want to add your thoughts to this topic: Check out the answers to the Monday question in the community at https://community.productgrowthleader... and add your thoughts. Check out and vote in the poll in the community at https://community.productgrowthleader...
This topic of the week episode is on Health Product Management. In this episode, Grant and Steve are joined by May Wong, Cory Bryan, Calvin Marshall, Charles Topping, and Joy McCaffrey.
Monday Question: What does healthy product management look like?
Poll Question: What is the barrier to healthy product management that is the HARDEST to find (or create)?
Friday Question 1: As a product leader, what would your approach be to attain healthy product management?
Friday Question 2: Are you ever done (attaining healthy product management)?
Lightning Round: Why is striving for healthy product management important?
If you want to add your thoughts to this topic: Check out the answers to the Monday question in the community at https://community.productgrowthleader... and add your thoughts. Check out and vote in the poll in the community at https://community.productgrowthleader...
This topic of the week episode is on Burnt Out Product Management Teams. In this episode, Grant and Steve are joined by May Wong, Cory Bryan, Joy McCaffrey, Jason Weber, Jason Vinceletter, DJ Dailey, Faith Peterson, Richard Samela, Tracy Hollister, Calvin Marshall, and Eva Beasley.
Monday Question: What are the key factors that lead product managers to become burnt out and overwhelmed?
Poll Question: What is the most addressable cause of stress and burnout for product managers?
Friday Question: What are the signs product leaders can look for to see if their product management team may be burning/burnt out?
If you want to add your thoughts to this topic: Check out the answers to the Monday question in the community at https://community.productgrowthleader... and add your thoughts. Check out and vote in the poll in the community at https://community.productgrowthleader...
This topic of the week episode is on Product Management in the Real World. In this episode, Grant and Steve are joined by May Wong, Cory Bryan, Joy McCaffrey, and Eva Beasley.
Monday Question: What is your favorite example of seeing product management in the real world?
Poll Question: What causes you to think most about product management in products in the real world?
First Question: Where is good/bad product management most obvious in a product?
Second Question: If you could take over product management for a product you use, what would the product be, and what would you do?
Lightning Round: How can we use examples of product management in the real world to help people understand the value of product management?
If you want to add your thoughts to this topic: Check out the answers to the Monday question in the community at https://community.productgrowthleader... and add your thoughts. Check out and vote in the poll in the community at https://community.productgrowthleader...
This topic of the week episode is on Senior Leadership Support for Product Management. In this episode, Grant and Steve are joined by May Wong, Cory Bryan, Joy McCaffrey, Eva Beasley, Karen Bell-Dewitt, and Zach Harris.
First Question: If you were talking to your senior leadership team on the value of product management, what would be the most important thing to include?
Second Question: What is the biggest barrier to Senior Leadership understanding the value of product management?
Third Question: What is the biggest barrier to Senior Leadership understanding the value of product management?
Lightning Round: What is possible when product management has the support of senior leadership?
If you want to add your thoughts to this topic: Check out the answers to the Monday question in the community at If you want to add your thoughts to this topic: Check out the answers to the Monday question in the community at https://community.productgrowthleader... and add your thoughts. Check out and vote in the poll in the community at https://community.productgrowthleader...
This week, Steve Johnson and I were joined by regular panelists Jason Vincelette and Joy McCaffrey, and first-time panelist Stephen Feldman.
Hear the panel discuss the answers to our Monday question "Is there such a thing as agile product management?"
Listen to our conversation on the poll question "How agile is product management in your organization?"
Get our take on the following questions:
Are agile product management and product management for an agile development team the same or different?
Has the term agile been spoiled by agile product development?
And get our Lightning Round answers to "What word or phrase describes the value of agility in product management?"
This week, Steve Johnson and I were joined by a great panel including Jason Vincelette, Paul Hurwitz, Calvin Marshall , Brian Weber, Glenn Pride, and May Wong.
Hear the panel discuss the answers to our Monday question "Where and how do product and brand overlap?"
Listen to our conversation on the poll question "Can product and brands be successful on their own?" Where "It Depends was the clear winner"
Get our take on the following question:
"How should product management think about brand?" Where Brian offers that it should be the guiding principle.
"What is the biggest misunderstanding product people have about brand?" Where May offers that the biggest misunderstanding is that brand is just marketing.
And get our Lightning Round answers to "What is the best way for product management to impact brand?"
