Tania Bell ⚖️ →👩‍💻

 Some great thoughts here by Apoorva Mishra. Particularly the point on frameworks being “supplements, not substitutes"... Worth a quick look for anyone in product development!

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The fractional CPO role is the hottest new role in product. Here's what you need to know: 1. Fractional v Interim v Consulting It's easy to confuse the variety of non-traditional product leadership jobs these days. You can think of a simple 2x2 to distinguish them. You ask 2 questions: • Do you lead product? • Are you full-time? This breaks down the four types: Lead product & full-time: Interim CPO Lead product & part time: Fractional CPO Don't lead product & full-time: Regular PM Don't lead product & part-time: Product Consultant or Coach There is a nuance in 'lead' here. There are some fractional roles where the team doesn't report to you. (Though one of the fractionals we talked to call that "having one arm tied behind your back.") 2. History of the Role Fractional roles like accounting are as old as commerce. But, in product, they are much newer. It started in the 90s, with the rise of an adjacent role: the interim product role. The interim product role grew steadily. More and more companies and startups found it worked to solve their problems. Then, with the rise of the fractional CTO role, companies started to accept or even look for more fractional leaders in R&D. In the last 5 years, the role really took off. In pandemic-era ZIRP, it even went a bit berserk. With roles becoming remote and workers exercising more control than ever, both supply and demand boomed. Now, in the post-ZIRP era, fractional's pullback hasn't been as steep as full-time PM. Because those companies with tighter budgets are even more likely to see the value in a fractional leadership role. As a result, the fractional CPO role as a whole has continued its up-trend. 3. Who Hires Fractional CPOs? There's a million scenarios where you might want a senior professional, paid by the day, who has done the job before. But, from our conversations with 20 fractional product leaders, there are 4 "sweet spot" scenarios that fractional CPOs fit in really well: Scenario 1 - Startup Startups have been the original consumer of interim roles, and they continue to power fractional roles. They often have the tight budgets that require it. Scenario 2 - Scale-Up After a fundraise, companies often want to invest in new areas, and a fractional leader can come in quickly to help with that. Scenario 3 - Turnaround When things aren't going right, and product isn't pulling its weight, a turnaround is often in order. Fractional CPOs are often called in these situations. Scenario 4 - Bridge When somebody unexpectedly leaves, or goes on parental leave, is often when companies want to turn to someone senior they can hire on a time-limited basis. 4. Fractional CPO vs Fractional PM Fractional CPOs lead product. They're working on product vision and strategy. They're not reporting to another CPO. That's a fractional PM role. If they're full-time, they're Interim CPOs.

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I wanted to give a shout-out to David Pereira for his first book Untrapping Product Teams (I was a beta reader). The book is grounded in reality, and full of actionable insights that are based on David own experience. David covers a lot of ground in a concise and compelling manner, using his typical no-nonsense style and real-world examples. If you're a product person, I'm sure you'll find much value in the many insights, frameworks, and tools the book provides. https://a.co/d/01Sn4LFH

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Product operations teams bring immense value, yet their introduction often sparks understandable concern among product managers. There's a fear they might the lines between product ops and product management may be blurry. Product ops isn't about making decisions; it's about amplifying and streamlining the decision-making processes. Think of product ops as “product managers for product managers”. They should be building the tools and structures that help product managers do their jobs more effectively. Addressing concerns goes beyond our internal team. We also get questions like, "How's product ops different from design ops?" or doubts about why we need so many operational functions across different departments. The key? Showcasing seamless collaboration among ops teams without causing disruption. We can leverage certain tools from other Ops teams, but we need to make sure we are utilizing them in the best interest of product management. For example, we might partner with RevOps to share data in their Looker instance, but we’re going to be building dashboards and adding other relevant data that can help product managers. Regular ops leader gatherings are invaluable! Think of them as brainstorm sessions where we sync up on our objectives, tackle challenges, and lend support. It's all about teamwork. Ultimately, it's not just about adding more people; it's about maintaining a lean team, maximizing tool utilization, and striving for a common goal to enhance our product strategy.

