Fireside Product Management

Should PM's become angel investors?

Dan Delmar from the Virtual Angels Network discusses how to become an angel investor. 

What is the value of PM's from an Adobe engineering director's POV...

Tom and Kirk Mattson (both Bowdoin '96 alums) discuss Kirk's view on what makes a great PM and the future of AI.

Are PM's doing user research all wrong?

Tom and Elizabeth Creighton talk about user research interviewing mistakes and best practices. Check out Elizabeth's upcoming class on Maven with a special Fireside discount here https://maven.com/brazen-ux/user-interview-skills-designers-pms?promoCode=FIRESIDE

Are we all screwed? How should Product Managers prepare for an AI-first world?

Amit Badlani from Stanford talks about ML, AI, and product management. See his class here  https://maven.com/amit-badlani/ml-foundations-for-product-managers See all of Tom's classes at http://maven.com/toml

Are you thinking about the entire product strategy stack?

Roman Pichler and Tom talk about business strategy, portfolio strategy, product strategy, and how it relates to the roadmap and backlog.

Was Marty Cagan wrong about product management?

Tom and Joe Tarragano discuss the risk of puritanical thinking of PM's and the topic of Produxsplaining :-)

Teresa Torres on Product Discovery and Product Manager agency and change leadership

Thanks to Teresa Torres from Product Talk for coming on to the Fireside PM pod to talk about #productdiscovery! We had a great convo and I found the notion of show not telling and the importance of making lots of little improvements versus arguing for wholesale transformation to be pretty compelling.  https://www.producttalk.org/  

YC Alum Hardik Vala on lessons learned as a startup founder

Former Apple, Google, and Y Combinator entrepreneur Hardik Vala https://www.linkedin.com/in/thehardikv/

Alan Stein for Kadima on how to get a better job faster.

Tom and Alan talk about the current job market, how to get a good referral, and the importance of baby steps when managing your career.

How to stand out in your LinkedIn PM Job application

I posted a job and got 300 applications in the first day...

Trying to land your first product management job?

Tom and Jesse Chor, Founder CEO of Sequoia backed Tanda, talk about best practices for aspiring product managers to land their first PM gig. 

Product Discover example, how I went from -1 to 0 to -1...

I walk through an example of evaluating a greenfield product idea from scratch.  Also if you're interested in my class on nailing your next executive PM review at work, feel free to express interest here https://maven.com/forms/d4610a

The Candidates Dilemma

Why hiring managers and job candidates aren't entirely honest in the interviewing process. For the 2X2 visual, https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1yDk7acE2kTqL0mQY4oIqv1EEZiUmAwh3UpLIOzaINDA/edit?usp=sharing

Why is it taking PM's so much longer to find a new gig?

Tom goes over the PM hiring manager hierarchy of needs. 

Three lessons about Product Management I learned from working on the inside of a Presidential campaign.

Get more help from Tom at tomleungcoaching.com

4 Veteran Product Management Execs from Google, Microsoft, and Unicorn Startups explain PRDs, Roadmaps, and PM promotions

Learn more about speakers here https://www.linkedin.com/events/firesidepmpanel-productmanageme7148097303470354433/theater/

6 Competencies you need to become a Product Manager

Aspiring PM's here are 6 competencies I think you should develop to be successful as a tech product manager in order of difficulty! 1. PRD's 2. Roadmaps 3. OKR's 4. Exec Reviews 5. Alignment 6. Customer-obsessed, winning products Learn more about my PM Bootcamps at http://pmbootcamp.co

Setting your 2024 Individual OKR's as a top PM

Tom recommends 3 things for your annual PM goals.

What's conspiring against your product management team?

Tom and Saeed Khan talk about the underlying causes of product managers making things that don't solve customer problems.

Why is it soooo hard to build products that solve customer problems?

Tom goes into the 5 forces that conspire against PM's to build products that are customer centric. Sign up for PM coaching from Tom at tomleungcoaching.com

Do customers lie to product managers in early stage ventures?

Pete Christothoulou is the former CEO of Marchex, the call and conversational analytics company, who is now founder and CEO of Xembly, a Seattle-based startup developing AI-powered technology that replicates a chief of staff and executive assistant — automating tasks such as meeting notes, scheduling, and action items.

CDO at YouTube and former PM VP at Netflix Chris Jaffe

How can you be a better PM and partner with Design?

Bean Box retail coffee CEO and former tech CTO

    Had a great chat with Matthew Berk about Bean Box, proudly *non* venture backed #entrepreneurship, building decades long co-founder partnerships, and getting back to the fundamentals of turning nickels into dimes!

How to build a world-class Product Management team

How to ask questions and get advice from serial gaming entrepreneur, Adam Lieb.

Is European tech product management ahead, behind, or different than Silicon Valley?

Tom interviews Raphael Leiteritz, former Google executive and co-founder of Peak Product and Product Management festival.

