Jeff Kreutz

Got a tough product management question? I’m here to help. In the Dear Melissa segment of the Product Thinking podcast, I tackle your biggest challenges—whether it’s figuring out prioritization, aligning your team’s strategy, or navigating the complexities of scaling. If there’s something you’re stuck on, submit your questions at DearMelissa.com and I’ll share practical advice to help you move forward. Need a faster answer? Leave me a voicemail—I’ll make sure it gets top priority. #dearmelissa #askmelissa #productmanagement #productleaders #productstrategy

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“If there is no clear owner, then it’s the PM that owns it.” I sat down with Esteban Contreras from #ProductState to discuss Product leadership, or Prioritization process at Productboard. We also dug into the concept of Extreme Ownership, which is a principle I firmly believe in. Read more: https://lnkd.in/eVN47mWn #productmanagement #productexcellence #ownership

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10+ years in product and operations taught me: Systems reveal priorities. When your L&D system looks like: * Multiple approval gates * Disconnected tracking tools * Manual verification steps * Fragmented communication You're prioritizing control over growth, process over potential, administration over advancement. Our research shows small companies are winning because they've built simpler systems. See the full analysis: https://lnkd.in/g5MSwCQH

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Have you ever been frustrated when managing stakeholders? If so, you are not alone. On The Intentional Product Manager Podcast episode 5 I chat with Bruce McCarthy and Melissa Appel co-authors of Aligned: Stakeholder Management for Product Leaders to figure out how to have less frustration and more impact. In this episode, you'll learn: 💡 Key Highlights: * Challenges in stakeholder management: Knowing when to say “yes” and “no” * Building rapport: Why understanding stakeholders is as important as knowing your customers * Communicating effectively: Strengthening relationships between product and sales team * Navigating difficult personalities: The surprising benefits of "mining for conflict" to foster alignment * Positioning for promotion: Building executive relationships and earning a seat at the table * Finding alignment: Mastering the "meeting before the meeting" for better outcomes 📖 Learn more about my guest’s incredible book Aligned: Stakeholder Management for Product Leaders and gain strategies to thrive in your career. 🎧 Listen now and level up! Podcast: https://lnkd.in/edMV_zb9 Youtube: https://lnkd.in/eJSMi6Aa

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Product roadmaps shouldn't be treated like a to-do list. They're living documents that tell the story of your product's evolution and adapt with customer needs. 🌱 I learned this lesson the hard way. Early in my career, like many founders and product folks, I viewed roadmaps as rigid plans to execute against - plugging items into project management tools and checking off boxes each quarter. While this felt satisfying, this output-based approach missed the point entirely. 😬 Here’s the roadmap philosophy I live by today: The art of roadmapping isn't about the output - it's about the process. 🏗️ Or, as Winston Churchill offers, "Plans are of little importance, but planning is essential." When viewed through this lens, startup roadmaps are a tool that helps you: 🗣️ Articulate your vision clearly to different stakeholders 🎯 Prioritize work that moves you toward that vision 🛞 Adjust quickly based on customer feedback 🤝 Unite teams around shared goals For early-stage companies, I’ve found the best way to do this is to create and maintain three versions of the roadmap, each for a distinct audience: 1️⃣ Annual roadmaps for investors: Focus on major milestones and market opportunities 6-12 months out. This shows your strategic thinking and excites investors about long-term potential. 2️⃣ Quarterly roadmaps for customers: Share concrete value coming in the next 3-4 months. This builds excitement while maintaining flexibility to pivot based on feedback. 3️⃣ Internal roadmaps for teams - Break down the work into specific problems and experiments to tackle this quarter. This connects daily tasks to bigger goals (which we manage in Linear). For each version, the key is focusing on the problems you're solving rather than features you're building. This shift in mindset leads to better products, more engaged customers, and teams that understand the "why" behind their work. ❤️ The best roadmaps aren't about checking off feature boxes - they're about delivering value by aligning your team, customers, and investors around a shared vision for the future. If you’d like to dive deeper into my thoughts around this topic, I’ve written up a post on creating your first roadmaps as a startup founder on the Clarify blog. I’ll drop the link in the comments 👇