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Join our next livestream with Liz Immer on May 28th: Making an Impact with Impact Maps: How Behavioural Science Drives Product Success 🎯 Are you finding that Agile methods aren't delivering the results you expected? Do you want a new way to align your teams and products with real-world user behaviour? This live stream is for you. Here's why: 🎤 Speaker: Liz Immer, a leading expert in behavioural science and product innovation 🗓️ Date: May 28th, 2024 ⏰ Time: 12 PM GMT+1 What You’ll Learn: 📌 New Strategies: Explore how impact mapping and behavioural science complement each other to shape product design and marketing that resonates with users and drives results. Liz Immer will share strategies and insights to help you apply these methods right away. 📌 Practical Application: Whether you're leading product or marketing teams or steering your organisation toward a product-focused approach, this session will show how you can make better decisions and see immediate improvements. 📌 Real-World Insights: Liz will share practical tips from her vast experience in bridging the gap between user psychology and product development. Get ready to build a new mindset around behavioural science and impact mapping and discover how you can create more cohesive teams and products that truly align with user needs. RSVP now to join the discussion and leave with actionable strategies to apply to your organisation👇 #LiveStream #ImpactMapping #BehaviouralScience #ProductManagement #TechInsights

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PM Stereotype #3: The Facilitator This person’s job is to run between managers, stakeholders, and team, collect everyone’s product ideas, then mediate some compromise. In practice good products are never “discovered” through consensus, so this is a massive waste of PM talent. The facilitator PM is powerless to make decisions, even if she understands the users, market, product and the business very well. Her ability to create a positive impact is very limited.

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Measuring and analyzing product performance is a crucial task for product managers. It helps them understand how their product is being used, identify areas for improvement, and make data-driven decisions. In this article, we will discuss some key metrics and strategies for measuring and analyzing product performance. First, it’s important to understand the goals of your product. Are you trying to increase user engagement, drive conversions, or generate revenue? Once you have a clear understanding of your goals, you can then identify the key metrics that will help you measure your product’s performance against those goals. Read more... https://lnkd.in/esGu457z #productdevelopment #productmanagement

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Transforming Product Teams: Insights from "Transformed" by Marty Cagan In today’s fast-paced tech landscape, product teams are continually evolving to meet new challenges and drive innovation. Marty Cagan’s latest book, "Transformed - Moving to the Product Operational Model," provides a comprehensive guide to making this transformation effectively. Here are some key takeaways: 🌟 Key Concepts from "Transformed": 1. Adopting the Product Operational Model What It Is: Moving from a project-based to a product-based mindset, where teams focus on continuous improvement and long-term product success. Why It Matters: This shift leads to better alignment with customer needs and business goals, fostering a culture of innovation and agility. 2. Empowered Product Teams Definition: Teams that have the autonomy to make decisions, experiment, and iterate based on customer feedback and data. Impact: Empowered teams are more motivated and effective, leading to higher-quality products and faster time-to-market. 3. Outcome-Driven Metrics Focus: Shifting from output-based metrics (e.g., number of features delivered) to outcome-based metrics (e.g., customer satisfaction, revenue growth). Benefits: This approach ensures that teams are working towards meaningful goals that drive business success and customer value. 4. Continuous Discovery and Delivery Process: Integrating continuous discovery (identifying and validating customer problems) with continuous delivery (building and shipping solutions). Advantages: This method reduces risks and ensures that the product evolves based on real user needs and feedback. 5. Cross-Functional Collaboration Approach: Encouraging collaboration across disciplines, including design, engineering, marketing, and sales. Result: Cross-functional teams can leverage diverse perspectives and expertise, leading to more innovative and holistic solutions. 🌟 Real-World Impact: Companies that have embraced these principles have seen transformative results: Increased Customer Satisfaction: By focusing on continuous improvement and customer feedback. Faster Time-to-Market: Through empowered teams and agile processes. Improved Innovation: Via cross-functional collaboration and a culture of experimentation. At Discovery Outcomes, we’re inspired by these principles and committed to helping product teams achieve these transformations. By integrating customer insights, automating workflows, and aligning strategy with business goals, we enable teams to focus on what truly matters—delivering exceptional products. Discovery Outcomes : https://lnkd.in/gBt5X2tz #ProductManagement #Transformation #MartyCagan #ProductOperationalModel #EmpoweredTeams #ContinuousDiscovery #OutcomeDriven #CrossFunctionalCollaboration #ThoughtLeadership

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Product people always talk about failing fast, but what if we look at failure differently? 🤷 In today's episode of the Product Leaders Podcast, our host Ben Moulton sits down with Michelle Reiman Wright, Chief Product Officer at Kurtosys. 🎙️ They chat about the taboo topic of failure! Michelle's refreshing voice on the topic is a reminder of why failure is crucial for innovation and how to foster psychological safety within product teams. Tune in to gain valuable insights into the power of innovation and leveraging failure for growth. Head to the links in the comments to give it a listen 🔗 #weareorbisgroup #podcast #productleaders

