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Andy Budd is a designer-turned-venture partner who founded one of the UK's first UX agencies before pivoting to help early-stage startup founders make good product decisions and get to product/market fit. He's recently released "The Growth Equation", a book that distils some of the common themes he sees across early-stage companies and aims to give them the best chance of success. We spoke all about the themes from the book, as well as where product management fits into the early-stage equation.
Episode highlights:1. The Growth Equation is made up of a combination of factors that both drive and drag growth effortsDriving factors include audience size, audience motivation, speed of value delivery, stickiness and virality. Dragging factors include friction and competitive pressure. There's no specific solution to the Growth Equation, it's about optimising the factors to deliver startup success.
2. Most founders massively overestimate the scale of their MVP, and it could kill their companyWhat founders think is "minimal" often isn't. Startups burn months and months on what they think is a minimal solution, but it rarely is. There are stories of startups spending 18 months getting their first version out, getting excited, seeing no traction, and then repeating the doom loop. It's important to get stuff out there and into people's hands quickly to see if you can get traction rather than get stuck building things that no one wants.
3. Targeting sophisticated ICPs too early is a death trapEarly-stage founders often aim to attack a broad Ideal Customer Profile, believing that it gives them the best chance of getting traction. They make the mistake of tackling sophisticated, mature customers with a never-ending list of "yes, but also..." requests. It's important for early founders to target beach-head customers so you can land and expand. You also need to ensure that you can respond and adapt your early ICP based on real-world feedback.
4. Founders might not enjoy things like Sales or Marketing, but they've got to do what's right for the companyBeing a startup founder means you get to do things you love, like building a product, but you're also responsible for getting it to market. Early sales efforts must be led by the founders; it's a mistake to hire experienced salespeople too soon and expecting them to build your GTM playbook, and external SDR agencies are not going to get your target customers excited about your vision.
5. In early-stage companies, the product manager is generally a project manager and has to bide their timeIt's a common problem: A startup founder is encouraged to hire a product manager, but they're still too close to the vision to want someone to join and start challenging everything. They just need to get the ideas out of their head and into the world. "Proper" product management can come later, developed over time, rather than arguing the toss upfront and never getting anywhere.
Buy "The Growth Equation""The Growth Equation is your roadmap to early-stage growth, designed specifically for founders navigating the toughest part of the journey: from zero to one. Finding your first customers, figuring out your go-to-market strategy, and scaling your revenue can feel overwhelming when you're up against limited resources and conflicting advice. That's why this book provides clear, actionable steps to help you break through those barriers and take your startup to its first $1M in revenue and beyond."
Check it out on Amazon or the book's website.
Contact AndyYou can catch up with Andy on LinkedIn. You can also check his website.
Related episodes you should like:Moving Beyond Founder-Led Product Development & Setting PMs up for Success (Jennifer Yang-Wong, VP of Product @ Contrary) Nailing your Product/Market Fit Strategy by Focusing on the Mission Critical (Maja Voje, Growth Strategy Expert & Author "Go-To-Market Strategist") The Big Pivot to Reinvent Product Management (Yana Welinder, Founder & CEO @ Kraftful) Building Great Companies through Community-Led Growth (Lloyed Lobo, Author "From Grassroots to Greatness") Nailing your Brand Marketing by Embracing your Zone of Genius (Orly Zeewy, Brand Strategy Consultant & Author "Ready, Launch, Brand") Helping Superhero Startup Founders Stay Away from their Kryptonite (Richard Blundell, Founder @ Vencha & Co-author "The Go To Market Handbook for B2B SaaS Leaders") Upping Your Odds of BEATING the LinkedIn Algorithm (Ivana Todorovic, CEO @ AuthoredUp) Jeremy Kirouac's Hot Take - Founders Need Product Management Training (Jeremy Kirouac, Fractional Product Leader) -
Jas Shah is a fintech product consultant based in London who helps small startups and management services organizations build winning products, whilst keeping his pulse on the fintech scene.
His hot take? That product management is one of the least glamorous functions in an organisation. It's often portrayed as a sexy role where you're the "CEO of the product" with autonomy and responsibility, but for most product managers, the role is arduous and grating, involving invisible work like coordinating between teams, dealing with competing interests, and working with less authority than expected.
Find Jas on LinkedIn or check out his newsletter, Fintech R&R.
If you'd like to appear on Hot Takes, please grab a time!
