Product Chats Podcast

“The whole point of doing a positioning document is to clearly and concisely say, ‘who are we solving problems for? What are those particular problems, and why do those people care so much that we solve those problems for them?’”   In this episode of Pragmatic Live, Rebecca Kalogeris, VP of marketing for Pragmatic Institute, interviews Pragmatic instructor Dan Corbin about positioning.   Dan explains that positioning helps to align the organization by clearly communicating the target audience, their problems, and the solutions to those problems. This is particularly important for product management teams, often at the organization's center and playing a pivotal role in driving alignment.   During this episode, Dan and Rebecca Discuss: Why position documents are essential for the entire organization and why it makes the product team’s job easier What to include in a positioning document and why the order of the sections is so important How many positioning documents should you create per product Who should own the positioning document Additional Resources: Enroll Foundations to learn more about positioning from expert instructors like Dan Corbin. Take the first step in truly understanding the market and the problems it faces. In this course, you’ll also master the Pragmatic Framework and the activities needed to bring a successful product to market. Learn More

“I think every company should be thinking about is create a product-led growth strategy. You don't have to implement it. You don't have to say, "this is how we're going to run our company." But I think if you step back to think about what it would look like if we use product-led growth in our company, you would probably build much better products.” - Mark Stiving   What trends will shape the future of pricing? In this episode of Pragmatic Live, Rebecca Kalogeris, VP of marketing for Pragmatic Institute, interviews pricing guru Mark Stiving about pricing trends and predictions for 2023.   They discuss: Companies moving toward usage-based pricing What is product-led growth Why net-dollar retention is the single most important KPI The importance of compensation for the sales team that grows customers Pricing and AI Additional Resources:   Enroll in the Pragmatic Price course today to learn how to evaluate the competitive and market environment, create effective price segmentation strategies, and implement and measure pricing strategies that support your organization's goals.   Is your subscription business stuck in neutral? Shift into high gear with the on-demand course, Accelerate Your Subscription Business. Led by pricing expert Mark Stiving, this course will help you streamline your business for success and give you the clarity and certainty you need to drive growth.   Keep Learning About Pricing From Mark Stiving Pricing Case Study: Why Disney Should Charge MORE for Their $6,000 Hotel Room Pricing Case Study: The Housing Market Teaches Why Cost Plus Pricing is a Bad Idea Pricing Case Study: When Will You Unsubscribe to Netflix? Pricing Case Study: Shrinkflation and Why You’re Getting Less but Paying More

In this episode, Rebecca Kalogeris, VP of marketing for Pragmatic Institute, hosts Sandy Orlando, the senior VP of product management at CDK Global, an automotive retailing software company. Sandy explains that her objective with NIHITO visits is to listen to the customer rather than to talk to the customer, and to test a hypothesis without trying to inform it. She said that while building personas people try to prescribe a conclusion and then prove it rather than exploring. When done well, personas can lead a product team to create solutions that lead customers to desired outcomes. At times, she said she's received feedback from customers that she didn't deliver one single thing the customer asked for but instead delivered exactly what they needed.

This episode is from our latest Product Chat webinar >> watch the webinar With 2022 coming to an end and rumbles of the macro environment creating some potentially tough hurdles for businesses in 2023, companies must be laser-focused on what is most important for success in the coming year. This is why product managers and leaders must hone in on areas that create resilience and deliver the highest value and greatest impact for their organizations, employees and, most importantly, their users and customers. Join us as we welcome Kirsten Van Detta, senior product manager at LinkedIn, for a conversation on what key concepts product professionals should be focusing on to fuel their 2023 and how being ruthless in your prioritization can serve as your biggest ally.

“What I also have noticed is without clarity, people are literally moving in very different directions, in the wrong direction. They're moving fast, but it's not really making an impact on where they want to go.” - Yasmeen Turayhi   In this episode of Pragmatic Live, Rebecca Kalogeris, VP of marketing for Pragmatic Institute, interviews Yasmeen Turayhi, founder of the consultancy firm Modern Product and author of Product Marketing Debunked.   They Discuss The importance of the product marketing role How to manage pressure and the importance of mental health Strategies to build clarity and prioritize tasks Why the best product marketers are curious and diversify their knowledge Follow Yasmeen Turayhi on Medium   Additional Resources Market. This course helps you gain a thorough understanding of your buyers and how they like to buy so you can build the product marketing strategies that deliver results. Learn More

