Brian Gardner

🔥Hot Take for PMs: Please don't hand me a solution to a problem. Instead, focus on detailing the problem and help me understand the why. We will ideate and find a solution together. Next week, in our first episode of ⚫️Bounce, Claire and I continue to unpack the PD + PM working relationship. Buckle up. Subscribe today - links in comments 👇

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🚨 Sneak Peak for next week's episode of Bounce Podcast ⚫️ with Laura Baker Having empathy for users is a guiding principle for product teams. But where is our empathy for each other? Laura says it best, “Leave your ego at the door.” Product designers + managers + marketers + engineers should rally behind the problem we are solving for customers and embrace empathy for each other. Join us next week for our conversation with Laura Baker, the Global Design Leader at Fearless. Tune in on Thursday, September 12th, for a fresh perspective on nurturing culture within product teams! #Product #Leadership #ProductDesign

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Been awhile since I spoke with Mind the Product. Had a blast speaking with Randy Silver and Lily Smith about what PLG really looks like in practice (the ups and downs!) and how I think being Product-Led and PLS should be a part of the PLG definition. Check it out here: https://lnkd.in/eNdh6xpE #podcast #productmanagement

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Closing slide from my presentation yesterday on design quality. This is the standard I hold for our industry: Every company large enough to have a CPO or CTO should also have a CDO. The Chief Design Officer (CDO) is most responsible for elevating the quality of the customer experience, with special attention to craft. No other individual should care more about craft and quality, with the exception of the CEO in some cases. If you're actively interviewing for your next role, when you're asked “what questions do you have for me" ask who Design reports into. Follow up by asking how this impacts design quality and craft, and how your role can also impact these. #design #quality #craft

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Another example of how Knapsack helps teams go from design to code quickly and efficiently to deliver real value to the product teams that use your design system. So many folks are focused on documentation being the way to connect design and code (and docs do matter), but having a structured, codified, version controlled way to specifically define how you connect Figma to a coded component is really what helps us deliver value to product teams that use the design system.

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UX design is often underestimated, but it plays an important role in whether customers stick around or not. If your product is hard to use, even the most innovative features won’t keep users engaged. The challenge is getting leadership to see how UX directly affects business outcomes like retention and growth. Here’s what to keep in mind:  1️⃣ Retention insights: Are customers dropping off because the experience is clunky? Quantify those losses to strengthen your case.  2️⃣ Competitive edge: Are rivals gaining ground with better UX? Show how improving usability can help win back customers.  3️⃣ Team capacity: If your team is doing great work but overloaded, demonstrate how adding more designers will help you move faster and deliver more impactful products. Leaders are more likely to support UX improvements when they can see how it directly affects the business. Let the data speak for the value of design. How has investing in UX design impacted your product's success? Share your experience in the comments! #dearmelissa #productmanagement #ux #uxdesign #userexperience #productstrategy #growth #productthinking

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RevOps vs Chief of Staff work "I think RevOps is like a right hand to CRO of an organization. So a Chief of Staff is essentially like an extension of an executive member on any team. I think if you're smaller, than you have your hands in a lot of different pots." - Ravi Neppalli from our new Chief of Staff Podcast episode 🎧 Key takeaway: the size of company and who you report to impacts the work you do!

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I love how a friend described two PM archetypes: Command and Control GSD vs. Well-Meaning Process Focused. Here's how they broke it down... Command and Control GSD "There is a pretty "successful" archetype of PM that I tend to not get along with well. They are very command and control. They spend a huge amount of time planning and managing to make things move forward. They are successful in that they are able to get things out the door and get a lot of output out of teams. Execs, etc tend to like them because they GSD. The challenge I see is they often ship not great products, and shut down more exploratory/creative work. They turn themselves into SPOFs, and are worried that the team won't deliver unless they are keeping close watch ("babysitting" is a term I heard a PM use once)" Well-Meaning Process Focused "For orgs that are truly trying to evolve past feature factory, I've seen a different failure mode of PM who is incredibly disciplined about "following the process." They can point to a perfect discovery process with a lot of "experiments" and hypotheses. Yet they are afraid to apply any opinions or put their thumb on the scale, so they can't say with confidence what is working or why. They put huge amounts of infrastructure in place to support experimentation. But they get analysis paralysis and are more comfortable not shipping a change vs. shipping something that might "fail""

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Sometimes I get asked why as someone in the design and product areas I end up referring so much about remote work (in terms of policies) and async work (in terms of operations). It's often a matter of leverage, and this of course has more impact the larger the company is. For example, shifting design critique from calls (doesn't scale, creates silos, verbal feedback is not precise, conversations can tail easily) to async posts means automatically documenting decisions, have a clear log of feedback that can be analyzed, have space for tail discussions that can happen, opens up to the whole company. One operational change becomes the conduit for a massive gain in terms of quality of the work, time saved, documentation, and transparency. So if I have to choose... sometimes I end up focusing more on these changes in processes that are universal across the company more than a smaller change that is design specific. It's just more efficient and reaps major advantages.

