#28 Scaling Product at a Swedish tech giant: from seed to IPO | Francesca Cortesi (ex-CPO at Hamnet)
Jan 10, 2025
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Francesca Cortesi, former Chief Product Officer at Hemnet, shares her extensive expertise in product leadership. She discusses Hemnet's shift from features to outcome-focused strategies and the critical role of strategic context in product management. Francesca emphasizes the power of incremental changes and the value of revisiting business models to drive growth. She also touches on the importance of asking for help and how collaboration can enhance leadership and learning in the tech landscape.
Francesca emphasizes that establishing a clear strategic context is vital for aligning teams and enhancing decision-making in a rapidly evolving organization.
She advocates for a gradual approach to product change, highlighting that incremental improvements often foster trust and lead to sustainable outcomes.
Deep dives
Starting Difficult Conversations with Stakeholders
Addressing challenges as a new leader requires having difficult conversations with stakeholders. It's crucial to quantify the various features and prioritize them to establish clarity on what needs to be delivered first. This process not only enhances communication but also helps in solving the most pressing problems facing the organization. By focusing on delivery and building trust through execution, leaders can gradually shift their team's mindset from immediate feature delivery to a more outcome-oriented approach.
The Importance of Context in Product Leadership
Creating a clear strategic context is essential for successful product leadership, particularly in a company experiencing rapid growth and changes. When joining Hamnet, the disparity between management's visions and on-ground realities highlighted the need for a shared understanding among teams. By facilitating discussions to establish priorities, leadership can foster an environment where teams have defined scopes, enabling faster and more effective decision-making. This involvement from leadership also empowers teams to take responsibility for delivering tangible results.
Evolving Rather than Revolutionizing Processes
In product management, gradual evolution rather than radical revolution often leads to more sustainable change. For instance, starting with feature prioritization can help build trust among teams and stakeholders, setting the stage for longer-term transformations toward outcome-based strategies. The transition to defining customer problems takes time, as leaders introduce continuous discovery in a context where teams may not be accustomed to this way of thinking. This step-by-step approach allows for necessary growth without overwhelming teams who must balance transformation with delivering results.
Reevaluating Business Models for Growth
Achieving growth in product management does not always equate to launching new features; sometimes, revisiting existing business models can provide significant breakthroughs. By analyzing the impact of specific changes, such as reintroducing a shipping fee on an e-commerce platform, leaders can gauge customer behavior and adjust their strategies accordingly. This kind of pragmatic approach emphasizes that growth can stem from optimizing current offerings rather than solely focusing on expansion. Product leaders should consider internal operations, incentives, and channels to unlock further opportunities for growth.