Meetup Principal PM on How Collaboration Can Lead to a Win
Product Management includes team management, product invention, and leadership. In order to lead the various teams they work with towards success, a Product Manager has to juggle a lot of things. This is where collaboration comes in.
Meet Sylvan Boucard
The current Principal Product Manager of Meetup, Sylvan Boucard, is passionate about creating inventive product experiences that delight customers.
A platform which brings people and events together — Meetup thrives on collaboration, making Sylvan the ultimate authority on collaborating for Product Managers.
Product Managers + Collaboration = WINNING!
Main Takeaways:
- Why collaborating is critical for product managers
- Who to collaborate with, why, how and when
- What impactful collaboration looks like
Meetup’s Mission
Meetup strives to empower personal growth through real human connections.
But what exactly is Meetup?
Sylvan describes it as a two-sided marketplace with Organizers and Members. The main goal for organizers (and by extension, the Product team) is to improve retention. When you are thinking about product strategy, the important step is to frame a problem definitively.
For Product Managers, improving retention must start with identifying and defining the existing problem which you want to solve.
Case Study: Community Experience — Darya
A great way to understand a product, is to hear insights from those who use it. Darya, a community organizer on Meetup, explains the internal challenges of her role. Among them she says, “being a Meetup organizer is too difficult and I lose motivation.” In the course of time, the goals of people change and not many want to remain in the organizing committee.
This information presents the Product teams with an opportunity to make improvements, leading to improved retention. A win-win.
Opportunity: Make it easier for organizers to crowdsource help and for members to raise their hands to participate in the group.
Of course, a Product Manager doesn’t have to complete all of this alone! It’s time to see what others on the team have to say.
Opportunity: 60% of groups don’t have a co-lead.
Why are some organizers doing it alone? Sylvan found that organizers fall into certain categories:
The Boss — not ready to share the ideas/opportunities
The Team Builder — open to sharing the vision/work
The Delegator — open to sharing some work
Summary
Sylvan summarises his advice with a simple graph:
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I’m Carlos González, CEO at Product School, and I enjoy sharing weekly tips for Product leaders!
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This article was also published on The Product Management Blog.
