Charlotte King, Lead Product Manager at eBay, shares her expertise on navigating the challenges faced by product teams during rapid growth. She discusses the critical balance between speed and structure, emphasizing the importance of clear goals and communication. Key tools like Wardley Mapping enhance team understanding and decision-making. Charlotte introduces the DHM model to prioritize value and foster delightful user experiences. She also highlights the role of multidisciplinary collaboration and celebrating achievements to enhance team morale and combat imposter syndrome.
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question_answer ANECDOTE
Charlotte King's Career Path
Charlotte King started as a project manager but questioned the 'why' behind tasks, leading her to product management.
She transitioned through roles at Co-op, ThoughtWorks, Moonpig, Flipdish, and now eBay, gaining deep product experience.
insights INSIGHT
Startup vs Scale-up Team Dynamics
Startup product teams are scrappy and flexible, often stepping beyond roles.
This approach is not sustainable as companies scale and need structure and processes.
volunteer_activism ADVICE
Translate Vision into Clear Goals
Translate founders' vision into clear, measurable goals to guide product teams.
Provide meaningful direction to enable product teams to succeed during scaling.
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As startups grow, product teams often find themselves caught between speed and structure. In this episode of The Product Experience, Charlotte King, Lead Product Manager at eBay, shares practical insights from her work leading teams through this transition at companies including Moonpig, Flipdish, and ThoughtWorks.
Charlotte unpacks how to define product’s role during scaleup, build team structure around strategic value, and use tools like Wardley Mapping and Team Topologies to support organisational change. She also introduces the DHM model (Delightful, Hard to copy, Margin-enhancing) and discusses how to make strategy tangible for cross-functional teams. This conversation is especially useful for product leaders, heads of product, and founders navigating scale.
Chapters 1:13 – Charlotte’s background 2:36 – Product’s role in startups, scaleups and enterprises 4:35 – What product teams need to succeed during scale 6:42 – Defining product’s role as the company grows 9:00 – Using Wardley Mapping to assess team maturity 14:30 – Creating and communicating guiding principles 20:30 – Using the DHM model to prioritise value 25:48 – Structuring teams with Team Topologies 29:03 – Multidisciplinary collaboration in practice 30:41 – Lessons from leading transformation 32:30 – Final reflections and takeaways
Featured Links: Follow Charlotte on LinkedIn | eBay | Wardley Maps | What we learned at #mtpcon London 2025'feature by Kent McDonald and Louron Pratt
Our Hosts Lily Smith enjoys working as a consultant product manager with early-stage and growing startups and as a mentor to other product managers. She’s currently Chief Product Officer at BBC Maestro, and has spent 13 years in the tech industry working with startups in the SaaS and mobile space. She’s worked on a diverse range of products – leading the product teams through discovery, prototyping, testing and delivery. Lily also founded ProductTank Bristol and runs ProductCamp in Bristol and Bath.
Randy Silver is a Leadership & Product Coach and Consultant. He gets teams unstuck, helping you to supercharge your results. Randy's held interim CPO and Leadership roles at scale-ups and SMEs, advised start-ups, and been Head of Product at HSBC and Sainsbury’s. He participated in Silicon Valley Product Group’s Coaching the Coaches forum, and speaks frequently at conferences and events. You can join one of communities he runs for CPOs (CPO Circles), Product Managers (Product In the {A}ether) and Product Coaches. He’s the author of What Do We Do Now? A Product Manager’s Guide to Strategy in the Time of COVID-19. A recovering music journalist and editor, Randy also launched Amazon’s music stores in the US & UK.
The Product Experience