TheFork Former CPO on From Ordinary to Extraordinary: Transform Your Product Strategy | E220 | #TheProductPodcast
“Building product lead is not having product managers telling you what to do, but having product teams on the forefront in the trenches, doing whatever we need to make the business grow.”
In this edition of #TheProductPodcast newsletter, we dive into the world of product management with Fabrice des Mazery, former Chief Product Officer at TheFork, a TripAdvisor company. With a background as a 3 times serial entrepreneur and experience leading product teams at major tech companies, Fabrice shares valuable insights on strategy, team management, and maintaining a healthy work-life balance.
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There are many incredible lessons to learn from Fabrice des Mazery. Here are a few of the top ones:
The Power of Entrepreneurial Thinking in Product Management
“I think I’m a better product leader because I was a product entrepreneur before.”
Fabrice emphasizes the importance of thinking like an entrepreneur, even when working within a large organization. This mindset encourages product managers to take ownership of their decisions and consider the return on investment for both the company and the users.
Crafting an Effective Product Strategy
“The first thing with strategy is that it’s not being the first at something. It’s not, I don’t know, having this number of millions of turnover by the end of the year. This is not a strategy, this is an ambition or this is an objective.”
Fabrice explains that a good product strategy is more than just setting goals or being first to market. It’s about creating a compelling narrative that outlines where you are, where you want to go, and how you plan to get there.
Empowering Teams and Fostering Responsibility
“All I ask you to do is to fail responsibly, is to be able to explain why you decided to go there. If you go there and you fail, no problem. You give an explanation, not an excuse.”
By encouraging team members to take risks and learn from their failures, Fabrice creates an environment where innovation can thrive. This approach helps build a sense of ownership and responsibility among product managers.
Staying Connected with Users at Scale
“One of the things that usually a lot of product teams forget to do… When you start to be in a big company, they tend to forget to connect with users and they tend to forget to customer, to users, even through sales or customer care.”
Even when managing products with millions of users, Fabrice stresses the importance of maintaining a connection with real people. He suggests having product team members spend time in customer care roles or shadowing sales calls to build genuine empathy with users.
Balancing Work and Preventing Burnout
“There’s a saying whenever you get on the plane, maybe there’s an oxygen mask that will fall down, and then you need to use it for you before trying to help the others. And this is exactly what psychological sanity is about. You cannot take care of the others if you don’t take care of yourself.”
Recognizing the high-pressure nature of product management, Fabrice shares his personal strategies for maintaining balance and preventing burnout. He emphasizes the importance of self-care and being aware of the signs of burnout in both yourself and your team members.
🔑 Key takeaways
• Apply an entrepreneurial mindset to product management, focusing on ownership and ROI. Treat company investments as if they were your own money.
• Develop a strategy as a compelling narrative, not just goals or metrics. Frame it as a story with chapters, explaining where you are now, where you want to go, and how you’ll get there.
• Encourage responsible risk-taking and learning from failures. Give team members the autonomy to make decisions, asking them to provide explanations rather than excuses.
• Even when managing products with millions of users, maintain a strong connection with real people. Have product team members spend time in customer care roles or shadow sales calls to build genuine empathy with users and understand their real-life challenges.
• Recognize the importance of self-care and be aware of burnout signs in yourself and team members. Implement personal strategies like using meditation for focus!
• Use KPI trees or product meta trees to link customer outcomes, product outcomes, and business outcomes. This helps teams understand how their work impacts the bigger picture and guides decision-making.
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🎧 Check out the full episode of #TheProductPodcast for more insights.
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