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Most Director to CPO Product Leadership roles are never posted - here's how to find them. The hidden job market for product leadership roles is a reality that many aspiring Directors, VPs, Heads of, and CPOs may not be aware of. We interviewed 7 external Executive Recruiters, 2 internal big tech Executive Recruiters, 2 VC talent teams, and 12 CPOs/ VPs about the product leadership job search. Here’s what we’ve found: At least 80% of Chief Product Officer roles are never publicly advertised and even 30%-50% of (Sr.) Director roles get filled without cold applicants. This means that solely relying on job boards, you're missing out on a significant portion of available positions. Companies post these roles much less often for a variety of reasons: 🚫 They don’t want the press to speculate 🚫 They don’t want the current leaders to know 🚫 They don’t want to waste time on lots of low quality applicants 🚫 They don't think the best candidates will apply Remember that reputation matters as much as your resume when you become a leader. So how do you find the roles? 1️⃣ Executive Recruiters They run a high percentage of leadership searches at top startups and public companies. Exec Recruiters have helped me get more than half of my Director, VP, and CPO offers. 2️⃣ VCs VC firms, especially those with talent arms, know which portfolio companies (even public ones) are hiring and want to deliver valuable candidates. They can direct you to executive recruiters or directly to the companies. 3️⃣ Your Network To sniff out opportunities, tap your network of tech executives, past bosses and skip managers, founders, and other product leaders. Shift your mindset from a reactive job seeker to a proactive opportunity seeker. While it may require more effort, the payoff is big. The difference between a great and a bad product leadership role can mean 5-10x outcomes in your career. Of course, leaders have landed roles by applying online at the Director/Sr. Director level, but almost never without a connection. 💬 Comment with your experience and any questions. Follow to learn more about finding, landing, an negotiating product leadership jobs. Find the full deep dive into the product leadership job search I wrote with Aakash Gupta in the comments.

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Four principles for effective solutions to reduce research waste in product development: There’s a wide variety of experiments that you might run to get more value from customer insights. Everything from a new type of workshop to consolidate research, to a new metadata standard, to a new type of recurring reporting – and anywhere in between. Any effective solution for activating research wealth will represent one or more of these common principles: 1️⃣ Durability 2️⃣ Adaptability  3️⃣ Connectivity 4️⃣ Visibility … A bit more on each: 1️⃣ Durability is about your research knowledge having saying power. Customer insights are wasted when people believe that any and all research learning becomes obsolete quickly. > Following this principle, your researchers can take a longer view on the shelf life of insights, creating enduring mechanisms to manage what’s still relevant. You can shape your collected research knowledge with a long-term, legacy mindset. 2️⃣ Adaptability is about the ways that research can be tailored to fit the particulars of your organization’s structure and ways of working. A one-size-fits-all approach won't be as effective at reducing research waste. There are many ways to break apart and pull together research learning in order to match your planning environment. > Following this principle, you can tailor your waste-reduction efforts to your organization's unique culture and the types of impacts that your community wants to see. 3️⃣ Connectivity is about building useful networks within and between your community’s research outputs. Isolated insights become waste. Qualitative and quantitative, generative and evaluative, one-time and continuous sources – different stripes of research inquiry are at their best when they’re united. Connected research knowledge can then be traced forward into your colleagues' work to envision, define, design, and implement what’s next. > Following this principle, you can forge meaningful links among your collective research knowledge, learners, and product development practices. 4️⃣ Visibility is about ensuring that your community’s research remains an ongoing part of internal conversations. Research is wasted when it's not seen. Exposure can be narrowly focused dialogs, wider broadcasts, or anything in between. It can be a series of one time touch points, but often benefits from becoming a repeated stream of planned messaging. > Following this principle, you can push mindshare and presence of essential insights, the research community that generated them, and the launched wins they enabled. … Much more to come in forthcoming ‘Stop Wasting Research’ book for Rosenfeld Media. Email update link below… #research #researchops #productops #designops #UX #marketresearch #datascience #productmanagement

