How To Succeed In Product Management | Jeffrey Shulman, Red Russak & Soumeya Benghanem

In this episode of the How to Succeed in Product Management Podcast, marketing professor Jeff Shulman and The Product Management Center advisory board member Soumeya Benghanem welcome Matthew Landry (Cisco Meraki) to talk about what makes a good PM in the networks and security field. A good PM is someone who is intellectually curious and one who has an element of unhappiness with the status quo because in this field you will have to formulate strategies as you collect information while satisfying the end users or customers.   Support for How to Succeed in Product Management is brought to you by Apptentive, which enables product managers to measure shifts in customer emotion and gather actionable feedback across the mobile customer journey. To learn more, go to Apptentive.com/UW.   What to Listen For: 00:00 Intro 04:21 How metrics change in different technology industries 06:12 Metrics in networks and security 11:10 The need to deliver value and build instrumentation 15:02 Trade off between collecting information vs. satisfying the customers 24:24 What makes a growth PM 27:59 Defining the product management roles 31:47 Switching across different subdisciplines of product management 34:24 What kind of person fits the product management role? 39:25 When to know if this is not right for you 41:33 Collaboration between multiple departments

In this episode of the How to Succeed in Product Management Podcast, marketing professor Jeff Shulman and The Product Management Center advisory board members Red Russak and Soumeya Benghanem collaborates with Women in Product members Parul Shorey (Compass) and Rekha Raghu (Smartsheet) to talk about adapting to changes, dealing with changes in processes, management, or system, managing teams throughout the new structure, and just use change as an opportunity to continuously learn.      Support for How to Succeed in Product Management is brought to you by Apptentive, which enables product managers to measure shifts in customer emotion and gather actionable feedback across the mobile customer journey. To learn more, go to Apptentive.com/UW.   What to Listen For: 00:00 Intro 02:03 In collaboration with Women in Product, let’s talk about why adapting to change as PM is important 06:27 For PMs to survive and for the company to flourish, you need to learn to adapt to change 11:41 Changes can be internal, customer, market, and product 12:39 What to do when upper management wants to change strategy or direction 18:08 Tips for PMs on adapting to changes 23:52 Identify the product’s mission and goals when dealing with changes 28:08 When is it time to change the north star? 30:10 Your metrics are going to tell if you’re progressing in the way you want to 35:26 Coaching teams to navigate through changes 37:58 Managing teams is not a scale game 41:16 Take a break to think about the situation before acting on the change 44:07 PMs on evolving best practices and management terminologies  47:32 If there is change fatigue, there is something wrong with the process 49:25 Look at change as an opportunity  51:06 Pms shouldn’t overuse the sense of urgency 52:57 Change is what you really want other people to achieve

Today, in the How to Succeed in Product Management Podcast, Jeff welcomes a panel of experts on Product Management to discuss enabling accessibility features across all platforms. Together with Keela Robison, Ambika Sharma, Sumantro Das, Dr. Hoby Wedler, and Soumeya Benghanem, the panel unpack the different challenges that product managers have to deal with when building accessibility features, and in making websites and products more accessible to all customers of different backgrounds.   What to Listen For: 00:00 Intro 01:47 Join the Product Management Center Slack channel with Sarah Gallo   03:16 Soumeya talks about the need for accessibility  05:10 “We make sure that our product and service is working well for everyone.” Keela Robison, VP, Product Innovation at Netflix 08:07 Ambika Sharma on managing accessibility by tracking bugs and accessibility codes 09:51 “Support our shoppers in all backgrounds and implement inclusive design.” - Sumantro Das 12:09 “Accessibility is making life more enjoyable for all of us.” Dr. Hoby Wedler 17:56 Challenges for Product Managers as they try to get more accessible 21:09 Concerns related to accessibility features not included in websites 24:49 How does accessibility go into the overall product roadmap? 30:42 The different types of accessibility to consider when building features 37:46 Common challenges faced when building accessible product and how to overcome these challenges 45:12 How can Customer Success and Support Teams help and support Products Team and Product Managers in driving accessibility features

In this episode of the How to Succeed in Product Management Podcast, marketing professor Jeff Shulman and The Product Management Center advisory board members Red Russak and Soumeya Benghanem welcome Kunal Nayyar (Stripe) to talk about effectuation. PMs and other product leaders often build their team and identify frameworks once a problem is identified. With effectuation, PMs identify what resources are available and formulate solutions based on the resources at hand. It’s a reverse framework, nonetheless, it’s effective.     Support for How to Succeed in Product Management is brought to you by Apptentive, which enables product managers to measure shifts in customer emotion and gather actionable feedback across the mobile customer journey. To learn more, go to Apptentive.com/UW.   What to Listen For: 00:00 Intro 04:49 What is effectuation? 10:12 It’s all about what side of the coin you’re looking at 15:49 The affordable loss principle 19:28 When is it okay to do an affordable loss? 30:09 The security compliance bar set by the industry 33:12 How much leeway do regulated industries have? 35:13 A space for team members to work on any idea 40:02 Help your team imagine the future that doesn’t exist 43:31 Our concluding thoughts

In this episode of the How to Succeed in Product Management Podcast, marketing professor Jeff Shulman and The Product Management Center advisory board members Red Russak and Soumeya Benghanem welcome Jenne Pierce (University of Washington) and Jason Jaingue (Walmart Global Tech) to talk about flourishing in the eCommerce space. The most important metric for all PMs trying to break through in the eCommerce industry and for those who are already in the space is to become a customer. The level of obsession to customer experience is what makes or breaks a product manager’s success.   *Guests are speaking on their own behalf and all opinions expressed are their own.   Support for How to Succeed in Product Management is brought to you by Apptentive, which enables product managers to measure shifts in customer emotion and gather actionable feedback across the mobile customer journey. To learn more, go to Apptentive.com/UW.   What to Listen For: 00:00 Intro 08:49 Calculating the lifetime value  12:38 NPS is the first focus in eCommerce 14:42 The actual experience of customers determines it all 18:27 Understanding how to dig into usage metrics 25:24 3 key marketing area trends  33:07 Best in class from a product approach and strong product teams 37:22 Distinction between eCommerce and social commerce 40:56 Handling SEO change in relation to road mapping 45:28 Seeing results when you extend over into eCommerce 47:46 Obsession over customer journey and staying flexible 50:29 Our concluding thoughts

