Do You Even Need A Product Manager? w/ John Cutler

Is your product management approach clashing with real-world demands?
Product expert John Cutler - author of the long-running newsletter The Beautiful Mess, Senior Director of Product Enablement at Toast and former product evangelist at Amplitude - returns to the podcast to discuss different approaches to product management, and where they might help (or hinder) your business.
Learn about:
- Ideal or Ordeal: The challenge of applying idealistic, one-size-fits-all perspectives on product management to the harsh realities of business.
- Canny Valley: The risks of adopting Silicon Valley product management styles without the necessary resources or mindset.
- Project vs. Product: The similarities and differences between product managers and project managers.
- Role Call: How to tailor different roles and hierarchies to the actual needs of your business.
0:00 Intro
2:40 Competing narratives in product management
13:01 Product culture as company culture
20:38 The trouble with 'Silicon Valley' ideas
28:51 Product managers vs. project managers
32:10 Radically rethinking the org chart
33:49 Designers as PMs
41:54 Closing advice for founders
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Editor: Justin McArthur / justin-mcarthur
Intro Voice: Jeremiah Owyang web-strategist.com/
#startup #entrepreneur #founder #firing #riskmanagement

[@GoesByStrider]

So good. This is such a controversial topic right now and needs to be discussed like this.

[@JohnMcSmith]

Strong agree w/ John and Yaniv here - in a small tech startup it's the founder(s) who need to wear a CPO hat: product vision/strategy people, plus lean into the details on projects (e.g. craft requirements, negotiate scope with teams). Design and eng - primarily eng - can own delivery. Sprinkling in junior PMs who aren't empowered just adds a layer between the founders and adds more overhead

[@startup-podcast]

Thanks John, glad you agree!