The Product Experience

How to Influence Without Power – Tim Herbig on The Product Experience

Tim Herbig has made many mistakes (who hasn’t?). Fortunately for us, Tim not only owns up to his mistakes, he’s written a book to help the rest of us avoid making the same ones.  We’ve all had issues with how to work best – not only within our individual teams, but with the rest of the organisation as well. In our conversation, he shares some simple and practical methods to diagnose when you have a problem and how to solve it. Tim is Product Director at Iridion, a trainer and coach, a co-organiser of ProductTank Hamburg, a frequent speaker, and the author of Lateral Leadership.  We’re not sure if he ever sleeps. Quote of the Episode One warning sign is [that] if people just ask for more granular specs to simply get their job done – this shows that you have established an unhealthy hierarchy within your team. Listen if you’d like to learn more about: * How to create influence among your peers * Building trust * Empowering your team(s) Links mentioned in this episode: * The Agile Peer Canvas * Lateral Leadership – Buy the book now!  Overview / US / UK * The Auftragsklärung framework Tim’s recommended reading list: * Radical Candor – US / UK * The Hard Thing About Hard Things –  US / UK * Reinventing Organisations (illustrated version) – US / UK Hosts The Product Experience is hosted by Lily Smith and Randy Silver. Lily enjoys working as a consultant product manager with early stage and growing startups and as a mentor to other product managers. Lily has spent 13 years in the tech industry working mainly with startups in the SaaS and mobile space. She has worked on a diverse range of products – leading the product teams through discovery, prototyping, testing and delivery. Lily also founded ProductTank in Bristol, the Product Managers’ meetup with regular events and talks on Product now with 800+ members and growing. This year Lily will be launching ProductCamp in Bristol and she joins the MTP team as co-host of  The Product Experience podcast. A recovering music journalist and editor, Randy has been working as an interactive producer and product manager across the US and UK for nearly 20 years. After launching Amazon’s music stores in the US and UK, Randy has worked with museums and arts groups, online education, media & entertainment, retail and financial services. He’s held Head of Product roles at HSBC and Sainsbury’s, where he also directed their 100+-person product community....

Podcast: How to get Your Team to do Their Best Work with John Cutler

If you’re active on Product Twitter, then you already know John Cutler.  It’s not just that he’s extremely prolific – it’s the quality and depth of his tweets (and his longer essays) that reach deep into the heart of what we’re struggling with on a daily basis – especially his post 12 Signs You’re working in a Feature Factory. Now a Product Evangelist at Amplitude, John joined us to talk about removing the roadblocks that stop you and your team from being as effective as possible. Quote of the Episode All product managers should set aside [time] every day to do the deeper work… product managers are so reactive, they’re always struggling to keep up – yet if you don’t do the deeper work… you’re always going to be on the back foot. Not doing the busy work – but actually revisiting assumptions. Listen if you’d like to learn more about: * What is a product team? * Organising your day * Creating learning teams * Scaling Links mentioned in this episode: * Catch John at the Agile-Lean Ireland conference (also featuring our producer, Emily Tate!) Hosts The Product Experience is hosted by Lily Smith and Randy Silver. Lily enjoys working as a consultant product manager with early stage and growing startups and as a mentor to other product managers. Lily has spent 13 years in the tech industry working mainly with startups in the SaaS and mobile space. She has worked on a diverse range of products – leading the product teams through discovery, prototyping, testing and delivery. Lily also founded ProductTank in Bristol, the Product Managers’ meetup with regular events and talks on Product now with 800+ members and growing. This year Lily will be launching ProductCamp in Bristol and she joins the MTP team as co-host of  The Product Experience podcast. A recovering music journalist and editor, Randy has been working as an interactive producer and product manager across the US and UK for nearly 20 years. After launching Amazon’s music stores in the US and UK, Randy has worked with museums and arts groups, online education, media & entertainment, retail and financial services. He’s held Head of Product roles at HSBC and Sainsbury’s, where he also directed their 100+-person product community. He’s also spoken at Mind the Product Engage (Hamburg), at a number of ProductTanks (London, Zurich, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, Oxford,  & Brighton… so far!) and at conferences across the US and Europe. Music Our theme music is from Hamburg-based Pau, featuring ProductTank Hamburg’s own Arne Kittler on bass. Listen to more on their Facebook page Suggest a guest Have you seen someone give a great talk? Suggest a guest to us here Talk to us * Tweet at us! * Use the #podcast channel in the Mind the Product Slack community

