The essential knowledge areas that give product managers more influence and success Today we’re talking about the seven knowledge areas for product mastery. These are the knowledge areas that make us successful as product masters who know how to create new value for our customers. They also lead to more influence in our organizations. This is the beginning of a series where we’ll dive into each of the seven knowledge areas. Summary of topics discussed for product managers Watch the full...

The habits that set apart transformational product leaders Today we are talking about why organizations are increasingly facing the need to transform and how to navigate those changes. If you have experienced a big change, you already know firsthand how challenging it is. All of us need to know the principles that make transformations successful, and that is what we’ll takeaway from this discussion. Joining us is John Rossman, who was an early executive at Amazon and led the launch of the...

Tools for making voice-of-the-customer insights more accessible to product managers Today we are talking about aspects of the Market Research knowledge area for product mastery. Specifically, we are discussing how to overcome challenges collecting actionable customer insights. Helping us with this is Prashant Mahajan, the founder of  Zeda.io. Prashant is an experienced product manager and leader, having guided product development in several organizations. In these experiences, he...

How product managers can design their customer experience journey We all want to create products that customers find valuable and even delightful. But accomplishing that is complicated, and some teams lose focus on the real objective or start without a clear vision for what they need to accomplish. How can using the customer experience journey help you make better products? We are about to find out with Jason Friedman. Jason has started successful businesses in several industries including...

How product managers can empower their teams Today we are talking about how product leaders can create more effective teams by using a people-first leadership approach. Joining us is Diana Stepner, Head of Product for Education at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. Her approach to product leadership empowers individuals, fosters collaboration, and connects with people in an authentic way. She is also a product leadership instructor on Maven and has held leadership and advisor product...

Product management insights from medical innovations Today we are talking about product management and innovation of medical products.  Throughout my career, I’ve often found the best insights for improving my product work by learning from other industries, so even if you are not involved in medical products, you’ll be able to apply the practices you are about to hear. You’ll learn where insights for new or improved products come from and the pitfalls to avoid in getting products...

The Discover, Analyze, Create, Develop Design Thinking Framework for product managers You’ve heard about Design Thinking or even tried it. It is a simple-to-understand tool for solving problems, developing strategy, and most commonly for us product professionals, for developing a new product or service. And while it is simple to understand, that doesn’t mean it is easy to apply. I’ve seen Design Thinking mistakes, and I’ve made my own as well, which limit the results this powerful tool can...

Product management insights from Molson Coors’s non-alcohol portfolio transformation I am interviewing speakers at my favorite annual conference for product managers, the PDMA Inspire Innovation Conference. This discussion is with Marlon Hernandez, whose session is titled “Beyond the pint glass: Learnings from creating the new Molson Coors Non-Alcohol portfolio.” After over 233 years of brewing beer, Molson Coors announced its name change to Molson Coors Beverage Company to reflect its...

How product managers can create products that customers cannot be indifferent to In episode 468, Dr. Merrick Furst introduced us to the discipline of deliberate innovation and how companies can create products customers absolutely must have. The purpose of this podcast is to help you create products your customers love. Products your customers must have takes this to a higher level. I asked Merrick to join us again so we can learn some of the tools for creating such products, which he also...

Market research essentials for product managers Today we are talking about the knowledge area called market research. How do you know that the product you’re developing will actually create value for customers, that they’ll love it, and that they’ll buy it? Have you done the right things to have confidence of these outcomes, or are you wishfully guessing? You need confidence. That is why Andrea Ruttenberg, PhD, is joining us. As an associate principal at Applied Marketing Science, she has...

How product management teams can make better innovation decisions I am interviewing speakers at my favorite annual conference for product managers, the PDMA Inspire Innovation Conference.  This discussion is with two speakers who did a joint session, Dr. Wayne Fisher and Dr. David Matheson, whose session is titled “Improving decision quality during stage gate reviews.”  Recent findings from PDMA’s Outstanding Corporate Innovator award program indicate that highly innovative companies follow...

How to build high-performing product teams Today we are talking about amazing product teams—what is involved in creating one and then how to manage it. Joining us is Amruta Moktali, Chief Product Officer at Skyflow, the world’s first and only data privacy vault delivered as an API. She’s spent over a decade mastering the complex domains of data privacy and analytics and amassed an impressive track record spanning agile startups as well as tech giants including Microsoft and...