Ryan Fritzky on How he Built Bean Box, an internet retailer Top 100 brand and purveyor of fine coffees

Four Harvard MBA's reflect 20 years after graduation

Tom Leung, David Hindman, Pam Perskie, and Rahul Mahendale reflect on Artificial Intelligence, Inflation, College Admissions, and Leadership lessons in general.

Jessica Gilmartin, CMO of Calendly on High-Performing Marketing Teams

Tom interviews Jess about building great teams, partnering with product management, and how she's thinking about AI in marketing.

Is hybrid work here to stay or a passing fad given tech industry challenges?

Chris Berta from the Laurel Group discusses the different types of hybrid and remote work setups he's seeing in tech companies and shares predictions on where things are heading.

Are you visible enough at work to get ahead?

How to fast track your career without being cheesy. High-impact trainer Laura Chattington shares tips for PM's to be more visible in the workplace and how they can fast-track their careers. ActivateYourCareerLive.com Learn more about host Tom Leung at http://tomleungcoaching.com

Everything you wanted to know about how recruiters pick Product Leads

Chris Berta has been recruiting top tech executives for 20 years. As a partner at the Laurel Group executive search firm in Seattle, he shares their process, insights, and advice for product executives and the companies who need to hire one.   Learn more about host Tom Leung at http://tomleungcoaching.com

How do you Product Manage an AI-based product?

Tom Leung (Google Health), Ryan Cunningham (AI Fund), Arun Ravi (Microsoft Health AI), and Vipul Kashyap (Buddi AI) discuss what it's like to PM an AI-based product versus a traditional tech product.

Brewster Stanislaw, Chief Product Officer of Demandbase

What's it like being a CPO?

Greylock Partner and former Google, Linkedin, and Groupon VP - David Thacker

Perhaps one of the most influential guests I've ever had on the Fireside PM podcast.

Roadmaps! What are they, why are they tricky? Guest Saeed Khan shares insights.

From guest, Saeed Khan: "A lot of companies struggle with "roadmaps" that aren't actually strategic roadmaps, but are a delivery plan masquerading as a roadmap. The diagram tries to show how a roadmap contributes to a release, but the release also includes more tactical items such as roadmap aligned sales requests, customer issues, engineering needs etc. I'd love to hear your questions as there's a lot packed into this one slide."

Product Managers finding Product Market Fit

Tom and Justin Kistner talk about how product managers work with cross functional teams to find fit, the tools they use, and what UpFocus.io has built.

What makes a great product manager?

I answered this question 10 years ago on Quora and it got 50k views, let's assess where I got it wrong and where it held up. 

Decades of Product Management Lessons in one Interview

Chad from Product Mastery Now had me on his show and was kind enough to allow me to re-publish it here. Hope it's useful! Learn more about Chat, his podcast, and other PM resources at https://productmasterynow.com/ If you're interested in engaging with me as a PM or executive coach, learn more at http://tomleungcoaching.com And if you want to watch the video on youtube, go to http://firesidepm.co

Microsoft VP Amit Fulay's 6 Career Lessons for PM Success

Tom and Amit discuss Amit's LinkedIn post about career management that got over 1,000 shares. 

10 Things Your Product Org can do to Succeed

Chad McAllister from Product Mastery Now on specific steps every product team can take to ship products that customers love.

Software Excellence and Product Management according to McKinsey's Brian Goffman

Tom and Brian Goffman discuss what it takes to deliver great software and why product management is a crucial factor.

Enterprise Product Management is hard: John Gilmartin SVP at VMware

Tom and John talk product management roadmaps and PRD's, career advice, and how to evaluate great talent. 

Vlada Bortnik, CEO of Marco Polo (1.5M App Store ratings)

Tom and Vlada talk about her founding a purpose-driven startup and how she has developed as a CEO and led product at this award winning company.

Nick Soman, Decent CEO, former Amazon PM, Harvard and Stanford grad

Who is Nick? Stanford American Studies & English major; PhD pitch coach; AV tech worker; Proactiv Acne Solution infomercial market researcher; PR intern; LSAT prep lecturer; strategy consultant; Harvard MBA; Amazon Kindle PM, until my wife Anna asked “Does it ever bother you that on your best day you’re writing a footnote in Jeff Bezos’ story?” 2x founder with 1 exit and counting, plus jobs leading Community at Napster and Growth at Gusto and as an EIR-turned-scout at Foundation Capital bet...

Keela Robison, VP of Product Innovation at Netflix

Tom and Keela discuss her PM experiences at Amazon, Netflix, Expedia, and career development and leadership in general.

Roblox Chief Product Officer Manuel Bronstein on the importance of Product Management Conviction

Shimrit Ben-Yair, VP of Google Photos

Tom and Shimrit talk about product management, leadership, and career development.

Tom Leung, Google PM Director, Startup Founder, and Career Coach

Tom reverses roles for this episode and becomes the guest. Wes Wu, an early Fireside PM subscriber will ask Tom anything.

What's it like being the Chief Product Officer of a billion dollar startup?

Ziad Ismail hails from Sweden, Harvard, Microsoft, Marchex, Convoy and is now at H1. What product management lessons has he learned over the years?