Related episodes you should like:Survive the Feature Factory by Applying Product Thinking to Product Thinking (John Cutler, Product Evangelist & Coach @ Amplitude) John Cutler's Hot Take - The Instagram-ification of Product Management is Driving us Crazy (John Cutler, Product Educator & Author @ The Beautiful Mess) The Five Dysfunctions of Product Management Teams (Saeed Khan, Founder @ Transformation Labs) Practice Makes Perfect: Embracing the Messy Reality of Product Management (Matt LeMay, Product Management Consultant & Author "Product Management in Practice") Applying Product Management Principles to Life (Miloš Belčević, Author "Build Your Way") Dean Peters' Hot Take - There's More to be Said About the Instagram-ification of Product Management (Dean Peters, Principal Consultant & Trainer @ Productside) May Wong's Hot Take - Product Management is a Team Sport (May Wong, Product Operations Consultant & Coach) Chris Butler's Hot Take - Product Managers DON'T Need to be Technical (Chris Butler, Staff Product Operations Manager @ GitHub) -
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Victoria Sakal is a growth and go-to-market expert who loves to turn customer, market and competitor insight in product, brand and business growth strategies.
Her hot take? That companies are either paying the "research tax" - spending too much time and money on research and never making a move - or the "stupid tax" - making decisions based purely on gut feel and no evidence. Both of these taxes can get your organisation in trouble, and the best path is to strike the right balance of speed and quality.
Find Victoria on LinkedIn.
If you'd like to appear on Hot Takes, please grab a time!
Related episodes you should like:Standing up for User Research... and User Researchers (Debbie Levitt, CXO @ DeltaCX and Author "Customers Know You Suck") Getting into the Habit of Continuous Discovery (Teresa Torres, Author "Continuous Discovery Habits") Making Sure You Make an Impact through User Research (Steve Portigal, User Research Consultant & Author "Interviewing Users") Product Leadership Principles for Tumultuous Times (Giff Constable, Author "Talking with Humans" & "Testing with Humans") How to Deploy Empathy to Truly Understand User Needs (Michele Hansen, Author "Deploy Empathy") Chinese Startup Culture & Putting the Minimum into MVP (Carlos Lastres, Creative & Marketing Director @ Kaiyan Medical) Reducing Waste by Only Spending Time on Really Good Ideas (Julia Shalet, Author "The Really Good Idea Test") Retail Product Management in a Global Pandemic (Rhiana Matthew, Senior Product Manager @ Publicis Sapient) -
Boluwaji Alepaye is a product manager who works for Moniepoint, a Nigerian fintech firm that aims to power financial dreams in emerging markets. He's also an active mentor, aiming to help Nigerian product managers thrive.
His hot take? That the classic product management advice that comes out of the US and Western Europe just doesn't apply to Nigeria, where market dynamics mean that you have to make very different product decisions, and even the local training courses are dominated by Western voices.
Find Boluwaji on LinkedIn.
If you'd like to appear on Hot Takes, please grab a time!
Related episodes you should like:Supporting Product Managers & Standing Up for the Value of Product Management (Princess Akari, Founder "People in Product") Building Disruptive Products by Harnessing Power Users (Moustapha Seck, Founder @ Fluid) Making our Product Teams Stronger through Building Communities of Practice (Petra Wille, Author "Strong Product People" and "Strong Product Communities") From Physiotherapist to Product Manager (Samuel Ogunkoya, Product Manager @ ProducteevTech) Challenges & Opportunities for Africans Making Products for Africans (Abisoye Falabi, Senior Product Manager @ TradeDepot) Product Management in Africa & Dreams of an African Silicon Valley (Layo Ogunbanwo, Founder @ Practical Product) Product Processes & the Importance of Work / Life Balance (Busayomi Omotosho, Product Manager @ Softcom) Transforming your Organisation to the Product Operating Model (Marty Cagan, Author "Inspired", "Empowered" and "Transformed") -
Christina Wodtke and Danielle Barnes join me to talk about their new book "Present Yourself" and their work with Women Talk Design, an organisation aimed at increasing diversity in public speaking. We went deep on public speaking, the importance of authenticity, storytelling, and finding your unique voice as a speaker. We also talked about the value of diverse perspectives in public speaking and the power of sharing personal stories to connect with audiences.
Key takeaways:1. It's important to embrace your unique voiceDon't try to fit a stereotypical mould of a "good speaker" - authenticity resonates more with audiences.
2. Before you start speaking, make sure you know your "why"Everyone has their own motivation for public speaking, and anyone can fall in love with it if they're doing it for a reason they care about.
3. Share your unique perspective with the worldEven if you feel that other people are already talking about your topic, or that it's all been said before, go and say it anyway. You're the only you.
4. Humans are hardwired to respond to storiesYou can make your presentations more engaging and memorable by incorporating stories, even in stuffy business settings. Your audience will thank you for it.
