Product Innovation Series with Aram Melkoumov – Details, episodes & analysis

In this episode of the Product Innovation Show, Maarten van Kroonenburg, founder @ BW Ventures, and Aram Melkoumov dive deep into the realm of enterprise ideation. They explore the ins and outs of validating a business idea, with Maarten unveiling his unique, tried-and-tested processes for determining product viability, customer validation, and effective stakeholder management. The duo emphasizes the significance of securing initial customer commitments and also sheds light on the critical considerations for corporates eyeing acquisitions. Engage in a conversation rich with strategies, insights, and invaluable advice that has the potential to transform your perspective on product development and validation.

About the Guest
Maarten began his entrepreneurial adventure at 19 in the music scene. After dodging some iffy record deals, he thought, "I can do better!" and launched his first venture. He quickly noticed that the way entrepreneurship was taught was flawed. So, six years ago, Maarten founded BW Ventures. Since then, he's guided over 200 startups, helping them find solid business models. Yet, even with a plan, many still struggle to secure their first investment.

SHOW NOTES:

[1:59] Corporate Innovation vs Startups: Maarten discusses the distinct ways startups and corporations approach innovation.
[6:09] Decision-making in Innovation: Companies face dilemmas in building new solutions, buying them, or establishing partnerships.
[11:46] Risk in Innovation: Innovation involves inherent risks, and it's crucial to make calculated decisions.
[17:49] Digital Tools in Business: Emphasis on the role and significance of digital transformation for growth.
[25:05] Pilot Programs: The value of testing new ideas via pilot programs to validate feasibility is highlighted.
[35:59] Importance of Adaptability: The conversation underscores the need for flexibility and adjustments in innovation processes.
[43:41] Stakeholder Dynamics: Addressing stakeholder concerns and managing their expectations is vital in innovation.
[57:56] When to Pivot or Kill a Project: Maarten elaborates on making choices about pivoting projects or discontinuing them.
[59:28] Meeting Stakeholder Expectations: Stakeholders often prioritize visible progress over finalized contracts.
[61:41] Acquisition Strategy: Companies need clarity on their strategy when considering acquisitions.

Quotes from Maarten:
"Showing progress and showing what works and doesn't work is more valuable than just getting that perfect business case out."

"People are most of the times too scared to build a super big business case because they think decision makers are going to ask for that. But what's more important is showing progress and understanding what you're doing."

Books We Mentioned:
1. Pep Guardiola: Another Way of Winning: The Biography
2. Mindgames: Phil Jackson's Long Strange Journey
3. The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses

Follow Maarten van Kroonenburg
https://www.linkedin.com/in/maartenvankroonenburg/

Mounika Sanikommu, Senior Product Manager at Zuora, is sharing her thrilling journey with ChatGPT, experiments she runs, plugins she discovered and how she uses AI for data analysis in her day job. Monica and Aram also spills the beans on the future of jobs in an AI-dominated landscape. 

About Tadas Labudis:
Tadas leads the Customer AI team at Playvox. He joined Playvox in 2022 following the acquisition of Prodsight, a text analytics startup he founded to help support teams get deeper insights from their customer interactions. In his free time, he likes to spend time with his wife and baby daughter, play drums and try his hand at perfecting espresso and latte art.

SHOW NOTES:
0:00 | Introduction to Tadas Labudis
1:05 | His transition when Prodsight, his company, was acquired in 2022 by Playvox
2:48 | Contrast between his work at Prodsight and Playvox
4:11 | Missing the CEO title at Prodsight
6:19 | User Research Methods for Discovery at Playvox
9:03 | Tools to track the success of a product released to the market
11:07| Validating new features on different products
13:10 | Differences between working at Prodsight and Playvox
15:41 | What Tadas needs to learn in order to be better at doing discoveries
18:00 | Changes in product innovation in big companies
20:33 | How to motivate and foster the spirit of innovation in team members
24:52 | Q/A session
26:22 | Wrap-up

