Product for Product Management

EP 118 - VUCA and Cynefin with Assaph Mehr

Oct 30, 2024

45:12

Product Management is not about frameworks. Yes, using some frameworks that fit well in your situation can save us a lot of time by organizing our thoughts and allowing us to collaborate better.And before there were frameworks, there were mindsets.

In this episode we are talking about a couple of mindset that help product managers and anyone who is building products to align better with the chaotic nature of our work.
Our guest on the show is Assaph Mehr, a product and people leader. He is currently a Senior Product Manager of AI at Squiz, a Product Management Advisor & Mentor at My Mentor Path, a thought provoking blogger, and an author (or several ward-winning stories of Togas, Daggers, and Magic series - for lovers of Dark Urban-Fantasy Detectives and Ancient Rome!).

On the episode, Assaph shared with us two of those mindsets - VUCA and Cynefin, and how they relate to our jobs as product people.

Join Matt and Moshe as they explore with Assaph:

How he got to product management
His experience building AI products, and some of the challenges they raise
What are these two mindsets all about (and how to pronounce Cynefin!)
How to understand, and harness Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity (VUCA)
The balance between all of these, and how each of our domains can have a different mix
Is it possible to quantify things like uncertainty or complexity?
How he defines strategy
The 5 domains of Cynefin, and the importance of fitting our problem to the right domain
Can Product Managers impact their orgs to think in these ways?
Can product job seekers test organizational fit by probing to see if they have the right mindset?
And so much more…

You can connect with Assaph at:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/assaph/
Blog: https://assaph.substack.com
Blog post about Cynefin and VUCA: https://assaph.substack.com/p/cynefin-and-vuca *

You can find the podcast’s page, and connect with Matt and Moshe on Linkedin:

Product for Product Podcast - linkedin.com/company/product-for-product-podcast
Matt Green - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattgreenproduct/
Moshe Mikanovsky - linkedin.com/in/mikanovsky/

Note: any views mentioned in the podcast are the sole views of our hosts and guests, and do not represent the products mentioned in any way.

Please leave us a review and feedback ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️