Productly Speaking: Real Stories for Product Managers – Details, episodes & analysis

In this insightful episode, Karl Abbott sits down with Janna Bastow, co-founder of ProdPad and founder of Mind the Product, to explore the evolution of product roadmaps. Janna shares the origin story of the Now-Next-Later Roadmap, a flexible and strategic alternative to traditional date-driven roadmaps. Together, they unpack how this approach empowers product teams to communicate more honestly, prioritize effectively, and adapt to change.

Key Topics Discussed

• The Birth of Now-Next-Later
• Why Traditional Roadmaps Fail
• Strategic Communication
• Balancing Flexibility and Commitment
• The “So What?” Test
• Janna’s Journey from PM to CEO
• AI and the Future of Product Management

Key Quotes

• “Roadmapping is a strategic communication exercise—not a delivery promise.”
• “If everything on your roadmap has a date, you’re not doing product management—you’re doing project delivery.”
• “AI won’t replace product managers, but it will replace the grunt work.”
• “Good product management isn’t just done by a product manager sitting in the corner… it’s their job to surround themselves with people in the team and ask really good questions and be transparent about the direction of the product.”

Learn More

• ProdPad
• Mind the Product

Connect with Janna

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jannabastow/

In this episode, Karl Abbott sits down with Reese Gifford to explore the complexities and opportunities of managing products in the open-source ecosystem. Drawing from her experience as VP of Product at Mozilla and her current role at Microsoft, Reese shares insights on community engagement, monetization strategies, and the evolving landscape of open-source software in the age of AI and cloud computing.

Key Topics Discussed:

• Reese’s Journey to Mozilla
• Challenges of Open Source Product Management
• Revenue Models for Open Source
• Community Engagement
• Security & Compliance
• The Role of AI
• Future of Open Source

Key Quotes:

• “Open source has gone from a niche grassroots movement to the foundation of modern software development.”
• “Product management in open source is harder—your stakeholder base is vast and deeply involved.”
• “The community has a massive influence… decisions have to be driven from a consensus of multiple stakeholders, including external contributors.”

Advice for Aspiring Open Source PMs:

• Embrace the complexity of community-driven development.
• Communicate clearly with both internal teams and external contributors.
• Understand that prioritization decisions require diplomacy and transparency.

Connect with Reese:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marissaponikvar/

In the Season 1 Finale of “Productly Speaking”, we talk about what happened when Karl went ice skating for the first (and last) time and how this became lived experience that led to truly understanding the importance of accessibility in product design. This type of lived experience and a strong desire to tinker are key to product management. After this discussion, we delve into empathy, contrasting emotional empathy with empathic concern and addressing the challenges of burnout. We discuss the criticality of having a healthy work-life balance and the need to value self-empathy and avoid self-gaslighting. We highlight some of our favourite learnings from the season, including understanding customer feedback, picking the right customers, and figuring out how to achieve product market fit. We then touch on imposter syndrome and the importance of authenticity in leadership. We also talk about teamwork, remote work, and using the two-hour design sprint to help bring people together. If that weren't enough, we also talk about the ever-present but elusive inspiration and readiness required for product managers to seize opportunities. Lastly, we discuss the critical role that product managers play in understanding the jobs to be done and bringing value to the table. Enjoy this whirlwind journey as we look back on Season 1 of "Productly Speaking".

Show Notes

In this episode of “Productly Speaking”, we discuss the relationships between product management, engineering, and design. Joined by Johannes Marbach, an engineer, and Callum Upfield, a designer, we delve into several key aspects such as feedback dynamics, role definitions, communication, PRDs, team structure and effective collaboration. The insights surfaced on this podcast episode come from much learned experience and represent valuable perspectives from the world of product development. While there is no coffee talk in this episode, we do discuss Fig Jam, which is a critical ingredient in Fig Cakes.