Podcast: Roadmaps, OKRs, Vision and Prioritisation with Bruce McCarthy

Bruce McCarthy was the president of the Boston Product Management Association, is the founder of consultancy Product Culture and co-wrote the book on roadmapping, Product Roadmaps Relaunched.  He joined us live at the Mind the Product Leadership Forum to chat about how he builds his own roadmaps, prioritisation, product vision, OKRs and quite a bit more. Quote of the Episode A really good roadmap is a story about the future – and why it’s going to be awesome for everyone involved. Listen if you’d like to learn more about: * Prioritisation – and why scorecarding is Bruce’s favourite method * The art and science of product management * Owning your product vision * The biggest mistake people make on roadmaps * Roadmaps vs release plans * OKRs v roadmaps Links mentioned in this episode: * Interested in the book Bruce co-wrote, Product Roadmaps Relaunched? Check it out at  O’Reilly / Amazon US / Amazon UK * Bruce’s consultancy, Product Culture. Sign up for his nano-letter, One Thing, and find out if he’s got an event near you. Hosts The Product Experience is hosted by Lily Smith and Randy Silver. Lily enjoys working as a consultant product manager with early stage and growing startups and as a mentor to other product managers. Lily has spent 13 years in the tech industry working mainly with startups in the SaaS and mobile space. She has worked on a diverse range of products – leading the product teams through discovery, prototyping, testing and delivery. Lily also founded ProductTank in Bristol, the Product Managers’ meetup with regular events and talks on Product now with 800+ members and growing. This year Lily will be launching ProductCamp in Bristol and she joins the MTP team as co-host of  The Product Experience podcast. A recovering music journalist and editor, Randy has been working as an interactive producer and product manager across the US and UK for nearly 20 years. After launching Amazon’s music stores in the US and UK, Randy has worked with museums and arts groups, online education, media & entertainment, retail and financial services. He’s held Head of Product roles at HSBC and Sainsbury’s, where he also directed their 100+-person product community. He’s also spoken at Mind the Product Engage (Hamburg), at a number of ProductTanks (London, Zurich, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, Oxford,  & Brighton… so far!) and at conferences across the US and Europe. Music Our theme music is from Hamburg-based Pau, featuring ProductTank Hamburg’s own Arne Kittler on bass. Listen to more on their Facebook page Suggest a guest Have you seen someone give a great talk? Suggest a guest to us here Talk to us * Tweet at us! * Use the #podcast channel in the Mind the Product Slack community

Podcast: Don’t Worry About Being Cool with Petra Wille

Marty Cagan recently called her an “exceptional discovery coach”, but we’ve known that Petra Wille is special for a long time. One of the co-organisers of the MtP Engage conference in Hamburg (and a featured speaker at the Leadership Forum this year), she gave a talk a while back on Egoless Product Development. We wanted to dig in deeper on what that means, the deck of cards she’s produced to help get you unstuck, and more. Quote of the Episode You are never alone in a room with your user – we’re just one of 60 apps on average…  If you don’t make the user’s life better, easier… then maybe you’re just not that relevant for them. Even if your brand is cool. Listen if you’d like to learn more about: * Alternatives to NPS * When it’s important to be cool – and when it’s not * Applying the Kano model Links mentioned in this episode: * Buy Petra’s 52 Questions card deck * Tristan Harris’ TED talks * Video: Building a winning product strategy from the Kano model by Jared Spool * MTP Engage Hamburg tickets Hosts The Product Experience is hosted by Lily Smith and Randy Silver. Lily enjoys working as a consultant product manager with early stage and growing startups and as a mentor to other product managers. Lily has spent 13 years in the tech industry working mainly with startups in the SaaS and mobile space. She has worked on a diverse range of products – leading the product teams through discovery, prototyping, testing and delivery. Lily also founded ProductTank in Bristol, the Product Managers’ meetup with regular events and talks on Product now with 800+ members and growing. This year Lily will be launching ProductCamp in Bristol and she joins the MTP team as co-host of  The Product Experience podcast. A recovering music journalist and editor, Randy has been working as an interactive producer and product manager across the US and UK for nearly 20 years. After launching Amazon’s music stores in the US and UK, Randy has worked with museums and arts groups, online education, media & entertainment, retail and financial services. He’s held Head of Product roles at HSBC and Sainsbury’s, where he also directed their 100+-person product community. He’s also spoken at Mind the Product Engage (Hamburg), at a number of ProductTanks (London, Zurich, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, Oxford,  & Brighton… so far!) and at conferences across the US and Europe. Music Our theme music is from Hamburg-based Pau, featuring ProductTank Hamburg’s own Arne Kittler on bass. Listen to more on their Facebook page Suggest a guest Have you seen someone give a great talk? Suggest a guest to us here Talk to us * Tweet at us! * Use the #podcast channel in the Mind the Product Slack com...

