As the year comes to a close, leaders are looking to the future and figuring out how to build out their roadmaps for 2022. On this week’s Product Thinking Podcast, Melissa Perri shares clips of some of the best insights on roadmap creation and strategic planning at different levels of an organization so that leaders can start off the new year right.
Show Notes
On this episode of The Product Thinking Podcast, Melissa Perri is looking back on 2021. She is reflecting on the learnings and conversations she had about product strategy and product management. Melissa shares her tips for product leaders, and what they need to be focusing on within their organizations as they enter the new year.
Here are some key points you’ll hear Melissa talk about:
The conversation is shifting towards product thinking - not just in the sense of adopting and implementing processes, but asking what it really means to think like a product manager. Product leaders are now critically thinking about what the systems they use and how they interact with each other, as well as how they can influence people they don't have direct authority over. Product leaders are also starting to utilize their skills across different platforms. It's not only about process anymore, but also product strategy and product operations.
Product leaders need to have systems in place that help them scale. They also need to have product operations processes that can gather data and pass it along to product managers so that they can implement product strategy.
Product led growth is not a replacement for sales. Product led growth is simply your product being so good that it sells itself. Companies need to work on their onboarding if they decide they want to go in the direction of product led growth.
Product managers need to think about the way they deliver value to customers, and whether or not doing so takes away from the ecosystems their customers live in. "If we have a responsibility as product managers to build great products for our customers, we also have to make sure that we're not inadvertently hurting other people," Melissa advises.
It's important as a product manager to pay attention to the new technologies on the market. Pay attention to what investors are investing in, and think about what value you can harness to your customers from these new technologies.
Resources Melissa Perri on LinkedIn | Twitter MelissaPerri.com
Episode Transcript
Melissa Perri: If you are a product manager, a big piece of advice is look at what are the new technologies coming out there. That's a part of product management. We spend so much time talking about how to do it, but a huge part of your role is to figure out how to keep up with it. Keep up with the new products and keep up with the modern technologies.
Creating great products isn't just about product managers and their day-to-day interactions with developers. It's about how an organization supports products as a whole. The systems, the processes, and cultures in place that help companies deliver value to their customers. With the help of some boundary-pushing guests and inspiration from your most pressing product questions, we'll dive into this system from every angle and help you think like a great product leader.
This is the Product Thinking Podcast. Here's your host, Melissa Perry. Welcome to the end of 2021. Man, it still feels like it's 2020.
Melissa Perri: I don't know where time has gone, but it is shocking to me that we made it through another year and it's already over. And we've got January right around the corner. We've got 2022 to think about. So I wanted to take this time to really reflect on what we did in 2021, maybe even 2020, but like how far we've come in product management and just talk about what might be next.
So that's what our podcast is about today. It's really interesting. I feel like we all just kind of got put on pause during the COVID pandemic, which is still ongoing, still disrupting a lot of things. I was really looking forward to having my first international workshop in Switzerland this year, but we had to postpone it for the health and the benefit of everybody, but that's okay.
I will get there next year. I'm excited to get back on the road personally and see everybody I haven't seen in a couple of years. But I also think it's been interesting how product has really shifted in the last year, in the last two years as well, what's been happening in the industry and where we're going.
So one thing that I've really observed, which is nice to sit back and reflect on, is we used to talk so much about product management processes.
Melissa Perri: And I think we still do. It's still a conversation that many of us are having. But a lot of times the conversation is now shifting more towards product thinking as well, not just adopting processes and putting them into practice, same type of thing we went through with Agile, but really grokking what does it mean to be able to think like a product manager?
And I think that has a lot to do with systems thinking and understanding businesses and business models and the user and uniquely tying that back into software strategies and strategies that help enhance value. It's one thing to do the process. We all can learn how to do a process, and I believe it's a very teachable thing.
