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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

01:21:08

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Megan Cook, Head of product for Atlassian’s Jira software, shares insights on getting buy-in, starting small, creating space for play, staying ahead of competition, launching new product lines, making remote work successful, and lessons from personal failures.

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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

Play State Drives Innovation and Progress

Being Open-Minded in Problem-Solving

Prioritizing Time and Aligning Priorities with Business Goals

1.

Introduction

4min

2.

Creating Play and Psychological Safety in Teams

5min

3.

Pairing Up for Feedback

8min

4.

The Importance of Making Time for Human Connection in the Workplace

19min

5.

The Importance of Fighting the Good Fight and Addressing Customer Satisfaction

3min

6.

Measuring Customer Satisfaction and Identifying Key Factors

8min

7.

Product Line Expansion and Meeting Different Team Needs

21min

8.

Thinking Big and Open Communication

7min

9.

Product Discovery: Traeger Smoker

7min

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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Brought to you by:

• Teal—Your personal career growth platform

• Sprig—Build a product people love

• Vanta—Automate compliance. Simplify security.

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Find the transcript for this episode and all past episodes at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/lessons-from-atlassian-launching

Today’s transcript will be live by 8 a.m. PT.

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Where to find Megan Cook:

• X: https://twitter.com/meganwcook

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

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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) Megan’s background

(03:50) Creating space for play and psychological safety on teams

(07:36) Peer feedback groups

(10:30) Sharing stories of failure

(13:33) The “10 dollar” game for priorities

(15:24) Advice on making remote work, work

(24:16) Getting buy-in for your ideas

(28:33) The importance of staying open-minded

(34:05) A quick summary of how to get buy-in

(36:45) Fighting the good fight

(38:15) Identifying customer pain points

(43:04) Starting small and showing success

(46:08) Launching new product lines

(53:35) Atlassian’s gated process for new product ideas

(58:00) How Jira stays ahead of competitors

(01:04:28) Learning from failure

(01:08:30) Fight club

(01:10:08) Lightning round

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Referenced:

• Jira: https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira

• Atlassian: https://www.atlassian.com/

• Bitbucket: https://bitbucket.org/product

• Ben Crowe on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-crowe-67299714/

• Ash Barty on X: https://twitter.com/ashbarty

• Atlassian’s blog, Work Life: https://www.atlassian.com/blog

• Lessons learned: 1,000 days of distributed at Atlassian: https://www.atlassian.com/blog/distributed-work/distributed-work-report

• New research: How to make time for the work that matters: https://www.atlassian.com/blog/distributed-work/calendar-redesign-experiment

• Atlas: https://www.atlassian.com/software/atlas

• Confluence: https://www.atlassian.com/software/confluence

• Lenny’s swag store: https://lennyswag.com/

• What is CSAT and how do you measure it?: https://www.qualtrics.com/experience-management/customer/what-is-csat

• The UX research reckoning is here | Judd Antin (Airbnb, Meta): https://www.lennyspodcast.com/the-ux-research-reckoning-is-here-judd-antin-airbnb-meta/

• Charlie Sutton on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charliesutton/

• Nokia 6100: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_6100

• Compass: https://www.atlassian.com/software/compass

• Jira Product Discovery: https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/product-discovery

• Canva: https://www.canva.com/

• Inspired: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love: https://www.amazon.com/INSPIRED-Create-Tech-Products-Customers/dp/1119387507

• Scaling People: Tactics for Management and Company Building: https://www.amazon.com/Scaling-People-Tactics-Management-Building/dp/1953953212

• Foundation on AppleTV+: https://tv.apple.com/us/show/foundation/umc.cmc.5983fipzqbicvrve6jdfep4x3

• Foundation book series: https://www.amazon.com/Foundation-3-Book-Boxed-Set-Empire/dp/0593499573

• Traeger smoker: https://www.traeger.com/shop/wood-pellet-grills

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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.

Get full access to Lenny's Newsletter at www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribe

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