Gabrielle Bufrem is a product leader and product coach who comes highly recommended by Sir Marty Cagan himself. She's passionate about developing product managers and product leaders, as well as helping them be true strategic partners to the business. We spoke about product vision, what to do when it's not there, the importance of product principles and much more.
My former podcast guest, Saeed Khan and I are thinking of putting together a B2B Product Management cohort course on Maven. Our goal is to help B2B PMs make peace with the differences between B2B product management and much of the classic product literature, and enable them to be true business partners rather than stuck in a remorseless feature factory. We're assessing interest right now, so if this sounds good, please fill in our course questionnaire. Thanks!
1. A product strategy is the highest leverage artefact any product leader can have
But it's also one of the hardest to do. It's serious, serious work, which is why so many product teams just end up with a list of tasks, or a "pizza strategy" (pepperoni! chicken! M&Ms!)
2. A lot of problems stem from being people pleasersNo one wants to say "no" and people can suffer from the fear of missing out. People can be afraid to take a stance. But, it's essential to narrow your focus to the absolute essentials if you want to make any progress at all.
3. It's hard to push back on pre-agreed feature requests if you don't have a planProduct leaders need a deep understanding of their users and customers, but also of the wider business context. You need to be conscious of what the company (and the board) wants.
4. Sometimes companies don't have strategies eitherIt's easy to get dragged into a neverending feature list, prioritising whatever the next thing is. Product leaders need to work with wider leadership to identify broad goals, how they can get there & what the 3-5 year plan is.
5. Product managers are there to represent the businessUX designers are there to look after the users and the engineering team is there to look after the tech. It's absolutely essential for PMs to be trusted business partners if they want to make a big impact.
Contact GabrielleYou can connect with Gabi on Twitter or on LinkedIn. Or, check out her website.
Building High Performing Cross-Functional Teams as a PM (with Hanne Ockert-Axelsson, Senior Product Manager @ accuRx)
Why We Need To Stay Aligned to Avoid Product Failure (with Jonathon Hensley, author ”Alignment”)
The Importance of Making Design a Strategic Business Partner (with Wolfgang Bremer, Head of Design @ Elli)
How to Manage Imposter Syndrome in Product Management (with Phyllis Njoroge, author ”From Fraud to Freedom”)
Product Leadership is Hard - Let‘s Get Better At It (with Ebenezer Ikonne, author ”Becoming a Leader in Product Development”)
Building Effective Technical Skills for Product Managers (with Irene Yu, founder @ Skiplevel)
Leading & Evolving Product Teams Through Hyperscale (with Brian Shen, Product Director @ ClickUp)
Breaking Down Silos in Product Development (with Sigurd Seteklev, co-founder @ Kitemaker)
Can Sales & Product Really Get Along? (with Brendan McAdams, author ”Sales Craft”)
Protecting Vulnerable Users by Designing for Safety (with Eva PenzeyMoog, author ”Design for Safety”)
Creating Sustainable Products with Conscious Design (with Ian Peterman, co-author ”Conscious Design”)
Digital Pollution & The Product Hippocratic Oath (with Radhika Dutt, author ”Radical Product Thinking”)
Building the Future of Automated Crypto Trading with the DDDT Process (with Gabriele Musella, CEO @ Coinrule)
Helping Companies Scale by Automating (almost) Everything (with Daniel Cooper, founder @ Lolly Co)
Selling Product Thinking by Influencing Companies at the Right Time (with Anthony Marter, product consultant & chair @ Product Aotearoa)
Maintaining a Collaborative & Inclusive Product Culture at Scale (with Anna Curzon, Chief Product Officer @ Xero)
Building the Future of Professional Networking (with Peter Johnston & Matt Breuer, CEO & Product Director @ Polywork)
Optimising Product Planning with the Quartz Open Framework (with Steve Johnson, consultant & co-founder @ Product Growth Leaders)
Navigating the World of Product Management (with George Nurijanian, Product Owner @ Xero & Founder @ prodmgmt.world)
Fighting Fires in B2B Product Management (with Rich Mironov, Product Consultant & author ”The Art of Product Management”)
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