This week Steve Johnson and I are joined by one of our largest panels ever with Jason Vincelette, Calvin Marshall, Paul Hurwitz, May Wong, Brian Weber, Glenn Pride, and enjoying the conversation Tracy Hollister.
Hear us discuss Monday's question "How do you manage the whole product?"
See the results and our thoughts on Wednesday's poll question "What is the hardest part of managing a whole product?" where Managing internal parts of the whole product was the winner.
Get our takes on this week's question, "What is possible when you manage the whole product?"
And listen to the answers of the Lightning Round question, "What advice would you give to a product manager who wants to manage the whole product?"
This week, Steve Johnson and I were joined by regular panelists Jason Vincelette, Anita Wood, Jon Gatrell Paul Hurwitz, Calvin Marshall, and Dharma Subramanian, and new panelist Seth McKnight for our largest Topic of the Week conversation.
We could anticipate the large panel as our Monday question got the most responses of any topic of the week, and the poll had the most responses as well. Seems like we picked a good topic in Corporate Culture.
Hear the panel discuss the answers to our Monday question "How does corporate culture affect product decisions?" And see us explore many lenses to the question.
Listen to our conversation on the poll question "What is the most common way corporate culture impacts product decisions?" Where Lack of Alignment not only won the poll but a good case was made that it is the root cause of the others.
And for the first time, due to the size of the panel and the interest in the topic, we did not have time for our open-ended questions and jumped right to our Lightning Round question "What is your advice to a product manager who is dealing with corporate culture issues?" Where Seth hits a home run in his first at-bat with "be patient and build relationships" and Jason followed him with "Be the change that you want to see."
We ended the call with Jon Gatrell looking for a Margaret Mead Quote, which I think is "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." Jon if this was not the one you were thinking of, let me know.
This week, Steve Johnson and I were joined by regular panelists Dharma Subramanian, Joy McCaffrey, and Calvin Marshall, as well as new panelist Paul Hatala.
Hear the panel discuss the answers to our Monday question "Why does an organization need product management?" where doing the right things emerged as the leading reason.
Listen to our conversation on the poll question "What is the biggest performance impact a company gains by focusing on doing the right things?" Where it depends was the clear winner, Dharma makes the case for All of the Above, and Joy wins the day with one word "morale"
Get our take on the following questions:
What are the most visible symptoms of an organization that needs product management? Including lack of sales, morale, never releasing, the failure rate of those things you do release,
Is product management the right name for the role we are discussing? Including offering management, how Drucker's definition of marketing has been co-opted and product management or at least product strategy is really strategic marketing, how the term product owner has created a lot of confusion, and the discussion of whether we need to take back the title product management for the business and strategy role.
And get our Lightning Round answers to "For a company without product management, where is the best place to start?" Including start by getting marketing more strategic, define the types of problems product management solves and how it can help them, hire a product manager, start with customer support as they are closest to the customer, start with a product canvas artifact, and get senior leadership to understand that random acts of growth are because they have a product problem.
The questions we covered are:
How do you manage the stress of product management?
Poll: What is the leading product management cause of stress and anxiety?
As product leaders, what should we be doing to help reduce the levels of stress and anxiety in our product managers?
And the lightning round: What would you warn someone new to product about the mental health impacts of being a product manager?
Hear the panel discuss the answers to our Monday question - Which is more valuable, personas or market segments?
Hear our conversation on our poll question: Which is the hardest to define well? Market Segments, Buyer Personas, User Personas or It Depends, where Market Segments seems to be the clear leader.
Get our take on the following questions:
Why is it so hard to do personas and market segments? Where we address that it is hard to do primary research.
What is your best approach to defining great personas or market segments? Including Rob offering the value of using emojis to document the emotional state of the person you are interviewing.
And get our Lightning Round answers to What is your advice to a product manager struggling to define personas or market segments? Staring with interviews as the base, understand the customer's domain, understand the competition, don't reinvent the wheel as there are templates out there, talk to customer support, and lead with differentiation.
This week, Steve Johnson and I were joined by regular panelist Jason Vincelette, and an up-and-coming trio of new, but becoming frequent participants in Calvin Marshall, Joy McCaffrey and Rob Barkman.
Hear the panel discuss the answers to our Monday question "Where does bad product management impact the company the most?" And see Jason, Paul and I discuss that product management may be the most important role in the company, and lack of product management (or good product management) is bad product management.
