One Knight in Product

Build Better Products Faster by Embracing Continuous Delivery (with Dave Farley, Consultant & Co-author of ”Continuous Delivery”)

Dave Farley is a consultant and renowned thought leader in the software development world, and a strong advocate for ensuring that our software is always releasable. He's co-authored a book and runs a popular YouTube channel, both called "Continuous Delivery". We spoke about what continuous delivery is, why it's important, the barriers to implementing it, and how product managers can help.
Episode highlights:
1. Continuous delivery is what the best software organisations in the world do
It's unambiguous. It's backed by data. It's the best way to build quality products. Applying these techniques means your software is always releasable, and every change is safe
2. But, this doesn't mean you need genius developers
Any team can adopt continuous delivery. It's not a factor of 10x "rock star" developers, but empowered teams of developers working together, collaborating and *talking* to each other.
3. You build quality software by going fast
Continuous feedback based on small changes, constantly validated, ensures high-quality products. You don't want to go back & fix it later. You can't inspect quality into a system at the end of a development cycle. Build it in upfront.
4. Just because you can release continuously doesn't mean you have to
What you release to customers is a business decision. This isn't about throwing half-finished features at users but having software that you know works. You can use feature flags to manage availability.
5. Many product managers need to check themselves
We need to move away from PMs giving developers human-language representations of code and telling them to convert it for a computer. The best devs are problem solvers and should be involved in working out the best solution.
Buy "Continuous Delivery"
"Getting software released to users is often a painful, risky, and time-consuming process.This groundbreaking new book sets out the principles and technical practices that enable rapid, incremental delivery of high quality, valuable new functionality to users. Through automation of the build, deployment, and testing process, and improved collaboration between developers, testers, and operations, delivery teams can get changes released in a matter of hours―sometimes even minutes–no matter what the size of a project or the complexity of its code base."
Check it out on Amazon.
Check out Dave's course
Dave has a course out that helps people get good at all the stuff we talked about in the podcast. If you're interested, check the course out here.
Dave also mentioned a talk by his co-author Jez Humble. I'm not 100% sure if this is the one, but it looks pretty good anyway. Check it out.
Contact Dave
You can connect with Dave on Twitter. You can also check out the Continuous Delivery YouTube channel.

The Big Pivot to Reinvent Product Management (with Yana Welinder, Founder & CEO @ Kraftful)

Yana Welinder is the CEO of Kraftful. We spoke a year ago on this podcast about her mission to help solve usability in IoT startups, but she's since gone all-in with a hard pivot to build an AI-powered product co-pilot. The company's growing like crazy and we caught up to talk about what's changed since our last interview.
Episode highlights:
 
1. Pivoting was hard but the time (and tech) was right
Yana was solving a problem she deeply cared about, but when ChatGPT hit primetime she realised she could solve an even more important problem. She dreaded sending the email to existing users, but everyone was super-positive.
2. It's important to validate your pivot ahead of time
Yana did some background research by stealthily positioning herself at conferences as the founder of a startup solving the new problem. People were super-keen to share feedback and this gave her confidence in the pivot.
3. Kraftful will replace a lot of PM tasks, but not PMs
There's still plenty of room for product managers in an AI-powered world. The best PMs will use smart technology to automate away necessary, but ultimately lower leverage tasks, and enable PMs to concentrate on strategy.
4. There is a possibility of dependency on AI-powered tools, but that's OK
Is there a danger that people forget how to do PM work without AI tools? Sure, but Yana likens the situation to using Google Maps. How many people know how to get where they're going without assistance?
5. Hallucinations are going away soon
There are well-known issues with inaccurate text coming out of LLMs, but the tech is developing fast. It's possible to mitigate the worst of the effects by including deep context & narrowing focus rather than using LLMs as a Swiss Army Knife.
Contact Yana
You can catch up with Yana on Twitter or check out Kraftul at Kraftful.com.

