Product Hero #1 — Thiago Diniz
Whatsup Product Heroes?!
Last week I just introduced The Product Hero Project (and myself as well). If you didn’t have time to see, take a look here. If you read some interesting article or want to recommend someone to talk about their experiences, please send it to productheroes@gmail.com !
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Is time to introduce one more Product Hero from Brazil…
Thiago Diniz!
I met Thiago a few years ago and we are involved together in a lot of events, like Startup Weekend Olympics (The first one around the world!), Startup Weekend Rio and mentoring at Nave Accelerator (The 5º class are open. If you have good ideas, wanna join and are ready to four INTENSE/INSANE months, click here).
A computer science BSc. had founded three startups in Brazil (Eventick, Atela, Codemedia) and each one of them as a different responsibility: CTO, CPO and CEO. Recently worked at Psafe, the biggest digital security company of LatAm and now he working at ChefsClub, the largest subscription dining club in Brazil. Let's start!
"Be curious. To be a great product manager we have to understand the why’s"
How did you explain your job to ‘normal’ people? (like grandmother..)
"Hey mom, so did you want to know what I do?" Do see this app, yes?! Alright, I am the responsible for seeing if people are using it or whether it should be changed to make people use it better!"
What is your morning routine at work as Product Manager?
I arrive at the office take a time to check emails, I do a quick review on the funnel for the features I track and the common for the app (DAU/DEU) for the past day. Go for a coffee and talk with people in the office then we do a daily meeting with the whole product team(other PMs and Designers) after that we do the same thing with my development team.
Where did you get your inspiration?
I read a lot of special blogs, like Giant Robots, A VC and TomTunguz but my main inspiration for work are books and documentaries. I highly recommend the whole trilogy from Gary Hustwit (Helvetica, Objectified and Urbanized) is just amazing.
What your type of Product Manager?
That’s a difficult one. I guess that because I have founded a few startups I tend to look for clues in the user behavior together with unstructured feedback, I guess my type is customer developer guy.
What was your big mistake/fail? And what you learned?
The first Product Manager job that I got. I always tried to interfere in the developer decision because of my strong developer background. The team didn’t appreciate very much and took a little while to realize that. From this I learned that is more valuable to let the team make their own mistakes in order to allow them to learn from it, and just give the support to enable the learning.
Your tips to anyone that want to be a Product Manager.
Be curious. To be a great product manager we have to understand the why’s and have that feeling to ask “what does this mean?” or “is this really right?”
Who is your favorite superhero?
Son Goku!
What is your super power (beyond Product Manager)
Developer, I know that it’s pretty controversial being a technical PM but I really can automate tons of stuff by being a programmer!
Your final considerations
I really find something the can really take the most of my generalist, as a product manager you have to know a little bit of everything, design, development, marketing, and sales, but you always have to focus on one thing at a time otherwise you don’t perform.
If you want to talk and learn more with Thiago Diniz, you can find him on Twitter: @dinizz.
Thank you 'Tiiáágo'!
PS: Did you want to learn about Product Management with guys who worked at a lot of digital companies and conquered more than 3MI downloads, $40MM in revenue with apps that was recognized by Apple and Google? Two first class are open. Reserve your spot here:
- Rio de Janeiro (june 30/31): https://goo.gl/F1jSSH
- São Paulo (August 27/28): https://goo.gl/gkoOoB
