We recently sat down with COO and Head of Product of GameClub, Britt Myers, to discuss his role on the Product Awards Advisory Board. His focus for the awards is ‘Operate’ and how tools allow us to better create products. In this episode, we discuss what that means for product managers and what can make the operation phase of product management award-winning. The alternative is hitting walls and having the buzzer go off like in the board game.
Listen to the entire episode right here on Products That Count, subscribe to our podcast at the following links, and scroll through the highlights below.
These are three ways that products help product managers operate:
- Makes Everything Run Smoothly
The product team sits at the intersection of many things within a business. Products managers need to be effective at communicating and collaborating with other areas of the business and operate effectively within that business. Otherwise, it makes it tough for the people around them and it can make it difficult for a product team to succeed.
- Punch Above Your Weight
Using products effectively can let a small team of product managers appear to be much larger in terms of their production.
As Myers put it, “at Game Club, I’ve really made it my mission to not do all the things that we were doing as a 100 person team at Homer, but do those things with a smaller team with a lot of automation and a lot of tools supporting us.”
- The Four Aspects of Operation for Product Managers
There are four ways in which a product can help product managers operate:
- Organizational Knowledge
- Analyze Impact
- Deploy Code
- Connect Teams
A Product Manager controlling the flow of operation for creating new products is like a conductor driving a symphony orchestra. Each individual piece needs to work together to create a masterpiece.
About the speaker
An experienced and creative entrepreneur and product leader, Britt Myers has developed an impressive resume of business successes in media and technology production. In 2014, Myers partnered with Stephanie Dua as co-founder and Chief Product Officer of ed-tech startup Homer. Homer is the #1 Learn-To-Read program powered by your child’s interests; an educational app for iOS and web that teaches a child to read and develops crucial early childhood cognitive skills.