Stacey Feero

👋 Hey product hiring managers! You may have noticed dozens of people now with a new certificate from the Alberta Product Leadership Program. If you manage or are prospectively seeking a new PM to join your team, you should know that: 1) The program is selective. You can't just sign-up. Since it's inception, the program has sought to upskill professionals that have shown their motivation for growth and desire to hone their product management craft. 2) The graduates get broader exposure to practices and industries beyond their resume. Our sessions are interactive and facilitate sharing of perspectives and ways of working across multiple organizations - from grassroots startups to FAANG giants. 3) There's more to it than training. During the course of the program, many participants gain mentorship, build a supportive peer group, and get out of their comfort zone. The program is refreshed every year by hiring managers just like you to optimize for the skills we need to hire and promote for. So if you see the APL certificate with a candidate profile, know that candidate choose to do more than your average course. #abtech #yyctech #yegtech #productmanagement

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A critical mistake many product managers make is getting too wrapped up in the tactical aspects of Agile and feature prioritization. While these are important, neglecting strategic skills like user research and vision development can limit your impact and career growth. Focus on what truly matters to elevate your product and your career.

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A great writeup about Fractional Product Leadership by Jason Knight I think one of my favorite quotes from the article is 1.1.3 Fractional Leaders: Adaptive and Embedded Fractional leadership can combine elements of both interim leadership and consulting. Fractional leaders are adaptive and embedded, filling gaps in the product organization while providing strategic guidance. https://lnkd.in/gQ_pqdrt

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Traditional requirements gathering is dead. To truly understand customers in our fast-paced world, many product teams have adopted design thinking. 𝗗𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 fosters innovation by focusing on understanding user needs, encouraging creative problem-solving, and rapidly prototyping solutions that are both user-centric and practical. 𝗨𝘀𝗲𝗿 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗮𝘀 is a design thinking technique popular for Product Discovery initiatives. It helps product developers to develop empathy for customers and understand their problems on a deeper level. #UserPersonas #DesignThinking #ProductDisocvery #ModernProductivity  --------- My name is Steven Granese, and I post daily on Modern Productivity topics like Agile, OKRs, and Product Discovery. 𝗡𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗽 𝗴𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗨𝘀𝗲𝗿 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗮𝘀? Add a comment to this post!

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I've been having a few chats with earlier-career product professionals recently, especially ones trying to break into product management. I was reminded of a critical piece of advice for those new to Product Management: Trying to change companies AND role types (Eng/QA/CS into PM) simultaneously is MUCH harder than doing it one at a time. If you possibly can, find a way to move into PM in your current company--or at least get PM-like experience even if you don't get the title. One side note on company shifts: it's really tough to do a wholesale industry shift in a tough market (e.g.--moving into FinTech from Productivity, B2B SaaS from Consumer). You need to be a master at drawing through lines from your past experience to their needs. Not AI-written "I'll redo my resume to reflect the job posting" through lines--genuinely thoughtful connections that show you already have some level of understanding of what's needed to be successful in the new industry.

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Going from being a Senior Product Manager to being a Director of Product is painful. You might feel like an idiot 95% of the time. This is because leading a team of product managers is a radically different role from being an individual product manager. 3 ways Product Leader stay on top of their game: 1. They understand metrics in the context of being a director because their metrics will look different from those of an individual Product Manager. 2. They tie the dots between different product areas. 3. They know how to divide the scope among the different product managers they're leading.

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I am increasingly worried that instead of addressing systemic challenges we're choosing to direct our ire on personas (e.g., zero-interest PMs). I understand Casey Winters's statement (and have spoken with him about it), and I understand Ed Biden's sentiment. But... Someone hired those PMs. Someone funded those companies. Someone set expectations for those PMs. A leader benefitted (or didn't from their work). Someone had the job to mentor those PMs, and share business context and the strategy (assuming one even existed). Zero-interest rates impacted their companies, and may have in turn set expectations for their roles. This makes it about the PMs vs. the perverse incentives in companies during zero interest rates. Also creeping into these descriptions are character judgements on individuals ("Don't feel accountable"). Do we really believe there is some epidemic of people who don't feel accountable vs. environments where accountability is increasingly unsafe, unhealthy, or otherwise? These statements are giving a get-out-of-jail card to people presiding over (and shaping) these environments.