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Unlike many people think, Product Operations is not just a support role. It's a catalyst for product success! Yet, many companies are still slow to adopt it. In the book "Product Operations", co-authored with Denise Tilles, we dive into how this discipline can transform your product approach. One of the key pillars we explore is Business Data & Insights. Though many companies have data analysts, they often miss the product-specific context essential for driving strategy. Here's how to get started with data and insights in Product Ops: 1️⃣ Define the key questions that will inform your product strategy. 2️⃣ Identify the data you need to answer those questions. 3️⃣ Locate the systems where this data resides and learn how to extract it. 4️⃣ Begin with a manual dashboard to visualize your data. 5️⃣ Use business intelligence tools to automate your dashboards, keeping your data fresh and actionable. If the data team is outside your product sphere, Product Ops can bridge the gap, ensuring a seamless flow of insight. If you're just beginning to build this capability, consider anchoring it within Product Ops to align data with product goals from the start. Let’s push forward to harness these insights, ensuring our strategies are both informed and impactful. How is your team leveraging data today? I'd love to hear your experiences!

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What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received as a product manager?   One that’s had a lasting impact on me is this: 'Great PMs build coalitions.'   Building coalitions goes beyond fostering alignment. It’s about creating shared purpose across teams, managing the broader political landscape inside and outside the organization, and ensuring your vision has the trust and support it needs to succeed. Strong coalitions drive momentum, tackle resistance, and amplify the impact of your product.   What advice has shaped your approach to product management? Share it in the comments—your insights could inspire someone today.   #ProductManagement #Leadership #PMCommunity #CareerGrowth #Wisdom

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VP Product (coaching client): “G, I’m struggling to be less tactical and worried I’m not coming across as strategic enough to the CEO and leadership team.” Does this sound familiar? Many leaders face this challenge, especially when they’re deeply immersed in day-to-day operations. While shifting from tactical to strategic thinking isn’t always easy— it’s definitely possible. Here are a few reflections and questions that can help you find that balance: 🔹 Start with the Why: When you’re making decisions, how often do you link them back to the bigger picture? What would change if you made it a habit to clearly communicate the ‘why’ behind each decision? Aligning tactical actions with a strategic vision helps elevate your leadership approach. 🔹 Delegate the How: Are there areas where you could let go of the “how” and trust your team more? What would it free you up to focus on if you empowered others to own the details? Shifting your energy towards the ‘what’ and ‘why’ allows you to operate at a more strategic level. 🔹 Prioritise Time for Reflection: How often do you create space for big-picture thinking? Could you start by setting aside just ten minutes each morning? This small habit can build over time. Make it non-negotiable, and commit to it before diving into your emails. What might shift in your leadership if you gave yourself more time to think, rather than just react? 🔹 Communicate with Intent: When was the last time you shared your thought process behind a key decision? How might your team and leadership better understand your strategic thinking if you were more intentional about communicating the why behind your actions? It’s not just about doing strategy—it’s about helping others see the vision you’re working towards. Balancing strategy and tactics is an ongoing process that requires practice and self-awareness. What small steps could you take today to start that shift? With focus and intention, leading both strategically and tactically becomes much more achievable. What about you? How do you ensure you’re seen as both tactical and strategic in your leadership role? #Leadership #Strategy #Coaching #ProductManagement #GrowthMindset #LeadershipChallenges —————— Hi, I’m G, and I help pre-executives and executives optimise their performance through coaching. DM me if you’d like to explore how I can partner with you.

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🚀 Today, Vendr launched new features focused on pricing transparency, powered by AI and Vendr’s pricing insights. Now, anyone can get instant price estimates for future software purchases, verify current pricing for over 20,000 products, and receive low-price quotes from 100+ Verified Sellers — all for free. Head to vendr.com and check it out!

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👋 Do any of these resonate with you? A. Getting your first job in product management is tough. B. Changing customer behavior is challenging. C. Selling SaaS in this climate is tricky. D. Leading a team through uncertainty isn’t for the faint of heart. Over the past year, I've conducted over 200 calls on these topics with customers, founders, leads, and aspiring product managers. Here are my top two takeaways: 1. Community is key. Sharing experiences and seeking feedback from those on the same path (or having gone down it) sharpens your approach, makes the journey more rewarding, and less lonely. 2. Connection energizes. Engaging with the community has been incredibly fulfilling and motivating for me. To make these connections more accessible, I've opened a few 1:1 mentorship slots on Intro. Plus, 25% of the proceeds will be donated to charity (Kings County Tennis League). ⏩ https://intro.co/hirefrank As a former VP of Product at Slack, InVision, Casper, and Betterment, I’m excited to share my experiences and insights. I’ll also bring in learnings from my time at Etsy and Google. Here’s what we can cover together: ✔️ Roadmap prioritization & sequencing ✔️ Uncovering customer insights ✔️ Pricing & go-to-market strategies ✔️ Product feedback ✔️ Career advice for PMs ✔️ And more Honored to be on @Intro alongside world-class experts like Mark Mullen (seed investor in GOAT, Scopely, Figment & Trade Desk), Shegun Otulana (founder of Theranest/Therapy Brands, sold for $1.25B), Kathy Wang (head of AR product at TikTok), and Lars Schmidt (award-winning talent strategist, LinkedIn Top Voice). Comment “interested” and secure your spot now: https://intro.co/hirefrank