This episode is from our latest Product Chat webinar >> watch the webinar Join us as we welcome Sandi Olson, Senior Marketing Content Manager at Microsoft for a conversation on how utilizing the right asset assessment techniques can help you to analyze, prioritize and make forward-thinking pivots before your competitors. In this conversation Sandi will share: How to approach asset assessment through a lens that allows you to revive, streamline and support any business strategy Ways you can utilize assessment to better integrate positioning and messaging How healthy asset hygiene enhances strategy development Archive, archive, archive Tools and processes you can leverage to ensure you are finding meaningful opportunities within your assets

Validating market problems isn’t about listening only to the noisy 20 percent of the market. Instead, it’s about understanding the needs of the quiet 80 percent too. Without validation, product teams can invest valuable time and resources into an idea that is destined to fall flat. In this episode of Pragmatic Live, Rebecca Kalogeris, VP of marketing for Pragmatic Institute, interviews Pragmatic instructor Terry Sadowski who candidly shares his experience with a launch failure. They discuss: How pressure and novelty can cause you to ignore established processes that protect against launch failures The ways hindsight reveals all the missteps overlooked in a moment of excitement and energy How to move forward after a big failed launch Key advice to avoid a failed launch Want to learn more about effective launches? Launch is a course that helps you create a more strategic approach to exceed your business objectives. Learn to execute successful launches that align your entire organization around the same strategies and goals. Enroll Today

“Go-to-Market work is delayed compounding work, meaning there's delayed gratification, and it compounds over time. So if you're changing up your execution, it’s because there's no strategy. So if you create the strategy and then you do consistent execution, and you do the marketing math to understand what's working and what's not, then you start to get that delayed compounding effect.” -TK Kadar   In this episode of Pragmatic Live, Rebecca Kalogeris, VP of marketing for Pragmatic Institute, interviews TK Kadar, founder of TK Unstoppable where he advises SaaS Founders on how to build scalable Go-To-Market strategies. TK has an extensive background in strategy, marketing, and he specializes in building, scaling and exiting SaaS businesses   They discuss: Three pillars of a successful business Why the market can make or break any product What makes a great market How to drive alignment in a company How to get out of the “one more feature” trap The difference between strategy and execution To hear more from TK, subscribe to his YouTube channel. He published a new episode every Sunday. You can also check out his programs at getunstoppable.com.   Keep Learning with Pragmatic Training:   Market. This course helps you gain a thorough understanding of your buyers and how they like to buy so you can build the product marketing strategies that deliver results. Learn More

“Just because you hit the metrics for a couple of months doesn’t mean you will be instantly promoted. You need to hit those standards and maintain those standards for a period of time. For the more advanced roles, we want them to maintain those standards for a year. Others maintain those higher standards for six months, etc.” - Corban Wells   In this episode of Pragmatic Live, Rebecca Kalogeris, VP of marketing and product strategy for Pragmatic Institute, interviews Pragmatic Corban Wells, director of product management at Primary Residential Mortgage about the most important thing a product manager can do for their team today. Corban has been involved in product management for 30 years. His current team consists of 13 product managers responsible for managing four product verticals. Each vertical has a different tech stack, and the team’s job is to make those systems better and more efficient for the 2,500 employees at Primary Residential Mortgage.   In this episode Corban and Rebecca discuss How to define product manager and product owner Building development and career paths for product professionals based on KPIs How clear expectations for each role improve one-on-ones and make the feedback more objective Pragmatic Provides Training Opportunities for Your Team: Foundations on Demand Foundations is the first step to understanding the market and its problems. With that knowledge, you can build and sell products that people actually want to buy. You’ll also learn to master the Pragmatic Framework and the activities needed to bring a successful product to market. Learn More

“Product teams should stay out of the how and focus on the what, who and why. If we can bring all that context to the table and then we can give our development teams the space to think creatively. To start with a blank canvas. It is a best practice to have a separation of duties between the how and the what.” - Amy Graham   Product managers need to be good partners and create good teams to create great products. We all want to be a part of a high-performing team, we want to build them, and it’s not something that happens accidentally.   So, in this episode of Pragmatic Live, Rebecca Kalogeris, VP of marketing for Pragmatic Institute, interviews Pragmatic instructor Amy Graham about some best practices for building high-performance teams.   They discuss: The importance of having clarity around roles and responsibilities and understanding what type of team you have (e.g., high market knowledge vs dependent) How to build trust and collaboration between product and development Some of the key areas where teamwork starts to break down in companies. Foundations on Demand In this course, students learn how to become market-driven by exploring concepts such as how to uncover strategic opportunities, define product team roles and responsibilities, prioritize actual vs. desired business goals, and how to talk to and observe the market in action. Learn More and Enroll