5. It doesn't matter if you're talking to a big crowd, as long as you're talking to the right crowdYou don't need to be a big name to make a big impact. You just need to find the people who need to hear what you have to say. You can still make a difference.
6. Everyone has a bad talk but this is fine as long as you learn from the experienceEvery speaking opportunity is a learning experience. Some of them will go great, some of them will go terribly, but you can learn something from all of them.
Check out "Present Yourself""Present Yourself is for everyone who has ever fought for an equal shot at the spotlight. Christina Wodtke, Danielle Barnes, and a diverse group of accomplished speakers share stories that will inspire you to communicate with authority. This self-guided, step-by-step framework features practical, actionable advice for authentic and effective public speaking."
Check it out on Amazon or the book website.
Contact Danielle & ChristinaCatch up with Danielle on LinkedIn or check out Women Talk Design.
Catch up with Christina on LinkedIn or check out Elegant Hack for details of all the other books she's written.
Related episodes you should like:Diving into the Deep End as a Woman in Product (Darby Maloney, Product Manager @ Divvy & Occasional Swimming Pool User) Closing the Gender Pay Gap and Hiring Diverse Product Teams (Chris Mason, Co-Founder @ Intelligent People) Standing Up for Diversity & Inclusion When No One Looks Like You (Merina Khanom, Product Manager @ BBC iPlayer) Maintaining a Collaborative & Inclusive Product Culture at Scale (Anna Curzon, CPO @ Xero) Defeating Bias, Prejudice and Bullying in the Workplace (Kim Scott, Author "Radical Candor" & "Just Work") Building Your Product Muscles & Developing Strong Product Teams (Petra Wille, Product Leadership Coach) Product Management in Africa & Dreams of an African Silicon Valley (Layo Ogunbanwo, Founder @ Practical Product) Building Data Driven Products & Dodging Unsolicited Advice (Emily Reid, Product Manager @ FCT) -
Mark Gray is a product manager with nearly 12 years of experience across various roles in the UK and Europe. He has worked in both B2B and B2C sectors, progressing from delivery-focused product owner roles to more strategic product management and leadership positions.
His hot take? Product managers should stop defaulting to prioritisation through value divided by effort, which he argues can stifle innovation. Value and effort aren't unimportant, but they're just part of the puzzle. He believes the path to deciding what to build next should emerge from discussions with smart, diverse teams, focusing on the desired outcomes and business goals.
Find Mark on LinkedIn.
If you'd like to appear on Hot Takes, please grab a time!
Related episodes you should like:OKRs: The Gateway Drug to Agility & Good Product Management (Jeff Gothelf, Product Management Consultant & Co-author "Lean UX" ) Adventures in Product Management (Dan Olsen, Author "The Lean Product Playbook") Fighting Fires in B2B Product Management (Rich Mironov, Author "The Art of Product Management") Your Product is a Joke - How to use Improv Comedy Principles in Product Management (Amogh Sarda, Co-founder @ Eesel) Putting Customers at the Heart of your Product Decisions (Hubert Palan, Founder @ Productboard) Servitising Product Management & Setting Up Product Teams For Success (Jas Shah, Product Consultant) Jordan Dalladay's Hot Take - We Should Build Roadmaps Of Risks, Not Features (Jordan Dalladay, Product Consultant @ inherent ventures) Build Better Products at Scale with Product Operations (Melissa Perri & Denise Tilles, Product Consultants & Co-authors "Product Operations") -
Jordan Dalladay is a product strategist and leader who works with startup founders to help them turn ambitious ideas into market successes. He specializes in "dragging a vision kicking and screaming into reality" with his consultancy, inherent ventures.
His hot take? We should invert our approach to product roadmapping. Instead of listing features to build, create a "risk-based product strategy" that outlines all the assumptions and potential pitfalls that could prevent success. This approach helps teams prioritize learning and experimentation, validating their riskiest assumptions first and dragging their vision into reality more effectively.
Find Jordan on LinkedIn and you can check out his firm, inherent ventures.
If you'd like to appear on Hot Takes, please grab a time!
Related episodes you should like:OKRs: The Gateway Drug to Agility & Good Product Management (Jeff Gothelf, Product Management Consultant & Co-author "Lean UX" ) Adventures in Product Management (Dan Olsen, Author "The Lean Product Playbook") Fighting Fires in B2B Product Management (Rich Mironov, Author "The Art of Product Management") Your Product is a Joke - How to use Improv Comedy Principles in Product Management (Amogh Sarda, Co-founder @ Eesel) Putting Customers at the Heart of your Product Decisions (Hubert Palan, Founder @ Productboard) Servitising Product Management & Setting Up Product Teams For Success (Jas Shah, Product Consultant) Build What Matters with Vision-Led Product Management (Rajesh Nerlikar, Author "Build What Matters") Build Better Products at Scale with Product Operations (Melissa Perri & Denise Tilles, Product Consultants & Co-authors "Product Operations") -
Chris Butler is a "Chaotic Good Product Manager" who has worked for companies like Microsoft, Google and Facebook. He's currently Staff Product Operations Manager at GitHub, and current running an online course on AI Product Design Patterns.