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MVPM: Minimum Viable Product Manager Dos and Don'ts for every PM Day 2 of 60 - PM Roadmap by Carl Vellotti Study Material Link: https://lnkd.in/ezKfseWA Creator: https://lnkd.in/eBgmqDYC Q1. Think about the three key concepts/skills mentioned in the article for a generalist Product Manager. Which one do you think you need to focus on the most and why? A1. Product Management at the heart will always be a generalist role. Yes specialisations exist, and yes industry expertise exists - but at the root, a good PM will always have to be versatile and multi-disciplinary to an extent. As for what skill needs the most focus to start with? - Project Management……BUT not in the way you may think. The article doesn’t really talk about three core aspects behind a day to day for a PM - communication, documentation, and prioritisation. And since learning how to PjM well teaches you these 3 things as well - hence my answer is PjM. If you’re good at comms, docs, and, prio - you WILL be good at any other skills mentioned in the article. Q2. The article mentions that knowing the stack, system architecture, and data model can help a Product Manager make better decisions and trade-offs. Do you think these skills are essential for every Product Manager or are there other skills that are more important? A2. So these ‘skills’ were part of the ‘Technology’ section. There is merit to understanding how tech stacks work, but as far as architecture and data models go - I really don’t think it's a must have for the MVPM. Most consumer product focused companies would rather have the PM focus more on the customer, business, and UX side than worry about how the architecture is laid out. So unless a specific role calls for it - just understanding the basic tech stacks is the go to skill ‘every’ PM should have. Lastly, I would have preferred to see ‘asking tech questions’ as its own skill. It’s briefly mentioned under tech stack learning, but I see it as a standalone skill. Asking the right (not stupid?) questions and holding a discussion with the tech team in a tech literate way, is a really good skill to have. As you PM, over time you will need to build your Tech-BS meter, knowing what questions to ask, and more importantly, what answers to expect - is a skill that will keep you on the same page with tech teams. Q3. How can you use the concepts from this article in your approach to learning as a Product Manager? A3. My favorite part of this article were the ‘where you shouldn’t focus’ section. Time and time again, I see a lot of PMs focusing on the wrong things that don’t really matter at the end of the day. PMs already do a lot of diverse tasks. I think it’s easier to list what NOT to do VS what a PM should be doing. So starting soon, I will be creating perhaps a list of things that I definitely shouldn’t be doing as a PM. _______________________ Context behind this post: https://lnkd.in/e7ZQefjS

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Use the 10 Heuristics to help evaluate your digital product. Kate Moran, walks through 4 steps to get you started: 1. Prep your team 2. Decide how to document 3. Evaluate independently 4. Consolidate issues Watch her video for an in-depth how-to: https://bit.ly/3KgXTEG And use these steps to systematically review your product to find potential usability and experience problems! Download our FREE Heuristic Evaluation Template too 👇 👇 👇 https://bit.ly/3Vlt9bO #HeuristicEvaluation #UXResearch #Usability #HowTo #NNG #NNGUX

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The tighter your budget, the more important it is to invest in product discovery. Cutting user research time so you’ve got extra money to spend on development feels like a good way to balance the numbers, but it’s usually a mistake. It’s much cheaper (and faster) to test your ideas with real people before you build them than afterwards.

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Here are 4 Friday tips for product leaders and fractional executives: First up, don't just focus on product development - think about the bigger picture. Dive deep into market research to understand customer needs and trends, allowing you to make strategic decisions that drive growth. 💡 Next, leverage your network to collaborate with other departments and stakeholders. By fostering strong relationships, you can ensure alignment across the organization and drive successful product launches with cross-functional teams. 🌐 When it comes to prioritizing tasks, think like a CEO. Focus on high-impact initiatives that bring value to both customers and the business. This strategic mindset will set you apart as a top-notch Fractional Product Manager. 🎯 Lastly, don't be afraid to take risks and innovate. Embrace failure as a learning opportunity and continuously iterate on your products to stay ahead of the competition. Remember, fortune favors the bold! 🌟 Are you ready to level up your Product game? #FractionalProductManager #ProductManagement #Innovation #StrategicThinking #CareerDevelopment #ProductLaunch #MarketResearch #SuccessMindset #ProductStrategy

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As a common practice, the first step of problem validation starts with a survey. But it's not the right approach to start with. Surveys are an evaluative tool of research, which means they help you evaluate if some specific assumptions are true or not. To arrive on these specific assumptions, you need to start with exploratory research, where you explore the problems the end user faces and the potential solutions they have already tried. For exploratory research, user interviews are more suitable. These user interviews need to be unstructured because if you follow a script line-by-line, it leaves little room for exploration. I have done quite a lot exploratory interviews with PMs around the interview prep, and hence comes this survey :) Request to fill it out because - it helps me build a better solution! - a better solution will help PM community! - you can get early access for the solution I would be building :) https://lnkd.in/eJRacnGF PS: You can opt to fill it anonymously, thereby having privacy and still able to help :)

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Ever feel bogged down by lengthy Discovery research projects? What if you could get the insights you need more quickly? That’s where atomic customer feedback comes in! Instead of waiting for big discovery phases, you can gather and act on small bits of user feedback in real-time. This means you can make improvements faster and keep up with what your users really want. Learn how to build a feedback processing system that made lots of our mundane Discovery research projects obsolete in our THO Alexander Fenin article on UXmatters 👇

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