The essence of product management

Christian Idiodi, a partner at Silicon Valley Product Group and long-time product leader who has launched many products and works on product in Africa, discusses why product management is often disliked and how PMs can earn trust. The conversation covers coaching for product leaders, the four product risks (value, usability, viability, feasibility), his favored discovery method of recruiting reference customers, and a real-world story of building a high-volume hiring product.

01Key learnings

• Earn trust as a PM by becoming the most knowledgeable person on customers, data and the business, and by asking experts to teach you while visibly learning every day.
• Frame PM success as earning a 'certificate of appreciation' from customers: revenue, engagement, loyalty, or referrals.
• Recognize that value is the hardest and most overlooked risk; test whether customers will actually buy, choose, and use the product, not just whether they can use it.
• Use reference customers as your discovery method: find roughly 6-8 for B2B or 15-25 for B2C who love the solution enough to vouch for it publicly.
• Work closely with the problem holders, observing them in their environment, and build the solution with them until they will put their reputation on the line.
• Practice coaching by teaching people in pairs, creating safe practice spaces, and giving feedback so leaders learn behaviors before they are promoted into them.
• Build relationships quickly by having an influential leader teach you or share their calendar, which extends their trust to you and makes them invested in your growth.
• Pilot leadership before promotion, since people promoted into roles without coaching often revert to doing the job instead of leading it.

02Frameworks mentioned

Summary and takeaways written by PM Atlas; quotes are short excerpts. © the original author.