Product Operations
How Successful Companies Build Better Products at Scale
Product Operations answers a question product organizations have been asking for years: how do you build better products at scale? Melissa Perri and Denise Tilles show how the right operational systems (data flows, tooling, team rituals, and ways of working) let product teams make better decisions consistently. Essential reading for building a product org that makes success repeatable and efficient at scale.
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Product Operations
Product operations is the discipline that scales product management. It stands up the infrastructure product teams need to make good decisions consistently (reliable business data, customer and market insights, and the processes and governance of a product operating model) so product managers can spend their time on customers and strategy.
The book turns the discipline into practice: the three pillars, case studies from companies like Stripe, Uber, Fidelity, and athenahealth, and a roadmap for standing the function up in your own organization.
Inside the book
The ideas this book gave product management
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The three pillars of product operations
The book's organizing framework: business data and insights, customer and market insights, and the product operating model. Stand up all three and product managers get their time back for customers and strategy.
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The product operating model
The processes, cadences, governance, and tools through which strategy becomes shipped product: planning that scales past founder heroics while staying out of teams' way.
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Democratized insights
Research and data as shared infrastructure, not a gatekept service: every team can pull the customer and business evidence it needs, when it needs it, the way Fidelity democratized user research.
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Enablement, not bureaucracy
Product operations exists to remove drag, not add process. The book's test for every practice: does it help teams make better decisions faster, or just create reporting?
Put the ideas into practice
Fine-tune your product operating model so your organization can scale and achieve outcomes efficiently.
Your Product Operating Model
What it is · How to improve itTwo companies can spend the same on product and get very different returns. The operating model underneath explains the difference. See where yours is losing value, and what to fix first.
Explore the operating modelProduct Operations Master Class
Live · 4-hour masterclassA four-hour live masterclass taught by co-author Denise Tilles. Leave with the operating model, a gap analysis of your own organization, and the concrete next steps to build it.
Explore the master classProduct Leadership Accelerator
Live cohort · Leadership teamsA private program for product and technology leadership teams leading their organizations through transformation in the age of AI. Run with Melissa Perri, in cohorts of up to 15.
Explore the programAbout the Authors
Melissa Perri
Founder of Product Institute and CEO of Produx Labs, where she advises Fortune 500 executives and scale-up leadership teams on product strategy and product organization. Also the author of Escaping the Build Trap and host of the Product Thinking podcast.
Denise Tilles
A product operations builder since 2014, before the discipline had a name. She has helped companies like Sam's Club, ATB Financial, and Novo Nordisk stand up or mature the practice, and led product at scale at Cision and Condé Nast. Featured on Lenny's Podcast.
What people are saying
"After 20+ years working in product there are still opportunities to learn and grow. This book came out at the right time as so many of us Product Leaders are trying to take our teams to the next level. You're doing discovery. You've escaped the build trap. But have you put Product Operations into place? Melissa and Denise give you a practical playbook to understand, implement, and level up using Product Operations. I found the mix of explanations and stories helpful to really understand the finer details. If you're a Product Leader, then Product Operations is essential reading."
"Product Operations is a must-read. This book really stands out in the realm of product management literature with its pragmatic approach and expert guidance in what is a really new - but very impactful position. I really appreciated the actionable insights and real-world case studies - they are invaluable to a company regardless of where you are at in your prod ops journey. Highly recommended!"
"This is, as expected, a detailed and practical handbook for defining the purpose of your product operations practice and how to put it into effective practice. Denise and Melissa walk you through the problems Product Ops solves and how to structure your ProdOps team in a way that sets you up to succeed. I can't recommend this book highly enough. If you implement just one thing from here you'll 100x your investment in the book. It's a no brainer."