Lessons In Product Management

On today's lesson in product management, John Fontenot shares a recent story about his experience working in a Scrum shop and how the rigid interpretation of Scrum almost killed his ability to ship a critical integration on time.

If you're interested in entering product management and want to gain the hands-on experience you need to make that leap, join us at Path2Product and start earning much-needed experience today.

The difference between regular managers and product managers...

Regular manager: "Don't bring me problems. Bring me solutions!"

Product Manager: "Don't bring me solutions. Bring me problems"

It's our job to care more about the problem driving the request for a solution than the solution itself. But it can be hard navigating those conversations with large customers or senior stakeholders. On this lesson in product management, we discuss this reality and practical tips for dealing with it.

If you enjoy the episode, consider leaving a rating and a review and hit that follow or subscribe button so you never miss an episode.

If you're an aspiring PM looking to break into this challenging job market, Path2Product has you covered. We help you get the hands-on experience, coaching, and interview prep you need to land more interviews and your first role in product management.

Key Takeaways

• Side projects offer valuable experience for aspiring PMs and an outlet for creativity/ownership for employed PMs
• Benefits include mental health, skill development, and potential innovation
• Time management and prioritizing core job responsibilities are crucial when pursuing side projects
• Companies like Google (20% time) demonstrate the value of fostering entrepreneurial creativity in employees

Topics:

1. The Broken Talent Acquisition Process in Product Management
2. Benefits of Side Projects for Aspiring PMs
3. Advantages of side projects for Employed PMs
4. Potential Downsides and Ethical Considerations
5. Company Culture and Innovation

Hello and welcome in to another episode of Lessons in Product Management, I’m your host, John Fontenot, and on today’s episode I have Paul Turaew on to talk about his journey into product management and we riff on a number of topics in research. Paul’s a long-time PM, having held a variety of Sr. IC and Director of Product Management roles in Healthcare. Some of the topics we cover on today’s episode include the tension between research and shipping products, what’s the “MVP” of research, changing the culture and perception of research inside of organizations, and so much more. This episode is longer than normal and entirely worth it, so listen to the end, hit that subscribe or follow button, and enjoy the episode!

If you're looking to accelerate your path into product management, join us on Path2Product to get hands-on experience, build a shareable portfolio project, and network with like-minded professionals.

Outline:

0:00-2:00 - Episode Intro

2:01-5:40 - Paul’s Intro and Journey into Product Management

5:41-13:40 - A big myth about product managers and being technical

13:40-23:35 - The tension between research and shipping products

23:35-27:10 - What should anchor research objectives and activities

27:11-32:20 - The “MVP of Research”

32:21-36:00 - Successfully presenting research findings and insights

36:01-39:00 - Changing the culture and perception of research

39:00-39:29 - Outro

On today’s episode, I got to speak with Stephanie Jerome, Product Manager at Akoya. Stephanie has a ton of experience managing internal products, and that was the focus of our conversation today. Stephanie also shared how she got her start in product management and lessons she’s learned along the way. 

If you’re managing or considering managing internal products or looking to get your first shot at a PM job, this is a great episode to check out! 

If you're looking to get into product management, you can get credible PM experience today at Path2Product

If you need a free and powerful tool to organize and manage your research and insights, try out ResearchRepo for free today

Outline:

0:00-0:35 - Episode Intro

0:35-6:50 - Stephanie’s Path to product management

6:50-8:10 - Stephanie’s experience with internal product management

8:10-10:55 - Key differences PMing internal products vs customer-facing products

10:55-15:10 - Biases and assumptions in internal research

15:10-18:30 - Using internal tools for internal tools (meta, I know)

18:30-21:50 - GTM and Customer Success for internal products

21:50-23:16 - Stephanie’s final thoughts on research for internal products

23:16-24:16 - Outro

On today’s episode, we have Emilia Kortrynska, Head of Marketing at UserPilot. In the discussion with Emilia, we talk about some incredibly interesting research that came out of UserPilot recently about how Sales Led Growth appears to beat Product Led Growth in many categories. Which to PLG evangelists like myself, really caught me off guard. But we discuss why quant data is only one piece of the story and why you need to balance quant with qual research and the benefits of research in general. 

PLG vs SLG research data

If you're looking for a better way to tie research to your company goals, try out ResearchRepo for free

If you're trying to get into product management and need experience to accelerate your path to product, sign up at Path2Product and start getting experience today

Outline:

0:00-0:53 - Episode Introduction

0:53-2:35 - Emilia’s Background and Intro

2:35-7:48  Emilia’s Role In Research for Userpilot

7:48-10:59  Marketing’s Role in User Research and PM Collaboration 

10:59-13:00  Product-Led SEO

13:00-15:25 Research Feedback loop on usage and user segmentation

15:25-16:10 The fallacy of category creation in positioning

16:10-26:54 Sales Led vs Product Led Success Rates

26:54-30:07 How can we make research matter more at our company

It's a hotly debated topic, whether you should always pay customers for their time when sourcing and conducting interviews.

Spoiler alert! I think you're doing yourself a huge disservice if you make it a habit of paying customers for feedback.

In this episode, we unpack all the reasons why you should never pay customers for interviews and the benefits you'll see as a result.

If you're looking to get into product management or interested in up-leveling your product sense through a portfolio project, check us out at Path2Product

For the article this episode is based on, check it out at the Path2Product Blog

There are pros and cons to preparing for user research. As they say, too much of a good thing can be a bad thing. And the same is true with prepping for research.

On this episode, we break down the benefits of user interview preparation and the potential drawbacks if you let perfection become the enemy of progress.

If you're looking to get into product management but lack hands on experience, check out Path2Product where you get high-quality PM training AND the ability to put your learning into practice to get hands-on product management experience that you can show off in a portfolio project.

After taking a year off to focus on work and life, we're back and excited to be back!

We've been building ResearchRepo for Product teams to collaborate, consolidate, and communicate research that ties back to company goals and objectives.

I've started a new role as VP of Product at Terlumina

But we're doubling down on Path2Product to help aspiring and junior product managers get the experience and practice they need to land their first job or uplevel their product sense