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Revenue Leak is a $2 Trillion silent killer. Every year, revenue teams lose hard-earned dollars to hidden leaks. The source? - Inefficient processes - Errant forecasts - Misaligned teams To equip revenue leaders to shut down leaks, Clari launched the 2024 Revenue Leak Report. This report features input from 420 revenue professionals across IT/Technology, retail, financial services, and more. Find out:  - Why 61% of companies missed their 2023 revenue target - Where revenue teams are investing their tech dollars  - How 26% annual Revenue Leak impacts your bottom line - And much more Grab your copy of the Revenue Leak Report and start shutting down leaks today: https://lnkd.in/g2vMNxyD

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As a seasoned design leader at this stage in my career, I’d like to share a reflection of one of my greatest challenges—and privileges—navigating the delicate balance between leveraging well-established design patterns and crafting new, innovative product experiences. Why the balance matters: Tried-and-true design patterns are powerful because they provide familiarity and usability for users while reducing cognitive load. They’re a testament to the collective wisdom of our industry, refined over time through countless iterations and user feedback. However, relying solely on established patterns can sometimes limit creativity and lead to stagnation in product innovation. This is the dark side of established design systems. On the other hand, designing new flows and experiences allows us to break boundaries and chart new paths. This is where creativity shines, where we sharpen our skills and apply design principles in novel ways to solve evolving user needs. Yet, this comes with its own challenges—higher risk, potential user friction, and the need for extensive validation and iteration. As a design leader, the key is balance: 1. Master the fundamentals – Deep knowledge of design principles and established patterns is critical. These are the foundation upon which we innovate. 2. Push new horizons with intention – When we step into uncharted territory, it’s essential to root our explorations in a strong understanding of user goals, behaviors, and context. 3. Foster collaboration and experimentation – Building something truly innovative often requires stepping outside our comfort zone and collaborating across disciplines. 4. Measure and adapt – Whether we’re refining a pattern or creating a new one, data and user feedback are our guideposts to ensuring success. For me, the joy of designing the Akaio platforms lies in mastering this balance: ensuring products are intuitive and accessible while also delivering delightful, groundbreaking experiences. It’s a constant interplay of discipline and curiosity, structure and exploration. #designleader #innovation #exploration #flow #creativity #leaderrship #balance Check out a live use case of my latest product build here:

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Working on product launches is what made me fall in love with product marketing. It's the only time where as a PMM, you get to flex (future pun intended) every single one of your strengths. PMMs will usually experience a few career defining product launches. My first one was launching observability with Lightstep. My second one? Gitpod Flex. For months now, Gitpod has been working on the Phoenix launch. It sets the stage for everything I imagined to be possible when I first joined Gitpod. It's a sparkly reminder for me on why I think cloud development environments (obviously Gitpod) are going to be the platform that everyone develops on. Gitpod Flex introduces five new features. They all deserve the spotlight ✨ 1️⃣ Automations: think GitHub Actions but for automating development workflows unique to dev environments 2️⃣ Gitpod Desktop: bringing you the power of automated, standardized dev environments to your laptop 3️⃣ Dev Container support: our most requested feature of the year! 4️⃣ Zero-trust environments:shifting security left to ensure that the place developers interact with the most is also the most secure 5️⃣ Runners: the infrastructure that enables you to self-host in your cloud in literally under 3 minutes. This is Gitpod's second act. In many ways, I also feel like it's mine! I can't thank the internal team enough for the crazy late nights, consistent push to raise the bar, all while not losing connection with one another (🚀 Lou Bichard Siddhant Khare Philipp Pietsch Johannes Landgraf Christian Weichel Lucas Valtl (MANY MORE) and for Austin Prasad Eva Hyder Kai Klasen for keeping the machine running and GROWING while we focused on launch) And to all the folks that gave us feedback along the way, can't wait to see how this lands with the industry! Especially Manjunath (Manju) Bhat Thomas Murphy James Governor Cheers to changing the future of software development, one automated, standardized development environment at a time. Link in comments 👇

