Product Team Success

Product and Mindset Mastery with Henry Latham (Founder of Product Mastery MBA)

In this podcast I’m talking to Henry Latham the founder of the Product Mastery MBA course.

One of the big problems in product is that there's loads of courses out there but very few that actually give you hands on experience with problems as a product manager.

The Product Mastery MBA's objective is to fast track product managers to becoming a head of product where the students actually build a real product from idea to revenue in just 8 weeks.

The advice I've always given to people wanting to get into product has always been "well build a product" and Henry Latham and his team have created a great course that puts this into practice.

Personally I found the mindset skills we discussed to be personally the most fascinating part of product management. I really hope you enjoyed our discussion.

Learn more about Henry and his course at:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/henrylatham/

https://productmastery.co/

Product Pricing Strategies (and why price point is not as important as you think)

In this podcast I’m talking to Ajit Ghuman and we are going to be focusing on pricing strategies.

Ajit has written a book called Price to Scale ( https://www.ajitghuman.com/pricing-book/ ) which is the only book that I'm aware of that really focuses on Pricing from a Product management and Product Marketing perspective.

One of the big takeaways for me is that the Price Point is sometimes the least important thing when it comes to pricing. (in SAAS and Especially in B2B SAAS)

Normally in Product marketing and product management we don't spend a huge amount of time learning from other companies and other people on how to best optimise our pricing strategy. Ajit has been in the trenches learning about different pricing strategies and is going to be joining us today so we can learn more. He gives us some great examples too. 

So check out his book and let me know what you think of this podcast

Price to Scale can be found at: 

https://www.ajitghuman.com/pricing-book/

In this Podcast you’re in for a treat and I think this is going to be one of those podcasts that you listen to it once and it makes sense but when you listen to it a few more times you'll get even more value from it.

Noa Ganot is someone I’ve been reading on Linkedin for a while and I really love her approach to Product Market fit but when I got to know her a bit better I learned she’s been in Product for a long time and has had some amazing experiences with some awesome companies. 

But more than that she’s able to really help with strategy for Product during what is an unprecedented time. We recorded this Podcast in May 2020 during the Covid 19 Pandemic and I think what Noa says it particularly relevant. 

Look, Product strategy is always hard , but can have a huge impact on your chances of success 

It's hard, and takes time, especially when you think about Market Research. 

However in current times, companies need do it much quicker than before. 

In this Podcast Noa really helps us understand how to do it.

You can find out more about Noa at

• "Speed-up the journey to product-market fit" - free ebook to download from www.ganotnoa.com/ebook
• Deep product blog - www.ganotnoa.com/deep-product

In this podcast, I’m talking to John Cutler. John is a well-known and very respected product evangelist for the US-based company Amplitude, software that allows you to use your customer data to build better products and experiences. 

John brings an insightful perspective on how marketers are using analytics to learn more about their customers and their own companies. While some only focus on the top of the funnel, there’s an incredible opportunity to learn more about your customer's behaviors and why they do or don’t work - by asking the right questions. 

Keep listening to learn more about:

• How do we target humans?
• How deep you can really get with the right analytics tool 
• The importance of learning soft skills and telling the stories from inside a company
• Finding value from your existing customers vs. Top of the funnel analytics 

Enjoy and let me know what you think.

Links in the Podcast:

• John Cutler LinkedIn
• Amplitude LinkedIn
• Amplitude Website

In this podcast I’m talking to Roman Pichler. Roman is incredibly well known in the Product Space for his unique approach to Product. 

He has a new book called:

How to Lead in Product Management: Practices to Align Stakeholders, Guide Development Teams, and Create Value Together

The focus is on Product Leadership and that’s exactly what this podcast is about. 

Keep listening to learn: 

How to deal with really difficult situations. 

Should Product People learn more about how to negotiate? 

How to deal with leadership when you don’t have direct authority

Whats the best way to work with Scrum Masters

And Roman is going to help us learn more about other leadership skills we need as Product Leaders

His book is available at Amazon here:  

You can find Roman on Linkedin here:

His website is at: 

Really hope you enjoy it!

