Do you feel constantly pressured to ship new features? Do you get the space you need for proper discovery? Most Product Managers feel this pressure, and I was recently asked on LinkedIn why this is the case. What about our company cultures or human nature drives this desire for more new stuff? In this episode, I attempt to break down the top 3 reasons why I believe Product culture drives outputs over outcomes, even we say we want the opposite. If you're looking to get your shot at a job in p...
Feb 06, 2025•17 min•Transcript available on Metacast On today's Lesson in Product Management, this one is for the perfectionists out there. If you consider yourself a "creative" or an artist, you might be tempted to hide your work until you deem it "perfect" - but that could be hurting you more than you know. On this episode we break down why perfectionism hurts you and those around you and ultimately will set you back in your career and the progress you seek to make for customers. If you're looking to get into product ...
Jan 23, 2025•6 min•Transcript available on Metacast It's easy to get overly focused on "doing your job" as a product manager. Unfortunately, we risk taking too narrow of a view of what our job actually is. When it comes to working with PMMs (product marketing managers), it's no different. And it's about time we start treating them like partners rather than someone we throw releases over the wall to and expect them to make our products sell. If you're looking to get into product management and want the training and experience you need to get there...
Jan 13, 2025•11 min•Transcript available on Metacast Some of the greatest leaders and leadership authors have given the advice to "Lean into your strengths." This idea makes sense in some instances. In other cases, it can handicap your career and growth trajectory. If you want to get into product management and challenge yourself to gain much needed PM experience, join a growing community of 1,000+ aspiring product managers on Path2Product where we bridge the gap of product management experience for aspiring PMs....
Jan 03, 2025•9 min•Transcript available on Metacast On today’s episode, I got to chat with Bob Ainsbury, Chief Product Officer at Granicus. Bob is a long-time Product leader who has had a winding journey from engineering to sales and marketing leadership to leading strategy and now in the C-suite as a Product executive. For most of Bob’s career, he’s been in highly regulated spaces like Healthcare and government. On today’s episode, we dive into Bob’s experience in leading product in regulated industries and cover a bunch of fun topics such as: P...
Dec 20, 2024•30 min•Transcript available on Metacast What is your relationship like with your stakeholders? If you're not treating them like partners, I can promise you it's not great. In this episode, we share how to build great relationships with your "stakeholders" and create win/win relationships that stop making stakeholders feel like blockers to your desired progress. If you're looking to get into product management, join us at Path2Product to get the knowledge, experience, and coaching you need to make that transition and accelerate your ...
Nov 29, 2024•10 min•Transcript available on Metacast On today's lesson in product management, John Fontenot shares a recent story about his experience working in a Scrum shop and how the rigid interpretation of Scrum almost killed his ability to ship a critical integration on time. If you're interested in entering product management and want to gain the hands-on experience you need to make that leap, join us at Path2Product and start earning much-needed experience today....
Nov 18, 2024•8 min•Transcript available on Metacast The difference between regular managers and product managers... Regular manager: "Don't bring me problems. Bring me solutions!" Product Manager: "Don't bring me solutions. Bring me problems" It's our job to care more about the problem driving the request for a solution than the solution itself. But it can be hard navigating those conversations with large customers or senior stakeholders. On this lesson in product management, we discuss this reality and practical tips for dealing with it. If you ...
Nov 08, 2024•10 min•Transcript available on Metacast Key Takeaways Side projects offer valuable experience for aspiring PMs and an outlet for creativity/ownership for employed PMs Benefits include mental health, skill development, and potential innovation Time management and prioritizing core job responsibilities are crucial when pursuing side projects Companies like Google (20% time) demonstrate the value of fostering entrepreneurial creativity in employees Topics: The Broken Talent Acquisition Process in Product Management Benefits of Side Proje...
Oct 23, 2024•21 min•Transcript available on Metacast Hello and welcome in to another episode of Lessons in Product Management, I’m your host, John Fontenot, and on today’s episode I have Paul Turaew on to talk about his journey into product management and we riff on a number of topics in research. Paul’s a long-time PM, having held a variety of Sr. IC and Director of Product Management roles in Healthcare. Some of the topics we cover on today’s episode include the tension between research and shipping products, what’s the “MVP” of research, changi...
