Product Momentum Podcast

As Holly Hester-Reilly explains, “Intuition isn’t magic. People who have good product intuition know this, because they’ve worked hard over time through lots of hard practice to build it up – and build better products in the process.” Holly is the founder and CEO of H2R Product Science (and a good friend of Product Momentum). We jumped at the chance to catch up with Holly right after her talk at the New York Product Conference.  3 Pillars of the Product Science Strategy The product managers who develop this intuition have learned real, tangible skills, benefitting from an evidence-based scientific approach to get there. In her keynote, Holly touched on the three pillars of her product science strategy:  Evidence-based product strategy. A plan for how you will win in the marketplace.  Continuous Discovery + Delivery. Gathering evidence and new learnings with every build.  Empowered teams. Aligned on outcomes, trained and supported with context and tools.  Product managers, regardless of experience or seniority, can develop their own product intuition by applying the methods embedded in this strategy to learn more about their customers, their market, and their product. Evidenced-based decisionmaking helps validate our assumptions, test ideas, and measure outcomes.  Holly’s Key Takeaways We’ve only summarized them here, so you’ll want to watch or listen to catch every nugget: Not every outcome is equally important or equally uncertain. You need to prioritize the outcomes that matter most to your customers and your business, and assess their risks. It is not enough to be right; you also have to be persuasive. Evidence strengthens your hand as you seek buy-in from stakeholders and team members. Practice the Built-Learned-Planning demo. “Planning” is another way of saying what you ‘intend to learn.’ Check out our conversation with Holly Hester-Reilly on the Product Momentum YouTube channel!. The post 138 / The Science Behind Building Better Products, with Holly Hester-Reilly appeared first on ITX Corp..

Among the many hats product managers wear is that of change agent. In many respects, product management is change management. PMs always seem to be flexing their approach to new circumstances, adapting to evolving markets and technologies, and side-stepping organizational landmines. “It’s hard,” says Zoia Kozakov, “especially when the change you’re trying to bring about might actually move the needle.” Zoia heads up device-based Digital Wallets at JPMorgan Chase. Product Momentum caught up with Zoia Kozakov following her talk at the 2024 NY Product Conference, where she shared her observations on change management (and resistance to it) within the context of innovation and organizational culture. In her keynote and during our conversation, Zoia offered 3 key takeaways: Embrace the Momentum Not surprisingly, everyone here on the podcast team believes strongly in the power of momentum; Zoia builds on this notion, encouraging product managers to establish a mindset of continuous wins to keep team members motivated. “Building momentum with continuous wins is a way to keep everybody well-spirited,” Zoia says. “But remember that what keeps you well spirited is likely very different from what keeps me well spirited.” Recognize the Symptoms of Resistance Zoia highlights the dangers of organizational apathy as a symptom of momentum-sapping resistance. “To me, disassociation is the worst one,” Zoia adds, “and it shows up when that person who derails your meeting (or doesn’t speak up at all) becomes the villain of your whole change management effort.” Find Your Innovation-Culture Fit Zoia introduced the NYPC audience to the notion of innovation-culture fit – and maybe even coined a new term in the process. Product managers often experience resistance to change because the organization’s culture of innovation doesn’t align with their own. “PMs need to evaluate the innovation fit,” Zoia advises. “If working on process enhancement feels like innovation to you, then you should go work at the company that sees the world that way. But if you want to build a rocket ship, there are some that do that too.” Zoia’s journey reminds us that change management is not just about implementing new strategies, but also about fostering a culture of continuous improvement, proactive engagement, and innovation alignment. Be sure catch our episode with Zoia Kozakov on the Product Momentum YouTube channel! The post 137 / 3 Tips for Fostering a Culture of Change, with Zoia Kozakov appeared first on ITX Corp..

As a profession, product managers have been battling through some pretty lean times of late. Layoffs in big tech, market uncertainty across the board, and steep competition for fewer vacancies keep many of us up at night. All the more reason, as Denise Tilles explains, that product operations is more important now than ever. In this episode of Product Momentum, recorded live at the NY Product Conference, Denise introduces us to this fairly new phenomenon called product operations (aka, “product ops”). She says that exploring product ops solely through the lens of sustained market challenges is short-sighted.Establish Strong Product Culture “We all need to be more operationally efficient and crisp when we’re doing more with less,” Denise says. But it’s more than survival; it’s also about establishing the strong product culture that will enable organizations to scale for growth, she adds, “which is the goal.” Part of it is just having a core understanding of what product operations is, Denise continues — and what it is not. “Product operations is not supplanting product management; it’s enabling it.” Helping PMs Contribute Real Value Product management still makes the decisions, she says. Product operations facilitates that process; it’s all about giving product managers the leverage and flexibility to contribute opportunities that offer real impact. Product operations relieves product managers of time spent on “the work around the work” – by providing (as Denise and co-author Melissa Perri write in their new book, Product Operations) providing three key pillars: data insights, customer market research, and process/practices. You can also watch our conversation with Denise Tilles on the Product Momentum YouTube channel! The post 136 / Product Operations: Why It’s More Important Now Than Ever, with Denise Tilles appeared first on ITX Corp..

