E240: Product Managers Need To Become Growth Managers
An interview with Olha Yohansen-Veselova, Product Growth and Optimization Advisor
YouTube Link | Podcast Link (all platforms)
Who is Olha Yohansen-Veselova?
is a product growth and product optimisation expert who has now gone solo and is helping companies with their onboarding. Olha is also a startup mentor and advisor and is passionate about product managers living up to their full potential.I’ve known Olha for a little while now, as we have been mentors for the ULTRA.VC accelerator programme. It was great to finally get her on the podcast to talk business. When we’re not talking business, we seem to end up in chocolate shops:
Olha’s hot take is very relevant to much of the current discussion about product management: Product managers need to become growth managers and not just be seen as people who make the work happen, but as people who make the money happen.
Episode highlights:
1. Product Managers are becoming Growth Managers and should embrace this
Gone are the days when it was OK to just manage the work and ignore the business consequences of what you’re working on. Product managers should deeply understand their business, and how their product contributes to the commercial success of the organisation. Expectations are rising and product managers need to contribute - and be seen - as business partners.
2. Product Managers should still focus on long-term value rather than short-term commercial wins
There’s an obvious risk that, if product managers are expected to deliver business results from their work, they might get dragged into the same thinking as a quarterly-targeted salesperson and not prioritise the long-term future of the product. Product managers should avoid this temptation and should maintain their focus on the needs of the many - and scalable, repeatable growth.
3. Yes, this still works even if you’re not working on a cool PLG product
It’s easy to think that commercial targets for product managers will only make sense when their product efforts directly influence the commercial metrics, e.g. B2C or product-led growth where they can influence acquisition and retention directly. But, even if you’re working on an internal enterprise product or are stuck behind a sales team, you should always be able to describe the business value that your product delivers to the top or bottom line.
4. Don’t just focus on your own work, look left and right
It’s easy for product managers to get caught up in the minutiae of their own work and forget that they are part of a larger system and that their work has inputs and outputs that they should also understand and influence. It’s important to embrace your entrepreneurial spirit, step outside of your comfort zone and make sure that you do whatever you need to do to deliver superior results through your product initiatives.
5. Always be learning, but stay humble
There are so many resources out there that you have no excuse not to try to embrace areas that you are not yet an expert in. But, remember that there are generally people in your organisation who have more expertise in certain areas and your job isn’t to knock them out of the way. Stay humble, be aware of your limits, but don’t just learn for learning’s sake. You need to apply your knowledge to deliver business impact.
Connect with Olha:
Find Olha on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/oyohansen/.
Or check out Olha's newsletter:
Related episodes you should like:
Is Product-Led Growth Really For You? (Leah Tharin, Product-Led Growth Guru & Head of Product @ Jua)
Solving the Growth Equation to Derive Product/Market Fit (Andy Budd, Author "The Growth Equation")
Thanks for the conversation, Jason! And also for waiting in the 20-minute line together to get to the chocolate shop.