Podcast: Too Many Product Managers with Ken Norton

Ken Norton needs no introduction. Now Senior Operating Partner at GV (we still slip up and call it Google Ventures), Ken was a CTO and CEO/founder before he joined Yahoo! to run its Product organisation.  He then joined Google, where he worked on Maps, Calendar and Docs. Ken has also been a keynote speaker, giving inspiring talks at Mind the Product conferences in both London (10x not 10%, 2015) and San Francisco (Please Make Yourself Uncomfortable, 2016).  When the opportunity came up to chat with him, we wanted to cover something new – the idea that startups are hiring too many product managers. Quotes of the Episode You really can’t solve organisational problems by hiring more people. If you told me 20 years ago that I’d be trying to convince people not to hire as many product managers, I wouldn’t believe you – because I was spending so much of my effort with the community to convince people that this was a role anyone even needed and wanted. Listen if you’d like to learn more about: * When should you hire your first product manager? * When you should you hire the second? * How should you organise a product team? * Should you go work at a startup? Hosts The Product Experience is hosted by Lily Smith and Randy Silver. Lily enjoys working as a consultant product manager with early stage and growing startups and as a mentor to other product managers. Lily has spent 13 years in the tech industry working mainly with startups in the SaaS and mobile space. She has worked on a diverse range of products – leading the product teams through discovery, prototyping, testing and delivery. Lily also founded ProductTank in Bristol, the Product Managers’ meetup with regular events and talks on Product now with 800+ members and growing. This year Lily will be launching Productcamp in Bristol and she joins the MTP team as co-host of  The Product Experience podcast. A recovering music journalist and editor, Randy has been working as an interactive producer and product manager across the US and UK for nearly 20 years. After launching Amazon’s music stores in the US and UK, Randy has worked with museums and arts groups, online education, media & entertainment, retail and financial services. He’s held Head of Product roles at HSBC and Sainsbury’s, where he also directed their 100+-person product community. He’s also spoken at Mind the Product Engage (Hamburg), at a number of ProductTanks (London, Zurich, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, Oxford,  & Brighton… so far!) and at conferences across the US and Europe. Music Our theme music is from Hamburg-based Pau, featuring ProductTank Hamburg’s own Arne Kittler on bass. Listen to more on their Facebook page Suggest a guest Have you seen someone give a great talk? Suggest a guest to us here Talk to us * Tweet at us! * Use the #podcast channel in the Mind the Product slack community