Landing That Perfect Role by Finding Your Inevitable Edge (with Erika Klics, Job Search Strategist & Founder @ ErikaKlics.com)

Erika Klics is a former talent manager who worked for companies like Snap Inc and Zapier to help them build their teams. She started to see certain patterns in recruiting that made her realise that there was a bigger problem to solve on the candidate side and started her own consultancy to help goal-driven professionals achieve their career aims. We spoke about her work, and some general do's and don'ts of job hunting.
Episode highlights:
 
1. Everyone has an Inevitable Edge
Your Inevitable Edge is the thing that makes you unique. No one else brings it to the table. Everyone has a juxtaposition of skills & experiences that makes them unique. It's important to identify & leverage it to be successful when job hunting.
2. Be intentional with your job search criteria
Don't just make a list of literally every job that matches a search term & scroll through it one by one. You need to understand what company profiles are truly a fit for you and avoid spraying and praying.
3. Get your story straight
It's all about positioning - we should be good at this! Being able to tell your unique story is important, but make sure you pitch it at the right level, set appropriate context & don't go too deep on interesting, but ultimately irrelevant, stories.
4. Companies don't hire people, humans do
You need to make a human connection with everyone you meet during the interview process. Build empathy with them and work out what they care about, why they're asking the questions they're asking and listen between the lines.
5. Don't "settle" for a job you don't want
When times are hard, it's easy to cast your net out for unsuitable/too-junior jobs. You'll get interviews because they're curious, but you won't get hired. This will knock your confidence. If you do get the job, you'll probably hate it.
Contact Erika
You can catch up with Erika on LinkedIn or visit her website, ErikaKlics.com.

Doing the Splits to Accelerate your Product Growth (with Andres Glusman, CEO @ DoWhatWorks & A/B Test Enthusiast)

Andres Glusman is the Cofounder and CEO of DoWhatWorks. Prior to DoWhatWorks he led product and growth at Meetup where he was a pioneer in the lean startup movement. He has been running tests online since the late 1990s and is passionate about human behaviour. We spoke about the power of split testing, when you can do it, and when you can't.
Episode highlights:
 
1. Split tests are a great way to work out how to grow
Otherwise known as A/B tests, split testing involves systematically varying a user experience for different groups of users & then comparing the end result to see how those changes impacted behaviour for better (or worse).
2. Four out of five split tests fail to move the needle
These are terrible odds, but the good news is that terrible odds aren't hard to make a little better. It's important to get as much signal from as many sources as possible upfront so you have the best chance of success.
3. These signals can come from anywhere
Split-testing is a great way to learn, but it's not the only way to learn. Make sure you use a mixture of experiments, surveys, qualitative inputs, feedback and any other data source you can get your hands on. It's all signal.
4. There's only so much juice you can squeeze from a lemon
You need to be careful that you're going overboard. It's possible to test too much & get caught in eternal loops. It comes down to fear of mistakes but, unless you're putting medicine in someone, you can make a mistake.
5. Yes, B2B people can do split-tests too
You don't have to have a mass-market B2C app to get good tests going. There's scope to experiment in B2B but you need to do your homework, get as much data as you can upfront & make sure you put your chips on the right part of the table.
Contact Andres
You can catch up with Andres on LinkedIn.

Moving to Customer-Led Growth by Forgetting the Funnel (with Georgiana Laudi & Claire Suellentrop, Founders @ Forget the Funnel)

Georgiana (Gia) Laudi and Claire Suellentrop are both experienced SaaS product marketing leaders who spotted the same things again and again whilst trying to help companies grow. They decided it was time to join forces and persuade marketers around the world that the sales funnel is dead, and we need to try a different approach. They founded Forget the Funnel, a consultancy aiming to help people do just that, and have recently launched their new book of the same name.
A message from this episode's sponsor - My Mentor Path
This episode is sponsored by My Mentor Path. I'm a passionate advocate for mentoring and believe it to be one of the highest-leverage activities you can undertake to get ahead in your career. I try to do my part but am but one man, so I helped set up this FREE mentoring community to try to help out at scale. Sign up now as a mentor, a mentee, or both!
Episode highlights:
 
