#89 - Melissa Perri // Author of "Escaping the Build Trap" and "Product Operations"

alphalist.CTO Podcast - For CTOs and Technical Leaders

CTOs Guide to Product Strategy and ProductOps

Craft the ideal product strategy in this CTO podcast episode with Melissa Perri, author of “Escaping the Build Trap” and “Product Operations”.Find out how to become truly product-led: from your strategy to your metrics to your tooling. Listen to find out:

• How to balance qualitative 😍 and quantitative data 🧪 in product
• Were the mass layoffs caused by overhiring? 🫠Is it a natural part of growth or can companies avoid over scaling?
• What does the ideal product strategy 🎯look like?
• What is ProductOps⚙️ and why you need it
• + how to handle your fellow exec’s "greatest idea ever" (AKA Build Trap Alert)

🚧 WARNING: LISTENING TO THIS PODCAST MIGHT CAUSE YOUR PRODUCT STRATEGY TO ACTUALLY BE SUPER FOCUSED AND USED. ONLY LISTEN IF YOU ARE NOT SCARED OF RESULTS.

BROUGHT TO YOU BY: codecentric, Sipgate and WorkGenius.

Quote:

> I think product management is this careful combination of always balancing the qualitative with the quantitative. It's about synthesizing a ton of data and trying to figure out which direction do we go in.” - Melissa Perri,alphalist CTO podcast #89

Timestamps (approx): (00:00) Intro (02:22) About Melissa (03:35) Melissa Perry's Education (06:13) Her First Exposure to Product Management (07:03) Her Stint as a Software Developer (08:25) How People-Centric Agile Transformed Their Team Culture (10:00) When Expectation Did Not Match Actual Usage Analytics (10:54) Lean Project Management (11:21) How Her Product Thought Leadership Took Off (12:36) Product Management: Balancing Qualitative and Quantitative Data (13:40) The Build Trap (15:09) How to Ground an Executive's AMAZING Idea into Product Management (20:50) How Organisational Structure Could Be a Blocker for Product Management (24:33) How to Get Out of the Build Trap (27:31) Overhiring? Role Consolidation (29:40) How to Avoid Overscaling / Overhiring (34:00) What is the Ideal Product Strategy (36:26) The Importance of Strategic Intent in Company Strategy (36:50) Examples of Top 3 Strategic Priorities (37:23) Aligning the Whole Company with Strategic Intent (38:04) Example of Adapting Products to Achieve a Strategic Intent (38:41) Product Strategy Prompts (39:19) How to Build a Product Strategy (39:51) How to Clarify Your Company Vision (40:11) Defining Strategic Intent (40:33) The Importance of Product in Strategic Decision Making (41:08) Being Realistic (42:08) Understanding Your Current Customers and Their Needs (42:22) Portfolio Strategy (43:03) The Role of Product and Tech in Achieving Company Goals (43:26) The Importance of Integrating Products for Customer Value (44:22) Creating Initiatives for Strategic Pushes (46:54) The Role of Product Operations in Product Management (47:50) The Importance of Data and Insights in Product Operations (50:19) Understanding Your Customers through Market Research (52:27) The Role of Process and Governance in Product Operations (53:53) Ideal Product Strategy Meetings (55:46) Getting Started with ProductOps - First Hires (58:30) How to Align Tech and Product Goals (01:01:36) Ask the Right Questions (01:04:10) One Roadmap includes Tech + Product (01:06:52) Be part of the team- both C-Suite and your own tech team

About our sponsors

codecentric

The codecentric Culture and Career Podcast is unique for a company podcast. It is just employees talking freely about their daily life - from IT consulting projects they are working to imposter syndrome. We support this because we think it's pretty cool that codecentric simply lets the colleagues talk about everything, no matter what it's about - project business, Imposter sydrome, further education or parental leave in the consulting business. For us it is definitely worth a recommendation. Listen in - the codecentric Culture and Career Podcast. Note - its in German. Just go to: www.link.alphalist.com/cc

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Sipgate

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Plus, as a German company - they know all your GDPR needs.

Sounds good? Well, keep listening as it gets better:

As an alphalist CTO podcast listener, you get € 500 worth of free credits when you sign up at https://link.alphalist.com/sipgate and use the code: sipgatealpha in the form there.

WorkGenius

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