Christopher Nheu (Head of Product at Australia-based Mad Paws) came to our attention after speaking at ProductTank Sydney. His presentation, Product Thinking for Marketplace Startups, does an amazing job of documenting the differences between pipes and platforms, the three fundamental forces of marketplaces, and the specific challenges of catering to customers concerned with the well-being of their fur babies. Quote of the Episode Once you start thinking of users as “bad actors”, it makes you frame their intentions really negatively – and it makes you challenge the brand and design decisions you’re making to build for this [specific] case. Listen if you’d like to learn more about: * The fundamental way marketplaces differ from other B2B and B2C models * Using metrics to drive product decisions * The theory of matchmaking * How a marketplace deals with off-line interactions among its users * The psychology of placing pets * The surprising things he learned about geography as a driver * Why Mad Paws is the Harry Potter of their user’s lives * Fur babies! Links mentioned in this episode: * Sangeet Paul Choudary – in the Harvard Business Review (Pipelines, Platforms, and the New Rules of Strategy) and his personal site Hosts The Product Experience is hosted by Lily Smith and Randy Silver. Lily enjoys working as a consultant product manager with early stage and growing startups and as a mentor to other product managers. Lily has spent 13 years in the tech industry working mainly with startups in the SaaS and mobile space. She has worked on a diverse range of products – leading the product teams through discovery, prototyping, testing and delivery. Lily also founded ProductTank in Bristol, the Product Managers’ meetup with regular events and talks on Product now with 800+ members and growing. This year Lily will be launching Productcamp in Bristol and she joins the MTP team as co-host of  The Product Experience podcast. A recovering music journalist and editor, Randy has been working as an interactive producer and product manager across the US and UK for nearly 20 years. After launching Amazon’s music stores in the US and UK, Randy has worked with museums and arts groups, online education, media & entertainment, retail and financial services. He’s held Head of Product roles at HSBC and Sainsbury’s, where he also directed their 100+-person product community. He’s also spoken at Mind the Product Engage (Hamburg), at a number of ProductTanks (London, Zurich, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, Oxford,  & Brighton… so far!) and at conferences across the US and Europe. Music Our theme music is from Hamburg-based Pau, featuring ProductTank Hamburg’s own Arne Kittler on bass. Listen to more on their Facebook page Suggest a guest Have you seen someone give a great talk? Suggest a guest to us here Talk to us * Tweet at us! * Use the #podcast channel in the Mind the Product slack community

Podcast: Marketplace Thinking and Fur Babies with Christopher Nheu

Podcast: Breaking the Rules and Generating Insights with Mona Patel

The founder and CEO of NYC-based Motivate Design, Mona Patel, first came to our attention after appearing on another great podcast, Jonathan Courtney and Jake Knapp’s Product Breakfast Club.  She spoke about running and scaling an agency, which was interesting – but what really got us was her unique take on the Discovery process.  Her Insider Insight process ignores all the traditional things we know about leading questions and ignoring bias – and she claims that it generates results in as little as two weeks.  As veterans of some long and frustrating discovery processes, we had to learn more about this. Quote of the Episode One of the things I’ve recognised, in working with Product and Innovation folks, especially those that subscribe to an agile and lean methodology is that they kept skipping ‘research’, especially discovery research.  And when they did validation research, they really just wanted to hear what they wanted to hear. Listen if you’d like to learn more about: * How to use this approach to complement your current research methods * How you can use this technique to run your own Research sprint – and how that pairs with Design sprints * The difference between interviews and conversations * Introducing your kids to Product thinking Links mentioned in this episode: * Motivate Design * The Insider Insight methodology * Want to be an Insider yourself? Get fast-tracked. * The Thing About Swings children’s book (US) (UK) Hosts The Product Experience is hosted by Lily Smith and Randy Silver. Lily enjoys working as a consultant product manager with early stage and growing startups and as a mentor to other product managers. Lily has spent 13 years in the tech industry working mainly with startups in the SaaS and mobile space. She has worked on a diverse range of products – leading the product teams through discovery, prototyping, testing and delivery. Lily also founded ProductTank in Bristol, the Product Managers’ meetup with regular events and talks on Product now with 800+ members and growing. This year Lily will be launching Productcamp in Bristol and she joins the MTP team as co-host of  The Product Experience podcast. A recovering music journalist and editor, Randy has been working as an interactive producer and product manager across the US and UK for nearly 20 years. After launching Amazon’s music stores in the US and UK, Randy has worked with museums and arts groups, online education, media & entertainment, retail and financial services. He’s held Head of Product roles at HSBC and Sainsbury’s, where he also directed their 100+-person product community. He’s also spoken at Mind the Product Engage (Hamburg), at a number of ProductTanks (London, Zurich, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, Oxford,  & Brighton… so far!) and at conferences across the US and Europe. Music Our theme music is from Hamburg-based Pau, featuring ProductTank Hamburg’s own Arne Kittler on bass. Listen to more on their Facebook page Suggest a guest Have you seen someone give a great talk? Suggest a guest to us here Talk to us

Podcast: How to Persuade People with Ben Newell