It's another thing to start to think about the other skills that are needed in product management as well. How do we critically think about these systems and understand how they interact with each other? How do we influence people that we don't have direct authority over? How do we manage up and manage across to get buy-in?
And how do we bring everybody together to work on these problems and really ruthlessly focus on the problem to get to the solution?
Melissa Perri: A lot of that is a mindset. It's also being able to look at software patterns across many different companies and say, hey, you know what, I may work for an 80-year-old insurance company, but I can still use the same type of platform strategy approach that they used over here. Those types of skills, I think, are going to become more and more important as we start to develop product management and as it starts to mature into a career just like software engineering.
And we are starting to see the beginnings of that. We start to see people taking product management classes in school, teaching at HBS. It's been really fun to teach our other MBAs about product management and give them those skills. If we're going to really mature our career path, our roles, we have to make sure that we're building those mindsets in there too.
And it's not just all about process. So I'm starting to see that start to shift. And that's making a big difference. I think we have achieved the processes of, yes, we should be talking to customers.
Melissa Perri: Yes, we should be running controlled experiments on different levels to make sure this is the right way to go. We should be building a business case with data to make sure that we should go after these things. Those seem to be more commonplace these days. And I don't have to argue with people about them, which I did 10 years ago.
That was a huge argument. Yes, you have to talk to customers. But it's not as big of a fight anymore because I think we've realized, yes, this is the way we build great products. But we have to get past the only focusing on the process part and really looking at everything top to bottom, which is why product strategy is important and product operations is important.
And I think you're gonna see a lot about product operations in 2022. Denise and I are writing a book on it, which is fantastic. I'm excited about that. It's been really fun to collaborate with her around it. And I'm excited to put that out into the world. But do you know, if you've listened to this podcast, there's some tensions around what is product operations and why do we need it?
The fact is, companies that have product managers are getting bigger. Tons of big companies that have product managers, but whether or not they started with them, they're still gonna have tons.
Melissa Perri: And we've got all these growth stage companies getting bigger and bigger who are gonna get more and more product managers. We need to have systems in place that help us scale that. Like any other big thing, like you have sales operation processes. Why should you not have product operations processes?
And when I talk about processes here too, I'm not talking about just the way that we do product management. But I'm talking about the way that we gather and collect data and put it out there to the product managers so that they can inform their product strategy. The way we monitor our product strategy and make choices about it going forward.
The cadences we set up to be able to review those things and say, are we going down the right path? And then also the systems that we put in place to help us talk to customers. So not the actual process of going to do those things, but the tools and the systems that we implement in an organization to make sure we can do that well, that is incredibly important.
It's not gonna get less important. And one trend I'm seeing a lot with the investors I work with and with a lot of companies out there is the need to get your hands on data.
Melissa Perri: Like this has been a big need for a while. But I think we're finally getting really good companies out there that are helping us measure product success. But they're also realizing it's not just about product success. There's a lot of different things we need to measure. There's a lot of things that we need, not on the team level too, but at the executive level.
Which makes me excited about companies like Dragon Boat, who are doing portfolio planning and helping people see those types of things in their companies at an executive level, at a leader level. So we're starting to really, I think these trends I'm talking about too, they boil down into, we're finally seeing product management not just as that thing that works with the developers. But it's the career path, it's the role that helps tie the company vision into the software strategy.
So it's got such an important role, especially for SaaS companies where your software strategy is very similar to your company's strategy. But not just that, tech enabled services, your non-native software companies like your banks and your insurance companies, we're finally seeing product management at all different levels.
Melissa Perri: And I'm hoping a big piece of this will be seeing more chief product officers in the C-suite going into 2022. And chief product officers that really understand product. A lot of times we're taking fantastic executives and throwing them into a product role. But they don't have the chance even to go out there and really grok product, understand how all of those things work.
And you see that more in the companies that are transforming into product management, less in the ones that are native software places. But it is a trend that I see. And I think as we talk about the chief product officer role and what that really means, we'll start to recognize what good looks like there.
