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Learn from some of the best product managers in the world through conversations hosted by The Product Management Center at the University of Washington. In each episode, Jeff Shulman, Red Russak, and Soumeya Benghanem dive into the tools, frameworks, and thought processes that will help drive success in product management.
Episodes
Wednesday Jan 18, 2023
Wednesday Jan 18, 2023
In this episode of the How to Succeed in Product Management Podcast, marketing professor Jeff Shulman welcomes Darlene Miranda (DailyPay) as they discuss how to make customer obsession as a cross-functional practice. PMs gather data from their customers to help in product improvement and development, but how can a PM let everyone in the organization join this customer obsession?
Disclaimer: All opinions of the speakers are their own.
Support for How to Succeed in Product Management is brought to you by Apptentive, which enables product managers to measure shifts in customer emotion and gather actionable feedback across the mobile customer journey. To learn more, go to Apptentive.com/UW.
What to Listen For:
- 00:00 Intro
- 03:28 Customer obsession
- 04:55 How customer obsessed are you?
- 06:35 When PMs don’t do enough to make a customer obsession a cross-functional
- 08:08 Being obsessed with two different types of customers
- 10:20 Engineering in customer obsession
- 13:38 Marketing
- 15:16 Customer obsession from the support function
- 17:17 Tools and frameworks
- 21:05 The role of customer support
- 23:52 What is unique about customer obsession?
- 26:10 An organization that will help you become customer obsessed
- 28:05 Cross-functional practice in the early stages of a startup
- 31:22 How to know if a company is customer obsessed
- 33:58 Operations functions to maintain customer obsession
- 36:14 Security and fraud
- 38:48 Resources for making customer obsession a cross-functional practice
- 40:55 Final thoughts
Wednesday Jan 11, 2023
Wednesday Jan 11, 2023
In this episode of the How to Succeed in Product Management Podcast, marketing professor Jeff Shulman and The Product Management Center advisory board members Red Russak and Soumeya Benghanem welcome Kevin Shah (T-Mobile) and Lisa Huang-North (Microsoft) to discuss why product managers need empathy when communicating with customers and while building their career, as well as finding the balance between being empathetic and product success.
Support for How to Succeed in Product Management is brought to you by Apptentive, which enables product managers to measure shifts in customer emotion and gather actionable feedback across the mobile customer journey. To learn more, go to Apptentive.com/UW.
What to Listen For:
- 00:00 Intro
- 03:53 Empathy also matters in how you manage your career
- 07:36 Do you understand where you are in your personal journey?
- 10:13 We suffer from survivor bias
- 13:33 The lack of empathy to certain stakeholders or groups can show up in the execution
- 16:12 Don’t focus on the persona and characteristics, focus on the needs and problems
- 22:15 Data communication depends on the channels already established
- 24:48 What’s important to users vs what’s important to the company
- 27:16 Try to understand where the misalignment is happening
- 28:06 Come back to the pain points you’re trying to address
- 31:03 Feeling empowered and having an authentic PM mindset
- 34:10 An executive does not understand the customers as well as the PMs do
- 38:53 Myth: “I’m not a great sales person and that’s why I think I’ll be a great PM.”
- 43:02 Best relationship between sales and products are centered around culture
- 44:56 Product managers are artists and creators
- 49:19 Logically group your community and dedicate different efforts on each segment
- 56:17 Empathy is your superpower
- 57:49 Recommended resources for PMs to get better at being empathetic
- 01:01:16 Drawing a balance between empathy and profitability
- 01:04:23 Product management is a contact sport and also a team sport
- 01:09:45 Own the job and be resolute with your standards
- 01:11:34 You don’t have to love something, but you have to be really curious about it
Wednesday Jan 04, 2023
Wednesday Jan 04, 2023
In this episode of the How to Succeed in Product Management Podcast, marketing professor Jeff Shulman and The Product Management Center advisory board members Red Russak and Soumeya Benghanem welcome Poorvi Shrivastav (HubSpot) to talk about how to smoothly transition from being an individual contributor to a leadership role. Aside from the tips and guides one can learn and practice while in transition, never lose focus on putting people first.