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#productwalk <start> <storytime> I’m not the greatest storyteller. For real, if I’m crafting a narrative it takes time, significant thought energy, core data, and deep understanding of what I’m talking about. But that’s ok. Why? Because as a product leader - as a leader in general - it’s not about the ability to just tell a story that is critical, it’s about the passion you have for what you’re talking about. <passion> When I am most excited about something with my job, it’s because I see the #value that it will add for the #users. That sets a fire under me not just to move mountains to deliver it quickly, but also to transfer that passion to the team. Putting the #userfirst is at the core of delivering great products, driving a mindset that shifts from just getting a thing done to delivering a GREAT outcome. <profession> Long have there been debates about profession vs job. Indulge me for a second about these two words. Profession is rooted in a formalization of a skill set, something that required training, qualification, experience to be a part of. Something that was more than just a task. A job, however, is focused on a task, a thing that you must do, more narrow. This is the reason why when we do #productvalidation we run through a #jobstobedone (#JTBD) analysis so we can understand the full scope of what the user needs. When you approach your role as a #productleader as a professional vs a job, your mindset shifts from a myopic view to one that is scanning the horizon to ensure that the thing you are delivering, the problem you are solving, addresses the problems the user has with orchestrated unity and harmonization. <action> So what does this all boil down to and why bring any of this up? If you are in #productmanagement you’re a product professional. If you’re in #engineering, you’re a product professional. If you are in #marketing, you’re a product professional. If you are in #qualityassurance, you are a product professional. If you are in #sales, you are a product professional. If you’re the #CEO or #founder of a company, you are a product professional. Picking up a theme yet? As a product professional, you are part of a team that drives quality focused on delivering products that a user can employ to get their jobs done. You are part of a #team - and as a Product Manager you help drive that team to that goal, fueled with passion for what you’re solving, with the user at the heart of everything you say and do. <lets.walk>

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Imagine this. You're an employee and you're excited about this new learning opportunity. You spend way too much time figuring out how to get approval for this and BOOM. You're hit with.. "Please fill out this fillable PDF, email it to XYZ, and wait." Talk about raining on someone's parade... ⛈️ Unfortunately, this isn't a one-off story. It's been both fascinating and frustrating to hear all the different ways that employers handle requests for professional development. From Google Forms to emails to DMs to Microsoft Power Automate, I thought I had heard it all... But then I heard... "fillable PDFs". 😱 (Maybe it's just me, but I've found it incredibly frustrating every time I've had to deal with a fillable PDF.) But wait. Before you go and blame HR or whoever designed this process... understand that people are just working with the tools and constraints they have. (And honestly, I applaud the creativity for some of these workarounds too.) If you're curious to learn more about what's going on in the world of professional development, how we got here, and what we can do about it, check out this piece I wrote: https://lnkd.in/etKYjuHf

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Building your go-to-market (GTM) should be approached with the same rigor as building your product. Enter the GTM Sprint, 1 - 2 week efforts focused on testing a GTM hypothesis around your ideal customer profile, buyer persona and sales messaging. Having worked with over 100 early stage portfolio companies during my time at Gradient, I've found applying this framework helps keep founders who are doing founder-led sales accountable to their GTM goals, focused in their outreach and able to iterate more quickly. This ultimately leads to more customer conversations and a faster path to finding product-market fit. Read about the structure of GTM Sprints in my blog post: https://lnkd.in/gEw4RBrk

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This piece of content is absolute🔥 from Bobby Pinero. Would have been great to have in the past for so many Product Managers that were uplevelling, but at least it's here now. Kudos. Save this link for the future: https://lnkd.in/gD_hfKbM #metrics #SaaS #productmanagement

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The title may appear intimidating, but the core message is actually very encouraging and exciting. We are entering an era of creators, whether we refer to ourselves as designers, engineers, or product managers. By mastering the power of AI, we can unlock a new level of autonomy in our ideation and creativity.

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The north star metric isn't just a compass guiding us; it's a window into the soul of our product, reflecting the core value we deliver and the profound impact we aspire to have on our users. #NorthStarMetric #ProductManagement #ProductValue #Impact #UserFocus #StrategicDirection #ProductVision #ProductStrategy #MetricsThatMatter #CustomerCentric #ProductGrowth

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