S1E4: Driving Success in Your Startup

In this episode, we explore the journey of becoming a successful product manager through Adam’s career transition from technical support to product management. Key insights include the necessity of embracing ambiguity, understanding people, and the significance of customer feedback, especially from those who are constructively critical. The discussion highlights the art of building products from scratch and the delicate balance of feature prioritization. Adam reflects on the lessons learned from prioritizing features that didn’t resonate with the market and emphasizes the importance of talking to less satisfied customers to gain valuable insights. The episode also delves into the strategic aspects of defining an ideal customer profile, the risks and rewards of joining a startup, and the complexities of transitioning from a single product to a multi-product company. Additionally, it covers the importance of storytelling and communication in product management, concluding with final thoughts on the subject.

Call to Action

Let us know what your takeaways were — what comments made you think? What new thoughts did you have listening to the podcast?

Quotes

“Product management is a lot of sitting comfortably with ambiguity and charting a ship’s course through real thick fog and just hoping that everyone on the ship trusts that we’re heading in the right direction and doesn’t mutiny.”

Adam Strong

“I see a lot of product managers set up these user meetings with the friendlies, the people that are really easy to talk to, the ones who really like what you’re doing. But in my experience, you get really weak feedback that way. I think the users that you need to talk to are the ones who are a little bit ticked off at you. They’re annoyed by you. They’ve got something to say, but they’re not just nitpicking. They’re actually rooting for you, they like what you’re doing for them with this product. They want it to be successful, but they are not happy. I think those are the ones that you have to talk to first. In my opinion, they’re your champions. Your product is going to live or die by their hands.”

Adam Strong