Oct 08, 2024•38 min•Transcript available on Metacast On today’s episode, I got to speak with Stephanie Jerome, Product Manager at Akoya. Stephanie has a ton of experience managing internal products, and that was the focus of our conversation today. Stephanie also shared how she got her start in product management and lessons she’s learned along the way. If you’re managing or considering managing internal products or looking to get your first shot at a PM job, this is a great episode to check out! If you're looking to get into product managemen...
Sep 24, 2024•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast On today’s episode, we have Emilia Kortrynska, Head of Marketing at UserPilot. In the discussion with Emilia, we talk about some incredibly interesting research that came out of UserPilot recently about how Sales Led Growth appears to beat Product Led Growth in many categories. Which to PLG evangelists like myself, really caught me off guard. But we discuss why quant data is only one piece of the story and why you need to balance quant with qual research and the benefits of research in general. ...
Sep 10, 2024•30 min•Transcript available on Metacast It's a hotly debated topic, whether you should always pay customers for their time when sourcing and conducting interviews. Spoiler alert! I think you're doing yourself a huge disservice if you make it a habit of paying customers for feedback. In this episode, we unpack all the reasons why you should never pay customers for interviews and the benefits you'll see as a result. If you're looking to get into product management or interested in up-leveling your product sense through a...
Aug 29, 2024•21 min•Transcript available on Metacast There are pros and cons to preparing for user research. As they say, too much of a good thing can be a bad thing. And the same is true with prepping for research. On this episode, we break down the benefits of user interview preparation and the potential drawbacks if you let perfection become the enemy of progress. If you're looking to get into product management but lack hands on experience, check out Path2Product where you get high-quality PM training AND the ability to put your learning i...
Aug 21, 2024•14 min•Transcript available on Metacast After taking a year off to focus on work and life, we're back and excited to be back! We've been building ResearchRepo for Product teams to collaborate, consolidate, and communicate research that ties back to company goals and objectives. I've started a new role as VP of Product at Terlumina But we're doubling down on Path2Product to help aspiring and junior product managers get the experience and practice they need to land their first job or uplevel their product sense...
Aug 07, 2024•5 min•Transcript available on Metacast This is a crazy and turbulent time in Tech. Companies are hitting financial hard times or restructuring as the economy is forcing extreme prioritization of resources. If you find yourself on the unfortunate end of these layoffs, I have someone on the show who has been through several and helped several others through this process. Don't miss the great advice on this week's episode of Lessons in Product Management!
May 09, 2023•37 min•Transcript available on Metacast Dan Balcauski is a pricing expert and dropped by the pod to share key insights, hot takes, and practical advice for product teams and leaders to help unpack the pricing process, key variables, and mistakes to avoid. Show notes: 0:00-0:30 - Episode Intro 0:30-1:55 - Dan’s Intro/Background 1:55-4:55 - From Engineer to Pricing Guru 4:55-6:42 - Biggest Pricing Pitfall 6:42-19:00 - Segmentation Myths and Realities 19:00-21:00 - defining value (3 Types) 21:00-26:35 - The Value Cascade 26:35-36:45 - Ho...
Apr 11, 2023•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast There are great frameworks for prioritizing features, but what if prioritizing features isn't the right approach? We dig into why opportunity costs are the most underrated variables in prioritizing Product decisions. If you're looking to get into product management, come join us at Path2Product to gain the hands-on PM experience you need to land your first product role. 0:00-4:20 - Episode Intro 4:20-6:54 Opportunity Cost in Action 6:54-8:50 - Economics in Product Management? 8:50-17:52 - ...
Mar 13, 2023•18 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week's lesson in product management is brought to you by Derek Osgood, Founder and CEO of Ignition. If your product launches are less than ideal, you should listen to what Derek has to say. Even if you're launches go well, there are great tips on how to optimization the success of your launches. 0:00-0:32 - Podcast intro 0:32-2:30 - Derek’s Intro 2:30-4:15 - Who is Ignition for? 4:15-4:40 - Where to find Ignition 4:40-8:40 - The PM/PMM Disconnect 8:40-10:23 - Aligning PM/PMM Teams 10:...
