Episode 232: The Product Trio is Outdated - Enter the Product Square!
An interview with Adam Dille, SVP Product Engineering at Quantum Metric
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Who is Adam Dille?
Adam Dille is the SVP of Product Engineering at Quantum Metric, where he leads teams delivering experience analytics for some of the world's biggest brands. Starting his career in engineering, Adam always questioned why he was building something, which naturally drew him closer to product thinking. This curiosity now drives his approach to leadership, product strategy, and customer collaboration.
Episode highlights:
1. The Trio Isn’t Enough – Enter the Product Square
Adam believes the traditional product trio – PM, design, and engineering – is outdated. He believes it’s important to add a customer-facing field team member to create a “product square.” This could be someone from customer success, sales, or pre/post-sales teams.
2. Product Squares Bring Customer Insights Closer to the Product Team
Customer-facing team members spend hours every day interacting with customers. Embedding them into product teams ensures continuous feedback loops and faster iterations. It helps product managers and engineers align more closely with the real-world challenges customers face.
3. You Need to Align Incentives Across the Square
It’s important to have proper strategic alignment across the square. Field team members may be incentivised by individual account goals and biased towards short-term thinking, but they must also think holistically about long-term product value for all customers. It’s a cultural shift that ensures the square works as a cohesive unit.
4. This is About More Than Just Occasional Check-ins
Just meeting up for occasional status updates is something nearly everyone does already, but this is more than that. It’s important to embed the field team members into the daily rhythms of the product development efforts, to get fast feedback and enable them to understand what’s going on and contribute in real time. This can be a big ask from field team leaders but, once you demonstrate the value, it can be priceless.
5. So, is the Product Manager Irrelevant in this Model?
Product managers have to handle more and more stuff and the role is constantly in flux. They can’t be sitting with customers 24/7 but, in the square model, the product manager plays a critical role as the quarterback. They bring strategic context, connect the dots, balance priorities, and keep the team aligned on the bigger picture.
Contact Adam
Find Adam on LinkedIn or check out Quantum Metric.
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