In this episode of Product Momentum, Laura Barnard invites us to imagine the strong business outcomes our organizations can realize when we create space for strategy and execution to work in concert, instead of at odds. Founder of PMO Strategies and author of The Impact Engine (available Sept. 2024), Laura has been a driving force behind the integration of project management and organizational strategy, helping clients discover the mindset shift that improves how organizations execute strategies through projects. Sharing the Mindset Shift The power behind this approach is that the burden for the mindset shift is shared by both the project manager (or project management office (PMO)) and the business executive. As the PMO works to understand the business leader’s desired outcomes (and to speak their language), the business leader begins to see the PMO as a strategic partner in solving their challenges. “There’s actually a world where product people, project people, and business leaders happily coexist because they’re all doing their part to achieve business goals,” Laura says. “If you’re wasting time and energy defending turf and protecting egos, your business leaders won’t take you seriously. “The only thing they care about is, ‘what are you doing to help us achieve our strategic goals,’ Laura adds. Shifting Left A few episodes back, cybersecurity specialist Paul Connaghan spoke about embedding a security mindset into your software as early in the development process as possible. This “shift left” approach works for project management too. Too often, eager executives begin to execute strategy before they have a project plan in place. “If we set those projects up for success before they start, we’d have this positive ripple effect of benefit to the rest of the life cycle of strategy delivery, project execution, and strategy realization, where you get those better business outcomes,” Laura says. Facilitating Complex Change Effective change management is about helping people understand the reason for change, and then bringing them along with you through the process. The secret, Laura continues, is to make the change about the people we’re serving in a way that puts them in the driver’s seat instead of feeling like they’re being dragged behind the car. People want autonomy, freedom, a sense of control, and the ability to be a part of the solution, Laura adds. “People aren’t resistant to change; they’re resistant to having change done to them.” You can also watch our conversation with Laura Barnard on the Product Momentum YouTube channel! The post 135 / The New PMO: Strategic Partner in Business Transformation, with Laura Barnard appeared first on ITX Corp..

Product coach Gabrielle Bufrem discusses the importance of effective communication for product leaders, emphasizing the need to consider timing, volume, and audience context. She highlights that good communication is crucial for solving product and people problems. The podcast explores the balance between long-term vision and short-term delivery in product management, as well as the significance of personal growth, human connection, and joy in leadership.

April Dunford, expert in positioning and author of 'Obviously Awesome', discusses the challenges of B2B sales and the importance of helping buyers make confident decisions. She emphasizes the need for a compelling sales pitch that communicates unique value. The podcast delves into strategies for streamlining the buying process and collaborating effectively between product managers and sales teams.

Integrating AI tools into the product management workflow isn’t about cutting humans out of the loop. There’s nothing in the product manager playbook saying, “yeah, yeah, just build this idea and ship it.” Instead, as ProdPad co-founder and CEO Janna Bastow suggests, use AI tools to remove some of the grunt work so that we can spend more time working on the important stuff that’s helping to transform product management. In this episode of Product Momentum, Janna rejoins Paul and ITX Product Manager Sean Murray to discuss how AI tools are driving the transformation of Product Management. (Catch our first conversation with Janna here: The Product Leader’s Dilemma: Balancing Possibility, Predictability). Swap Out the Grunt Work To Focus on the Premium So much of what we do is just grunt work, Janna says, repetitive tasks that require little in the way of expertise. “AI tools remove a lot of that pain,” she added. “That’s the sort of thing that product managers can easily outsource to a GPT-type agent to help us reduce our effort on.” But the real power of AI comes not in streamlining existing tasks, but in “creating time for higher-level tasks that require human interaction, like talking to customers and stakeholders and using those conversations to figure out what our strategy should be.” AI as Strategic Copilot Janna sees AI as more of a sidekick than a replacement for human engagement. “I really like the term ‘copilot’ that’s been flying around,” she says, highlighting an AI strong suit in providing insights and feedback that guide product managers’ decision-making and strategy development. “[AI] is a copilot, an assistant. a sidekick,” she adds. “And it’s there to help us get to the point that we can communicate or make decisions faster and better. It’s all about making sure the whole org is making better products, and the product team is empowered to do so.” Lowering Barriers of Entry Into Product Management Years ago, would-be product managers steered away from the role – voluntarily and otherwise. As Janna explains, “The assumption was that we needed a computer science degree or that we should know how to code.” AI tools have lowered that barrier – maybe even removed it – attracting a more diverse range of talent. “It’s going to open product management up to people who otherwise weren’t going to look down this path.” Learn more from Janna Bastow by reading her blog and checking out her webinars, talks, and podcast. You can also watch our conversation with Janna Bastow on the Product Momentum YouTube channel! The post 132 / 3 Ways AI Is Transforming Product Management, with Janna Bastow appeared first on ITX Corp..