Today we have Dave Subar with us. 

Dave brings a really interesting perspective to Product as he often straddles the line between product and engineering. He has had a fascinating career and some of the highlights of todays podcast are: 

The importance of Why 

Why context is so important for teams

Learning to negotiate the relationship between engineering and product

When going back to waterfall actually makes sense. 

Dave’s a great guy, I think you’re really going to enjoy this. 

Prioritisation Is One Of Those Skills That We Really Need To Get Great At As Product Leaders, But Is Really Hard To Sometimes Know The Best Way To Start Or What Else Is Out There That Works.

Malte Scholz Is The Co-Founder And CPO For AirFocus A Tool That Helps Product Leaders And Consultants With Prioritisation (As Well As Roadmapping But On This Podcast We Focused On Prioritisation.

Malte Shares Some Great Examples With Us That He’s Learned Over The Years And I Really Enjoyed Chatting With Him. He’s A Wealth Of Information When It Comes To Prioritisation And A Great Guy Who Was Very Generous In Sharing His Knowledge.

Have A Listen And Let Me Know What You Think.

Links In The Podcast:

• Malte’s Linkedin Profile
• Airfocus Link
• The Ultimate Guide To Marketing Roadmaps – Templates, Examples And Marketing Roadmaps

The 4 elements your team needs to succeed

(And why you shouldn’t rely on Net Promoter Scores) 

With Jeff Gothelf 

I’d been looking forward to talking to Jeff on the podcast for a while. Not only is he brilliant when it comes to discussing Product Leadership but he’s written some great books and really has it dialed in when it comes to how teams succeed. 

Jeff’s insights on agile and how best to make teams succeed was really fascinating. He discussed how we need four elements if we want to succeed. 

Teams need to be 

1. Small
2. Cross functional 
3. Managed to outcomes (not output)
4. Empowered to make decisions

The fourth one is where I’ve seen teams stumble and fall. 

I’ve worked with so many companies in the past who get totally caught up in Net Promoter Scores and feel that it's a good understanding of reality. Jeff quickly put that thought to bed with a really thorough view on why Net Promoter Scores don’t work. 

Enjoy this podcast. I’ve love to know your thoughts. 

The links we talk about in the podcast are:

https://www.senseandrespondpress.com

https://jeffgothelf.com

Check them out, there’s tons of great content from Jeff on those sites.

Ever wanted to have a framework for your product that covers ALL of it? 

Ever wondered how some product leaders seem to have their entire product just “work”. 

It helps to have the best framework to help you do that. 

In this episode of the podcast Roger Snyder, VP Marketing for the 280 Group joins us to discuss Whole Product Thinking. While this has been around for a while (going back to Jeffrey Moore’s Crossing the Chasm in the 90’s) it’s such a fundamental framework for Product Management that it’s worth considering in detail. 

Roger gives us loads of great examples of Whole Product Thinking and we have a brilliant discussion about how this can help you in your role as a Product Leader. 

The 280 Group produce some amazing content so have a look at the show notes below and check them out for yourself. 

Roger was a great guest and I’m really looking forward to talking to him again in the future. 

Links to the resources mentioned in the podcast:

Blog Post w/webinar slide deck included – Whole Product Concept – A Quick Guide for the Expert PM

Blog Post – Product Owner vs. Product Manager Exploration

280 Group Free Resources

Recently the ProductPlan team released their eBook From Product Manager to Product Leader - Lessons from today's product experts and I really enjoyed it.

One of the things I speak a lot about on the Product Coach podcast is how to be a Product Leader and this book really dives into a lot of detail about it and on this podcast Jim Semick from ProductPlan helps us dissect the lessons from the book.

As the book says: "While there are many reasons products might succeed, it’s the direction of great product leadership that truly makes a difference."

I couldn't agree more. Enjoy the episode and The Product Leadership book can be downloaded from:
 https://www.productplan.com/lp/product-leadership-book/

Enjoy it and feel free to drop me a line and let me know what you think. 

All the best on your product journey, 

Ross Webb, 
The Product Coach