Support for How to Succeed in Product Management is brought to you by Apptentive, which enables product managers to measure shifts in customer emotion and gather actionable feedback across the mobile customer journey. To learn more, go to Apptentive.com/UW.
What to Listen For:
- 00:00 Intro
- 01:29 Transition from an individual contributor (IC) to Manager
- 07:43 Who directly reports to you?
- 08:51 The biggest transition from being an IC to a manager
- 11:02 3 things you need to succeed in the management role
- 16:20 Be very clear about the credit that belongs to you
- 20:13 Tips on how to transition in your first few days
- 25:29 Focus on outcome, but think about the process too
- 31:11 How to ace an interview for a leadership role
- 41:20 When you start leading a team that you are part of
- 47:38 How do you manage delegation?
- 50:00 Transition from an IC to management course
- 52:02 Focus on people first
Wednesday Dec 28, 2022
Wednesday Dec 28, 2022
In this episode of the How to Succeed in Product Management Podcast, marketing professor Jeff Shulman and The Product Management Center advisory board members Red Russak and Soumeya Benghanem welcome Josh Haftel (Adobe) and Ben Waddle (Expedia) to talk about creating a product out of an idea by breaking it down into smaller, more manageable ones for a faster turn around and quickly get customer feedback, and how product managers need to work with their team instead of managing it.
Support for How to Succeed in Product Management is brought to you by Apptentive, which enables product managers to measure shifts in customer emotion and gather actionable feedback across the mobile customer journey. To learn more, go to Apptentive.com/UW.
What to Listen For:
- 00:00 Intro
- 01:10 A PMs job is finding clarity and then creating alignment
- 06:35 The Discovery and Framing framework
- 09:58 Always start at the fundamentals
- 15:01 Take the big things down and break them down
- 17:47 Fail quickly then go into future iterations
- 19:53 What kind of experimentation should you be doing?
- 25:31 Pick a problem that you might have some passion for
- 28:12 Come up with hypotheses about why something's going to work versus why it's not going to work
- 30:39 Look for skills that your team currently don’t have
- 33:34 Understand who you need to influence and tailor your work products accordingly
- 38:38 Start with what outcomes matter to the audience you’re speaking to
- 42:52 The fastest way to get something into the hands of the customers
- 45:30 Break down big assumptions into smaller ones
- 50:23 Partner with your team to arrive at the best solution
- 52:55 As a product manager, you don’t manage anybody
Wednesday Dec 21, 2022
Wednesday Dec 21, 2022
In this episode of the How to Succeed in Product Management Podcast, marketing professor Jeff Shulman and The Product Management Center advisory board members Red Russak and Soumeya Benghanem welcome Charles Wartemberg (Netflix) and Pamela Fleury (Harvard) as they discuss the best practices during discovery. Gathering feedback and data from customers is very important in managing products so a good PM should be able to know how to get this data and implement it for product improvement.
Disclaimer: All opinions of the speakers are their own.
Support for How to Succeed in Product Management is brought to you by Apptentive, which enables product managers to measure shifts in customer emotion and gather actionable feedback across the mobile customer journey. To learn more, go to Apptentive.com/UW.
What to Listen For:
- 00:00 Intro
- 06:31 How much time to spend on discovery?
- 10:30 Recommended resource about discovery work
- 15:16 The alignment and getting everyone on the same page
- 18:27 Leveraging product sense
- 21:03 What does discovery look like in a lot of customer environments?
- 22:52 Truly understanding the why versus seeing how the market responds
- 33:59 A product inside a product
- 40:30 Product marketing team working with the overall marketing team
- 44:54 Career in product management
- 53:56 Final thoughts
Wednesday Dec 14, 2022
Wednesday Dec 14, 2022
In this episode of the How to Succeed in Product Management Podcast, marketing professor Jeff Shulman and The Product Management Center advisory board members Red Russak and Soumeya Benghanem welcome Julie Seto (Microsoft) and Aneesha Kommineni (Google) as they discuss how human-centered design and engineering can help PMs. Learning more about HCDE is one of the important skills a good PM should have because it lets PMs better understand what the people need and help make a more efficient design.