When product development teams build new software tools and systems, they like to start with the end in mind by nudging quality assurance and security scanning closer to the early stages of the process. Paul Connaghan, Principal Application Security Consultant at RiverSafe in London, UK, says this “shift left” approach goes straight to the heart of business operations by embedding a security mindset in the underlying architecture, in UX and UI design, and in the QA and app hosting apparatus. In this episode of Product Momentum, Paul sat down with Paul Gebel and Jonathan Coupal, ITX’s VP of Infrastructure, stressing the importance of moving security considerations to the earliest possible phase of the SDLC (software development life cycle). Shift Left“Shift left has been something of focus for clients a few years now,” Paul says. “Once we’ve actually written some code, we want to test that code as soon as we can.” Paul’s passion for app and system security, and threat modeling specifically, is obvious. It’s a task typically performed by security folks, Paul adds, as it can be quite involved to produce threat models for things that we don’t entirely understand. Nonetheless, he advocates for teaching product teams to do this for themselves. Build a Security-Focused Culture“It helps us address the skill challenge, because there’s just not enough people in cyber to effectively secure all the applications and products that are out there,” Paul shares. “But it also gets teams into the habit of having daily conversations about security, which is fundamentally really the thing that’s going to help close the [security knowledge] gap and build a security-focused culture.” Question: within each sprint, how much capacity does your team allocate for security? None? 5%? More? Be sure to catch the entire episode to learn Paul Connaghan’s expert recommendation. Learn more about application security and threat modeling by catching our earlier Product Momentum episode, with guest Chris Romeo. You can also watch our conversation with Paul Connaghan on the Product Momentum YouTube channel! The post 131 / Shift Left: Integrating a Security Mindset Early in the Software Development Life Cycle, with Paul Connaghan appeared first on ITX Corp..

Product strategy is the guiding light that illuminates the path to success for any product. However, articulating and executing this strategy is often easier said than done, says product management expert Roman Pichler. In this episode of Product Momentum, Roman shares valuable insights into the essence of product strategy and how to effectively navigate its complexities. Defining Product Strategy Strategy means different things to different people, Roman says. “I would suggest the strategy is a high-level plan: it describes the approach that we’ve chosen to make or keep a product successful.” Strategy and vision are not the same, he notes. “Strategy encompasses crucial elements such as the value proposition, target markets, business goals, and standout features. Without a clearly articulated strategy, product teams risk missing out on the benefits that strategic alignment brings.” Responsibility, Ownership, and Influence Traditionally, product strategy formulation has been viewed as the sole responsibility of top management. Roman advocates for a different, more inclusive approach, where product managers and cross-functional teams actively participate in strategic decision-making. “A single person hardly ever has all the right information, the right data to make the right decisions,” Roman says. “I find it’s better to delegate the product strategy – or the decisionmaking authority around product strategy – to the people who are in charge or who work on those products, and then coach them. “Empowering product managers to own and evolve strategies not only fosters motivation, but also prevents bottlenecks and promotes continuous adaptation.” Empowerment and Trust When it comes to empowerment, two factors are at play, Roman offers. “One we refer to as ‘personal power; that’s aligned with the organizational aspect. But when we look into what individual contributors and  product people can do to empower themselves, that would be strengthening our expert power: the ‘referent power.’ The better we are at earning and exhibiting referent power – at crafting and setting a vision, creating and evolving a product strategy, and at understanding the specific markets and market segments our product serves – the more people are likely to trust us. Be sure to check out our episode with Roman Pichler on the Product Momentum YouTube channel! The post 130 / Discovering the Essence of Product Strategy, with Roman Pichler appeared first on ITX Corp..

When Jared Spool first visited Product Momentum a few years ago, he talked about the struggle designers feel when they’re directed to add new features to a design without first understanding the problem to be solved. “Great designers don’t fall in love with their solutions,” he advised us. “They fall in love with their problems.” In today’s episode, Jared chats with Paul Gebel and co-host Christina Halladay, Director of UX at ITX. With his trademark wit and wisdom, he doubles down on that advice by describing what he’s been up to since we last spoke, as a Maker of Awesomeness at Center Centre. “I’ve been helping UX leaders function at that strategic level, bringing out the value of their contribution and helping them think about the right problems.” Strategic UX vs. Tactical UX “Most of the UX practiced these days is tactical UX,” Jared adds, “by the folks who have really great skills who can create designs and do usability tests and write fantastic content. But there’s a limit to how much they can contribute to the organization.” On the other hand, he says strategic UX helps us get to the root of our users’ problems. It’s about introducing the power of UX early in the product development process and focusing on shipping the right thing. Before we can do that, though, we first need to make sure we’ve identified the right problem. Strategic UX Drives Outcomes Tactical UX is output-driven; strategic UX is outcome-driven. “With strategic UX, we’re finally applying all the great things that UX people do – their skills and talents, the capabilities, the knowledge, the experience, the expertise – to make sure the organization is being competitive and that we’re actually solving big problems for their users.” Leaders + Vision Be sure to catch the entire episode to hear Jared Spool discuss leaders (as opposed to managers) and vision: “Leaders inspire others to rally behind a compelling Vision, which is the story that articulates a possible future (as opposed to a ‘do-nothing’ future) and inspires action from all levels of the organization.” You can also watch our conversation with Jared Spool on the Product Momentum YouTube channel! The post 129 / Strategic UX: The Path to Outcome-Driven Design, with Jared Spool appeared first on ITX Corp..