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.
Build What Matters with Vision-Led Product Management (with Rajesh Nerlikar, CEO @ Prodify & author "Build What Matters")
Retail Product Management in a Global Pandemic (with Rhiana Matthew, Senior PM @ Publicis Sapient)
Reducing Waste by Only Spending Time on Really Good Ideas (with Julia Shalet, author "The Really Good Idea Test")
Maintaining Radical Focus and Staying on Strategy with OKRs (with Christina Wodtke, Author "Radical Focus" & "The Team That Managed Itself")
The Philosophy of Product Design (with Udhaya Kumar Padmanabhan, Global Strategic Design Director at Designit)
From Engineer to Product Leader & Getting Away from the "How" (with Rekha Venkatakrishnan, Senior Manager, Group PM @ Walmart)
Data-Driven Decisions & the Product Engagement Score (with Stephanie Tanzar, Director of PM @ Pendo)
Is this Seriously Game Over for Scrum? (with David Pereira, Head of PM @ Virtual Identity, Editor @ Serious Scrum)
From Physiotherapist to Product Manager (with Samuel Ogunkoya, Product Manager @ ProducteevTech)
Product-Led Growth - Game Over for the Sales Team? (with Wes Bush, author "Product-Led Growth" & founder @ ProductLed)
Purposeful Product Transformation & Setting Leaders Up For Success (with Stephanie Leue, CPO @ MindEx & Product Leadership Coach)
Defeating Bias, Prejudice and Bullying in the Workplace (with Kim Scott, author "Radical Candor" & "Just Work")
Sustainable Entrepreneurship & Escaping Hustle Culture (with Polina Marchenko, Founder @ SIDE PRJCT)
Plan your Product Journey via Strategy, Roadmaps and OKRs (with Nacho Bassino, CPO @ Best Day Travel & author "Product Direction")
Surviving a Lack of Product Thinking & Riding the Product Maturity Curve (with Nis Frome, Co-founder & VP Product @ Feedback Loop)
Treating your Career as a Product & Making a Wicked Impact as a Product Leader (with Gibson Biddle, former VP Product @ Netflix)
Growth Marketing & Reshaping the World of eCommerce (with Nichole DeMeré, CMO @ Reeview)
Cleaning Up After Professional Services & Becoming Truly Product Led (with Paul Ortchanian, Founder @ Bain Public)
Building Data Driven Products & Dodging Unsolicited Advice (with Emily Reid, Product Manager @ FCT)
Driving Digital Transformation & Products for Product Managers (with Moshe Mikanovsky, Senior PM @ Procom)
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