Feb 22, 2023•25 min•Transcript available on Metacast As you wrap up the last 30 days of your 30, 60, 90-day onboarding, it's time to start drafting strategy. In this episode I break down how to do that with a simple framework and how to shrink the timeline if you don't have 90 days to get it done in a new position. Here's the episode with Randal Whitmore Here's the link to the product strategy development course on YouTube Join us on Path2Product if you're looking for the Product Management experience you need to land a PM job...
Feb 02, 2023•7 min•Ep 3•Transcript available on Metacast Many answers to the question of "why do you want to be a product manager" have some variation of "ideation." While ideation and solutioning are definitely part of product management, it's by far NOT the most important thing to get right. If you're looking to get into product management, join us at Path2Product to streamline your path to product management
Jan 16, 2023•8 min•Transcript available on Metacast Story time - your competitor launched a feature. They’re making a bunch of noise on all the social channels. An influencers Tie Tok of the new thing went viral. Your execs are screaming that you need to respond. As the Product Manager, what do you do? That's exactly the scenario we'll unpack on this week's lesson in product management.
Jan 05, 2023•8 min•Transcript available on Metacast Andrew and I both had non-traditional paths into product management, and we've both experienced and seen how broken the talent acquisition process is for aspiring PMs. On this episode, you'll hear a passionate discussion of what problems we've noticed and some fun banter on how we'd fix the problem.
Nov 21, 2022•49 min•Transcript available on Metacast On this episode of Lessons in Product Management, I sat down with Luke and Jakub from GetResponse as they shared their experiences launching products into new markets, what it takes to do it successfully, how to test into it, and how partnerships can be great and complicated at the same time.
Nov 01, 2022•25 min•Transcript available on Metacast On today's episode, Eva Beasley shares her experience before and after getting into Product Management. One of the things she noticed about some of the PMs she interacted with was an anti-pattern that needed to be addressed, so we did so here. If you're looking to get into Product Management, join us on Path2Product where we're bridging the gap in product management experience for aspiring PMs. Episode Notes: 0:00-1:30 - Eva Beasley Intro 1:30-2:36 - Eva’s R...
Oct 18, 2022•18 min•Transcript available on Metacast Eric Perkins is the Director of Product at Entrata. And as Eric describes his career, it feels like he has a rocket attached to his back. In this discussion, Eric and I talk through how he got into product management, how he quickly rose into a leadership role, and what he's learned along the way. Connect with Eric and follow him on Medium: https://medium.com/@ericsperkins Join us at @Path 2 Product on Path2Product to accelerate your own path to product, me...
Oct 04, 2022•31 min•Transcript available on Metacast On today's episode, I had the immense pleasure of speaking with Etienne Garbugli, Founder & CEO of Lean B2B and Author of Lean B2B, Solving Product, and Find Your Market. Etienne is a brilliant product thinker and author with a varied and diverse background, all in and around product management. Etienne joined me to shed light on the Growth section of his book, Solving Product. He answered some of my questions, clarified my understanding, and dropped knowledge bombs the entire episode....
Sep 20, 2022•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast On today's episode, we have JJ Rorie, CEO of Great Product Management and Author of 5 Immutable Truths of Great Product Management, and you're in for a treat! Don't miss out on this great episode as we dive deep into building high customer intelligence, the first Immutable Truth of Great Product Management If you're looking to land your first job as a product manager, join us at Path2Product to streamline your path to product management...
Aug 23, 2022•22 min•Ep 8•Transcript available on Metacast On today's episode, we have Gopal Erinjippurath, Founder, CTO, and Head of Product at Sust Global . Gopal and I talked about: His product career The lifecycle of AI/ML Best use cases for Data Science and ML in products And how ML might impact your career in product management Connect with Gopal on LinkedIn ...
Aug 09, 2022•19 min•Ep 7•Transcript available on Metacast Nico joined the show to share his advice and experience on building strong product team relationships. If you're looking to get into product management, you'll need experience. Start gaining tangible product manager experience today on your Path2Product 0:00-0:52 - Episode Intro 0:52-2:08 - Introducing Nico 2:08-4:20 - Defining Team Building 4:20-11:08 - Gaining Team Alignment 11:08-15:55 - Diversity of Thought 15:55-18:20 - Small Steps To Building Rel...
Jul 26, 2022•19 min•Ep 6•Transcript available on Metacast 