In this episode of the How to Succeed in Product Management Podcast, marketing professor Jeff Shulman and The Product Management Center advisory board member Soumeya Benghanem welcome David Lau (Mojang Studios) and Raul Salcedo (Fluent, Inc) to talk about what makes a good PM in the gaming industry. A good PM is someone who is intellectually curious and one who consumes the products because being a PM in this field means you are dealing with consistency in product engagement and formulating strategies to sell within the game.     Support for How to Succeed in Product Management is brought to you by Apptentive, which enables product managers to measure shifts in customer emotion and gather actionable feedback across the mobile customer journey. To learn more, go to Apptentive.com/UW.   What to Listen For: 00:00 Intro 04:10 Why should somebody outside of gaming care about this conversation? 06:07 Tracking metrics for gaming customers 15:44 The minimal lovable product 21:51 Tensions between engagement and monetization 30:10 Good PMs understand engagement, acquisition, and monetization 38:44 The 80/20 rule when developing apps 44:12 Setting different types of thresholds when people are overplaying   53:08 Our concluding thoughts

In this episode of the How to Succeed in Product Management Podcast, marketing professor Jeff Shulman and The Product Management Center advisory board member Red Russak and Soumeya Benghanem welcome Sandeep Patnaik (Microsoft) and Bala Sahitya (Meta) to talk about managing up as a critical skill for PMs. As a PM, especially if you’re new to the role, how can you excel in your job? The most important foundation you need to work on is to manage up so you can build solid and helpful relationships, gain significant experiences for career growth, and extend the coverage of your role in preparation to level up.    Support for How to Succeed in Product Management is brought to you by Apptentive, which enables product managers to measure shifts in customer emotion and gather actionable feedback across the mobile customer journey. To learn more, go to Apptentive.com/UW.   What to Listen For: 00:00 Intro 01:16 Why do aspiring PMs need to know how to manage up? 03:59 Managing up versus managing stakeholders 08:54 The best practices for how you could manage up 19:11 What does success look like as it relates to managing up?  24:05 It’s not the data value, it’s how you present it 29:23 When should you escalate? 37:48 Controversial opinion: The PM is the CEO of the product 42:10 Are product managers really necessary? 48:08 Our concluding thoughts  

In this episode of the How to Succeed in Product Management Podcast, marketing professor Jeff Shulman and The Product Management Center advisory board member Red Russak and Soumeya Benghanem welcome Nate Westheimer (Amazon) to talk about leadership principles. Identifying structures that work best for you and your product goals is the best step to finding success. This includes the skills to handle escalations within the team and how to escalate fast to not lose momentum.    Support for How to Succeed in Product Management is brought to you by Apptentive, which enables product managers to measure shifts in customer emotion and gather actionable feedback across the mobile customer journey. To learn more, go to Apptentive.com/UW.   What to Listen For: 00:00 Intro 06:19 4 things you can learn from Amazon 10:05 Handling an escalation 17:33 The working backwards principles 21:47 The PR FAQs approach 31:02 You can’t be inflexible  38:51 Sometimes thinking ahead is extremely helpful   43:55 Read The Cold Start Problem 47:15 Concluding thoughts

In this episode of the How to Succeed in Product Management Podcast, marketing professor Jeff Shulman and The Product Management Center advisory board member Red Russak welcome Jerlisa "Juju" Fontaine (Oscar Health), Anne Julliene (Joan) Barcelona (Box), and Dimple Singhania (Walmart) to talk about what happens during the first few days as a PM. Transitioning into the role needs a lot of work on building connections with your team and other teams within the organization, continuous learning from your superior through shadowing, and making use of the soft skills you bring into the system to function seamlessly and adapt efficiently.     Support for How to Succeed in Product Management is brought to you by Apptentive, which enables product managers to measure shifts in customer emotion and gather actionable feedback across the mobile customer journey. To learn more, go to Apptentive.com/UW.   What to Listen For: 00:00 Intro 10:14 What helped in transitioning to product management? 16:18 What helped the transition successful in the first few days? 24:22 Learn as much as you can from the people you shadow 36:26 How did you define success for your first month? 37:34 What did you wish you knew before you started your role? 45:48 What are the most necessary skills as a product person? 54:01 Concluding thoughts

In this episode of the How to Succeed in Product Management Podcast, marketing professor Jeff Shulman and The Product Management Center advisory board member Red Russak and Soumeya Benghanem welcome Valery (Larry) Karpiyevich (Store No. 8) to talk about why soft skills matter in product management. Technical knowledge, background, and field experience are key points to have but the ability to motivate, unite, and keep the team working together despite challenges and difficulties along the way is as valuable as any other skill.   Support for How to Succeed in Product Management is brought to you by Apptentive, which enables product managers to measure shifts in customer emotion and gather actionable feedback across the mobile customer journey. To learn more, go to Apptentive.com/UW.   What to Listen For: 00:00 Intro 08:52 The importance of soft skills for PMs 14:36 Listen without judgment  16:36 Ways to improve your listening skills 24:23 How to support your team’s mental health 35:21 Tools and frameworks to drive inclusivity 38:40 Style and frameworks for managing stakeholders 46:21 Our concluding thoughts