Listen to our conversation on the poll question "What is the leading cause of bad product management?" Where Poor Leadership was the overwhelming winner with 50% of the vote, and we discussed how companies set up for projects, not products, are a leading cause.
Get our take on the following questions:
"What are the signs of bad product management?"
"When is bad product management not product management’s fault?" And we debate Jason's strong NEVER answer and bad corporate leadership being the cause.
And get our Lightning Round answers to "As a product leader, what is your approach to a product manager who is doing bad product management?"
This week, Steve Johnson and I were joined by my trusty sidekick Jason Vincelette, a strong triumvirate of panelists in Paul Hurwitz, Calvin Marshall, and May Wong, and returning panelist Brian Weber, as we decide to learn from what does not work in product management
Hear the panel discuss the answers to our Monday question - Should pricing determine positioning or should positioning determine pricing?
Hear our conversation on our poll question: What is the most important component of the business plan? With a strong race between Strategic Positioning and Financial Business Case.
Get our take on the following questions:
Both pricing and positioning are tied to value – what is your preferred approach to understanding and validating value in the market?
How frequently should product management review and update their strategy?
And get our Lightning Round answers to What is the most important thing for a product manager to think about when doing positioning? Including the Customer/Persona, the Problem, Focus, Differentiation, Take a Position, and make it relative to the competition.
This week, Steve Johnson and I were joined by regular panelists Jason Vincelette, Anita Wood, Dharma Subramanian, and first-time panelist Rob Barkman.
After Steve and I discuss my poor "Seinfeld" deliver on the question, hear our panel discuss the answers to our Monday question - What is the deal with roadmaps? Why do so many teams want them?
Listen to the panel discuss why Development was the overwhelming winner in our poll about the most important use case for roadmaps.
Get our two-cents on the following questions:
- What is the strategic role of the roadmap?
- What is more valuable, the roadmap or the roadmapping process?
And get our Lightning Round answers from every panelist on "What is one word or phrase on the importance of roadmaps to the organization?"
This week Steve Johnson and I are joined by Jason Vincelette and Gregg Fenton to discuss Product Roadmaps.
Hear the panel discuss the answers to our Monday question - How should a product manager deal with people who continue to micromanage their work? Including the importance of the soft-skills of communication and expectation setting.
Hear our conversation on our poll question: Which function is prone to micromanage product management the most? With a strong consensus on senior leadership, including me leaning toward switching my answer.
Get our answers to the open-ended question Are there situations where micromanagement may be needed?
Here our discussion on Micromanagement as controlling vs. Micromanagement as perfection, where most felt that controlling was the main reason, but we got a look into Steve's perfection side.
And get our Lightning Round answers to What is your best advice on how to avoid micromanaging others?
This week, Steve Johnson and I were joined by regular panelists Jason Vincelette, Anita Wood, Jon Gatrell, and Dharma Subramanian, along with first-time panelist Calvin Marshall.
Hear the panel discuss the answers to our Monday question "What are the most important business and strategy skills for a product manager to have?" including reviewing a laundry list of skills, including:
- being a curious empath
- basic financial literacy
- maturity
- discernment
- impartiality
- patience
- ability to ask critical questions in an open and unbiased way
- understand the market the product serves
- customer discovery
- basic financial literacy
- the ability to speak truth to power
- understanding how the business operates
- threat/opportunity modeling
- active listening
- storytelling
With a deep dive on how to understand the market the product serves/customer discovery and speaking truth to power.
Listen to our conversation on the poll question "What type of expertise is the most important for a product manager in a strategic role?" Where Joy defends her no-vote as product management is so multi-dimensional and cross-functional, there is not just one, and Market and Persona Expertise takes the poll.
Get our take on the following questions:
Why are business and strategy skills important to product managers?
Why have business and strategy skills been neglected in product management?
And get our Lightning Round answers to "What is the best way for a product manager to build their business and strategy skills?" With a good yes-and flow around the importance of mentoring.
This week, Steve Johnson and I were joined by regular panelists Jason Vincelette, Joy McCaffrey, Paul Hurwitz, and Rob Barkman.
Hear our panel discuss when is the best time to have retrospectives, the difference between post mortems and retrospectives (and how like Win-Loss analysis we need to look at successes and failures), and join Gregg Fenton as he defends his dissertation on retrospectives.