His hot take? That product managers don't need to be technical and that it might even be a net negative to their relationship with the engineering team.
Find Chris on LinkedIn and remember to check out his AI product course, "AI Product Design Patterns" .
If you'd like to appear on Hot Takes, please grab a time!
A message from this episode's sponsor - LeadfeederThis episode is sponsored by Leadfeeder. No more not knowing who’s coming to your website, convert more leads and get a free trial at Leadfeeder.com: Check out Leadfeeder here.
Related episodes you should like:Survive the Feature Factory by Applying Product Thinking to Product Thinking (John Cutler, Product Evangelist & Coach @ Amplitude) The Five Dysfunctions of Product Management Teams (Saeed Khan, Founder @ Transformation Labs) Practice Makes Perfect: Embracing the Messy Reality of Product Management (Matt LeMay, Product Management Consultant & Author "Product Management in Practice") May Wong's Hot Take - Product Management is a Team Sport (May Wong, Product Operations Consultant & Coach) Dean Peters' Hot Take - There's More to be Said About the Instagram-ification of Product Management (Dean Peters, Principal Consultant & Trainer @ Productside) Applying Product Management Principles to Life (Miloš Belčević, Author "Build Your Way") Product Processes & the Importance of Work / Life Balance (Busayomi Omotosho, Product Manager @ Softcom) Jeremy Kirouac's Hot Take - Founders Need Product Management Training (Jeremy Kirouac, Fractional Product Leader) -
Jeremy Kirouac is a "Pan-Canadian" product leader and former startup founder who has thrown himself headlong into the world of fractional product leadership, as well as helping advise companies in all things product-related.
His hot take? That startup founders live in information bubbles that concentrate solely on revenue and don't spend enough time teaching them good product management fundamentals. This impacts their chances of building a good product company and impacts their relationship with product management teams as they scale.
Find Jeremy all over Canada, or on LinkedIn.
If you'd like to appear on Hot Takes, please grab a time!
Related episodes you should like:Moving Beyond Founder-Led Product Development & Setting PMs up for Success (Jennifer Yang-Wong, VP of Product @ Contrary) Build Products Businesses Want with the Lean B2B Pyramid (Étienne Garbugli, Author "Lean B2B", "Find your Market" and "Solving Product") Your Product is a Joke - How to use Improv Comedy Principles in Product Management (Amogh Sarda, Co-founder @ Eesel) Chris Locke's Hot Take - Product Leaders Need to Adopt a VC Mindset (Chris Locke, CEO @ Aspire) Upping Your Odds of BEATING the LinkedIn Algorithm (Ivana Todorovic, CEO @ AuthoredUp) Greg Prickril's Hot Take - AI is going to change everything for Product Managers (Greg Prickril, B2B Product Management Coach, Consultant & Trainer) May Wong's Hot Take - Product Management is a Team Sport (May Wong, Product Operations Consultant & Coach) Dean Peters' Hot Take - There's More to be Said About the Instagram-ification of Product Management (Dean Peters, Principal Consultant & Trainer @ Productside) -
Chris Locke is a long-time product leader who has taken his passion for educating product managers into his agency, Aspire, with which he aims to help product teams bridge the skills gap and equip them with the skills and resources to build products customers love.
His hot take? That product leaders need to adopt the mindset of Venture Capitalists to truly drive growth through their product initiatives; placing a series of bets, backed by data, with clear stage gates for decision-making and adopting a portfolio approach to product prioritisation.
Find Chris on LinkedIn and remember to check out his training company, Aspire.
If you'd like to appear on Hot Takes, please grab a time!
A message from this episode's sponsor - LeadfeederThis episode is sponsored by Leadfeeder. No more not knowing who’s coming to your website, convert more leads and get a free trial at Leadfeeder.com: Check out Leadfeeder here.
