Building a High-Performance Culture in Product Teams with Abraham Alappat, Product Manager at Georgian

Product Leaders Podcast

A big shoutout to all product leaders. Welcome to the Product Leaders Podcast by Fireart with your hosts, Dima Venglinski and Tolik Nguyen. Every episode is a deep dive into different aspects of product leadership to enhance the end-user experience.

In this episode, Tolik is joined by Abraham Alappat, Product Manager at Georgian, a fintech accelerator for startups and CEOs. Abraham has over fifteen years of experience in product development and management. He shares his insights on key product touchpoints, including designing MVPs, technical skills required by product managers, and creating an empowering and result-driven culture. He also unpacks the skills toolkit that upcoming product managers need to master.

Topics we discuss:

• The role of CTOs and PMs when products are led by machine learning
• Finding the balance between speed and perfection when designing MVPs
• Is a technical background mandatory when managing ML-led products?
• The concept of servant leadership
• Building a sustainable high-performance culture
• Tips for upcoming product managers

Hot Takes and Key Highlights:

Finding the Balance Between Speed and Perfection in MVPs

Abraham explains that rapid progress is critical when designing and releasing a minimum viable product. It’s important to remember that when planning an MVP, there will always be a set of unlisted and unstated requirements that will need to be added in. The whole point of an MVP is to get feedback on required add-ons. There’s no point in delaying the MVP process as you try to figure out all variables. An MVP needs to prove the core concept; it doesn’t need to be perfect.

“We launched our MVP and got positive feedback and suggestions on add-on requirements”.

The Concept of Servant Leadership

The servant leadership model hinges on the belief that a leader's primary responsibility is to solve problems, serve their teams' needs, and enable them to win. The leader is responsible for the team's success because they set the vision and direction. Abraham explains that at Gregorian, every success is presented to the management by the product and technical teams, while he presents failures. It helps in building team camaraderie.

“ Some of us have to step back, put our egos aside, and focus on team success”.

Building a High-Performance and Sustainable Culture

Companies on the high-growth path have teams that can scale quickly and consistently deliver results. Efficient teams deliver results in a culture that promotes teamwork and one where no one is considered a superstar. Teams win and lose together, and these teams are innovative. This culture starts from the top and permeates its way downward.

“Our teams are continually innovating products and their features and developing MVPs to prove new concepts”.

Product Professionals Need These Skills in Their Toolkit

Abraham highlights three key skills that all product professionals must have in their toolkits. The first skill is to become proficient with the required processes and the ability to work with people. You also need to understand the nuts and bolts of agile methodology. Next, you need to have good functional knowledge of the technology stacks being used. He recommends taking training courses for the critical stacks. Lastly, all product professionals must learn the art of critical thinking when solving problems and understanding why a product is being built.

“In the end, a product manager's main role is to understand the scale of the problem and why the product is being built”.

Guest at a Glance:

Abraham describes himself as an entrepreneur and an MBA graduate passionate about product, finance, and strategy. He is putting this passion to work at Georgian - spearheading the development of our internal ML-driven investment engine.

Abraham Alappat on LinkedIn

Georgian Website

Hosts at a Glance:

Dima Venglinski: Dima is the CEO of Fireart Studio, a boutique design and software development company committed to innovation and technology. His client portfolio ranges from startups to established global brands like Rolls Royce, Google, and Atlassian.

Connect with Dima on LinkedIn

Fireart Studio Website

Tolik Nguyen: Tolik is the CSO and Partner at Fireart Studio and leads the strategy team while solving the company’s end-user issues from an early idea stage.

Connect with Tolik on LinkedIn

Fireart Studio Website

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