QUOTES:
“When you build a good product, the rest will come easily. People will find you despite how remote your medium of communication may be.” [2:03]

“The core of every company, whether start-up or advanced, is the product.” [3:00]

“For any company growing, it’s only natural to do things without much urgency unless there’s fear of losing the company.” [18:42]

Resources Mentioned
The Mom Test: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01H4G2J1U/

Connect with Tadas Labudis
Personal Website: https://labudis.com/
Company’s Website: https://www.playvox.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tadaslabudis/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/tadaslab

We all want to maintain high application quality, but without automation and customer involvement, it would be impossible to reach these goals.
Automation plus customer data make your apps scalable, usable, and more efficient for your customers. Create a product and a solution that your customers will love and engage with, not just use.
-  Ayal Cohen, Senior Director of Product @ MicroFocus.

About Ayal
Ayal is a Senior Director of Products at MicroFocus. He spent more than two decades in the world of automation and is leading the next evolution for automated functional testing. Ayal has helped hundreds of customers build their test automation switches and improve their automation. Experienced with translating customer pains and market needs into working and profitable products based on data analysis and market research. He provides a strong R&D and quality assurance background with proven capabilities in managing large-scale products, projects, and organizations.

SHOW NOTES:
0:00 | Introduction to Ayal
1:07 | What is functional automation testing, and why his focus is in this area
3:15 | How automated testing works for different products 
4:29 | The best customer meeting that Ayal has ever had
7:03 | How to ensure you’re adding maximum value in a customer meeting
8:34 | How frequently to hold your customer meetings
11:02| When to consolidate data from customer meetings and do sense-making
12:11 | How the world of products has changed over the years
16:12 | Ayal's biggest product challenge working with big enterprises
18:00 | What Ayal has seen to work in solving customer expectations and requests
20:33 | The definition of enterprise-ready in the product realm
23:21 | The biggest cause of concern and mandate for enterprises today
26:33 | Creating product customers will love and engage with, not just use
27:20 | How Ayal determines the success criteria for a product that is going to be loved
28:33 | How to change your product to approach and achieve growth
31:48 | Initial foundation levels of success to look at when changing your product
33:40 | The last customer engagement syndrome. What it’s and how it works
35:37 | Q/A session
38:08 | Key takeaways for the listeners from Ayal 
39:07 | Wrap-up

QUOTES:
“If you want to learn how customers are using your solution and their challenges, it’s very important to be patient, don’t be afraid of awkward silence, give your customers time to answer the question, don’t put words in their mouth.” [7:06]

“You need to hear more opinions to make sure you are more educated with different varieties of personas to make the right conclusion from the feedback that you have.” [11:31]

“Data is very important and you need to understand how your customers are using your product to understand what is missing and how you can engage more solution.” [31:46]

Resources Mentioned
The Mom Test: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01H4G2J1U/

Connect with Ayal Cohen
Company’s Website: https://www.microfocus.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ayalc/

About Burak
Burak Kantarci is a Product Manager at Thundra where his main goals are to simplify developers’ daily life and make their workflows more errorless and enjoyable. He lives in Turkey and has a degree in Computer Science.

SHOW NOTES:
0:00 | Introduction to Burak Kantarci
1:17 | Original product at Thundra and the different pivots it has undergone
6:24 | Metrics to track as a product leader before pivoting
9:31 | How to prioritize products
15:52| Burak’s biggest takeaways going from a product designer to a product manager
18:04| Current working framework on his role
22:51 | How to keep product vision in alignment with other stakeholders
25:50 | Key product lessons/ principles Burak keeps coming back to when stuck
30:18 | Parting wisdom and golden takeaways
32:24 | Wrap-up

QUOTES:
“Getting your hands dirty is the only way to understand the problem and the solution of a product.” [17:40]

“Repetition creates clarity and alignment of a company’s product purpose. Product managers should derive a way of constantly communicating the purpose to the stakeholders. This can be through frequent memos.” [24:30]