Related episodes you should like:Moving Beyond Founder-Led Product Development & Setting PMs up for Success (Jennifer Yang-Wong, VP of Product @ Contrary) Paying Off Your Organisation's Human Debt Through Agility & Psychological Safety (Duena Blomstrom, Founder & CEO @ People Not Tech) Fearlessly Defeating the Four Horsemen of a Product-Friendly Culture (Eisha Armstrong, Co-founder @ Vecteris & Author "Productize" & "Fearless") Greg Prickril's Hot Take - AI is going to change everything for Product Managers (Greg Prickril, B2B Product Management Coach, Consultant & Trainer) May Wong's Hot Take - Product Management is a Team Sport (May Wong, Product Operations Consultant & Coach) Dean Peters' Hot Take - There's More to be Said About the Instagram-ification of Product Management (Dean Peters, Principal Consultant & Trainer @ Productside) Build Better Products at Scale with Product Operations (Melissa Perri & Denise Tilles, Product Consultants & Co-authors "Product Operations") Applying Product Management Principles to Life (Miloš Belčević, Author "Build Your Way") -
Ivana Todorovic is the co-founder of AuthoredUp, the "Ultimate LinkedIn Content Creation & Analytics Tool", and wants to help YOU get better at standing out from the crowd and beating the LinkedIn algorithm. We spoke about all things LinkedIn, including the dangers of "engagement pods", whether it matters where you put your links in the post, how to engage with larger accounts, the power of secondary comments, and much, much more. We also spoke about her startup journey, the pros and cons of being reliant on a larger platform, and why she's so happy she bootstrapped rather than seeking VC funding. Check the episode out now!
A message from this episode's sponsor - LeadfeederThis episode is sponsored by Leadfeeder. No more not knowing who’s coming to your website, convert more leads and get a free trial at Leadfeeder.com: Check out Leadfeeder here.
Episode highlights:1. There's no "Quick Fix" for your LinkedIn profileBeware snake oil salespeople who claim to be making millions off of their LinkedIn content and are trying to sell you frameworks to be just like them. There's no cookie-cutter approach, the algorithm is changing all the time, and the majority of these people are basically lying about the results you will get and laughing their way to the bank.
2. It's Important to Soft Sell on LinkedInDirect sales pitches underperform compared to content that offers value with a subtle call to action. Posts with a soft sell, focusing on the audience’s needs and delivering value without the CTA, perform better. You can't just keep selling things or trying to get people to click links... LinkedIn hates you leaving the platform and they will de-boost your posts.
3. The Pros and Cons of "Link in Comments"Posts with external links often get down-boosted because LinkedIn wants to keep users on the platform. Adding links in the comments or at the very end of the post is a better strategy, though even this approach reduces post impressions.
4. LinkedIn doesn't want your posts to go viralHowever it might look, LinkedIn explicitly prioritises real conversations and interactions rather than people mindlessly sharing clickbait. Concentrate on having real conversations, replying to comments, and replying to the comments on comments. This will boost your own impressions.
5. LinkedIn Blue and Gold Badges are Statistically MeaninglessThere's no statistically significant impact on having either of these badges. The badges are just there to make you feel special and keep you coming back to LinkedIn so that they can keep advertising to you. People with blue badges don't obviously have better content than those without, and people with gold badges are just being rewarded for feeding the AI-training hamster wheel.
6. Beware Engagement PodsEngagement Pods are private groups of people who share their posts with each other so they can game engagement and try to defeat the dreaded algorithm. However, these are super-easy to detect and they show up quickly even to external analysis. There are better ways to win at LinkedIn than paying exorbitant fees to snake oil salespeople.
Contact IvanaYou can catch up with Ivana on LinkedIn or check out AuthoredUp.
Related episodes you should like:How to Move Fast Without Breaking Things (Dani Grant, Co-founder & CEO @ Jam) Valentine's Special! A Love Letter to Problems, not Solutions (Uri Levine, Founder @ Waze & Author "Fall in Love with the Problem, not the Solution") Moving Beyond Founder-Led Product Development & Setting PMs up for Success (Jennifer Yang-Wong, VP of Product @ Contrary) The Big Pivot to Reinvent Product Management (Yana Welinder, Founder & CEO @ Kraftful) Nailing your Product/Market Fit Strategy by Focusing on the Mission Critical (Maja Voje, Growth Strategy Expert & Author "Go-To-Market Strategist") Nailing your Brand Marketing by Embracing your Zone of Genius (Orly Zeewy, Brand Strategy Consultant & Author "Ready, Launch, Brand") Helping Superhero Startup Founders Stay Away from their Kryptonite (Richard Blundell, Founder @ Vencha & Co-author "The Go To Market Handbook for B2B SaaS Leaders") Building Great Companies through Community-Led Growth (Lloyed Lobo, Author "From Grassroots to Greatness") -
Jenny Wanger is a product consultant and coach who loves to educate PMs around the world and is doing just that with her product operations course on Reforge.