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An opinionated take on design: In a meeting with CTO, CMO, and the CSO last month, they mentioned that they are a fairly mature org in design practices, and their product shows it. —If a certain small set of customers are not too happy about a certain experience, this is because those stories are not a priority on the roadmap, and they are in transition from our legacy systems to more modern systems, and they will update the design team *at the right time*. ⏰ —They added that the org has a strong and favorable engineering culture—but they can be design mature org within the engineering culture. 🧫 I agreed to the last part but not on the priority and communication practices—and certainly not the communication model within that priority matrix. They asked me for an open and brutal honest opinion and this is what I wrote👇🏼. --- "In a leadership workshop that I attended many years ago, the presenters asked the audience to raise hands if they were honest in their work. A few hands were raised." "Next, they asked the audience to raise hands if they were dishonest. A few hands raised and there were a set of common participants too who raised hands in both the groups." "When asked, the common participants said that they were slightly dishonest—say two percent, or ten percent, because there is context." "The presenter said that either one is honest of dishonest. For example a crook cannot say that they are honest because they cheated only for one penny." "Design is not as black-and-white but it is close to this example. If design cannot address the concerns of right communication practices in the transition, and regardless of <whatever-centric culture>, you are not a design mature org *yet*. The silver lining is that you aspire to be." ----

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I wanted to share something exciting that I've been working on over the past year at Ctruh, and I'm hoping to get some valuable insights and feedback from product managers like you. You know how creating captivating brand experiences can be a real challenge, especially when you're short on time, resources, and coding expertise? Well, my team and I have been dedicating countless hours to developing a product that aims to solve these pain points and revolutionize the way brands create immersive experiences. Imagine being able to create a stunning brand experience, similar to the one showcased in the video, in just 30 minutes, without needing to write a single line of code. That's the goal we've been working towards, and I'm thrilled to say that we're getting closer to making it a reality. Our product is designed to empower brand managers and marketers to bring their visions to life quickly and easily, with features like an intuitive interface, drag-and-drop functionality, and a wide range of professionally designed templates to choose from. As you build your brand experience, you'll be able to see it come to life in real-time, making it simple to make adjustments and tweaks until it's perfect. By using our product, brands will be able to save time, effort, and valuable resources that would otherwise be spent on coding and development. This means more opportunities to focus on engaging audiences and driving results. As we approach the launch of this game-changing product, I'm reaching out to the LinkedIn community, specifically product managers, to gather valuable feedback and insights. Your input will play a crucial role in shaping the final version of our product and ensuring that it meets the needs of brand managers across various industries. If you're interested in being a part of this exciting journey and helping to shape the future of brand experiences, I'd love to hear from you. Simply leave a comment below saying, "I am in," and I'll reach out to schedule a time for us to connect and discuss further. I'm genuinely excited about the potential impact of this product on the branding landscape, and I believe that with your help, we can redefine the way brands create captivating experiences and take customer engagement to new heights. Thank you in advance for your time and consideration. I look forward to hearing your thoughts and ideas! #branding #productfeedback #innovation #userexperience #ctruh

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Things like Kanban are easy to ignore, especially seeing only their symptoms. When an ad for "ClickUP" advertises it has Kanban boards, we can easily forget that using 1 tool out of a whole approach doesn't mean you're now able to replicate the approach. One of the cool things about working for a company like Toyota was/is probably having a whole company geared towards constant improvement. That is the Toyota Kata, a process of continuous improvement: 1. It starts with understanding the current direction. Let's call that our vision - we're trying to get to a goal. Using my personal life, I knew I wanted to lower my body fat percentage, feel better, look better, and be in better shape, so I could spend more time with my kids without effort. 2. It continues with examining your current condition. In my case, I was eating more than my body was able to burn off in a day, and my running at the time wasn't enough to compensate for this calory intake. 3. It establishes your next condition, your target (shorter, more immediate than the desired outcome) - for me it was finding a way of eating that would create a small but effective calory deficit, so I could start lowering the body fat percentage, without feeling hungry, losing the motivation to maintain the new diet. 4. Finally, you PDCA (plan-do-check-act) towards your next condition. In my case, it was embracing a new diet, measuring myself daily/weekly and seeing if I was able to maintain it. Once I saw that it worked, I chose to maintain this course and so far lose over 22kg over the course of the last year. Over time, I also did the same process for my running (I wanted to run a 5K/10K/15K/21K, I saw what I was doing - running too effortfully, injuring and being unable to run consistently, I established that I wanted to be able to run day after day without burning out, and my amazing running coach, Yulia Reizer 🇺🇦🇮🇱 built a plan for me, which we examined and adjusted on a weekly basis over the course of the last year, and even prior to it) Why am I telling you this? Because doing the same for your product is absolutely possible, BUT it starts with Step 1. Skipping that step - setting a direction, having a vision, a goal, means that steps 2, 3, and 4 could be working on leading you in the wrong direction. Melissa Perri wrote about this in much more detail, and called it The Product Kata, which I recommend you read and think - are you using this today? Do you only do the mechanical parts of any process, such as Scrum, Kanban, etc. or are you approaching things from the "systemic improvement" point of view? Having this "Kata" really helps reach your goals, but only if you don't forget to use it. https://lnkd.in/deSQ-mSX

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Stop throwing a North Star Metric at your team without any context. It doesn't work. A NSM is not a concept that will create immediate alignment. "Here's the metric, now go optimize the product to improve the metric." Product teams need more to figure out what is influencing the NSM. And management needs more to prove its value. The CoCoCo for successful North Star Metric implementations 💃🏻 1️⃣ CONTEXT 2️⃣ CONNECTION to business value 3️⃣ CONNECTION to user value AND 💫 BONUS 1 - Co-creation 💫 BONUS 2 - Co-ownership With a shout-out to Amplitude and Daniel Schmidt. A comparison of Amazon vs. Patagonia. And the evolution of Netflix’s NSM over time - with a surprise, if you haven't heard it yet. 👉 Ask Me Anything: Drop your NSM questions in the comment 👇