1. The Funnel is no longer fit for purpose
Marketers have been trying to cram leads into the top of the funnel for 100 years but it doesn't serve the needs of modern marketers in recurring revenue SaaS businesses. We need to consider the customer journey pre and post-acquisition
2. Forgetting the Funnel is a company mindset shift
Business leaders can lose sight of the market & the product vision as companies evolve. They need to forget the funnel & empower their marketing teams to do the same & focus relentlessly on customers, not inward-facing metrics.
3. You're going to need to pay off your Revenue Debt
As companies evolve, they can end up with a very fragmented set of customers that don't form a coherent ICP. To succeed with customer-led growth you need to work out who your best customers are and optimise for them.
4. Companies often have remarkably similar marketing problems
How these problems manifest themselves may be different, but there's generally some low-hanging fruit that can be picked straight away. Progress on harder problems can be stymied by unclear ownership or responsibility
5. There's no point spending a dime on marketing until you've fixed your fundamentals
If you don't focus your marketing on your best-fit customers and optimise everything to speak to them, you're just throwing your money away trying to scale marketing up. Fix the basics first!
Buy "Forget the Funnel"
"Your product is great. So why is marketing it so hard? Many SaaS companies struggle with marketing. Teams try everything they can to drive more traffic, leads, and signups. Yet revenue growth remains... lumpy. Slow. Frustratingly inconsistent. If this sounds familiar, the problem isn’t you or your ideas; it’s that you’re guessing at what resonates with your target customers. In Forget the Funnel, Georgiana Laudi and Claire Suellentrop share the Customer-Led Growth Framework they've developed to help companies of all sizes solve their product marketing struggles and hit ambitious targets. This framework helps you get inside your customers’ heads, map and measure your customers’ experience, and uncover which tactics will actually move the needle for your company."
Check it out on Amazon. You can also check out the book website
Contact Gia & Claire
You can catch up with Gia and Claire on Twitter (Claire, Gia), LinkedIn (Claire, Gia) or visit their website, Forget the Funnel.

Embracing Change to Innovate in Product Management (with Greg Coticchia, CEO @ Sopheon)

Greg Coticchia is the CEO of Sopheon, an innovation management platform aiming to help companies innovate at scale. Greg has been in product management since the 80s and seen it all, and also helped Carnegie Mellon University create the first degree programme in product management. He's passionate about all things innovation and believes that we all need to get comfortable with managing change. He also shared some insights from his many years in product management.
A message from this episode's sponsor - One Knight Consulting
This episode is sponsored by One Knight Consulting. Yes, yes, that's me. As you probably know, I've moved into freelance coaching and consulting for B2B product companies. I want to help your company, your team and your... well, you, get better at product management. If you want to chat to me about what I can do for you, why not head over to book a call with me and we can discuss your needs and how I can help.
Episode highlights:
1. You don't need a degree to be a product manager
Greg worked with Carnegie Mellon University to create a degree in product management, but it's important to realise that any learning is the start of a journey... you need to get punched in the face by a real job a few times.
2. Having big early successes is a double-edged sword
It's common for PMs to learn from failure, but it's possible to go too far the other way and treat early success as The One Way to future success. You need to remain humble and never stop learning & adapting.
3. The hardest organisation to get to change is a successful organisation.
It's easy to use Kodak or Blockbuster as cautionary tales but these were successful organisations making a boatload of money. They needed to embrace change, but it's not surprising that they didn't.
4. The best way for big companies to innovate is to make small companies
Big companies are inherently resistant to change. If they want to stay ahead, they need to create or acquire small companies without baggage and leave them to it rather than try to make them fit in.
5. Innovation is about more than just shiny new tech
It's easy to get excited about new tech, but we should get equally excited about repositioning existing products or building new business models to serve novel segments. Everything should always be focused on the users!
Contact Greg
You can catch up with Greg on LinkedIn.
You can try out Sopheon on sopheon.com

