Product managers face numerous pressures and conflicting expectations, such as delivering results for customers and the business, having immediate impact while also considering long-term goals. This can make them feel trapped and unsure of which priorities to focus on. However, successful product managers become creators and solution-finders, pitching ideas and rallying others to achieve success. By shifting from a defensive mindset to an offensive one, they can navigate these challenges and find a viable solution.
“Product driven means you understand what your customers’ problems are, but you don’t let yourself get held back by what your customers are saying. You’re not building your product for a customer that you’re already working with. You’re building a product for a customer that you haven’t yet met."
Ben Foster is the co-founder of Prodify and the co-author of “Build What Matters”. In this episode, we discussed how product driven and vision-led product management helps organizations deliver key customer outcomes and achieve business goals. Ben first began by describing the product management paradox and some of the common product management dysfunctions. Ben then dived deep into the three important aspects of a vision-led product management, which are key customer outcomes, customer journey vision, and product strategy.
Listen out for:
- Career Journey - [00:03:31]
- Product Management Paradox - [00:05:59]
- The Role of Product Manager - [00:08:10]
- Product Dysfunctions - [00:09:50]
- Product Driven - [00:14:25]
- Vision-Led Product Management - [00:18:40]
- Key Outcomes - [00:22:52]
- Key Outcomes Pyramid - [00:28:52]
- Customer Journey Vision - [00:33:12]
- Customer Experience Stages - [00:35:36]
- Product Vision - [00:40:04]
- Product Strategy - [00:43:43]
- Product Roadmap - [00:47:49]
- Product Roadmap Duration - [00:55:50]
- 3 Tech Lead Wisdom - [00:58:51]
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Ben Foster’s Bio
Ben Foster has been working in product management in the tech scene for 25 years, and is co-founder and partner at Prodify, a product consulting and coaching firm he started 9 years ago. He cut his teeth at eBay during its heyday and was most recently the chief product officer at the wearable company Whoop. He has experience from startups to multi-billion dollar companies and everything in between. He’s spoken at several major tech events, has produced the definitive course on product leadership, and co-authored the Amazon bestseller Build What Matters. He lives in Arlington, VA with his wife and son.
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