Listen to us discuss when we do have retrospectives, the desire for an "all of the above" choice, and how different the answers would have been if we asked, "How often should you do retrospectives?"
Get our two-cents on the following questions:
- Should retrospectives be part of the strategic and/or annual planning process?
- Where do you think retrospectives provide the most value, process improvement, product improvement, or something else?
And get our rapid-fire answers from every panelist on "A retrospective for retrospectives: How will you change your approach to retrospectives after this week’s topic and conversation?"
This week Steve Johnson and I are joined by Jason Vincelette, Robert Goldberg, Paul Hurwitz, Gregg Fenton, and Jon Harmer to talk about retrospectives.
Hear the panel discuss the answers to our Monday question "With the Facebook product manager whistleblower in the news, what is a product manager's ethical responsibility with respect to their product(s)?" And her Joy expands on her answer of "Absolute" and her experience with a toxic company.
Listen to our conversation on the poll question "Where do you see the biggest opportunity for ethical issues in product?" Where for the first time ever we do a live follow-up poll adding Data, Privacy, AI, or Lying. Watch the video to see how they voted.
Get our take on the following question:
"What is a situation where you had to make an ethical decision related to your product or company?"
And get our Lightning Round answers to "As a product leader, what would your advice be to a product manager dealing with a product or business-related ethical issue?"
This week, Steve Johnson and I were joined by a great panel including Paul Hurwitz, Joy McCaffrey, Brian Weber, Glenn Pride, and May Wong.
And just to put this out there, this week was perhaps the most monumental conversation since we started. While nearly every week I adjust and evolve my opinions on mindsets on topics, this week's conversation truly got me to change my lens for product metrics. Watch it to see why.
Hear the panel discuss the answers to our Monday question - What are the key metrics you should be tracking for your product? And see how Paul challenged all of our perspectives on metrics suggesting we should think about this from the customer point of view.
After hearing me fall on my sword for forgetting to post the poll on Wednesday, hear our conversation on our heat map question: How good is your company at tracking and using metrics? See which of dual bell curves your company would be in, with one curve peaking around 30-40% and the other around 60-70%, and hear Paul's great anecdote on measuring customer value.
Get our take on the following questions:
What are the toughest product metrics to get, and why?
How should the product metrics you track change as a product moves through its lifecycle?
And get our Lightning Round answers to If you could only have one metric, what would it be? Including customer value, ROI, number of customers, a happiness quotient, and net retention.
This week, Steve Johnson and I were joined by regular panelists Jason Vincelette, Joy McCaffrey, Paul Hurwitz, and Dharma Subramanian.
Hear the panel discuss the answers to our Monday question - What is the value you get from your product management peer network? Where we discuss the differences between networking, having a peer (or peers) to go to one-on-one, and having a networking group of peers (or 3 or 4 dudes in a Slack channel).
Hear us discuss the poll on "Where do you go to network with product professionals?" where we acknowledge the great product management community in Atlanta, GA, and Jon discusses the level of depth difference between the local networking and going deep with a few. We also discuss the difference between a network and networking.
Get our two-cents on the following questions:
- How did you build your trusted peer network? Including Steve talking about the importance of going to places to speak and finding his peers, as well as reaching out to people for a conversation.
- What role does your product management peer network play in your professional development? Including Jon talking about the importance of the diversity of ideas a peer network brings to your development, and Jason admits he never wants to do anything other than product management and how he thinks about the topic of the week all week long. Finally, Steve brings it home by talking about the importance of the dialog, the two-way conversation, and furthering ideas and learning.
And get our Lightning Round answers from every panelist on "What is one word or phrase to describe the importance of professional peer networks to you?" where we had one of our best yes-and through all of us.
Steve Johnson and Grant Hunter had a great conversation on Peer Networking in Product Management with regular panelists Jon Harmer and Jason Vincelette, and first-time panelist (and one of Steve and Grant's long time peer networking partners) Jon Gatrell.
Hear the panel discuss the answers to our Monday question - What do senior leaders need to know about product management? Including Anita and Jason teaming for a great answer on the role senior leaders can play as mentors/coaches for product management, and the senior leaders need to know that product management's number one goal is to create great products that customers and users love.
Hear why there was pretty much consensus on Finance needing the most predictability, with good discussions on who needs it (Finance and Operations) versus who wants it (Sales) and how SaaS/subscription business do not have as high as a need for predictability.