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Shreyas is spot on. Below are the headers to my most recent First 30 Days Plan: = = = Week 1: Assessment and Familiarization Week 2: Operations, Vision & Strategy Week 3: Team Building and Development Week 4: Research Integration and Process Refinement = = = My goal was to have enough structure to create space around investigating, assessing, and ideating *without* stopping any trains from leaving the station. My new boss had two areas of focus he wanted me to impact out of the gate, which I agreed to do. Expectations. Alignment. The explicit nature of the plan, and buy-in from my boss gave me the space to witness how my people were operating and how other teams were engaging with them. And within that same held space, situational insights into projects, vision, reviews, etc. surfaced in ways that I could either immediately reinforce or begin to tease apart and counter with communicative intent.

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This is NOT an exhaustive list of SaaS metrics. This is an effort to: ➡️ Nudge you to put yourself into the shoes of your leadership team and look at your team’s performance through their lens.  ➡️ Shine a light on some metrics that don’t get the attention they deserve. ➡️ Highlight how metrics always need to be looked at in relation to each other. Read the full post on the #saasmetrics that your CFO cares about here: https://lnkd.in/gbpMERZc

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“Organizations buying your software are asking for a VPAT (Voluntary Product Accessibility Template) and you can tie business metrics to that.” Andrew Chung Chief Product Officer at Level Access explains that two strong ways of advocating for product resources for accessibility are to bring product customers who are asking for VPATs, and quantifying the business risk of not being accessible. He goes on to share a great reminder that “don’t wait, just start” is a compelling way to create evidence of the benefits of allocating a small amount of resources, which can then be used to build a business case for unlocking more resources to build accessible products. Use free tools to help you get started and if you can show early success you can build a much stronger case for incorporating accessibility early in the product process. We all purchase software, next time ask for a VPAT during the process.  Every request adds up, and it will make a meaningful difference in how Product teams prioritize limited resources. Full interview is in the comments. This is now conversation #5 in our series for National Disability Employment Awareness Month, and we have a few more that we’re editing and will share soon. My mission with these conversations is to help build awareness of the importance and business opportunity for building accessible, and give advocates the tactics and strategies they need to make forward progress in their organizations. Stay tuned for more and in the meantime let me know what more you’d like to hear from our guests.  Upcoming conversations include conversations with startup founders, senior accessibility leaders who have worked at major tech and consumer companies, venture capitalists who invest in the ability space, and more. Drop your questions in a comment, and I'll get as many asked as I can. #NDEAM #GoodJobsForAll #inclusionworks #DisabilityRights #InclusiveWorkplace #InclusionMatters

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I love how John Cutler and Leah Tharin spark off each other in this ProducTea with Leah episode. So worth your time, with so much insight and transparency. From the YouTube description: 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗮 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 𝗼𝗿𝗴𝗮𝗻𝗶𝘇𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻. John Cutler on the challenges of scaling and operating a collaborative product organization. They discuss different mental models for how different functions work together as teams and why it’s important to clarify and document the operating model, especially during times of growth, turnover, or changing strategies. John talks about the concept of scaffolding, introduced as a way to navigate the process of change and improvement and why most cross-functional initiatives fail. 𝗧𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗮𝘄𝗮𝘆𝘀: - Define in an operating model team sizes, roles, and responsibilities - Reduce single points of failure and promote shared accountability - Establish a shared language around team and domain evolution - Stay firm on the chosen operating model and evaluate it within a specific timeframe https://lnkd.in/eh2NvHBQ

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Why attempts at great UX fail 🎙️Clip from “How to find underserved markets, "word-of-mouth" as a success metric, and what makes a product valuable? w/ Rob Petrozzo CPO of Rally Ep 118” Releasing April 1st ——————————————————— Hi! I'm Caden Damiano, I'm an interaction designer, collaboration coach, and lifelong student of the craft of product development. I believe that product development is a liberal art, meaning you must experience multiple disciplines and perspectives to know how to make something that customers tell their friends about. In short, I believe great products have free word-of-mouth marketing. Follow me here on LinkedIn for daily clips from my interviews with product professionals, and insights on making great products.

