475: A CPO’s perspective on amazing product teams – with Amruta Moktali

How to build high-performing product teams

Today we are talking about amazing product teams—what is involved in creating one and then how to manage it.

Joining us is Amruta Moktali, Chief Product Officer at Skyflow, the world’s first and only data privacy vault delivered as an API. She’s spent over a decade mastering the complex domains of data privacy and analytics and amassed an impressive track record spanning agile startups as well as tech giants including Microsoft and Salesforce.

Summary of some concepts discussed for product managers

[2:39] What do you do to create a high-performing product team? 

A high-performing team is like a beautiful orchestra. You’re the conductor bringing the right instruments together at the right time. First, you should have a clear understanding of what problem the team is looking to solve. Make sure every person on the team is bought into it. Unless you’re marching toward the same goal, you will never perform well.

It’s like music. Assemble people who will work well with each other and will challenge each other. This changes based on the environment. People who work well in person may not work well in a remote environment. People who do great in consumer products may not do well in B2B products.

The most important thing is iterativeness. A high-performance team does not happen over night. You have to guide them. Remove folks from the team who are causing the team to slow down or move in the wrong direction. As important as it is to put the right people in, it is also important to take the wrong people out at the right time.

[5:38] To assemble a high-performance product team, what skills do you look for?

Have a good understanding of the hard skills you need, which differ. Sometimes you’re looking for generalists. Sometimes you’re looking for someone with experience with a particular technology.

You also need soft skills. Make sure team members have amazing communication skills, especially if you are hiring product managers, since they are the conductors and orchestrators. Make sure your team has the ability to make hard decisions. To do that, they need to know the market, your customer, and where the business is going. Your team needs skills in bringing people together.

[8:39] Why is it important that team members know they are part of something that matters?

Being part of something that matters is what motivates you to wake up in the morning to work. The problem you’re solving and who you’re solving it for should resonate with you at some level.

I worked at the startup Clio, a health benefits company. We were supporting families all the way from pre-pregnancy to end of life. As a mom and having had aging parents, I knew the problem. It was close to my heart. Every person who was part of Clio had the same emotional feelings around their work. Making a change in one person’s life was enough to get through the whole day.

It’s a little different when you’re building a SaaS product. I’m not changing someone’s life when I’m building a SaaS product, but I can still think about what matters to me. For example, privacy matters to all of us at Skyflow. The core purpose is making sure everyone can work with information and serve their customers better but never compromise privacy. Make sure your work matters and you’re marching toward the right thing.

I have been in situations, especially in larger companies, in which the priorities of the company change and a small feature doesn’t seem to matter anymore. In that situation, you should think about how you can still matter. Ask yourself why you think your work doesn’t matter to the company anymore. Is it just because nobody is talking about you? Are you still making an impact on the revenue? Is anything you’re doing aligning with the goal? If not,