Product Growth Leaders | Product Conversations with Grant Hunter

Why Product Management

This week, Steve Johnson and I were joined by regular panelists Dharma Subramanian, Joy McCaffrey, and Calvin Marshall, as well as new panelist Paul Hatala.

Hear the panel discuss the answers to our Monday question "Why does an organization need product management?" where doing the right things emerged as the leading reason.

Listen to our conversation on the poll question "What is the biggest performance impact a company gains by focusing on doing the right things?" Where it depends was the clear winner, Dharma makes the case for All of the Above, and Joy wins the day with one word "morale"

Get our take on the following questions:

What are the most visible symptoms of an organization that needs product management? Including lack of sales, morale, never releasing, the failure rate of those things you do release, 

Is product management the right name for the role we are discussing? Including offering management, how Drucker's definition of marketing has been co-opted and product management or at least product strategy is really strategic marketing, how the term product owner has created a lot of confusion, and the discussion of whether we need to take back the title product management for the business and strategy role.

And get our Lightning Round answers to "For a company without product management, where is the best place to start?" Including start by getting marketing more strategic, define the types of problems product management solves and how it can help them, hire a product manager, start with customer support as they are closest to the customer, start with a product canvas artifact, and get senior leadership to understand that random acts of growth are because they have a product problem.

Win Loss Analysis

This week's episode is on Win Loss Analysis. Grant and Steve are joined by Paul Hurwitz, Joy McCaffrey, Jason Vincelette, Charles Topping, Graham Roe, and Anita Wood.

Product Operations

This week's episode is on product operations. Grant and Steve are joined by Calvin Marshall.

Corporate Culture and Product Decisions

This week, Steve Johnson and I were joined by regular panelists Jason Vincelette, Anita Wood, Jon Gatrell  Paul Hurwitz, Calvin Marshall, and Dharma Subramanian, and new panelist Seth McKnight for our largest Topic of the Week conversation.

We could anticipate the large panel as our Monday question got the most responses of any topic of the week, and the poll had the most responses as well. Seems like we picked a good topic in Corporate Culture.

Hear the panel discuss the answers to our Monday question "How does corporate culture affect product decisions?" And see us explore many lenses to the question.

Listen to our conversation on the poll question "What is the most common way corporate culture impacts product decisions?" Where Lack of Alignment not only won the poll but a good case was made that it is the root cause of the others.

And for the first time, due to the size of the panel and the interest in the topic, we did not have time for our open-ended questions and jumped right to our Lightning Round question "What is your advice to a product manager who is dealing with corporate culture issues?" Where Seth hits a home run in his first at-bat with "be patient and build relationships" and Jason followed him with "Be the change that you want to see."

We ended the call with Jon Gatrell looking for a Margaret Mead Quote, which I think is "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." Jon if this was not the one you were thinking of, let me know.

Product Metrics

And just to put this out there, this week was perhaps the most monumental conversation since we started. While nearly every week I adjust and evolve my opinions on mindsets on topics, this week's conversation truly got me to change my lens for product metrics. Watch it to see why.

Hear the panel discuss the answers to our Monday question - What are the key metrics you should be tracking for your product? And see how Paul challenged all of our perspectives on metrics suggesting we should think about this from the customer point of view.

After hearing me fall on my sword for forgetting to post the poll on Wednesday, hear our conversation on our heat map question: How good is your company at tracking and using metrics? See which of dual bell curves your company would be in, with one curve peaking around 30-40% and the other around 60-70%, and hear Paul's great anecdote on measuring customer value.

Get our take on the following questions:

What are the toughest product metrics to get, and why?

How should the product metrics you track change as a product moves through its lifecycle?

And get our Lightning Round answers to If you could only have one metric, what would it be? Including customer value, ROI, number of customers, a happiness quotient, and net retention.

This week, Steve Johnson and I were joined by regular panelists Jason Vincelette, Joy McCaffrey, Paul Hurwitz, and Dharma Subramanian. 

Personas and Market Segments

Hear the panel discuss the answers to our Monday question - Which is more valuable, personas or market segments?

Hear our conversation on our poll question: Which is the hardest to define well? Market Segments, Buyer Personas, User Personas or It Depends, where Market Segments seems to be the clear leader.

Get our take on the following questions:

Why is it so hard to do personas and market segments? Where we address that it is hard to do primary research.

What is your best approach to defining great personas or market segments? Including Rob offering the value of using emojis to document the emotional state of the person you are interviewing.

And get our Lightning Round answers to What is your advice to a product manager struggling to define personas or market segments? Staring with interviews as the base, understand the customer's domain, understand the competition, don't reinvent the wheel as there are templates out there, talk to customer support, and lead with differentiation.

This week, Steve Johnson and I were joined by regular panelist Jason Vincelette, and an up-and-coming trio of new, but becoming frequent participants in Calvin Marshall, Joy McCaffrey  and Rob Barkman.  

Strategic Positioning and Pricing

Hear the panel discuss the answers to our Monday question - Should pricing determine positioning or should positioning determine pricing?

Hear our conversation on our poll question: What is the most important component of the business plan? With a strong race between Strategic Positioning and Financial Business Case.

Get our take on the following questions:

Both pricing and positioning are tied to value – what is your preferred approach to understanding and validating value in the market?

How frequently should product management review and update their strategy?

And get our Lightning Round answers to What is the most important thing for a product manager to think about when doing positioning? Including the Customer/Persona, the Problem, Focus, Differentiation, Take a Position, and make it relative to the competition.

This week, Steve Johnson and I were joined by regular panelists Jason Vincelette, Anita Wood, Dharma Subramanian, and first-time panelist Rob Barkman.  

Product Management and Strategy

This week @steve and I are joined by Jason Vincelette and Joy McCaffrey.
 
Hear us discuss the answers to Monday’s question, what should be product management’s role in defining strategy?​
 
See the results to the Wednesday poll, how involved should product management be in their company's strategic planning?
 
Get our take on the questions:

How should product management be involved in strategic planning? ​

How frequently should product management review and update their strategy?​
 
And, listen to the answers to our Lightning Round question, what is the most important thing for a product manager to think about when doing strategy?

Product Management and Micro Management

Hear the panel discuss the answers to our Monday question - How should a product manager deal with people who continue to micromanage their work? Including the importance of the soft-skills of communication and expectation setting.

Hear our conversation on our poll question: Which function is prone to micromanage product management the most? With a strong consensus on senior leadership, including me leaning toward switching my answer.

Get our answers to the open-ended question Are there situations where micromanagement may be needed?

Here our discussion on Micromanagement as controlling vs. Micromanagement as perfection, where most felt that controlling was the main reason, but we got a look into Steve's perfection side.

And get our Lightning Round answers to What is your best advice on how to avoid micromanaging others?

This week, Steve Johnson and I were joined by regular panelists Jason Vincelette, Anita Wood, Jon Gatrell, and Dharma Subramanian, along with first-time panelist Calvin Marshall.  

Product Management and Risk

This week @steve and I are joined by Anita Wood.
 
Hear us discuss the answers to Monday’s question, how should risk be factored into product strategy decisions?​
 
See the results to the Wednesday poll, who should be responsible for managing risk in product strategy decisions?
 
Get our take on the questions:

What is the best approach for managing risk in product strategy decisions?​

Outside of Product Strategy, where else should product management be managing risk?​
 
And, listen to the answers to our Lightning Round question, what is your best advice on managing risk for someone new to product strategy?