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The essence of product management | Christian Idiodi (SVPG)

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Dec 21, 2023

Guest

Christian Idiodi

Christian Idiodi, a partner at Silicon Valley Product Group with a rich background in product leadership, sheds light on the challenges facing product managers. He discusses the negative perceptions surrounding the role and how to overcome them. Christian emphasizes the importance of understanding customer needs and the critical role of reference customers in product success. He also shares insights into high-volume hiring processes and the significance of effective coaching in building trust and fostering collaboration within teams.

01:33:13

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insights

INSIGHT

Competency-Based PM

People dislike product managers due to inexperience with competent PMs.
True product management is competency-based, requiring deep customer, data, industry, business, and product knowledge.

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ADVICE

Learning and Relationships

To become a better PM, embrace humility and actively learn from the most influential people in your organization.
Build relationships by offering to help or learn from them, gaining their trust and insights.

insights

INSIGHT

Four Attributes of Product Management

A product manager’s job revolves around four key attributes: value, usability, viability, and feasibility.
PMs primarily drive value (will people use/buy it?) and viability (does it work for our business?).

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The hard thing about hard things

building a business when there are no easy answers

Ben Horowitz

In this book, Ben Horowitz shares his personal and often humbling experiences in the tech industry to offer essential advice and practical wisdom. He addresses various hard decisions and challenges that business leaders face, such as firing friends, managing company culture, handling layoffs, and making tough strategic decisions. Horowitz emphasizes the importance of honesty, resilience, and adaptability in leadership, drawing from his experiences with companies like Loudcloud and Andreessen Horowitz.

Christian Idiodi is a partner at Silicon Valley Product Group. After a long product career and founding multiple companies, Christian now spends his time working closely with product leaders at companies big and small to implement and improve their discipline of product management. In today’s episode, we discuss:

• Why there’s often a negative perception of product managers, and how we can fix this

• The four attributes of a product manager’s job: value, usability, viability, and feasibility

• The power of finding reference customers

• How Christian developed a process for high-volume hiring to help companies like McDonald’s and Starbucks

• Tactical tips for coaching, building relationships, and building trust as a leader

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Brought to you by Jira Product Discovery—Atlassian’s new prioritization and roadmapping tool built for product teams | Vanta—Automate compliance. Simplify security | Teal—Your personal career growth platform

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Find the full transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-essence-of-product-management

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Where to find Christian Idiodi:

• X: https://twitter.com/CIdiodi

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cidiodi/

• Website: https://www.svpg.com/

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Where to find Lenny:

• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com

• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/

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In this episode, we cover:

(00:00) Christian’s background

(03:56) The negative perception of product managers

(07:58) How to become a PM people want to work with

(11:30) The definition of a product manager

(14:46) Where new PMs fail

(16:59) Reference customers: what they are and why they are so important

(24:05) A quick summary of how to build a product that people want and love

(26:44) How to determine product-market fit

(29:54) The benefits of this approach

(34:11) Real examples of using reference customers

(40:06) Doing things that don’t scale

(48:40) How to get better at coaching and build trust with leaders

(55:53) The fastest way to build trust

(01:00:01) What to do in the absence of good coaching

(01:02:51) How to get into product management

(01:04:16) The pitfalls of early promotions

(01:11:11) How to train someone for a promotion before giving the promotion

(01:13:30) How to find a good coach

(01:14:40) Christian’s product work in Africa

(01:21:22) The importance of passion and empathy in product work

(01:22:54) Lightning round

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Referenced:

• Marty Cagan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cagan/

• The nature of product | Marty Cagan, Silicon Valley Product Group: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/the-nature-of-product-marty-cagan-silicon-valley-product-group/

• Silicon Valley Product Group: https://www.svpg.com/

• Enhanced Product Discovery by SVPG Partner Christian Idiodi at Lean Product Meetup: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQKaFEqhiqc

• Geoffrey Moore’s technology adoption curve: https://fourweekmba.com/technology-adoption-curve/

• Stripe: https://stripe.com/

• Building a culture of excellence | David Singleton (CTO of Stripe): https://www.lennyspodcast.com/building-a-culture-of-excellence-david-singleton-cto-of-stripe/

• Building beautiful products with Stripe’s Head of Design | Katie Dill (Stripe, Airbnb, Lyft): https://www.lennyspodcast.com/building-beautiful-products-with-stripes-head-of-design-katie-dill-stripe-airbnb-lyft/

• Rippling: https://www.rippling.com/

• Snagajob: https://www.snagajob.com/

• Howard Schultz on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/howardschultz/

• Tesla portable charger: https://shop.tesla.com/product/mobile-connector

• Innovate Africa Foundation: https://www.innovateafrica.io/about/

• Inspire Africa Conference: https://www.inspireafricaconference.com/

• Inspired: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love: https://www.svpg.com/books/inspired-how-to-create-tech-products-customers-love-2nd-edition/

• Empowered: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Products: https://www.svpg.com/books/empowered-ordinary-people-extraordinary-products/

• Transformed: Moving to the Product Operating Model: https://www.svpg.com/books/transformed-moving-to-the-product-operating-model/

• Succession on HBO: https://www.hbo.com/succession

• Billions on Showtime: https://www.sho.com/billions

• Real sports app: https://www.realapp.link/

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Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.

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Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribe

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