Her hot take? Product leaders send their teams off for training but then don't do anything when they come back, and nothing changes. This leads them to question the value of the training, but it's almost never the quality of the training that's at fault, it's what they (don't) do with it.
Find Jenny on LinkedIn and remember to check out her course on Reforge.
If you'd like to appear on Hot Takes, please grab a time!
A message from this episode's sponsor - LeadfeederThis episode is sponsored by Leadfeeder. No more not knowing who’s coming to your website, convert more leads and get a free trial at Leadfeeder.com: Check out Leadfeeder here.
Related episodes you should like:The Role of Product Management on Truly Agile Development Teams (Allen Holub, Software Architect, Consultant & Outspoken Twitter Agilist) Survive the Feature Factory by Applying Product Thinking to Product Thinking (John Cutler, Product Evangelist & Coach @ Amplitude) Escaping the Build Trap with Product Operations and Strong CPOs (Melissa Perri, Product Management Leader, Educator & Author "Escaping the Build Trap") OKRs: The Gateway Drug to Agility & Good Product Management (Jeff Gothelf, Product Management Consultant & Co-author "Lean UX" ) The Five Dysfunctions of Product Management Teams (Saeed Khan, Founder @ Transformation Labs) Going Beyond the Dreaded Product Demo and Creating the Perfect Sales Pitch (April Dunford, Author "Obviously Awesome" and "Sales Pitch") Enabling Strategic Product Decisions through Product Operations and Portfolio Management (Becky Flint, CEO of Dragonboat) Transforming your Organisation to the Product Operating Model (Marty Cagan, Author "Inspired", "Empowered" and "Transformed") -
Nick Mehta is the CEO of Gainsight, a leading customer and product experience platform that aims to be the operating system for your customer journeys. He's a passionate advocate for Customer Success as a function and as a business strategy, an author of several books on the topic, and recently super-excited about the future of Customer Success in an AI world. We talked about all of these topics and much more.
A message from this episode's sponsor - LeadfeederThis episode is sponsored by Leadfeeder. No more not knowing who’s coming to your website, convert more leads and get a free trial at Leadfeeder.com: Check out Leadfeeder here.
Episode highlights:1. Customer Success is not the same as Customer SupportYes, they both have the same "CS" initials, and this can confuse people, but it's not the same role. Customer Success conceptually sits somewhere in between Sales and Customer Support and drives customer value and retention. Customer Success is also more than a role, it's a company strategy. It's also part of the product you sell.
2. The end of the zero-interest-rate climate has had a profound impact on Customer SuccessThese days, CEOs and investors value profit today over profit tomorrow. Retention is a huge driver of pure profit, and it's one of the highest-leverage activities you can invest in for a recurring revenue business. On the flip side, leaders are looking to become as efficient as possible and reduce the human effort to drive this retention, leading to a requirement for digital customer success strategies.
3. Yes, you probably do need a Customer Success team in your organisationChris Degnan (CRO at Snowflake) recently opined on the 20VC podcast that he sees no use for Customer Success teams and would immediately get rid of them. That doesn't work for everyone though, and there are many companies that legitimately need Customer Success teams. It's fair enough to say "Customer Success is a strategy" but someone needs to wake up thinking about this and having it as their biggest priority. Customer expectations are rising all the time, and not all products can look after themselves.
4. Product teams and Customer Success teams need to have a good relationshipToo many teams have almost no relationship, or only speak when there's an escalation. Both teams have a legitimate claim to own the customer experience, but they should own it together. The best Customer Success teams don't just bring escalations, or even the "What" but the "Who" and the "Why". This makes the relationship strategic and helps build a great product.
5. AI is going to change everything, but it has to be human-firstIf you're not keeping up with AI you're going to be left behind. It's important to focus on the evolutionary and revolutionary changes that you can bring to your product. There need to be guardrails in your product to ensure that the customer experience doesn't degrade, and you need to be sensitive to the fears and paranoia of internal teams that might feel threatened... but it's going to happen so you need a strategy to survive and thrive in the AI-powered future.
Check out "Digital Customer Success""In Digital Customer Success: The Next Frontier, a team of trailblazing Customer Success professionals and digital entrepreneurs delivers an insightful discussion of the next stage in Customer Success management. In the book, you'll discover how to design and deploy touchless and automated digital interventions that help your software users learn and grow as they use your product and unlock the value trapped within it — without ever needing to reach out to a live Customer Success Manager. "
Check it out on Amazon.
Contact NickYou can catch up with Nick on LinkedIn or check out Gainsight. You can also check out the blog post that Nick mentions, The One Thing Billionaire Frank Slootman Got Wrong.
