Lenny's Podcast: Product | Growth | Career

Lessons from Atlassian: Launching new products, getting buy-in, and staying ahead of the competition | Megan Cook (head of product, Jira)

Feb 4, 2024

Megan Cook, the Head of Product for Atlassian's Jira software, is an experienced leader with nearly 11 years at the company. She shares insights on cultivating a culture of play and psychological safety to boost innovation. Megan also discusses strategies for securing buy-in for product ideas and the importance of starting small. The conversation highlights Atlassian’s approach to launching new products amidst competition and offers tactical tips for effective remote work, fostering collaboration, and improving team dynamics.

01:21:08

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Episode guests

Megan Cook

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Quick takeaways

Atlassian observed a need for non-developer teams to adapt Jira Software to their specific needs, leading to the development of Jira Work Management.

Atlassian started small with Jira Work Management, focusing on incremental improvements and creating a visual and visceral experience.

Atlassian's gated process for developing new products, including stages like Explore, Make, Impact, and Scale, ensures thorough exploration, validation, and advancement of ideas.

Deep dives

Recognizing the need for Jira Work Management

Atlassian observed that teams outside of software, such as finance and marketing, were using Jira Software but struggling to adapt it to their specific needs. This signaled an opportunity to address these use cases and led to the development of Jira Work Management, a product focused on non-developer teams.

Implementing a regular time for conflict resolution

01:16

Play State Drives Innovation and Progress

01:20

Documenting Decisions and Remote Work Collaboration

01:25

Model Behavior and Transparency as a Leader

02:09

Intro

4min

Fostering Play and Psychological Safety in Teams

5min

Innovative Feedback and Team Dynamics

12min

Navigating Remote Work Challenges for Product Managers

4min

Navigating Product Buy-In Challenges

10min

Navigating Product Development

4min

Enhancing Customer Satisfaction Through Usability

8min

The Evolution of Atlassian and Jira

21min

Thinking Bigger: Product Development and Personal Growth

14min

Megan Cook is the head of product for Atlassian’s Jira software, which is used by 75% of Fortune 500 companies, has over 125,000 customers globally, over 15 different products, and is by far the most popular project management tool in the world. Megan has been at Atlassian for just under 11 years, and before this role, she was an analyst, a developer, and an Agile coach. In our conversation, we discuss:

• How to get buy-in for your ideas

• The value of starting small

• How, and why, creating space for play is so essential

• How Jira stays ahead of endless competition

• Atlassian’s approach to launching new product lines

• Tactical tips for making remote work, work

• A personal failure and the lessons learned from it

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