How to become an emotionally fit product leader We are talking about mental health for product managers and leaders—specifically product managers moving into leadership roles and those who are already in leadership roles. We’ll call this emotionally fit leadership. Dr. Emily Anhalt is a psychologist, emotional fitness consultant, and the co-founder and Chief Clinical Officer of Coa, your gym for mental health. For the past fourteen years, Dr. Anhalt has been working clinically with...

Five mindsets every product manager should cultivate I am interviewing speakers at my favorite annual conference for product managers, the PDMA Inspire Innovation Conference. This discussion is with Matt Phillips, whose session is titled “The Mindsets of Breakthrough Innovators.” Matt shared that successful innovators and entrepreneurs think differently from other people. Further, the way they think can be learned. Using examples from Pixar, Google, Netflix and even ultramarathoners, we can...

How SCADpro is elevating product management through design We are talking about some of the lessons from integrating art, design, and business needs that have been learned by SCADpro—the Savannah College of Art and Design’s in-house design, research, and innovation studio—which is generating innovative designs and products for the world’s most influential brands, including Google, Amazon, and Apple. Joining us is Paul Stonick, the Vice President of SCADpro. Prior to SCAD, Paul spent 25...

Mastering the art of customer conversations – for product managers As a product person, you know or at least have heard how important it is to talk with customers. Also, if you are not a complete newb, you also know you can’t simply ask the customer what they want. Instead, what do you ask them—how do you conduct a customer interview? We are about to find out from the go-to person on customer interviews, Steve Portigal. Rich Mironov, past guest and CPO of CPOs, said that Steve is the go-to...

Insights for product managers on fostering innovation in corporate environments Today we are talking about how established organizations can innovate, resulting in new products and ventures. Most of us who have been in established organizations, know this can be challenging as a culture of innovation is often lacking. Joining us is Andy Binns, a management advisor, award-winning author, and speaker on innovation and change. He has over twenty-five years’ experience helping companies make...

How product managers can turn customer dissatisfaction into innovation I am interviewing speakers at my favorite annual conference for product managers, the PDMA Inspire Innovation Conference.  This discussion is with Tony Belilovskiy, whose session is titled “Voice of Customer in Product Design.” Tony will be sharing with us how you can turn customers’ perceptions (that is, their feelings) into numerical, objective data that can be injected into the product design and used as a business...

How product managers can create authentic demand Today we are visiting the topic that is at the heart of this podcast—creating products customers love. To do that, we are joined by one of the co-authors of the new book The Heart of Innovation: A Field Guide for Navigating to Authentic Demand. Our guest is Dr. Merrick Furst, a Distinguished Professor and the Director of the Center for Deliberate Innovation (CDI) at Georgia Tech. In 2011, he founded Flashpoint, a first-of-its-kind deliberate...

Unpacking the BRIDGeS framework for product managers Today we are talking about strategic product planning, which involves decision-making, problem-solving, feature prioritization, and product vision creation. Our guest is Yaroslav Lazor, Founder and CEO of Railsware. He created the strategic product planning tools and frameworks that Railsware continues to apply on projects for customers as well as their own products. I first heard of Railsware when the founder of Calendly talked about the...

How product managers can navigate leadership challenges Today we are talking about four leadership motions that enable increased organizational effectiveness and productivity and alleviate organizational friction, waste, and indecision. The motions reflect a need for leadership change as organizations struggle for higher performance while supporting employees. Sharing the four leadership motions with us is Janice Fraser. Janice built her career in Silicon Valley as a startup founder,...

The secret recipe for organizational transformation Today we are talking about organizational change. As innovators, creating change is what we do. You may have already learned that change is not always welcomed, such as when the new product you created also cannibalizes an existing product your organization provides. Organizational change and transformation is challenging, and today we’ll learn how to navigate it more successfully, thanks to our guest Lisa Carlin.  She is a strategy...

Hershey chocolate company’s InnovationOps story I am interviewing speakers at my favorite annual conference for product managers, the PDMA Inspire Innovation Conference.  This discussion is with Shawn Houser-Fedor, whose session is titled “Creating a Recipe for Innovation Success: Hershey Chocolate Company’s InnovationOps Story.” Shawn is a R&D Senior Director at Hershey and she is about to share with us how InnovationOps helped Hershey and can help your organization achieve innovation...

The key ingredients of a successful product management team Today we are talking about how to build a great product team that in turn will build great products customers love. Joining us is a returning guest, Vidya Dinamani. She’s a product executive, advisor, and coach. She has over 20 years of experience in product management, including multiple executive roles at leading companies such as Intuit. Vidya founded Product Rebels, which teaches people hands-on ways to become stronger,...