Talking Roadmaps Do You Need a Product Operations Strategy? | Ana Zrno
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Nov 7, 2025 Ana Zrno, Director of Product Operations at Wrike, brings over 20 years of experience in product roles. She dives into why product operations are essential for fostering team focus on value and removing obstacles. Ana reveals the flexible nature of product ops, serving various stakeholders based on company needs. She shares best practices, warns against becoming process-obsessed, and emphasizes the importance of strategic planning. Plus, she discusses the role of product ops in roadmapping and advocates for a user-focused mindset in product management.
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Product Ops As The Enabling Platform
- Product ops creates the platform that frees product managers to focus on value and strategy.
- Ana frames product ops as the environment that removes obstacles so teams can do discovery and deliver value.
When Directors Split Ops Until It Broke
- At a growing unicorn, six product directors split ops work until it overwhelmed them and they hired product ops.
- The role then centralized processes, tools, analytics, and scaled discovery across the org.
Different Customers, Different Goals
- Product ops and product management have different customers and goals, so overlap is limited.
- Ana positions product ops as enabling directors and orchestrating between teams rather than making product decisions.