The essence of product management | Christian Idiodi (SVPG)
Christian Idioti, Partner at Silicon Valley Product Group, discusses why product management is often disliked and how PMs can build trust and competence. He shares his top discovery method for building products people love and offers insights on effective coaching and leadership development, drawing from his work in Africa.
Deep Dive Analysis
16 Topic Outline
Understanding the Negative Perception of Product Managers
How to Become a Trusted and Effective Product Manager
The Four Attributes of a Product Manager's Job
Why New Product Managers Often Fail at Value Discovery
Leveraging Reference Customers for Product Discovery and Fit
Christian's Personal Approach to Building New Products
Defining Product-Market Fit Through Reference Customers
Case Study: Building a High-Volume Hiring Product
The Power of Doing Things That Don't Scale
Becoming a Great Coach and Building Trust with Leaders
Accelerating Trust Through Strategic Relationships
Finding Practice Arenas for Product Management and Coaching
The Pitfalls of Early Promotions and Incompetence
Training for Leadership Before Promotion
Christian's Product Work and Opportunities in Africa
The Importance of Passion and Empathy in Product Work
7 Key Concepts
Essence of Product Management
The core of product management is waking up on behalf of someone else to solve a problem for them, doing it well enough that they give you something back in return, such as revenue, engagement, loyalty, or a reference.
Four Product Risks
When building a product, teams must address four inherent risks: Value (will people buy/use it?), Usability (can they use it?), Feasibility (can we build it?), and Viability (does it work for our business?). Product managers primarily focus on value and viability.
Value Risk
This is the risk that people will not buy, choose, or use a product, even if they can. It is often the most important and most overlooked risk, as teams may assume value if they are given a roadmap of features to build.
Reference Customer
A reference customer is someone who has used your product or solution, loves it enough, and is willing to put their reputation on the line by telling other people about it. They serve as a powerful validation of product value and market fit.
Product-Market Fit (Christian's Definition)
Product-market fit is achieved when you have iterated and delivered a solution so meaningful that your target customers are willing to put their reputation on the line and become a reference for your product.
Manager's Role in Coaching
While doing product management is the product manager's job, getting better at product management is the manager's job. Coaching is an everyday activity for managers, focused on helping their reports improve their skills and performance.
Trust in Corporate Environments
Trust in corporate settings is primarily built on competence and character. Demonstrating competence in one's role is often the fastest way to earn trust from colleagues and leaders, even if other aspects like communication or care are initially lacking.
12 Questions Answered
Product managers are often disliked because many people haven't experienced good ones, leading to misplaced influence and mistrust due to perceived poor competency. When PMs don't deliver results that help meet outcomes, their role is questioned.
PMs can become highly valued by demonstrating competence through deep knowledge of customers, data, industry, and business. They should continuously learn, build relationships with influential people by asking to be taught or offering help, and immerse themselves in understanding the business.
A product manager's job involves working as part of a team to uncover a solution that addresses four key risks: Value (will people buy/use it?), Usability (can they use it?), Feasibility (can we build it?), and Viability (does it work for our business?).
New PMs most often fail at addressing the 'value risk,' which is ensuring that people will actually buy, choose, or use the product. This is often overlooked when teams are given roadmaps of features to build, assuming value rather than discovering it.
The most recommended approach is to find a number of 'reference customers' (6-8 for B2B, 15-25 for B2C) who have the problem, and then work closely with them to discover and deliver a solution until they love it enough to advocate for it.
Product-market fit is achieved when you've iterated on a solution so effectively that your target customers are willing to put their reputation on the line and become a reference for your product, actively telling others about it.
The fastest way to build trust with leaders is to have them accountable for an outcome of yours, specifically by asking them to teach you. This forces a relationship, extends their trust to you, and makes them invested in your growth and competence.
In the absence of a good coach, individuals should seek out 'practice arenas' like volunteering at nonprofits or community events that involve collaborative problem-solving. This provides opportunities to get reps, observe good product work, and learn by doing.
Early promotions often lead to failure because people are promoted to roles (e.g., manager, VP) without prior experience or training in the new job's responsibilities. They are expected to 'do VP things' without ever having practiced or received coaching on those tasks, leading to incompetence and micromanagement.
Companies should create a safe environment for individuals to practice leadership and management tasks before promotion. This means letting them 'do the job' (e.g., manage one report, observe interviews) and receive feedback without the pressure of the title, allowing them to learn from mistakes safely.
To find a good coach, look for individuals who have either played the game before and generated good outcomes (e.g., built successful products) or have learned from other good coaches. Seek out people with a strong pedigree and observe the patterns of those they've coached.
Africa presents huge opportunities due to a young, fast-growing population and basic, unsolved problems, but challenges include poor infrastructure (e.g., power, internet access) and a culture where people often profit from problems rather than solving them. The opportunity lies in empowering the continent with enabling technology and product mindset.
13 Actionable Insights
1. Build Trust with Influencers
To accelerate trust and relationships, introduce new hires to the loudest, most influential person in the company and ask that person to teach them or allow them to observe for a week. This extends the influential person’s trust, builds a relationship, and makes them accountable for the new hire’s growth, making them an advocate.
2. Master Reference Customer Discovery
To figure out what to build, find 6-8 (B2B) or 15-25 (B2C) ‘reference customers’ who have the problem. Immerse yourself with them, and don’t leave until you discover and deliver a solution they love enough to tell others about, effectively putting their reputation on the line for your product.
