Top product management reads in November

Deep dive: How technical should a B2B product manager be?

This post from B2B product leader Deepak Deolalikar looks at why it’s preferable for B2B product managers to have some technical knowledge and at what those technical skills should be.

Technical knowledge makes for improved collaboration and better decision making, Deepak says. It also means you have a better understanding of the tradeoffs you need to make and of the constraints of your architecture.

Deepak then runs through the technical skills he believes a B2B product manager would benefit from. Briefly, they are: databases; analytics and SQL; API; big data; AI/ML; cloud computing; architecture/ tech stack/ frameworks; security/ cybersecurity; development environment/ SDLC/CI-CD. He says: “Depending on your situation, a little bit of technical proficiency will definitely give you the added edge. It certainly will not harm.”

Deep dive: How technical should a B2B product manager be?

Susana Lopes: Embracing a dual-track career ladder in product

In this #mtpcon London keynote Susana Lopes, Director of Product at Abatable, shares some tangible insights on a dual-track career ladder framework, a tool to ensure all product individual contributor (IC) professionals have the room to learn, explore, and grow.

Susana looks back on her career and explains how she felt stuck on her product leadership journey. To avoid being stuck climbing someone else’s ladder, she offers a new career framework for organisations to consider so that we can be guided by curiosity and what feels interesting, rather than following a single linear path.

She says that when comparing IC levels with manager levels, equally tall ladders must become the norm. It would ensure that ICs won’t feel they’re going to hit a ceiling.

For ICs to grow in their careers, she says, we have to create opportunities for those who don’t manage others, to have an impact beyond building products and strategy.

When looking at your career, Susana advises that you figure out what gives you energy and what drains you. Finally, she says, a dual career ladder gives people room to try things out. It’s up to product people to make it a standard in our profession.

Susana Lopes: Embracing a dual-track career ladder in product

10 years Wiser: Lessons learned from scaling Wise by Nilan Peiris

In another keynote from #mtpcon London 2023, Nilan Peiris, Chief Product Officer at Wise, revisits some of the bold statements he’s made to Mind the Product audiences in the past and assesses whether they have held true as the company has grown.

He finds that scaling through word of mouth is possible in big companies but you need to build something that’s 10x better than anything else and you need mission-driven marketing to achieve it.

He adds that autonomous teams need tweaking to scale. “I don’t use the word autonomous anymore,” says Nilan. “It’s very hard to interpret. We do work, and continue to work, in highly empowered teams at Wise.”

He says that customers don’t care about how your business is run, they only care about the speed with which you achieve your mission.

10 years Wiser: Lessons learned from scaling Wise by Nilan Peiris

How to become an exceptional product manager – Randy Silver

In this special episode of The Product Experience podcast from #mtpcon 2023 presenter Randy Silver sits on the other side of the microphone to answer questions about what differentiates exceptional product managers from good ones.

Randy thinks that four things separate the exceptional product managers from the good ones.

Three of these are quite straightforward:

• Have you got your priorities straight, so you know what to work on and what not to work on?
• Have you got the right people with the right culture, so they know what to do, they clearly understand it, they have the permission to do the stuff and to speak about it and ask questions?
• Do they have processes that allow them to actually get work done?

Then what really separates the good from the great, says Randy, is being conscious of the perception of others about how you handle your work. He says: “It’s not just you. Do you think you’re doing these things well? Are you doing them by the book and doing it the right way? Does your team agree with that? And, more importantly, do your partners, stakeholders and customers all agree that your priorities, your people and your processes are working to give them value?”

How to become an exceptional product manager – Randy Silver

Mastering cross-discipline collaboration: Insights from product leaders

Product leaders are no strangers to collaboration, so it was a popular topic at the #mtpcon Leadership Forum 2023.  Georgie Smallwood, Chief Technology and Product Officer at Moonpig, led an engaging session to provide some tips on cross-discipline collaboration. This was followed by a panel discussion with Joe Dreimann, Senior Director of Product Design at Pendo, Phil Hornby, Founder and Director at for product people, and Sean O’Neill, Chief Product Officer at GfK. Moderator was Erin Weigel, Senior Design Manager at Deliveroo.

Some of Georgie’s key tips are:

• Do not attempt to educate those who do not want to learn
• Build relationships before you need them… and you will need them
• No one is a unicorn. Know your gaps and hire for them.
• Learn business language and use it. Common language is important; people don’t understand tech, and tech doesn’t understand business.

Mastering cross-discipline collaboration: Insights from product leaders