“Know your superpowers as a product manager, and be aware of the company culture and leadership. It helps you do actionable things” [30:45]

Connect with Burak Kantarci

Personal Website: https://www.burakkantarci.com/
Company’s Website: https://www.thundra.io/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/burakkantarci/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/kantarci
Email: burakkantarci.08@gmail.com

Manos Kyriakakis is a Head of Product & Growth at Simpler. They’re aiming to allow shoppers all over the world seamlessly checkout from anywhere. In the past, Manos has worked with other VC-backed startups in industries such as insuretech, ad-tech, and travel-tech, including Pricefox.gr, Avocarrot, Market Group, and Welcome Pickups. He has also collaborated with companies as a consultant and co-founded his own company.

SHOW NOTES:
0:00 | Introduction to Manos Kyriakakis
2:05 | Achieving product/market fit for startups
3:56 | Metrics that show whether you have hit market fit for your product
5:51 | Early challenges in attaining market fit at Simpler
9:35 | Knowing if you are on the right track
14:07| What Manos has done to ensure product vision is common with all stakeholders
17:26 | Confidence, Arrogance, and making Assumptions in products
19:43 | Getting rid of ego from the equation
21:24 | Product biases that Manos has had to deal with frequently
22:44 | The one question Manos desires to be asked as a product manager
24:21 | Becoming not entirely data-reliant in decision making
25:54 | Wrap-up


QUOTES:

“To achieve product /market fit, an entrepreneur should be as close as possible to the target audience. This means being in a good market with a product that can satisfy that market.” [3:24]

“As a product leader, you are responsible for ensuring the product vision is protected and all stakeholders have a clear grasp before making decisions.” [14:07]

“It’s easy for product managers to be arrogant, overconfident, and make assumptions about their products. Such negligence is also easily transferred to the team” [18:32]

Connect with Manos Kyriakakis

Personal Website: https://manoskyriakakis.com/
Company’s Website: https://www.simpler.so/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/manoskyr/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/manoskyr

Tom and Aram discuss how and why to build an advisory council. They discuss how to ask questions people want to answer, how getting close to your users makes work more meaningful for your team, and why you should never build a product alone. They also explore why you shouldn’t only think about who your customer is and what they need - but who their customers are and what their objectives are.

About Tom O’Neill
Tom is the Founder and CEO of Parallax. He built a stellar product by first building an advisory council because he believes that great products are never built solo, they’re created by great teams. Tom is also the co-founder of Frebella and was previously the CEO of The Nerdery.

SHOW NOTES:
00:05 | Who is Tom O’Neill?
00:38 | How and why to build an advisory council
04:15 | How to find product advisors
05:34 | Running advisory council sessions
08:47 | Nobody leaves a banging nightclub…
11:19 | Do advisors become clients?
16:59 | Wrong ways to think about your client
23:49 | How to build ANY product
27:27 | He doesn’t want to learn this lesson again
29:47 | Fireside: attitude, crazy features, focus, mentorship

Quotes:
(03:16) “I think a lot of people enjoy being a part of building something. I think that the idea of being an advisor to a product development team is appealing to them and that's how we positioned it.”

Follow Tom O’Neill
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomoneill/ 

What happens when you accept that many people can do a better job than you? Why should you treat your company as a product? This founder took what he learned working at Amazon and Siemens and started his own company.

About Pierre Brunelle
Pierre Brunelle is the co-founder and CEO of Noteable. Previously, he was a technical product manager at Amazon Europe. He also held a role at Siemens earlier in his career. That said, Pierre has always been an entrepreneur at heart. In fact, he started his first business when he was 15 and it’s still operational today! 

SHOW NOTES:
00:00 | Who is Pierre Brunelle?
02:50 | Being a technical product manager at Amazon
04:46 | Amazon EU vs Amazon US
07:36 | Starting a furniture business at 15 (it’s still running)
11:32 | What’s it like to work at Siemens?
13:35 | Is raising $25M enough?
16:03 | Nothing gets done alone
19:06 | How often should you pivot? OR When should you pivot?
22:43 | How product documents are reviewed at Amazon
28:26 | Copying Amazon’s internal operations
30:53 | Creating ownership: dos and don’ts
34:40 | Building a product organization
39:14 | How to do boring work
41:59 | Why he moved from Amazon to entrepreneurship
44:04 | Do technical product managers need to be technical?