Achieving Product Excellence with the Product Operations Manifesto (with Antonia Landi, Product Ops Consultant & Co-Author ”Product Operations Manifesto”)

Antonia Landi is a freelance Product Operations consultant and coach who fell into Product Operations thanks to LinkedIn recommending a strange new job title to her, and thinking "that's me!". She's now a passionate advocate for the value that Product Operations can bring to organisations and has co-authored the Product Operations Manifesto to help frame it with product teams and company leadership.
A message from this episode's sponsor - One Knight Consulting
This episode is sponsored by One Knight Consulting. Yes, yes, that's me. As you probably know, I've moved into freelance coaching and consulting for B2B product companies. I want to help your company, your team and your... well, you, get better at product management. If you want to chat to me about what I can do for you, why not head over to book a call with me and we can discuss your needs and how I can help.
 
Episode highlights:
 
1. Product Ops is about achieving product excellence at an organisational level
It's difficult to pin down as problems are different in every company. Maybe it's data analysis, organising processes or building communities of practice. You're there to remove blockers to being product-led.
2. You might not need a Product Ops team... yet
Many Product Ops tasks already existed before Product Ops. How much you need a dedicated team depends on how much pain are you willing to tolerate. What's slipping through the cracks? Product Ops helps you scale sustainably.
3. Product Ops is not the revenge of project managers & "process people"
There are some crossovers with agile coaching, project & programme management but we should also reclaim the word "process"… process isn’t always bad - it just needs to serve you, not the other way around.
4. The Product Ops manifesto was necessary to give people something to rally behind
There’s so much ambiguity & a need to move past the "what is it" question. They came up with a document to help product teams to understand the parameters (and prerequisites) of the function.
5. About those prerequisites...
The most important is the ability to affect change - without this, Product Ops people just become process people or team assistants. On the other hand, these prerequisites are 100% valid for just generally being a good product company.
Check out the Product Operations Manifesto
"Product Operations empowers product organizations to collectively, effectively and efficiently drive the most meaningful outcomes for customers"
Check out the Product Operations Manifesto and feel free to add your name to the list!
Contact Antonia
You can connect with Antonia on LinkedIn.

Is Product-Led Growth Really For You? (with Leah Tharin, Product-Led Growth Guru & Head of Product @ Jua)

Leah Tharin is a product leader, content creator, advisor and startup founder. Leah is now reinventing weather forecasting with Jua and is a well-known advocate for product-led growth. We went deep into her content creation process, how to work out if product-led growth is for you, and some of the steps you might take to get started.
A message from this episode's sponsor - My Mentor Path
This episode is sponsored by My Mentor Path. I'm a passionate advocate for mentoring and believe it to be one of the highest-leverage activities you can undertake to get ahead in your career. I try to do my part but am but one man, so I helped set up this FREE mentoring community to try to help out at scale. Sign up now as a mentor, a mentee, or both!
Episode highlights:
 
1. Product-Led Growth is all about "Show, don't Tell"
It's not necessarily a free trial/freemium, but it's more important than ever to let people understand the value they're getting from your product rather than hiding behind (possibly auto-generated!) marketing content.
2. Product-led growth does not replace sales-led growth
PLG just addresses a different segment in a better way than sales-led. For bigger deals, you still need a sales team, but product-led sales mean getting better quality leads by demonstrating the value upfront.
3. Product-led growth might not be for you... yet
There are some segments where PLG might not make sense. If people don't know they have the problem you solve, if they won't proactively search you out or recommend you or if your solution is super-innovative, maybe try PLG later.
4. Ignore the "product" word - this is a company initiative
The product management team doesn't own PLG. The whole organisation needs to align around what "success" looks like for a customer and optimise all incentives towards achieving that.
5. You need to objectively measure team success
People can't just rely on "product sense" to tell if they're being successful with PLG. Product organisations need to have good quantitative data & measure product satisfaction. Data should be tracked per team, not per user.
Contact Leah
You can connect with Leah on LinkedIn, on Twitter, or check out all of her lovely content on Leah’s ProducTea.