Ep. #14, Roadmaps and Product Direction

In episode 16 of Practical Product, Craig and Rimas are joined by Connie Kwan to walk through the process of buying and selling products on marketplaces.

In episode 14 of Practical Product, Craig and Rimas look at the differences between following a product roadmap and framing a strategy around product direction and user engagement.

In episode 13 of Practical Product, Craig and Rimas are joined by Martin Gontovnikas to explore how Auth0 is growing its developer user base.

In episode #12 of Practical Product, Craig and Rimas are joined by Kathy Simpson from GitHub. Kathy discusses her approach to identifying and managing product stakeholders. She reveals how she handles disgruntled stakeholders, suggesting a proactive mindset that includes breaking bad news quickly, admitting to mistakes openly and figuring out what communication style best suits each stakeholder group.

In this episode of Practical Product, Craig and Rimas are joined by Brian Doll and Michael Bernstein to explain why two engineers decided to start Reify, a B2B focused marketing consultancy, after being inspired by the business side of selling software.Reify focuses exclusively on companies selling technical products, helping them to understand the interaction and dependencies between Sales, Marketing and Product functions which is key to fostering better collaboration. They also describe some of the common blunders startups make and share how they help clients using their “3 pillars framework” for evaluating the effectiveness of pricing, packaging, and product messaging.

In Episode #10 of Practical Product, Craig and Rimas are joined by Suzie Prince from ThoughtWorks. Suzie explains how as a product manager she had to make the difficult decision to shut down her product, Snap CI.Suzie describes her learnings from that experience and shares practical tips on managing a product end-of-life such as piecemealing the announcement, gradually removing product functionality and rotating staff who support the product.

In the latest episode of Practical Product, Craig and Rimas are joined by Sean Ellis from GrowthHackers. Sean dispels the confusion around Growth Hacking as simply a form of “creative marketing,” and describes it as a systematic process of experimentation across the entire customer journey.Sean explains in detail his preferred approach for setting up and evolving growth teams and reveals the qualities of an effective growth team.

In this episode of Practical Product Craig and Rimas are joined by Heavybit’s PR Manager Malia Powers to discuss how startups can get more publicity.Malia suggests that before you embark on any PR initiative, you should first ask yourself “why do I want press?” She shares insights to help get the most out of Hacker News, Product Hunt and developer blogs, including types of content that works, how to pitch to reporters, and timing your announcements. Listen in for Malia’s tips on getting more traction with your PR efforts.

In episode 7 of Practical Product, Craig and Rimas sit down with Scott Rocher, Director of Digital Product Development at Blue Bottle Coffee. Digital products and coffee, what do they have to do with each other? Rocher shows how the offline world of coffee can affect online content, and vice versa.

In the latest edition of Practical Product, Craig and Rimas ask if PMs are the “CEOs” of their area. Do they have a similar level of authority and responsibility, just on a smaller scale? Is it easier for them to just be one of the group offsite? The pair also looks at the ways you can motivate your team, from giving incentives to straight up coercion, which may or may not be Rimas’ favorite strategy.