Masters Of Product Management

Sometimes we need to be reminded of what's needed to be a successful product manager. In this episode, Steven Haines reinforces the key constructs required to be a successful product manager.

Product Management, by its very nature, is collaborative and cross-functional. On a daily basis, we work closely with engineering, marketing, sales, finance, operations, etc. Product Managers have many partners, and we need them all to be successful.

Episode 37 - How to Use Soft Skills to Influence Others: It’s amazing how often the topic of influencing and using soft skills comes up. As most of us know, product managers are supposed to influence those who don’t work for them, yet they’re accountable for so much! This episode is geared to those who need a little extra advice on how to influence others using softer skills.

Episode 36 - Riding High - a Conversation with Ruth Zukerman - Co-Founder of Flywheel: Product managers can learn a lot from entrepreneurs. In this episode, Steven Haines talks with Ruth Zukerman, author of the upcoming book “Riding High: How I Kissed SoulCycle Goodbye and Co-Founded Flywheel, and Built the Life I Always Wanted.” Ruth shares her remarkable story of how she translated her passion and creativity to build a remarkable company and a loyal following. Hosted by Steven Haines of Sequent Learning Networks

Episode 35 – How Product Managers Can Think About Mobile Users: We are a mobile, on-the-go society and our devices are glued to our hands. Product managers who deal with mobile users must understand how user needs change with each step they take. Keeping track to stay ahead of the curve is a challenge. Amazon’s Kabir Bedi shares some of his thoughts so you can fine-tune your approach to understand customer needs. Hosted by Steven Haines ofSequent Learning Networks

Episode 34 – How to Influence Product Teams with Karl Sluis: Every product manager knows that their job is to influence people who don’t work for them. At the core is effective communication. This episode features a conversation between Steven Haines and Karl Sluis. They’ll discuss challenges and solutions so that you can improve the effectiveness of your cross-functional product teams. Hosted by Steven Haines of Sequent Learning Networks

Episode 33 – Product Management vs. Project Management with Steven Haines: Product managers are often confused with project managers, and sometimes, product managers have to do the work of a project managers. However, the discipline and purpose of each role serves a unique purpose. In this episode, Steven Haines explains the difference –simply and efficiently. Hosted by Steven Haines of Sequent Learning Networks

Episode 32 – How to Interview Customers with Teresa Torres: In order to ensure that a product’s features hit the mark, product managers and their teams must become exemplary interviewers. This is a vital skill for teams who have to be inspired to continuously learn and fine-tune the value of their products. In this episode, Steven Haines speaks with Teresa Torres from Product Talk (https://www.producttalk.org/) to inspire you to be great customer interviewers. Hosted by Steven Haines of Sequent Learning Networks

Episode 31 – The Importance of Good Record Keeping with Steven Haines: Even with cloud-based storage, you’d be surprised that documents and artifacts are scattered across the organization. Wouldn’t be easier if we had access to documents, tools, and other artifacts and evidence of our work? In this episode, Steven Haines discusses the value of good record keeping for product managers. Hosted by Steven Haines of Sequent Learning Networks.

Episode 30 – How Product Managers Act Like Entrepreneurs One of the things that separate good product managers from great ones is their ability to think and act like entrepreneurs. It so happens that Bob Caporale, president of Sequent Learning Networks, and Tate Tegtmeier who’s in charge of marketing at Sequent, are hosts of their own podcast called Making it Real – a show that features stories from product entrepreneurs. Listen to a great dialogue between Steven, Bob, and Tate, to come away with some great insights about how to run your product business like a true entrepreneur! Hosted by Steven Haines of Sequent Learning Networks.

Episode 29 – The Importance of Mindset with Steven Haines: To be effective as a product manager, your mind has to be attuned to, and make sense out of a dynamic stream of disconnected signals. In this show, Steven Haines talks about why it’s so important for product managers to sometimes just step back and think about goings-on with the business in order to figure out what to do next. Hosted by Steven Haines of Sequent Learning Networks

Episode 28 – Nurturing Your Product with Tara Newboult: Everyone likes new things.  New products are more fun to work on and continuous development can be intoxicating. However, a product is still a business that needs to be evaluated from multiple standpoints. In this episode, Steven Haines speaks with Tara Newboult to share perspectives on how to nurture your product's business. Hosted by Steven Haines of Sequent Learning Networks

  Episode 27 – Understanding User Feelings in User Stories with Steven Haines:    Most product managers utilize a template or framework to capture user stories and associated features. However, many user stories are not completely linked to the emotional side of the user.  The result could be features that don’t really solve the customer’s problem. In this episode, Steven Haines offers some ideas on how to better empathize with your customers or users. Hosted by Steven Haines of Sequent Learning Networks

  Episode 26 – Adapting to Agile with Steven Haines:  All companies want to act with agility and compete more aggressively in the battle for the hearts and minds of customers. Yet, large companies that are shifting to rapid or agile development continue to struggle with complexity, role definition, and adaptation to agile methods.  In this episode, Steven Haines speaks with John Feeley, a product director who has insights to share about agile transformation. Hosted by Steven Haines of Sequent Learning Networks

  Episode 25 – What is Product Management? With Steven Haines:  Everyone knows what product management is.  Right?  Maybe not.  Based on the research done at Sequent Learning Networks, there are a lot of different definitions.  When many people have a different definition for the same term, confusion abounds.  In this episode, Steven Haines, author of The Product Manager’s Desk Reference (2e) will reinforce the foundation so everyone can refer to a unified definition of product management. Hosted by Steven Haines of Sequent Learning Networks

Episode 24 – Using the “Jobs to be Done” Model to Create Innovative Products:   As product people, we all want to create that unique product that solves a customer’s problem better than anything available.  This episode features a conversation with renowned author Tony Ulwick where Steven and Tony talk about how you can apply the ‘jobs to be done’ model of outcome innovation to your product. Hosted by Steven Haines of Sequent Learning Networks

  Episode 23 – How to Validate Product-Market Fit:   To bring your product strategy to light, every product must be validated for product-market fit, prior to launch, and through successive iterations. In this episode, Nadar Balata and Steven Haines talk how products can be validated – from the fulfillment of strategic intent, to overall usability. Hosted by Steven Haines of Sequent Learning Networks

Episode 22 – How Use Design Sprints to Speed Your Innovations: It stands to reason that if you don’t validate a product concept, your chances of achieving product success is limited.   In this episode, Dave Zasada and Steven Haines talk about how to plan and carry out a design sprint so that you can improve the chances that your product innovation will hit the mark. Hosted by Steven Haines of Sequent Learning Networks

Episode 21 – How to Understand the Customer Ecosystem to Produce Better Results: So many people talk about the customer experience, but all experiences don’t always result in a positive outcome. In this episode, Sam Aborne and Steven Haines discuss the importance of understanding the customer ecosystem to uncover insights and produce better outcomes. Hosted by Steven Haines of Sequent Learning Networks

Episode 20 - Leveraging Cross-Functional Teams When Agile is Used: The proliferation of intangible digital products and services has enabled many companies to use rapid development to operate more efficiently. While results are mixed, it is possible to hasten time to market using cross-functional product teams. In this episode, Steven Haines shares some ideas you can adopt. Hosted by Steven Haines of Sequent Learning Networks