Product Perspectives

Welcome to this new episode type, Product Q&A, a weekly bite-size episode, part of the Product Perspectives podcast, where I answer the most common questions that product managers encounter at job interviews and in their day-to-day work.

Whether you're a seasoned product manager or just starting out in your career, this episode format is for you. Each week, I tackle a different question related to product management, from strategy and planning to user research and design.

Not only is this podcast a great resource for product managers looking to expand their knowledge and skills, but it's also a valuable tool for interviewers who want to ask insightful questions and for product stakeholders who want to better understand what they can expect from a great product manager.

So, tune in every Thursday for a new episode of Product Q&A, and join me as I explore the exciting world of product management and answer your burning questions.

Product management is a dynamic and rapidly evolving field, driven by advances in technology, changes in consumer behavior, and shifting market trends. As we look to the future, it's clear that product managers will play a key role in shaping the products and services that will define our lives in the years to come. Here are my bold predictions for the future of product management, both in the near term (2023) and the longer term (2030).

Give your feedback about Product Perspectives: Product Perspectives feedback form (google.com)

Welcome to this new episode type, Product Q&A, a weekly bite-size episode, part of the Product Perspectives podcast, where I answer the most common questions that product managers encounter at job interviews and in their day-to-day work.

Whether you're a seasoned product manager or just starting out in your career, this episode format is for you. Each week, I tackle a different question related to product management, from strategy and planning to user research and design.

Not only is this podcast a great resource for product managers looking to expand their knowledge and skills, but it's also a valuable tool for interviewers who want to ask insightful questions and for product stakeholders who want to better understand what they can expect from a great product manager.

So, tune in every Thursday for a new episode of Product Q&A, and join me as I explore the exciting world of product management and answer your burning questions.

Give your feedback about Product Perspectives: Product Perspectives feedback form (google.com)

My guest today is Tess Dixon. With 20 years in tech including a past life as Director of Support at Tumblr, Tess pivoted to design in 2019 and spent the last couple of years learning about and practicing DesignOps — most recently as Director of DesignOps at Condé Nast. She loves documentation, remote-first culture, getting things organized, and supporting an entire team with the best environment possible. I had a long conversation with Tess and for that reason, there are two episodes with her. In the first one, we focused on her background and role as Director of Support at Tumblr. Tess talks about how product managers can work closely with support teams to understand user reactions to new features, how she introduced self-service support solutions to reduce support tickets and how support teams can drive customer satisfaction and sales opportunities. If you missed it, it’s not too late to listen to it!

In today’s episode, we talk her role as Director of DesignOps at Conde Nast. Whether you have an Ops team or not, every organisation needs operations to run so you or some of your colleagues are probably doing ops already. We’ve also diverged onto remote working, because Tess is a strong advocate and gives tips about how to make it work, as well as reasons why it’s more inclusive. Enjoy!

My guest today is Tess Dixon. With 20 years in tech including a past life as Director of Support at Tumblr, Tess pivoted to design in 2019 and spent the last couple of years learning about and practicing DesignOps — most recently as Director of DesignOps at Condé Nast. She loves documentation, remote-first culture, getting things organized, and supporting an entire team with the best environment possible.

I had a long conversation with Tess and for that reason, there will be two episodes with her. The first one focuses on her background and role as Director of Support at Tumblr, whereas next week’s one will be about her role as Director of DesignOps at Conde Nast. In this first episode, Tess talks about how product managers can work closely with support teams to understand user reactions to new features, how she introduced self-service support solutions to reduce support tickets and how support teams can drive customer satisfaction and sales opportunities.

My guest today is Justin Zalewski, who is a people-centered design leader with 10+ years of experience in product design, product strategy, and service design. As Director of Product Design and Strategy at Studio Science, Justin leads a team of talented product designers and works with clients to solve business problems through design. He and his team are experts in rapid prototyping and running experiments to learn from customers.  He has led projects with clients ranging from market-leading tech companies to Fortune 500 brands. Clients include Angi, Genesys, Simon, Stack Overflow, and Cummins.

In this episode, we talked about how new technologies and tools impact the role of a UX Designer, and what new responsibilities the people who create products hold as a result. Justin introduces the idea that products are actually digital services - as in software as a service, and gives examples on how he’s worked with customers and product managers to improve their metrics, promoting co-creation and designing for the real world. For UX Designers who want to find their place working with product managers and PMs who want to challenge their perspectives on building products, this is a great episode to get some inspiration and actionable tips

My guest today is Mirela Mus who has 12+ years of product management experience, a background in Computer Science, and an MBA. She is the Founder of Product People, a Product Management Consultancy with 40 in-house full-time PMs who help as Interims in Europe’s top Product companies. As an Interim PM, she has personally contributed to Tier, Zalando, Omio, WHO (World Health Organization), and continues to do so with her growing team. 

In this episode, we talk about the need for temporary staff when there a gap due to a PM going on parental leave or leaving, how Mirela introduced blind interviews in her company to identify the best talents, how she sees her workforce as the product and the parallels she draws between being a founder and a product manager. Mirela has impressed me by her diverse experience and product cultures she’s encountered along her journey. For PMs who want to get exposure to lots of different companies, product management consultancies can be a great way to acquire experience quickly - and for companies to bring better product management practices in their organisations.

My guest today is Charlie Sharzer who is product operations lead at Palantir Technologies, where he created the operations function for the Gotham product organization. Previously, he worked in business development as a deployment strategist in Palantir's U.S. Government business, where he partnered with users, built product, and led client engagements. Before coming to Palantir, Charlie taught high school phyics and chemistry in Newark, New Jersey.

In this episode, we talk about the role of Product Operations and how Palentir saw the need to build this function. Charlie talks about the specificites involved with working with the government, as well as how to de-risk releases and make customer’s lives easier when there’s an upgrade.

Are you keeping up with the latest trends in product management?

My guest today is Vishali Dialani who has been a strategy-driven customer experience professional for 6+ years. She’s recognized for creating human-centred design systems for complex digital products and leading marketing initiatives across diverse industries from advertising, education and fintech. With a collaborative mindset to make a difference, Vaishali loves to understand customer needs, map out across-the-board customer journeys, be the voice of customers and develop effective operational processes to drive customer adoption and business success. Recognized as CXPA’s emerging leader 2022, she believes in the power of making customer experiences simple and seamless.

In this episode, we talked about her role as a CX executive, and how her approach both mirrors and complements the one of a product manager. We’ve touched on non-digital products like manufacturing and hardware, as well as the future of CX with immersive experiences. I hope you’ll enjoy this final episode of 2022 and wish you a wonderful festive season.