Related episodes you should like:Is Product-Led Growth Really For You? (Leah Tharin, Product-Led Growth Guru & Head of Product @ Jua) Embracing Change to Innovate in Product Management (Greg Coticchia, CEO @ Sopheon) The Big Pivot to Reinvent Product Management (Yana Welinder, Founder & CEO @ Kraftful) Helping Superhero Startup Founders Stay Away from their Kryptonite (Richard Blundell, Founder @ Vencha & Co-author "The Go To Market Handbook for B2B SaaS Leaders") Andy Walters' Hot Take - We’re Soon Going to be Living in an AI-Assistant-First World (Andy Walters, CEO @ Emerge Haus & Generative AI Expert) Bjarte Rettedal's Hot Take - AI Models Should Be Under Public Ownership or Completely Transparent (Bjarte Rettedal, UX Designer) Greg Prickril's Hot Take - AI is going to change everything for Product Managers (Greg Prickril, B2B Product Management Coach, Consultant & Trainer) Debbie Levitt's Hot Take - Democratising our Work means AI is Going to Steal all our Jobs Sooner (Debbie Levitt, CXO @ DeltaCX and Author "Customers Know You Suck") -
Rina Alexin is the CEO of Productside, a leading product training and consulting company (formerly known as The 280 Group). Rina is passionate about furthering the craft of product management around the world.
Her hot take? Product managers complain about stakeholders, but they're just doing their jobs and we need to spend some of our energy on understanding them and properly collaborating rather than treating them as annoyances.
Find Rina on LinkedIn or check out Productside
If you'd like to appear on Hot Takes, please grab a time!
A message from this episode's sponsor - LeadfeederThis episode is sponsored by Leadfeeder. No more not knowing who’s coming to your website, convert more leads and get a free trial at Leadfeeder.com: Check out Leadfeeder here.
Related episodes you should like:May Wong's Hot Take - Product Management is a Team Sport (May Wong, Product Operations Consultant & Coach) Untrapping Product Teams and Getting Rid of Bullsh*t Management (David Pereira, Author "Untrapping Product Teams") Dean Peters' Hot Take - There's More to be Said About the Instagram-ification of Product Management (Dean Peters, Principal Consultant & Trainer @ Productside) John Cutler's Hot Take - The Instagram-ification of Product Management is Driving us Crazy (John Cutler, Product Educator & Author @ The Beautiful Mess) Build Better Products at Scale with Product Operations (Melissa Perri & Denise Tilles, Product Consultants & Co-authors "Product Operations") Knowing your Customers, Seeking Evidence and Sticking up for Continuous Discovery (Hope Gurion, Product Leader and Team Coach @ Fearless Product) Transforming your Organisation to the Product Operating Model (Marty Cagan, Author "Inspired", "Empowered" and "Transformed") Applying Product Management Principles to Life (Miloš Belčević, Author "Build Your Way") -
Andy Walters is a long-time consultant who has recently focused his consulting work on supporting companies with GenAI adoption with his new firm, Emerge Haus.
His hot take? Within the next few years, we're going to be moving to an AI-assistant-first operating model, and we can't stop it. There are too many financial incentives, but it might actually be better for users too; as consumers, but also potentially for their private lives too.
Find Andy on LinkedIn or check out Emerge Haus
If you'd like to appear on Hot Takes, please grab a time!
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Bjarte Rettedal is a photographer-turned looking to take his interest in behavioural economics and systems thinking and pursue a career in UX design.
His hot take? AI models should be under public ownership or at the very least fully transparent. We don't let people release supplements or medicines without extensive testing, so why are we OK with something as potentially high-impact as AI models?
Find Bjarte on LinkedIn or bjarterettedal.com
If you'd like to appear on Hot Takes, please grab a time!
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Greg Prickril is a B2B Product Management coach, consultant and trainer who has gone all-in on AI and is bullish about the impact that he thinks it'll have on product management.
His hot take? AI is going to change everything about product management. It's going to mean fewer jobs are required to deliver products, but it also opens up opportunities for business-focused product managers to make a real impact in their jobs, and accelerate them in doing so.
Find Greg on LinkedIn, Prickril.com or https://www.coachpms.com/
If you'd like to appear on Hot Takes, please grab a time!
A message from this episode's sponsor - LeadfeederThis episode is sponsored by Leadfeeder. No more not knowing who’s coming to your website, convert more leads and get a free trial at Leadfeeder.com: Check out Leadfeeder here.