Show Notes

In this episode of “Productly Speaking”, Teresa Cain shares her insights on her creation of the 2 Hour design sprint. We explore how design thinking benefits product managers and how Teresa's condensed two-hour design sprints can be an excellent implementation of design thinking. Despite the shorter timeframe, participants can achieve meaningful outcomes by preparing beforehand. Teresa also discusses fostering an inclusive organizational culture, compares two-hour sprints with the traditional five-day format, and highlights the importance of customer empathy. Additionally, she addresses challenges related to remote or hybrid teams and provides strategies for driving alignment. We also discuss the origin of the two-hour design sprint and Teresa's journey from writer to product manager.

Show Notes

In this episode of “Productly Speaking”, we discuss John Cutler's journey into product management, his contributions to the product management community through The Beautiful Mess, and his thoughts on self-gaslighting and the doubt loop. We also talk about his audience, where he finds his inspiration from, his thoughts on getting started creating content for the PM community, and the different voices that are already out there. This is an exciting discussion that's like drinking a large cup of bulletproof coffee with a side of wisdom, resilience, and a dash of humour.

Show Notes: https://www.productlyspeaking.com/2024/04/02/episode-5-navigating-the-beautiful-mess-with-john-cutler/

In this episode, we explore the journey of becoming a successful product manager through Adam’s career transition from technical support to product management. Key insights include the necessity of embracing ambiguity, understanding people, and the significance of customer feedback, especially from those who are constructively critical. The discussion highlights the art of building products from scratch and the delicate balance of feature prioritization. Adam reflects on the lessons learned from prioritizing features that didn’t resonate with the market and emphasizes the importance of talking to less satisfied customers to gain valuable insights. The episode also delves into the strategic aspects of defining an ideal customer profile, the risks and rewards of joining a startup, and the complexities of transitioning from a single product to a multi-product company. Additionally, it covers the importance of storytelling and communication in product management, concluding with final thoughts on the subject.

Click Here for the Show Notes

In this episode of “Productly Speaking”, we discuss how customer success teams can help a company understand customer needs and how these match the reality of a company’s products. We also discuss working to determine what the jobs to be done for a customer are and then how to address those as a whole company. We are joined by Amy Taylor Mitchell and Trevor Mishler, who are both customer success executives and together lead Real Success International. 

Amy Taylor Mitchell is a highly experienced SaaS executive and customer success thought leader with 15 years in the IT industry and 25 years of leadership experience. Amy serves as the CEO of Real Success International and was previously the Director of Customer Success Americas at Juniper Networks. Amy is passionate about the customer experience and continous learning.

Trevor Mishler is an accomplished professional with over 20 years of experience in engineering, technology, financial services, sales, and military environments. He is the Chief Customer Officer at Real Success International and was previously the Director of Global Support at Element and before that a Senior Manager at Red Hat. Trevor is passionate about the customer experience and leadership.

In this episode, Karl and Danielle explore the challenge of product market fit with Bob Handlin. They talk about the difficulties that you can have breaking into an existing market and how you really have to understand the end user's problems to have a chance. They also talk about the importance of primary research, the say/do gap, and how to best decide what's important when you have limited resources and runway.

Bob Handlin's product management career started at Prominet and then had him move into the Systems Storage Group at Sun Microsystems. He was at Sun during the time that Oracle bought Sun and he continued at Oracle for just over 7 years. After Oracle, he moved on to Red Hat where he is a product manager for Red Hat Enterprise Linux covering in-place upgrades, conversions, and live patching. His breadth of experience on industry leading products makes him a valuable asset to Red Hat and brings a unique perspective on product market fit to the table.

In our inaugural episode of the season, Karl and Danielle talk to Jennifer Scalf about how to cut through noise to get to the signal. You often get feedback from customers on what they’d like to see done differently in a product, but this raises questions such as do they want it or need it and is this feedback indicative of one person or many different people. With Jennifer’s help, we explore how to start answering these questions. 

Jennifer Scalf is a senior manager of technical account managers working with telecommunications customers at Red Hat. She has the unique skill of being able to listen to what a customer says they want and to then ask the right questions and lead the right conversation to understand if that’s what they truly need.