General Principles of Hospitality
For product leaders out there, there are some general principles of hospitality that greatly help product development. First, make the customer feel good and important. This lets them know that you will take care of them once you get the chance. Second, when providing hospitality be sure to make eye contact and genuinely listen to the customer. It’s all about making that initial connection with them.
In addition, product managers need to create products for hospitality businesses that deliver on key pain points. At the end of the day, the restaurant is delivering a very personal experience. Therefore, we don’t want technology to interfere with that. We want technology to help deliver a better experience.
What Makes A Great Product and A Great Product Manager?
As I alluded to before, the best products solve problems most people aren’t even aware of. In my opinion, one of the best examples of this is Kindle. Kindle allows you to carry multiple books and magazines all in one place, which saves you storage space. Most people don’t realize how finding space for all those books can be a pain- that’s why Kindle is a great product.
In terms of what it takes to be a great product manager, I think having domain expertise is important. I also think there’s a certain amount of persistence that product managers need as well. Furthermore, emotional intelligence is another important ability to possess. This ability allows you to make tough decisions under pressure. Nonetheless, in product it’s inevitable that we are judged on what we ship from a quality and quantity perspective.
I think failing is somewhat of a blessing for great product managers. Product managers must learn from those failures in order to use that experience for future products. So, if you can learn from failure, it can be as valuable as having great success. In fact, it’s not necessarily beneficial to have a ton of success especially if you don’t know what’s driving that success.
About the speaker
I’m excited to lead consumer product at Resy — a mobile app that powers reservations at the world’s best restaurants. I joined the team because I’m super passionate about hospitality, and helping restaurants deliver amazing guest experiences. I believe the world is ready for a reservation app that cuts through the noise — making it possible to dine out at the best restaurants without having to scroll through an endless list of mediocre options. Prior to joining Resy, I had the privilege of being one of the first product managers to work on Guest Center, OpenTable's cloud-based reservation management system, and launched the product globally in February 2014. Later that year I led the marketing & development of OpenTable’s mobile payments solution, a ground-breaking innovation that made up the core of the company's mobile strategy. Between OpenTable and Resy, I spent 15 incredible months at i.am+, an AI and wearables company founded by pop-culture icon will.i.am. It was awesome working for such a creative force, and I learned so much from the experience. Specialties: B2B/B2C product management & marketing, go-to-market strategies, service design, agile product development, innovation, idea creation, messaging/positioning development, business strategy, pricing & promotions, acquisition & engagement marketing, quantitative customer research, qualitative customer insights, and strategic partnerships.