Disclaimer: All opinions of the speakers are their own.
Support for How to Succeed in Product Management is brought to you by Apptentive, which enables product managers to measure shifts in customer emotion and gather actionable feedback across the mobile customer journey. To learn more, go to Apptentive.com/UW.
What to Listen For:
- 00:00 Intro
- 06:31 How is HCDE related to other concepts
- 08:15 Similarities and differences
- 11:17 Tips for hiring people who have different biases
- 13:21 Combine different research methodologies
- 15:06 Design culturally neutral experiences
- 15:55 Why is human centered design important to learn?
- 19:20 The use of HCDE in your job
- 25:33 Tension between human centered design and business objectives
- 30:02 Differences in applying HCDE in a B2B vs B2C product
- 37:50 Considering geographical and cultural aspects while designing the product in enterprise
- 41:50 Resource or bootcamp recommendations
- 44:44 When someone says no about your human centered design feature
- 47:52 Universal design vs human centered design
- 49:06 Final thoughts
Wednesday Dec 07, 2022
Wednesday Dec 07, 2022
In this episode of the How to Succeed in Product Management Podcast, marketing professor Jeff Shulman and The Product Management Center advisory board members Red Russak and Soumeya Benghanem welcome Jennifer McGill Walker (Pearson) and Chris Hess, Ph.D. (Pearson) as they discuss the best practices in interviewing a customer. Good PMs need to be able to know the best way and approach to reach out to customers to understand their feedback and concerns that can help to improve a product or service.
Disclaimer: All opinions of the speakers are their own.
Support for How to Succeed in Product Management is brought to you by Apptentive, which enables product managers to measure shifts in customer emotion and gather actionable feedback across the mobile customer journey. To learn more, go to Apptentive.com/UW.
What to Listen For:
- 00:00 Intro
- 01:45 The importance of discovery
- 03:22 Interacting with customers will lead back to why you’re doing what you do
- 04:27 Types of interactions with customers
- 06:34 The interaction format depends on the goal
- 08:26 Constantly talk with customers
- 10:37 Use Zoom for recording
- 12:50 Check your confirmation bias
- 14:02 Start a earlier than the actual interview when selecting your sample size
- 15:24 Work on the art of questioning
- 17:28 Being representative of the population as a whole & be comfortable with silence
- 19:04 Bring in other people from your team
- 21:52 Biggest threat to discovery work is time
- 26:54 Talk about what you’ve learned & learn from other
- 29:03 Setting up your work calendar
- 34:15 How to approach a customer?
- 35:54 Overcoming suspicion
- 39:01 Scheduling customer interviews & reaching out manually or automatically
- 48:13 Final thoughts
Wednesday Nov 30, 2022
Wednesday Nov 30, 2022
In this episode of the How to Succeed in Product Management Podcast, marketing professor Jeff Shulman and The Product Management Center advisory board member Soumeya Benghanem welcome Alex Selby (Amazon) and Swati Goel (Facebook) to talk about time management. Today’s focus is on how much time PMs need to allocate for structured and creative meetings, checking with customers to gather data on existing products, and breaking down your day strategically so you’ll have time to refresh your thoughts and replenish your creativity.
Support for How to Succeed in Product Management is brought to you by Apptentive, which enables product managers to measure shifts in customer emotion and gather actionable feedback across the mobile customer journey. To learn more, go to Apptentive.com/UW.
What to Listen For:
- 00:00 Intro
- 02:17 Why is time management and productivity important?
