Episode 231: Laying the Groundwork for Startup Success with Julia Austin

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Jul 9, 2025

Julia Austin, an author, Harvard Business School lecturer, and founder of Good For Her, emphasizes the importance of laying a strong foundation for startups. She discusses understanding customer pain points and the dynamics between co-founders, stressing the need for alignment in financial attitudes. Julia advocates for outcome-based roadmaps and highlights how AI can streamline product development while maintaining user engagement. Her insights equip first-time product managers with practical strategies for building successful and sustainable startups.

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INSIGHT

Prioritize Solid Discovery Work

Spending 80% of your time on solid discovery work avoids later wasted effort.
Deep understanding of the problem and customers is crucial before building anything.

ADVICE

Use Outcome-Based Roadmaps

Connect roadmap outputs directly to desired outcomes to tell a prioritization story.
Label roadmap items by discovery, experiment, or release status to manage stakeholder expectations.

ADVICE

Build Strong Co-Founder Bonds

Build co-founder relationships over 6-12 months for better startup success.
Prioritize trust and alignment over just complementary skills when choosing a co-founder.

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In this episode, Melissa Perri is joined by Julia Austin, Author, Lecturer at Harvard Business School, and Founder of Good For Her, to discuss the essentials of building a strong startup foundation. They delve into the importance of understanding your customer and the problem you’re solving, the dynamics of co-founder relationships, and transitioning to outcome-based roadmaps. Julia shares insights on how AI can play a role in product development and gives advice for first-time product managers in startups.

Julia emphasizes the need for founders to focus on financial and legal aspects, often overlooked in the excitement of building a product. The conversation offers valuable advice for product managers and founders aiming to build sustainable and successful startups.

Want to gain insights into building a strong foundation for your startup and the role of product managers? Listen to the full episode for practical tips and strategies from Julia's extensive experience.

You’ll hear us talk about:

05:20 - Understanding Foundational Work in Startups

Julia Austin discusses why startups should spend 80% of their time on foundational work and discovery, emphasizing the importance of understanding the problem and target audience before developing solutions.

12:45 - Transitioning to Outcome-Based Roadmaps

Melissa Perri explains how product managers can shift from feature-based roadmaps to outcome-based ones, focusing on connecting outputs to outcomes and effectively communicating with stakeholders.

24:10 - Advice for First Product Managers in Startups

Julia provides tips for new product managers on building trust with founders by understanding the company's history and aligning with the founders’ vision to help structure the startup's roadmap and priorities.

Episode resources:

Julia on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliaaustin/

After the Idea book: https://www.aftertheideabook.com/

Check our new course: https://productinstitute.com/p/mastering-product-strategy-overview

Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction

03:08 Dear Melissa

08:34 Understanding Founder Relationships

15:53 Operational Foundations for Startups

26:20 Applying AI Thoughtfully

35:26 Role of PMs in Startups

43:48 Closing Remarks