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David Pereira is a product leader, speaker and regular blogger who loves to contribute to the wider Agile and Product communities with insights from his own career, including some of the mistakes he's made and not just the successes. David was recently tempted into writing a book, the newly released "Untrapping Product Teams" where he provocatively rails against "bullshit management" and tries to inspire us all to affect change in our organisations (but step-by-step). We talked all about themes from the book, as well as what it meant to have an endorsement from Marty Cagan.
Episode highlights:1. When someone starts doing something differently and delivering value, people get curiousSometimes it can seem almost impossible to change things yourself, but you don't have to change it all at once. If you can start showing the impact of smaller changes that deliver value then you can get both interest and buy-in from stakeholders. This gives you permission to try more things.
2. The more bullshit you handle the less value you createDavid coined the term "bullshit management" to represent the work you have to do in many low-performing product companies. Bullshit management is where you spend all your time working on the work around the work, prioritising requirements with no context and being actively prevented from delivering value to your users, and it has to stop.
3. Collaborative flow trumps coordinative flowCoordinative flow is when you spend more time in meetings about the work and struggle to align people than you do actually doing the work. It's focused on outputs and gives you someone to blame when it goes wrong. Collaborative flow is when teams come together to work on problems... collaboratively and use what they know to uncover what they don't know.
4. You don't need to die on every hillSometimes you have to hold your nose and do things in ways that you don't believe are effective, or actively destructive. This is part and parcel of the job and something you have to get used to. As long as you can find small ways to make an impact in some areas, you can give way in other areas. Rome wasn't built in a day.
5. If you really want to make an impact, ask more questions than you give answersWe're all primed to look clever and give answers as quickly as we can but product people need to think deeper than that and ask good questions. Why do we really need that? What does success really look like? What don't we know?
Check out "Untrapping Product Teams""Untrapping Product Teams guides you to simplify what gets unintentionally complicated and equips you to overcome dangerous traps while steadily driving customer and business value. This isn't just another book about product management. It's a thought-provoking guide filled with simplicity, encouraging you to act today for a better tomorrow."
Check it out on Amazon.
Contact DavidYou can catch up with David on LinkedIn or check out his website.
Related episodes you should like:Survive the Feature Factory by Applying Product Thinking to Product Thinking (John Cutler, Product Evangelist & Coach @ Amplitude) Build High Growth Products by Following the Product Science Success Path (Holly Hester-Reilly, Founder @ H2R Product Science) Pragmatic Digital Transformation in Traditional Industries (Dan Chapman, Director, Product Line Leader @ Merck) Optimising Product Planning with the Quartz Open Framework (Steve Johnson, Product Coach) Servitising Product Management & Setting Up Product Teams For Success (Jas Shah, Product Consultant) Surviving a Lack of Product Thinking & Riding the Product Maturity Curve (Nis Frome, VP Product @ Feedback Loop) Is this Seriously Game Over for Scrum? (David Pereira, Editor @ Serious Scrum) Transforming your Organisation to the Product Operating Model (Marty Cagan, Author "Inspired", "Empowered" and "Transformed") -
Dean Peters is a former opera singer turned product management leader, coach and educator who works with Productside to uplevel teams.
His hot take? That there's more to say about the Instagram-ification of product management, the root causes and contributory factors.
If you'd like to appear on Hot Takes, please grab a time!
A message from this episode's sponsor - JuneThis episode is sponsored by June. June is a user retention hub for early-stage B2B SaaS companies that enables early-stage B2B SaaS companies to understand and act on their product usage, dig into activation, churn and key feature usage. Check out June here.
Related episodes you should like:Survive the Feature Factory by Applying Product Thinking to Product Thinking (John Cutler, Product Evangelist & Coach @ Amplitude) The Five Dysfunctions of Product Management Teams (Saeed Khan, Founder @ Transformation Labs) Practice Makes Perfect: Embracing the Messy Reality of Product Management (Matt LeMay, Product Management Consultant & Author "Product Management in Practice") John Cutler's Hot Take - The Instagram-ification of Product Management is Driving us Crazy (John Cutler, Product Educator & Author @ The Beautiful Mess) Applying Product Management Principles to Life (Miloš Belčević, Author "Build Your Way") Nils Davis's Hot Take - Product Managers Need to Tell Better Stories on their Resumes (Nils Davis, Resume Coach & Go-to-Market Consultant @ Confidence & Impact LLC) Debbie Levitt's Hot Take - Democratising our Work means AI is Going to Steal all our Jobs Sooner (Debbie Levitt, CXO @ DeltaCX and Author "Customers Know You Suck") Build Better Products at Scale with Product Operations (Melissa Perri & Denise Tilles, Product Consultants & Co-authors "Product Operations") - もっと表示する
