Product Mastery Now for Product Managers, Leaders, and Innovators

Misconceptions about Jobs to be Done – for product managers Today we are talking about a popular and often misunderstood product management tool—Jobs to be Done (JTBD). Joining us is the originator of Jobs to be Done, Tony Ulwick. I first discovered Tony through his book What Customers Want: Using Outcome-Driven Innovation to Create Breakthrough Products and Services . It was published while...

Lessons learned on a journey from schoolteacher to Head of Product Most of the people that listen to this podcast have been in product management for several years. Many of them are in leadership roles, such as Product VPs, CPOs, and Heads of Innovation. But many others listen as well. Some are new in their product management careers, and others listen to this podcast because they are considering...

How product managers can empower teams to create a winning product strategy We hear a lot about strategy and that product managers need to create a product strategy. In practice, what does that mean and how does a product strategy help you be more successful? Helping us explore that topic is Sean Kim. He is the President and Chief Product Officer at Kajabi, a web platform that helps creators and e...

Ask the right questions to uncover your customers’ problems Today we are talking about one important skill that separates great product managers and innovators from the rest. It is the same skill that separates great leaders from the rest. It is also seen in great friends. What is that skill? I’m going to leave you in suspense for a moment and first introduce our guest. Tony Poon is th...

Insights for product managers from a case study with an electric vehicle gamechanger Today we are exploring technology-driven vs. market-driven innovation. I want to set up the topic for us a bit. There are times that a technology comes first and later a problem associated with a market need is found that the technology addresses. Examples include the glue that made 3M’s Post-it-Notes possib...

How this product manager created a successful product for an underserved market Today we are taking a product journey, exploring how an insight about an underserved market turned into a valuable product and a rapidly growing company. I love hearing stories of a product’s journey and enjoy sharing one occasionally on this podcast because, regardless of you role in product management, leadersh...

How product managers can get customer insights from a community to create a competitive advantage Three years ago I was looking for a wifi camera I could put in our RV so I could check on our dog when we needed to leave her in the motorhome. The leading brand cost about $150. I tried a brand that was new to me offering a wifi camera for $29. It worked great with the cloud features I expected. This...

Lessons learned from a product manager’s experiences at Google and YouTube Most of us have become product managers and then moved on (or will move on) to product leadership based on our experiences and knowledge. We encounter tools along the way—some that are helpful and some that are not. I want to explore experiences that help you be a better product professional. Joining us is a Tom Leung...

Innovate for the future – for product managers Is your organization innovative? Is innovation part of the culture and an aspect of the organization’s reputation? Or is innovation something that is just talked about, but you know real action isn’t taking place—what’s been called Innovation Theater. If so, today we are talking about changing that—how organizations can be more...

How to tap into the valuable resources your legal counsel can provide – for product managers Today we are talking about product  leaders using legal resources. When and why should product VPs, CPOs, and other senior product roles involve legal resources? While that question is directed to executive team roles, I expect product managers will also discover how legal resources can be wisely lev...

What product managers need to know about entering a crowded product category Today we are discussing crowded product categories and the challenges when trying to enter them with a new product. For context, we’ll use the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) category, which is indeed crowded. Joining us is Jeroen Corthout, co-founder of Salesflare, the simple yet powerful CRM.  This is a top...

When to use Agile and when to consider other options – for product managers charset=Ascii Today we are talking about when to use or not to use Agile for your product projects. Products need to get released quickly and correctly, creating more value for customers. Is Agile the answer? Maybe, but the details matter. To explore the topic with us, Mark Madsen is here to share his experience. He...

How to load up your brain with your customers’ mindset How do you figure out what your customers want? Stop and think about it for a few seconds. Is your product work based on what Sales wants, what an Executive or other HiPPO wants, what your competitor is doing, some insights gained about your customers, or something else? While we all have constraints, insights about the people using our...

How product managers and leaders break through challenges Tom Leung is the Director of Product Management at Google Health and was previously at YouTube. He also hosts the Fireside Product Management podcast. This is a special episode of the Product Mastery Now podcast as Tom is interviewing me. He invited me as a guest on his Fireside podcast. We had a great discussion and I wanted to share it he...

How product managers can achieve transformational listening Today we are talking about listening. How would you rate yourself as a listener? I consider it a superpower for product managers and innovators, because proper listening is a key way to learn what customers need. It is also a behavior of those gaining influence in their organizations. To help all of us better develop this superpower, Chri...

How CTOs contribute to innovation and product management superiority Today we are talking about senior roles that contribute to innovation, specifically the role of CTO (Chief Technology Officer). Product managers and leaders interact with many people in their organizations, and knowing how to leverage professional relationships is important to success. Joining us is Steve Orrin, CTO at Intel. Ste...

How product managers can become change leaders Today we are talking about change. The very nature of our work as product managers and leaders creates change—we change existing products to make them more valuable to customers and our organization, and we create completely new products, which causes change to occur at many levels. Your work demands that you are competent leading change. To help us l...

Integrating the advantages of large organizations and startups – for product managers Today we are talking about how your organization can more effectively innovate, using precious resources wisely to create new value. We may not talk about your organization by name, but what we will learn together will certainly apply and help you. Joining us is Kapil Kane, the Director of Innovation for In...

What product managers need to know about having an ecosystem strategy Today we are talking about strategy. It’s an important topic because our work as product managers and innovators should be in alignment with our organization’s strategy, but strategy may not be what you think it is. To help us better understand strategy and the large changes taking place in many businesses, Dr. Ron A...

Reflecting on your passion and purpose – for product managers Today I’m inviting you on a reflective journey of discovery—a journey to consider your why —which I call your purpose. I revisited this myself a few years ago and found more deeply understanding my why was personally inspiring and provided clarity to me for how I should spend my time. To help us, we have the why expert with...

Special Episode From the 2020 Summit   This is a special podcast episode, sharing an important discussion from  The Everyday Innovator 2020 Summit . The Summit brought together 24 experts who spoke on topics for product managers and product VPs. Many of the topics are truly timeless and this speaker, Keith Hawk, impressed the Product VPs who attended with his sales and organizational leadersh...

What product managers need to know about launching products Today we are talking about go-to-market planning and what is involved in planning the launch of products. Helping us learn about this is Karthik Suresh. He is a technology product leader who has led teams as founder, early hire, and executive at companies including Facebook, Craft.co, and KCG holdings. He studied computer science at Carne...

What product managers need to know about value-based pricing Today we are talking about product pricing, specifically the best practices for pricing B2B software products. Joining us is Chris Mele, who has spent his 25+ year career in software products, with much of that time as a pricing specialist. He is the Managing Partner at Software Pricing Partners, which focuses on helping software compani...

Trends influencing the future of leadership – for product managers Today we are talking about what product managers should know about the future of leadership. By the nature of the role, product managers are leaders, as they must influence others, and many product managers will be in senior leadership roles in the future. Consequently, we should be looking at what it takes to be an effective...

How product managers can move their customers to action using the StoryBrand Framework Today we are talking about how to clearly communicate the value of a product to customers. Specifically, we will learn about a 7-part framework for marketing communications. Joining us is Dr. J.J. Peterson, whose PhD is specifically about the validity and effectiveness of this framework, which has been used by t...