- 07:02 Breaking down your day with time bucketing
- 09:45 For PMs, unstructured, unfocused time is critical
- 11:47 Block out an hour for yourself everyday
- 14:29 Deciding how much time to put into strategy versus execution
- 18:45 Business priorities and where you’re product is at
- 20:41 From 90/10 to 60/40 time allocation with customers
- 28:33 Look for product adjacent roles or tasks that you can take on
- 33:20 Pick up patterns from the first customers and bring back to the team for planning
- 36:03 Learn more about the Inclusive Product Management Accelerator program
- 38:01 The writing culture in meetings is an artifact while building a product
- 42:07 Balance between outcome driven structured meetings and allowing creativity
- 44:23 Allow for creative sessions but facilitation is still needed
- 48:25 Start conversations with a wide approach first
- 49:20 Choose which meetings are mandatory for you
- 51:31 Time management takes a little bit of practice
- 53:02 How often should PMs check on customers
- 56:55 “Be specific and strategy in spending your time.” - Alex Selby
- 57:51 Listen to How to Be More Productive (Ep. 243)
Wednesday Nov 23, 2022
Wednesday Nov 23, 2022
Today, in the How to Succeed in Product Management Podcast, Jeff and Red welcome our panel of experts on product management to talk about becoming a product manager coming from a different background. The shift in interest from your educational background or career to becoming a customer-oriented problem solver opens a path to become a great PM. Listen in and join them as they share their minds, experiences, and expertise on what helps aspiring PMs to successfully join this competitive ecosystem.
Support for How to Succeed in Product Management is brought to you by Apptentive, which enables product managers to measure shifts in customer emotion and gather actionable feedback across the mobile customer journey. To learn more, go to Apptentive.com/UW.
What to Listen For:
- 00:00 Intro
- 01:20 PMs from non-traditional background bring in new thinking and perspectives
- 06:15 Learning product management from best practices from a global perspective
- 10:47 True or false: “If you don’t know how to code you can’t be a good PM.”
- 12:55 Coding may not matter in most environments, it could in smaller startups
- 16:03 Is being a scrum master a traditional path to becoming a PM?
- 18:35 Scrum masters tend to work inside of development chops
- 21:56 UX designers should have an artistic expertise
- 23:50 Try low resolution experimentation, don’t be afraid to try something that looks horrible
- 26:00 An example of low-res that works
- 31:26 The Product Management Life Cycle model
- 33:20 Educate yourself if you want to break into product management
- 34:37 Understand what’s required for the job and what do you have in terms of skills
- 36:54 The language we use differs in different ecosystems
- 39:19 Find out how does a product life cycle work
- 40:09 To connect with companies and industries, tap on the networking side
- 44:10 Managing physical, digital, and software products
- 47:16 Customer care and problem solving opens a path to product management
- 48:43 Stay curious and always ask questions
- 50:11 The person who understand the customers the most matters
- 51:16 Build site projects, invest in networking, and volunteering opportunities
Wednesday Nov 16, 2022
Wednesday Nov 16, 2022
In this episode of the How to Succeed in Product Management Podcast, marketing professor Jeff Shulman and The Product Management Center advisory board member Red Russak welcome Bryan Cottle (AWS), Scott Wofford (Amazon), and Joan Barcelona (Box) as they discuss how you can make an internal transfer into product management. If you’re someone who is interested in jumping into product but not sure if you should apply for internal opportunities, the three panelists for this episode will share to you some great tips on how you can do so and why it’s easier to transfer internally into a product role.
Disclaimer: All opinions of the speakers are their own.
Support for How to Succeed in Product Management is brought to you by Apptentive, which enables product managers to measure shifts in customer emotion and gather actionable feedback across the mobile customer journey. To learn more, go to Apptentive.com/UW.
What to Listen For:
- 00:00 Intro
- 05:55 Internal transfer vs. transferring to a different company
- 07:13 How to transfer internally into product management
- 08:46 Demonstrating that you understood the product
- 10:51 Other things you can do before transferring internally
- 13:18 When and how to talk about your goal to be in product
- 16:53 What experience can you highlight?
- 22:03 Assessing the PM role
- 26:14 Tools and resources to help skill development
- 28:53 Project manager to product role
- 31:34 Think about your North Star
- 33:39 Degree or certification to help get into product
- 41:52 Book recommendations
- 43:23 Final thoughts