Still fairly new, still one of the things I get hit up about pretty much weekly with, hey, we have a role, can we fill it? Do you know any chief product officers? So the need is there. People really want to fill this role, creating ways for people to learn how to be a product executive. That's what I'm pretty passionate about right now.
So that's why I started Chief, the CPO Accelerator.
Melissa Perri: But I don't think that need's going to slow down in 2022, and I'm hoping we see a lot more people in the executive roles as chief product officers. I'm starting to see it crop up here and there. I'm getting more questions on it, even from really large companies. So I think that's going to be a really fun shift for 2022.
Did you know I have a course for product managers that you could take? It's called Product Institute. Over the past seven years, I've been working with individuals, teams, and companies to upscale their product chops through my fully online school. We have an ever-growing list of courses to help you work through your current product dilemma.
Visit productinstitute.com and learn to think like a great product manager. Use code THINKING to save $200 at checkout on our premier course, Product Management Foundations. Another topic that I keep hearing about from people is product-led growth. I'm a little worried about this one. I had a couple conversations about it this week.
I'm not sure if people really understand what product-led growth means.
Melissa Perri: I keep getting asked if I do it, and I'm like, yes, yes, I do. But so does a lot of great product managers. I'm worried that we're going to jump on this term and turn it into some meaningless, right? Or look at it as what we did with Agile or Scrum where it's like, it's going to solve all our problems.
Product-led growth is not a replacement for sales. It really means your product should be so good that it sells itself and people can get onboarded into it and start using it pretty quickly. And it is awesome. I think that's how we should be selling SaaS software if we can. But not all companies operate that way, not all buyers want that.
So we have to remember that it's not a cure-all for everything. It could be incredibly powerful. You really have to work on your onboarding if you're going to do that. A lot of people just skip onboarding. They should really fix that. But it's an amazing tool, an amazing way to think about your company if it fits right for you.
So I think we're going to see a lot more product-led growth pushes. I mean, everybody's talking about it right now. I'm just hoping that it doesn't get completely misconstrued like how we adopted Agile and thinking it's going to solve all our problems.
Melissa Perri: It's not for everybody. But if we can use it, I think we should be using it. I think we should be thinking that way first and then filling in the gaps where it doesn't work. So this is going to be a big one out there. I'm hoping it doesn't go the wrong way. And lastly, the thing I think we need to really be focusing on going into 2022, which is just coming up more and more in the news, is product ethics.
Big theme, big theme, not just in how ethical our companies. I think a lot of ethics go right down into the values of your company and a lot of product ethics too as well. But there's a lot we can do as product managers to think about the way we experiment and the way we do our user flows. And the value that we want to provide to our customers.
And how do we want to deliver that value? And is it really taking away from the ecosystems that they live in? Is it hurting somebody else, right? Sometimes we get really focused on just the customer and the user and we don't think about the other people in the ecosystem. And that's been a pretty big passion of mine throughout 2021 and something that I am very happy that we explored a lot on this podcast this year.
Melissa Perri: And if you haven't listened to it, I go back and listen to some of the episodes we got into. Especially with Kathy Pham and Teresa Torres, we talked a lot about product ethics. But Dave Dame as well, there's so much there. And if we have a responsibility as product managers to build great products for our customers, we also have to make sure that we're not inadvertently hurting other people by doing that.
We got to look at really how all of this stuff manifests and what kind of world it lets us live in. So I'm pretty passionate about that. And I think 2022, I mean, it's not going to slow down. As we move more and more to our lives just being very software centric, digital centric, that's going to play a role.
So we got to get up on that. We got to figure out better ways for really thinking through all the repercussions and all the adjacent systems when we develop products. Not just the customer, the user, and the problem that's right in front of us. But what could this do if it went nuts, right? What would this do if it took over the world and everybody's using it and it created this platform and where do our boundaries lie?
