Product Ops People Podcast

Thank you to everyone who continues to listen to this podcast. 1) If you didn’t know, I have a playbook available for product ops at productopspillars.com. It’s a great summary of what modern product ops teams should work towards. It’s a free download and also available at amazon.com. But now I’ve just launched a cohort-based course on this same concept. To take this one step further, I put together what I believe to be the best way to succeed in the product ops role. It’s a cohort-based course that will help you really understand the role and what it entails. To learn more go to maven.com 2) I will soon launch my second playbook. This one is based around effective product strategy and how to really bring that into the day-to-day decisions of the teams. It’s really important that when you’re working with product teams that they have a good understanding of where they’re going and using that in their day-to-day decisions, so they know what they’re doing is on strategy or off strategy. To hear more about it, you can sign up at productstrategybridge.com

In this episode, we speak with Melissa Perri, Founder & CEO of Produx Labs, joining us to discuss "The Case for Product Ops at the Executive Level." Melissa is a leading expert in the field of product management and product operations, and she will be sharing her insights on the vital role that product ops plays in driving business success at the highest levels of an organization. Get ready to learn from Melissa as she shares her experiences and knowledge on the importance of product ops at the executive level. Melissa Perri is a product management expert, board advisor, professor, and the author of “Escaping the Build Trap.” As a consultant, she worked with some of the largest companies in the world to transform their product organizations. Through her online schools Product Institute and CPO Accelerator she helped thousands of product managers and leaders level up their skills. In 2019, she was appointed to the faculty of Harvard Business School to teach Product Management in the MBA program.

In this episode, we speak with Gabby Peralta Product Operations Manager at Tealium, to talk about "Failing Forward in Product Ops". Gabby and I discuss how some product ops managers can feel the pressure to get everything right the first time but instead, it might be more helpful to adopt a more experimental and lean, build, measure learn approach to your services.  Currently, Gabby is a Product Operations Manager at Tealium where she collaborates with high-performing Product and Development teams to build the most trusted CDP (Customer Data Platform) on the market. Before Tealium she was the first ProdOps hire at two startups where she assisted in building their ProdOps team. She is passionate about introducing teams to Product Operations and digging into how to make the function best work for them. Outside of work, Gabby attends ProdOps meetups and volunteers with local LGBTQ+ groups. She was recently nominated as "One to Watch in PLG 2023."

In this episode, I talk with Clare Hawthorne, Senior Director, Product Operations @ Oscar Health, about the value of developing good partnerships across the organisation when setting up Product Ops with a curious and empathetic mindset. Clare Hawthorne is the Senior Director of Product Operations at Oscar Health. She is an Operations leader with 15 years of extensive cross-functional experience and a soft spot for helping companies and teams evolve their processes for scale. Her experiences have included Product, Customer Success, Finance, Human Resources and DEI for B2B technology companies. She has worked for companies at all sizes: large enterprises (Citigroup & Bloomberg) and pre-seed startups (joined as employee #8). Outside of work, Clare enjoys advising startups, particularly in the HR Tech space and serves on the junior board of a New York based non-profit, Harlem Academy. 

In this episode, I talk with Tanmay Bhola, CPO @ Zipline, about his journey of building a Product Ops function as a CPO and how this has helped Zipline navigate some rapid growth. Tanmay is a cross-functional Product leader with a passion for helping organisations find product-market fit. He is Chief Product Officer at Zipline.io, an AFR Fast100 company focused on simplifying healthcare compliance. Previously, he was responsible for Envato’s website builder offerings. Products led by him have been recognised at The Webbys and ProductHunt awards.

In this episode, I talk with Marco Chan, Product Ops Lead at Shopify, about what it is like starting out in Product Operations in a new role or a new area of the business. We talk about building context and rapport with teams to make sure you are building a relevant backlog that will have an impact. Marco leads Product Ops for the Ecosystem team at Shopify which operates the App and Theme Stores. He works closely with Product, Engineering, UX, and Data teams to coordinate initiatives across Shopify. He focuses on providing structure without introducing excessive structure to drive team velocity and culture. Prior to Shopify, he spent time at Uber in Operations / Launch roles and management consulting.

In this episode, I talk with Radhika Dutt, Author of Radical Product Thinking, about the elements of what a practical strategy is and the common pitfalls that organisations have when developing it. This approach sets operations up for success when strategy is clearly articulated and enables greater alignment and autonomy within teams. Radhika Dutt is the author of Radical Product Thinking: The New Mindset for Innovating Smarter which is being translated into several languages including Chinese and Japanese. She is an entrepreneur and product leader who has participated in four acquisitions, two of which were companies that she founded. She advises organizations from high-tech startups to government agencies on building radical products that create a fundamental change. She is currently Advisor on Product Thinking to the Monetary Authority of Singapore, Singapore’s central bank and financial regulator. Radhika has built products in a wide range of industries including broadcast, media and entertainment, telecom, advertising technology, government, consumer apps, robotics, and even wine. She graduated from MIT with an SB and M.Eng in Electrical Engineering, and speaks nine languages.

You may have noticed that we haven't had an episode in a few weeks and that's because I've been working on something pretty special. I want to share with you today. I have launched my playbook for Product Ops called "Product Ops Pillars". Product Ops Pillars provides an accessible summary of what modern Product Operations looks like. You'll learn how to improve your team's performance, which tools are essential, and how to design an operating model that will keep your company on top. Download your copy at https://www.simonhilton.co/productopspillars Please vote for us today on Product Hunt at https://www.producthunt.com/posts/product-ops-pillars

In this episode, I talk with Layla Selick, Senior Director of Professional Services at Productboard role of tools within our product organizations and how they fit into the changing and evolving maturity of that team. Productboard is the leading customer-centric management platform, helping product teams to deliver the right products to market faster with over 5500+ customers. Layla has built a team of professionals that provide deep expertise and engagement with organizations making a transformation within their product teams. Prior to Productboard, Layla was a Customer Success leader at Hootsuite and has held roles in the media and entertainment industry. She holds two business degrees, including an MBA in New York University where she specialized in Media, Entertainment & Technology.

In this episode, I talk with Srinivas Somayajula, Head of Product Ops at Calendly, about how strategy and operations influence each other. This relationship is key to not only being ambitious but also making strategy practical so teams can align themselves but still maintain autonomy. Prior to Calendly, Srinivas was the Product Director for the core marketing platform at Mailchimp and spent a majority of his career in management consulting serving as a trusted advisor to product and technology leaders in hospitality, technology product, financial services, and financial technology companies. Srinivas holds an MBA from Emory University's Goizueta Business School and a BSc from Pennsylvania State University.