One Knight in Product

Product Management in Lockdown & the Perils of Hustle Culture (with Jack Stevens, Senior PM @ Publicis Sapient)

An interview with Jack Stevens. Jack is Senior Product Manager for Publicis Sapient, a product consultancy that helps large companies with their digital transformation. Aside from his day job working on a secret project that he can't tell us about, Jack was also featured in a BBC article last summer "Stress, burnout and redundancy: Tough times in IT". I spoke to Jack about a few things:
His work with Publicis Sapient and how they work really hard to be a flat, open company at scale
How SAFe and other scaled agile approaches (probably) can't work
How he got onto the BBC article in the first place, and how the reaction has been
How hustle culture is toxic, mainly a lie, and we just see the survivors who probably succeeded partially through luck
How it's OK for some people to just be OK and not everyone has to change the world to be successful
How his employer reacted after seeing the article, and the support they gave him
How personal hardship has driven his ambitions to work in financial services to ensure people have the right tools to make good financial decisions
And much more!

Product Marketing & the Importance of Pirate Metrics (with Abby Hehemann, Senior Product Marketing Manager @ GetResponse)

An interview with Abby Hehemann. Abby is Senior Product Marketing Manager for GetResponse, a full stack marketing platform. She's passionate about Product Management and Product-Led Growth, and using data to monitor and inform Product Marketing decisions. Abby is also a features speaker with Product-Led Growth Hub.
The role of Product Marketing and importance of getting close to the Product team
Pirate metrics (AARRR!) and how you can use them to monitor the health of your funnel
The concept of Product-Led Growth and how companies can take their first steps to being Product-Led
The importance of communication and collaboration between functions
How she got involved with Product-Led Growth hub and their future collaboration plans
Whether Product Marketing should report to the VP of Marketing or the VP of Product
Most importantly, whether you can get get good nachos in Poland
And much more!

Empathy, Mentorship and the Importance of Diversity & Inclusion (with Ana Kresina, PM @ Redbubble)

An interview with Ana Kresina. Ana is a self-described vagabond, a Canadian living in Australia, passionate Product Manager at Redbubble, a leading online art marketplace. We speak about the following and more:
Ana's journey into Product Management from Marketing via UX
The importance of guidance and mentorship at the early stages of a PM career
The importance of getting shots on goal early
Some of the systemic problems with returning to work after maternity leave
How we're pretty far from having acceptable diversity in tech & product, but at least the conversations have started

Getting to Product/Market Fit and Building Effective Product Teams (with Harpal Singh, Product Consultant & Interim CPO)

An interview with Harpal Singh. Harpal is an award-winning product consultant and interim CPO with long experience working with a variety of startups and helping them set up effective product teams and achieving Product/Market Fit. We talk about his journey and specifically:
The benefits of being a consultant and how it's helped him to be a better leader
His passion for Product/Market Fit and why he wrote a playbook on it
His ambitions for the book and how it's helped him challenge his assumptions
What Product/Market Fit really means, why it's not just about MVPs, and the concept of a "Hair On Fire" problem
The importance of Marketing when finding Product/Market Fit and not being led solely by technology
The variability of the Product Manager role between companies & the importance of a career plan
The perils of poor LinkedIn content

Transforming companies & instilling a product mindset (with Dave Martin, founder of Right To Left)

An interview with Dave Martin. Dave is a product leader with a strong history of transforming companies into effective product-focused organisations. Most recently, he's co-founder of consultancy Right to Left, where he takes some of his past learnings and pays them forward to the next generation of product-hungry companies.
We speak about a lot, including:
How he works with early to mid stage companies to transform them
The Product Management Health Check
How Product Managers must not be seen as mere requirements gatherers
The difference between different types of Product Manager, even within successful organisations
The challenges of moving from product management into product leadership
The importance of evidence in decision making

Avoiding the agency trap & ADHD in Product (with Janna Bastow, CEO ProdPad, co-founder Mind the Product)

An interview with Janna Bastow. Janna is co-founder of ProdPad and Mind the Product, and inventor of the Now/Next/Later roadmap. We talk about a few things:
How ProdPad started as an idea to solve a problem for Janna in her Product Management job and became a company serving thousands of Product Managers
How date-based roadmaps are the devil and how to tackle management wanting false security
The perils of building features for clients, falling into the trap of being an agency instead of a product company, and never getting the chance to solve big problems
How Mind the Product started out and how they've pivoted to run successful events even in the middle of a pandemic (and how she misses a good flat white)
Janna's recent ADHD diagnosis, what that meant to her, how she's managing it, and some of the advantages and disadvantages the condition brings to Product Management

Lifelong learning & the perils of time-based roadmaps (with Andrea Saez, Product Growth & Education @ ProdPad)

An interview with Andrea Saez. Andrea works in Product Growth & Education for ProdPad. She's a lifelong learner, educator and advocate, looking to help Product Managers make good decisions. We talk about her journey into Product Management, why certifications aren't all that they cracked up to be and how Human Psychology helps make good product decisions. We talk about:
How Andrea got into Product Management after being the first person to ask her boss "why?"
Why Customer Support staff are ideally placed to become Product Managers
How Andrea stays motivated during all of her social media product management advocacy, and how she loves Mondays
Why date-based roadmaps are the devil and why management want them because of Previous Product Trauma
How Product need to take more responsibility when Sales make a commitment
Why certifications aren't really worth much without follow on experience
And much more!

Managing Tension in Product Management (with Marc Abraham, author & Head of Product @ ASOS.com)

An interview with Marc Abraham. Marc is the Head of Product - Engagement for ASOS.com, author of two books on Product Management and co-curator with Mind the Product. I originally picked up Marc's first book, My Product Management Toolkit as I was looking for a good primer for people transferring into my Product team from elsewhere in the business. I found the book a great primer and guide to product management. I was excited to see his new book come out, which covers a lot more around the psychology of Product.
 
I spoke to Marc about his journey into Product Management, his new book 'Managing Product = Managing Tension', and some great advice about navigating a career in Product. Marc also gives some excellent advice for Product Leaders (or aspiring Product Leaders) and ways that they can create psychological safety for their teams. As a keen boxer, Marc is also a massive advocate for using exercise to help work out some of the tensions of product management.
 
Further show notes here: https://www.oneknightinproduct.com/s1e21