Get our two-cents on what you would want the CEO to know about product management if you had 10 minutes with them?
And get our Lightning Round answers from every panelist on "What is the best way to engage senior leadership to further product management's cause?" Including internal marketing, under the radar team, and many great "yes, and" answers.
This week, Steve Johnson and Grant Hunter were joined by one of our largest panels to date with regulars Jason Vincelette and Robert Goldberg, being joined by returning panelists Jon Gatrell and Anita Wood, and first-time panelist Charles Topping.
Hear our panel discuss the answers to our Monday question - when hiring internally for a new product manager, what background do you look for?
Hear why Steve may have biased our poll with his well-known opinion that Sales Engineers are the best background
Get our two-cents on the following questions:
- Which is harder for someone to learn, a specific industry/domain or product management?
- What are the most common reasons why someone new to product management does not succeed in product management?
And get our rapid-fire answers from every panelist on "What do you think is the most important attribute to look for when hiring someone new to product management?"
Check-out Jon's summary of our conversation on his blog at https://jonharmer.medium.com/another-week-another-excellent-product-growth-leaders-topic-of-the-week-discussion-8bf627e73602
This week we try some new technology for the recording, and Steve Johnson and Grant Hunter are again joined by Jason Vincelette, Gregg Fenton, and Jon Harmer the best background to look for when hiring product managers.
Hear our panel discuss introducing the function of product management to an organization, how product management is happening in one way or another, how Jon built a motley crew for the first product management organization, and Grant getting excited about Yes-and.
Listen to us discuss our key recommendations to an organization looking to bring the product management function into their organization, including discussions on our poll about the best background for the first product manager at a company.
Get our two-cents on the following questions:
- Is a company doing product management, even if they don’t have a formal product management function?
- Outside of who to hire, what should be the major considerations for an organization as they launch a product management function?
And get our rapid-fire answers from every panelist on "If you could give one piece of advice to someone joining a company as their first product management resource, what would it be?"
Check-out Jon's summary of our conversation on his blog at https://jonharmer.medium.com/bringing-product-management-to-a-company-for-the-first-time-987fb2b7befd
This week Steve Johnson and Grant Hunter are joined by Jason Vincelette, Gregg Fenton, and Jon Harmer to talk about creating a product management function.
Hear the panel discuss the answers to our Monday question - What is a product manager's most important responsibility? Where we have a slight debate whether a product manager being the voice of the market or a product manager being a business leader.
Hear our conversation on the poll and the importance of the Business Case, Roadmap and Positioning, and the wish for an all of the above option.
See my technical failure on our Mentimeter poll on What Should be the responsibilities of a product manager? (see the word cloud below the video)
Get our answers to the open-ended question: What responsibility that product managers often take, should not be their responsibility?
And get our (not so) Lightning Round answers from every panelist on "What is your advice to a product manager on how to manage scope creep in their responsibilities?"
This week, Steve Johnson and Grant Hunter were joined by regular panelists Jason Vincelette, Robert Goldberg, Jon Gatrell, and Jon Harmer, along with first-timer Jeff Biedell.
Hear the panel discuss the answers to our Monday question - Why are clearly defined roles & responsibilities so important? Including (even though he could not join us) Jason Vincelette's amazing answer from Monday around the importance of needing to understand by what actions and deliverables will be evaluated, how roles play into career aspirations, and alignment across the company around who does what. Also some great insight from Anita from the session on the same topic she had just (literally) done for PMI.
Hear why we think that more than 50% of companies do not feel comfortable with how clearly defined their roles were, and how Robert, after a large investment and a lot of work does feel comfortable.
Get our two-cents on our open-ended questions:
What is the biggest challenge when roles & responsibilities are not clearly defined or aligned?
What is more valuable, the clearly defined roles & responsibilities or the process to get to those clear definitions?
And get our Lightning Round answers from every panelist on "What is one word or phrase that captures the importance of clearly defined roles & responsibilities to a product team?" Where we had a great yes-and session and my focus on trying to come up with the Four As of Roles & Responsibility Alignment or potentially setting for the AAAE.
Agreement
Energizing (could Activating work Anita?)
Accountability
Alignment
and Steve decided to rant with"Why don't we all do our own damn jobs for a week and see how it works out, and if it doesn't we can always go back to the dysfunction we had before."