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Why is it still so hard to to create, design, build and launch products people love to use? (Two words: Executive Alignment) It took me years to understand this principle and even longer to make it a key part of my product leadership toolbox. Fortunately, you don't have to wait that long because the UX Researchers Guild is hosting an event this Thursday (Aug 15) featuring Tamara Adlin on this exact topic. I'm not one to endorse LinkedIn events often, but after following Tamara's work for some time, I can honestly say her experience and practical approach to helping product professionals advance their career is second to none. If you're a product leader, researcher or simply want to create better alignment between cross-functional teams & executive needs... Then you don't want to miss this event. 🗓 Mark your calendars! 🗓 https://lnkd.in/eshTB4Nc (Repost for others ♻️)

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🎨💸 What's the biggest gap for product designers in tech today? 🎙️ This is one of the many questions Marc and I explored with Josh Brewer (Partner @ Enjoy The Work) in our latest episode of the podcast. Josh's answer was fantastic: most product designers don't spend enough time understanding their product's business model and go-to-market strategy. This can create a disconnect between user experience and business objectives. Designers who can productively balance UX with $$$ will dramatically increase their impact and accelerate their careers as a result. I couldn't agree more. The most impactful designers I know always connect value for users and value for the business. Our conversation also covered other engaging topics, including: • Attracting top talent and fostering a culture of creativity & accountability • Josh's thoughts on "founder mode" • Delivering and receiving feedback in a growth-oriented environment • The role of design in the AI era and its impact on future products • And more! Episode links in the comments 👇

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Let’s talk about tough conversations. As a PM, it's easy to celebrate the wins and deliver good news, but what about when things aren’t going as planned? One of the best pieces of advice I ever received from a mentor was about owning tough conversations. She said, “As a PM, you should own the tough conversations like you’re delivering the weather.” Keep it clear, factual, confident, calm, and concise. When a project runs into issues, it’s our responsibility to call out the problems honestly and transparently: “We’ve hit a delay, but here are the options we have to stay on track.” “We’re currently over budget, so we need to reassess our resources.” Here’s the formula for approaching tough conversations: 1. State the situation 2. Present the potential impact 3. Offer solutions 4. Make it a collaborative conversation whenever possible You don’t need to sugarcoat or sidestep. Just bring the facts and a plan. I believe owning tough conversations with calmness and clarity is a skill every project manager should master. It builds trust and keeps the project moving forward. It might come easy to some, but for most of us, it’s something that requires practice and experience. How do you approach tough conversations?

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Reflecting on some recent advising sessions, something I don't see talked about as much is how critical it is to have an incredibly strong, unified* Design leadership team in order to build an even stronger design team and product. Why this is so critical 👇 What I’ve seen happen when you DON’T have that unified Design leadership team: 1. Massive gaps in the user experience – Let’s start with the obvious one. When Design leaders are staying neatly in their corners and not communicating, the experience degrades pretty quickly. Especially where the "seams" of their teams/org are. We've all seen (and let's be real…probably have been guilty of at times) the navigation structure that clearly shows the org chart vs. what users actually need. This can happen way too quickly without that unified team. 2. A lack of Design’s ability to influence product direction — The best Design leadership teams work together, pushing each other, to have a unified perspective of what the big things are to tackle in the user experience that leverages the unique expertise of the Design functions, all the way from it being grounded in research, to it having a compelling narrative. When they have that unified perspective and are all consistently sharing that perspective, it is so much easier for cross-functional partners to understand and buy-in on it. 3. Design works against Design — When Design leaders don't have a shared perspective on what is important (both in the user experience and the culture), don't have the right level of visibility into each other's work, or even worse, when they don't have mutual respect for each other, it leads to the leaders (mostly) inadvertently working against the progress of the other leaders/teams vs. together toward a unified vision. 4. A limit to the flexibility and scalability of the Design team – To build great experiences at scale, having the flexibility of shifting people to focus on different parts of the product is critical. When the culture and processes are dramatically, instead of it being exciting for that person to focus on a new space, it is incredibly disorienting, slows everything down, and can quickly lead to burnout. *A note on when I say "unified". I don't mean at all that they agree on everything. In fact, the opposite. They push each other the most, early and often. However, they have shared respect, cultivated by their leader, and shared responsibility around aligning within a timely manner. THEN they support each other in any way they can with hurdles they may each face (e.g. cross-functional buy-in or team-wide communication). ——— Is this interesting? Let me know if you want me to share more on how exactly you can cultivate this strong design leadership team –OR– if you want more personalized advice around this, set up some time with me here: https://lnkd.in/g-vyymtW

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