3. Practice Leadership Before Promotion
To prepare for a leadership role (e.g., VP), start ‘doing the job’ before you get the title. This allows you to practice, make mistakes, and receive feedback in a safe environment, ensuring you are competent and ready when officially promoted.
4. Elevate PM Competence
As a product manager, earn trust and respect by becoming the expert in customers, data, industry, business, and the product itself. Your role is to represent the customer best and drive decisions based on this deep competence.
5. Accelerate PM Learning & Trust
To become a more trusted and successful product manager, identify the loudest, most influential person in your organization and ask them to teach you, or volunteer to help them. This builds relationships, extends their trust to you, and helps you learn what drives their influence.
6. Focus on Value & Viability
The product manager’s core competency is to drive value (will people buy/use it?) and viability (does it work for our business?). Prioritize solving these risks, as they are often overlooked but critical for product success.
7. Market with Customer Language
When marketing a product, use the exact language and descriptions that customers use to describe their love for it. This ensures expectations are matched and avoids disappointment from misaligned messaging.
8. Coaching is Manager’s Job
Managers should understand that their primary daily role is coaching their reports to get better at their jobs. This involves creating space for practice and providing regular feedback, similar to a coach on a sports sideline.
9. Create Practice Arenas for Skills
To improve skills like product management or leadership, find ‘practice arenas’ such as volunteering for a non-profit or community events. These low-risk environments allow for collaborative problem-solving and skill development.
10. Seek Good Coaching Examples
If you don’t have a direct coach, actively seek environments where you can observe good coaching and product work happening, such as winning teams or successful product initiatives. Learn by watching and then practicing those observed behaviors.
11. Interview for Problem-Solving & Curiosity
When interviewing candidates, give them a unique problem to solve live (e.g., an alarm clock for a deaf friend) to assess their thinking process, problem-solving approach, intellectual curiosity, empathy, and humility, rather than just their knowledge.
12. Show Up with a Plan and Smile
Adopt the life motto: ‘Show up, show up on time, show up on time with a plan, and if somehow you have the guts to put that plan to action with a smile, then you probably will have a great chance of success.’ Repeat this for consistent positive outcomes.
13. Support African Product Community
Consider supporting the Innovate Africa Foundation (InnovateAfricaFoundation.org) or the upcoming Paid Africa Fund, which aims to empower African talent with technology, product mindset, and skills to solve local problems and achieve product-market fit.
9 Key Quotes
The real essence of this job is that you wake up on behalf of someone else to solve a problem for them. And you have to do it well enough that they give you something back in return.
Christian Idiodi
I've only seen great product managers come out of two places. One, either a series of massive failure in their career or experiences that have been bad or from learning from great product leaders.
Christian Idiodi
Just because somebody can use your product doesn't mean that they will buy it. Just because they can use it doesn't mean they will choose it. Just because they can use it doesn't mean that they will actually use it.
Christian Idiodi
The holy grail of product work is really a reference customer.
Christian Idiodi
There's nothing better in learning how to solve a problem than trying to solve the problem.
Christian Idiodi
Doing product management is a product manager's job, but getting better at product management is the manager's job, is the coach's job.
Christian Idiodi
Companies cannot care for people. People care for people.
Christian Idiodi
We promote people and it's like, you're now a VP, do VP things. And you're like, I have never done VP things before, but I cannot tell people I've never done VP things because it makes me look incompetent.
Christian Idiodi
Show up on time with a plan and you're ahead of 90% of the people in the free world. And if somehow you have the guts to put that plan to action with a smile, then you probably will have a great chance of success.
Christian Idiodi
2 Protocols
Building a High-Volume Hiring Product (Case Study)
Christian Idiodi- Define the core problem (e.g., need to hire 800 people quickly) and identify who else might have this problem.
- Go out of the building to validate the problem with potential customers (e.g., new construction sites, malls) to see if others share the same desperate need.
- Propose a low-risk, value-based solution to a desperate customer (e.g., 'we'll send you people to interview, you only pay for hires').
- Manually execute the solution, recruiting candidates using various channels (e.g., flyers, newspaper ads, Craigslist) and tracking results.
- Analyze the process, noting show-up rates, hiring ratios, and cost-to-acquire per person, and gather feedback on unexpected industry norms (e.g., high interview no-show rates).
- Double down on effective channels and pre-interview engagement techniques to improve outcomes.
- Scale the manual process to meet larger demands from additional customers (e.g., Starbucks' 800 hires).
- Identify customer segments that are not a good fit for the solution (e.g., airports with complex demographic and security requirements).
- Involve engineering and design from the beginning to automate and improve the end-to-end experience based on manual learnings (e.g., scheduling tools, notifications, maps).
- Launch the product, confident that it solves a validated problem for multiple reference customers, and use their feedback for marketing and sales language.
Accelerating Trust and Development for New Hires/Leaders
Christian Idiodi- Identify the most influential and trusted person in the company.
- Introduce the new hire or aspiring leader to this influential person, acknowledging the new hire's potential but also their need to learn the company's specific context.
- Ask the influential person to 'teach' the new hire, or arrange for the new hire to shadow them for a significant period (e.g., a week), attending meetings and observing quietly.
- Allow the influential person to naturally engage with the new hire, building a relationship and introducing them to other key connections within the company.
- By making the influential person accountable for the new hire's learning and growth, they become invested in the new hire's success, providing guidance and defending their competence.
- This process extends the influential person's trust to the new hire, accelerates relationship building, and provides a safe environment for learning and practice.