Quotes:
(16:56) “I always believe that I don't achieve anything by myself - I think as a CEO or co-founder, it's a great mindset to have.”
(20:41) “Commit to something. And when you get small signals, change, adapt, and commit to the second thing until you have information to make you change your opinion.”

Follow Pierre Brunelle
https://www.linkedin.com/in/brunellepe/  

What do you get when you rely on your intuition instead of just what customers tell you? The iPod. Today we discuss the creative leaps of faith you should and shouldn’t take when developing your product.

About Ravi Swaminathan
Ravi Swaminathan is the CEO of TaskHuman. He believes in egoless leadership. Egoless leadership is about being at peace with not having all the answers today and believing that more answers will come with time. Previously, was President at WiZER and a VP at SanDisk amongst other roles.

About Seth Barron
Seth Barron is the Head of Product Management at TaskHuman. He thinks new features should only be added if they remove friction from the user experience. His litmus test is asking: will things be simpler for the user after adding this feature? Previously, Seth spent 16 years at Google. He is also a Yogi.

SHOW NOTES:
00:00 | Who are Ravi Swaminathan and Seth Barron?
01:12 | Google, but for people
04:04 | Obsessing about consumer experience
07:53 | Egoless product development
11:22 | More than a paycheck
14:46 | Asking your customers vs. following your gut
17:59 | Taking data-driven leaps of faith
21:55 | Is the feature good enough yet? (litmus test)
25:49 | Myth of objectivity

Quotes: 
(17:42) “I'd rather follow what people are doing rather than what people are saying.” - Ravi
(19:39) “I think a lot of product leaders get lost is they get lost in the data and they don't effectively synthesize the insight. The data is just the observation, The insight is the understanding. So something that I think about all the time is: how do I synthesize the signal from the noise?”

Follow Ravi Swaminathan
https://www.linkedin.com/in/raviswaminathan/ 

Follow Seth Barron
https://www.linkedin.com/in/seth-barron-nyc/ 

You can be a product manager and have 0 technical skills. Sound controversial to you? Today’s product director has never written a single line of code - he has played professional soccer though. Find out how not having technical skills makes him a sharper PM.

About Mor AviHanan
Mor AviHanan is the Director of Product Management at ZoomInfo. He doesn’t consider himself a technical guy, in fact, he never wrote a line of code in his life. To him, coding is just another language, and communication is not restricted to it or by it. In another life, Mor played soccer for the Israeli national team. He has to leave soccer behind due to an injury.

Links We Mentioned
Pep Guardiola: Another Way of Winning: The Biography https://www.amazon.ca/Pep-Guardiola-Another-Winning-Biography/dp/1409129462
Mindgames: Phil Jackson's Long Strange Journey https://www.amazon.ca/Mindgames-Phil-Jacksons-Strange-Journey/dp/0803259980
The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses https://www.amazon.ca/Lean-Startup-Entrepreneurs-Continuous-Innovation/dp/0307887898

SHOW NOTES:
00:05 | Who is Mor AviHanan?
01:03 | Do you need to have technical skills as a product manager?
05:28 | Talking to developers when you aren’t a technical PM
08:20 | Being an athlete vs. being a product manager
12:17 | The secret to running 7 SCRUM teams
16:43 | Running a team of genius minds
19:42 | Book recommendations from sports and tech
21:30 | Saying ‘why not?’ instead of ‘no’ 
22:22 | Visualizing your ideas and innovations
23:17 | Turning sport into a product

Follow Mor AviHanan
https://www.linkedin.com/in/moravihanan/

Work with Crowdlinker:
https://www.crowdlinker.com/contact