This week, Steve Johnson and Grant Hunter were joined by regular panelists Robert Goldberg, Jon Gatrell and Anita Wood.
Hear our panel (perhaps our largest ever) discuss their toughest decisions and where they went for advice, with a strong focus on End-of-Life and killing new product ideas (including how at Google you have to convince leadership you should KEEP doing something), along with some thoughts on migrating (or not migrating) feature requests to a new tool, shifting a product strategy for an idea the head of product had, and overcoming an executive trying to be the tail wagging the dog.
Learn our thoughts on why Strategy/Roadmap prioritization was voted the most frequent type of tough decision, and the difference between product lifecycle related and EOL decisions.
Get our two-cents on the following questions:
- What is the best way to handle a recommendation on a tough decision that leadership ignores?
- How do you best prepare and support your team when they are faced with tough decisions?
And get our rapid-fire answers from every panelist on "What/who are your go-to sources for advice when facing a tough decision?" Including Jon Harmer's "three or four dudes in a Slack channel."
This week Grant Hunter is joined by Jason Vincelette, Gregg Fenton, Jon Harmer, Paul Hurwitz, Brian Weber, Mounika Sanikommu, Robert Goldberg, and Tom Caragher to talk about tough product management decisions we have faced.
Hear our panel discuss where they find the most chaos in their product management process, including 15 years of Jason Vincelette's chaos and being the VP of NO, Steve ranting about his antagonist Kevin (the world's worst salesperson) and getting on his soapbox on role clarity, and Robert thinking about failures in build-buy-partner.
Listen to us debate if we find more chaos with executives, development, marketing, or product management ourselves.
Get our two-cents on the following questions:
- How much chaos is created by lack of process versus lack of adhering to process?
- What is the best approach to getting out of the chaos?
And get our rapid-fire answers from every panelist on "What is your first piece of advice to a product manager dealing with chaos?"
This week Steve Johnson and Grant Hunter are joined by Jason Vincelette and Robert Goldberg, and to talk about product management chaos.
Hear our panel discuss the dynamics and metrics we find most valuable when managing a product's lifecycle, including the two different TTM (Trailing Twelve Months, and Time To Market), and great input from Laurie on the great business performance KPIs to utilize during for lifecycle management.
Listen to us debate if Decline or Inception (Getting to Product-Market Fit) is more difficult to manage, and hear me tell Charles Handy's Second Curve story.
Get our two-cents on the following questions:
- What is the biggest challenge with Product Lifecycle Management?
- What aspect of product management needs to change the most as a product moves through its lifecycle?
And get our rapid-fire answers from every panelist on "For a new product manager, what would be your best advice to help them manage the lifecycle of their product?"
This week Steve Johnson and Grant Hunter are joined by Robert Goldberg, and Laurie Harvey to talk about product lifecycle management.
Hear our panel discuss how product management can demonstrate business leadership, including the importance of the balance between soft skills and hard skills, the importance of understanding the user personas of their internal business, and the importance of focusing the company on the right problems to solve.
Learn why the panel thinks "Strategy" was unanimously picked in the poll, and why many said they would change their vote to "Collaboration" if they could go back.
Get our two-cents on the following questions:
- What is the biggest mistake product managers make that get in the way of them becoming a business leader?
- What is your best advice to a product manager looking to become more of a business leader?
And get our rapid-fire answers from every panelist on "How would you approach getting leadership to realize the business leadership role product management can play?"
This week Steve Johnson and Grant Hunter are joined by Jason Vincelette, Robert Goldberg, and Jon Harmer to talk about Product Management as business leaders.
Hear our panel tend to agree about what is a product, exploring the differences around problems, needs, wants, etc., and then explore the behavioral and psychological outcomes in a Jobs-to-be-done around wants and needs. [and here Grant say "right" way too many times while we discuss the product of pizza].
Learn about which concept from Market Problems, Under/Un-met Needs and Wants, and Jobs to be Done (JTBD) our panelists prefer.
Get our two-cents on the following questions:
- Are Market Problems, Needs and Jobs To Be Done interchangeable concepts?
- When are services products? Or, how do you productize services?
And get our rapid-fire answers from every panelist on "What is your best take on the definition of “product”?", including a deep dive on the importance of experience being part of the product.
This week Steve Johnson and Grant Hunter are joined by Jason Vincelette, Jon Harmer, Robert Goldberg, and Tom Caragher.