Product Collective - Product Ops, not Product "oops"

Make sure your Product Ops isn't Product "oops"

Is your organization’s attempt to implement product operations truly product ops, or is it more like product oops? This week, we’re sharing some resources that will help you take advantage of the benefits of Product Ops and avoid the downsides.

Meanwhile, in product news, one tech company doesn’t want you to share passwords, while another wants you to share roadmaps. Another tech company is looking to get bigger, and another is looking to make it easier for banks to give startups money.

Empowering success: The strategic role of product operations. Companies continually strive for innovation, growth, and market leadership in today's fast-paced and ever-evolving business landscape. With the advent of technology and digital transformation, the role of product management has become increasingly crucial in driving organizational success. However, as companies grow and expand their product portfolios, they encounter challenges that call for a strategic approach to streamline operations and enhance collaboration. As Nima Torabi explains, this is where product operations emerge as a vital function, offering a comprehensive solution to address the evolving needs of modern organizations.

Bridging the gap in product development: The role of product operations. The field of Product Management is rapidly evolving, with the emergence of methodologies such as Agile and Kanban aimed at optimizing product teams. The increased use of these tools and the growing emphasis on data-driven decision-making has given rise to a new discipline: Product Operations. This role is transforming how product teams approach their work by streamlining processes, leveraging data to inform decisions, and empowering organizations to innovate faster. Prayogi Adiraharjo explores the role in a previous company, drawing from experiences in a fishery company job interview and insights gained during a mentoring session with a Product Operations Lead.

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This Week’s Video

Managing Product Operations at Scale. Product Operations aren't necessarily new, but they're also not widely understood. Yet, Product Operations can be a critical discipline for growing technology companies. Matt Shroder, Former Head of Product Operations at Uber, talks about what it's like to manage product operations during the growth and scale stages.

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Product Operations

I recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Melissa Perri and Denise Tilles, two absolute powerhouses in the world of product management, to discuss their new book on product operations – aptly titled Product Operations: How successful companies build better products at scale.

They helped clarify the purpose of Product Operations – which, according to them, is all about enabling product managers to focus on the strategic work they were hired to do. As companies scale, PMs often get bogged down in tactical busy work—writing SQL queries, figuring out processes from scratch for each team, and fighting fires. Product Operations aims to take that operational load off PMs' plates.

In our conversation, Melissa and Denise explained how product ops covers three key pillars:

Business and data insights
Customer and market research
Processes and practices

The goal is to arm PMs with the data, research repositories, and streamlined workflows they need to make high-quality decisions quickly. Implemented well, product ops allow PMs to drive company growth and customer value rather than drowning in reactive work.

Melissa and Denise emphasized the key to starting small. Identify your biggest pain points and opportunities, get some quick wins, and grow the function progressively in partnership with PMs. Over time, product ops can become the "product manager for product managers," optimizing the internal tools and systems PMs rely on

I loved hearing Melissa and Denise's practical advice and relatable examples. If you want to dig deeper, grab a copy of their book. It's chock full of case studies and tips to get you started. I highly recommend giving it a read!
And, of course, you can check out the full episode with Melissa and Denise on Rocketship here.

No more password-sharing. This is the way. Disney CEO Bob Iger said that Disney plus will launch “our first real foray into password sharing” in June. The rollout will start in a few markets before expanding to all subscribes in September. The move follows similar actions by Netflix and continues the trend toward paying more attention to revenue than viewership numbers.

If you use Jira for your roadmap, you can share it now. Atlassian announced Shared Views in Jira Product Discovery. This feature allows you to share read-only views of your roadmap with stakeholders inside and outside your company, even if they don’t have an Atlassian license. Of course, to take advantage of this feature, you’d have to build your roadmap using Jira Product Discovery and not enjoy updating slide decks.

GoogleSpot anyone? Google parent Alphabet has been talking to its advisers about the possibility of making an offer for HubSpot, an online marketing software company with a market value of $35 billion. If Alphabet moves ahead with a bid, it would be Alphabet's largest ever, and it would be allowed to put some of its cash pile, which reached $110.9 billion at the end of December, to work. The acquisition could help Google’s place in the CRM market, or Alphabet may just have needed a little shopping therapy.

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Product operations take 2. In this episode of the Data Chaos Podcast, unlock the secrets of Product Operations with Lindsey Bell, as she guides us through her transition from RapidAPI to Foursquare and the potent impact of Product Ops in today's tech scene. As the vital 'glue' of R&D organizations, Lindsey demystifies the skepticism surrounding Product Ops and shares her firsthand insights, revealing how this role is reshaping company culture and team efficiency. Plus, Lindsey explores Melissa Perri's influential new book on the topic, promising to enrich your understanding of integrating Product Operations into your business strategy.

Deep Dive: Product Operations. In the fast-paced world of software and tech, companies are constantly seeking ways to scale their product organizations efficiently and effectively. As teams grow and products become more complex, aligning resources, streamlining processes, and maintaining customer focus becomes increasingly difficult. This is where Product Operations comes in–a relatively new but increasingly critical function that aims to enable product teams to deliver more value to customers faster. Mike Belsito explores the definition of Product Operations, its key responsibilities, and the value it brings to scaling product teams–as well as discusses how to implement Product Ops in your organization and what Product Ops may look like in the future as the world of tech evolves.