Escaping the Build Trap: How Effective Product Management Creates Real Value

by Melissa Perri

We call this team product operations. In growth stage companies, a chief of staff (under the CPO, like in Marquetly), runs it. In larger organizations, the product operations team still reports to the CPO but it needs an experienced leader, usually at the VP level, to oversee it. This team is in charge of streamlining all operational and process work that product teams need to be successful. This includes: Create automated and streamlined ways to collect data on progress toward goals and outcomes across teams. Report on goals, outcomes, roadmaps, progress, capacity, and costs across the product organization, translating these activities into financial implications for the company executives. Set up and maintain a product analytics platform to report on product engagement metrics across the organization. Standardize product processes that go across teams, such as strategy cadences, experimentation tracking and feedback, documentation on product features, collecting data, setting goals, creating and maintaining roadmaps, and sales enablement. Organize and run critical product meetings for strategy creation, strategy deployment, and releases. Conduct any coaching or training for the product teams.