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Dear product leaders, Product trios might not be for you. Product trios can be the solution to create true collaboration towards a common goal. But product trios are a mindset, not a structural process. Who is going to form a product trio is far more important than simply renaming a cross-functional team a product trio. A reorg won't do. You need to hire or position the right people, true collaborators. You need to set the expectation for them to work. My experience helping establish 15 product trios in multiple companies? It is rather a positioning, selecting and hiring problem. Not a process problem. Meaning Product trios are a loose container for really good ICs to do really good work in. So, get motivated trio members, give them the help they need to flourish and drive results. Product trios are not a process or framework that'll solve anything by itself. -------- I post 5x a week here in an attempt to get 1000 companies to iterate weekly. I'm at 15/1000. Which is one more than a two weeks ago. Follow along to see if I make it before turning 90 - and shoot me a message if you need a little help to get your Discovery rolling. #productmanagement #productdiscovery #uxresearch

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Question to product ops people (I'm looking at you May Wong Graham Reed ) Something I rarely see spoken about as a responsibility of product ops is hiring PMs. I feel like your product ops people understand what makes a good PM, especially in the specific context of your company, as well if not better than anyone. If the role of product ops is to make your product org a slick well oiled machine then adding the right people feels like it should fit squarely within that wheelhouse and is one of the highest leverage activities that can be done. I'm not suggesting that they should own the whole process end to end but it feels to me as though it's a place where they could add a lot of value.

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After nearly 2 decades in product, I've got some strong opinions about the: “Product Manager vs. Product Owner” discussion. (I'll probably ruffle some feathers here, but hey - that's what experience gives you.) These titles might represent different names for the same role but they represent fundamentally different approaches to product. → Product Owner • Comes from Scrum framework • Focused on delivery • Helps engineering ship with agility • Works within predefined structures • Ends at "code, test, release, next" → Product Manager • Owns the full product lifecycle • Drives business outcomes • Leads ideation and strategy • Owns discovery and iteration • Never stops at just shipping A Product Owner does less than 50% of what a Product Manager does in terms of business impact. (And no, I'm not talking about workload - I'm talking about ownership) For example: A product owner might execute the building of a new payment method integration. ↳ A Product Manager decides which payment methods drive the most value for merchants. I see this playing out in tech companies all the time: Early stage: Product Owner model works fine Growth stage: Starts breaking down Mature stage: Becomes actively harmful Because sophisticated products (like payment orchestration) require: - Deep market understanding - Strategic thinking - Continuous learning - Outcome ownership - Value optimization Not just delivery execution. My career advice: If you're a Product Owner today, aim to become a Product Manager. Because: → AI is automating delivery functions → "Product sense" remains uniquely human → Strategic thinking is more valuable than ever → Business impact drives career growth I get it - some of the world's most valuable companies still use the Product Owner title, but they're doing it less and less. There comes a time in every tech company's growth when Product Owners need to evolve into Product Managers. That time is usually sooner than companies think.

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With the rapid advancements in AI, many people I've met are wondering how their roles will evolve, especially in IT, product management, and development. I'm excited to lead a roundtable discussion on "PM-Developer Relationship in the Age of AI" at ProductTO tomorrow. Excited to hear people's thoughts and insights on this topic!

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If you've been waiting for that next product executive role to magically land in your inbox, it's time to take control. Join me for a free workshop on Wednesday -- I'm co-hosting TWO lightning lessons on Maven with top executive recruiters who will share insider tips on landing your next VP or CPO role. 1) The Product Leader's Guide to Executive Search ⏰ 3:00 PM EDT  with Somer Hackley - 20+ yrs Executive Search & Author of Search In Plain Sight 👉 RSVP here: https://lnkd.in/gH9YU3S8 2) Unlock the Hidden Product Executive Job Market ⏰ 9:00 PM EDT  with Bobby Gormsen - 20+ yrs leading in executive search firms (True Search, Riviera Partners) and internal talent teams (Etsy, Frame.io, Google) 👉 RSVP here: https://lnkd.in/dph36cBD We'll cover how 70% of leadership roles are filled through networking and recruiter relationships, and how you can tap into these unposted opportunities. Attend one or both sessions to gain practical tools and strategies. Let me know if you'll be attending! #productmanagement #salary #jobsearch

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🚨Breaking news! So apparently I'm speaking tomorrow (Nov 20) at the Product-Led Alliance Summit here in #Toronto at the last minute! I'll be sharing stories and practical tips on how we as product leaders can tune out the noise to prioritize the right thing for our product team. 👋 If you're attending, come say hi! ✉️ Or hit me up if you're interested in this topic!

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