Melissa Perri: What do we want to do to make sure that it doesn't hinder people's lives more than it does to help? So I think that's going to be a really big theme for 2022. I'm excited we're talking about it more. I'm excited that more and more people are really looking into that. It's going to be impactful. So yeah, that's kind of my thoughts going into 2022.
I think we're moving out of just process talk and getting into real product thinking, real product strategy. There's so much in product strategy and design of products that I'm excited to have more conversations about. Once we get over the hurdle of how do you do it, now we get to have the fun conversations about how do we do it super well and build really, really cool stuff.
That's going to be really fun. So once we get over that hurdle, which is insight, we can start focusing on that. How do we scale product management throughout our companies as they continue to grow? How do we not let product growth become just another name out there that nobody understands? And then what do we do to make sure that we are ethical product managers?
Melissa Perri: To make sure that we are providing value and increasing the value in our whole ecosystem's lives. Let's put it that way. How do we make sure that we're not doing harm? Those are things I'm really top of mind for me going into 2022 and things I think we started to really scratch the surface of in 2021.
On a personal note, I'm enjoying all the new products that are popping out there. It's been really fun to see them grow. I'm a huge fan of TikTok and I think the creator landscape is going to be something really fun to watch. Going into 2022, I think the way we start to consume different products and media and software is changing and it has been changing for a long time.
It's going to be so fascinating to see what that becomes over the next year. And I'm looking forward to that personally. I'm looking forward to seeing all the creative people out there start to think about what they could do to really come together and build new things. So we've got lots of fun stuff on the TikTok side and the creator market.
Melissa Perri: We've got lots of startups out there building really fun stuff. Cryptocurrencies are going nuts, becoming a household name. Whoever thought my parents would talk about Ethereum, but hey, that's where we're at. I'm excited to see what happens with those new technologies and with these new platforms and these new ways of interacting with people and reaching people.
I wouldn't discount them. I wouldn't discount a lot of this stuff. And if you are a product manager, a big piece of advice is look at what are the new technologies coming out there? That's a part of product management. We spend so much time talking about how to do it. But a huge part of your role is to figure out how to keep up with it.
Keep up with the new products and keep up with the modern technology. So really pay attention to what's around you. Pay attention to what people are talking about and what investors are investing in. Not all of it's great, but some of it is. Look at what new tech is doing and sit down with your CTO and with your developers and say, can we harness this?
But not just for the sake of harnessing it. We don't need to do a blockchain if it doesn't make sense for us.
Melissa Perri: But can we actually provide value to our customers by using this, by using machine learning, by using all these buzzwords? What's the value that these new technologies really provide us? And what's the value that we can harness if we start to look at the way that users and customers are starting to interact with things differently, like starting to open platforms and create things.
I think that's incredibly powerful. So when you're thinking about 2022 and what does that look like for me as a product manager, I'd really think about that. Remember, your job is not just to go talk to customers. It's like, also look at what's on the horizon. What are the new things that are coming out?
What are getting people excited? What can I harness all over to provide more value to my customers? Definitely go talk to them. I'm not saying don't talk to them. Please talk to your customers. But go talk to them and then start to think creatively about what could I do to wow them? And that should be our year of 2022.
How do I wow people? What can I do to wow our customers and our users and take the work away from them if you're B2B companies, but also in your B2Cs or anything else, too, what can I do to delight them?
Melissa Perri: And we should be thinking about delighting people everywhere. B2B, B2C, it doesn't matter. But what can I do to harness some of this newness to make that happen? So I think that's a good goal for 2022. Talk to your friends, see what they're doing at other companies, figure out what you can borrow, what you should leave.
Leave the bad things that are not working for you in the past, whether it's process-related or anything else. And start thinking about the future because I think it's going to be really good. I'm excited to get back out on the road to in 2022 and see you all again. So hopefully we run into each other somewhere around the world.
But my best wishes for a happy new year and a fun holiday season. And I will see you all in 2022.
