Learn fast! My Top 3 Female Product Role Models
In order to build successful products, it is crucial to get a deeper understanding of customer pain points, needs and desires. That is where Product Discovery* takes centre stage. As customers’ expectations are always changing, we can never know if we have chosen the right course, unless we stay in touch with our customers through testing and dialogue.
More and more Women are Leading in Product and Tech
While we are gaining our own insights and facing new challenges every day, a wealth of knowledge already exists. The product community is an open one, and the great product minds make a habit of sharing their wisdom through talks, books, podcasts and the like. Even though the number of female leaders in tech and product roles has grown significantly over the last years, the majority of the expert voices in the field tend to be male. That knowledge and experience is very valuable, but as a woman in product myself, I am always keen to hear the female perspectives as well.
Listen to These Ladies to Learn About Innovative Thinking
There are a number of names and brains to choose from, but 3 female leaders in product management in particular have inspired me most, and helped improve my day-to-day work. They all approach the topic from a unique angle and all share valuable insights on a regular basis.
Teresa has been a Product Discovery Coach at Product Talk for many years, helping various teams to connect their daily product decisions with customer input and research. In 2021 she published her book “Continuous Discovery Habits” which offers a structured approach to continuous discovery to help maintain a strong balance between business goals and customer needs.
Melissa founded Produx Labs, a Product Management training organization, on her mission to grow great product leaders. She is a speaker and is also the author of “Escaping the building trap”, where she offers advice on how to focus on the customer instead of releasing a constant stream of feature upon feature. It is also worth listening to her weekly product thinking podcast, where she talks to industry leading experts and answers listener questions.
Verena is one of the most recognized faces on the German startup scene and has made it her mission to make digital education available to all children. She is the founder of Fox & Sheep and HABA Digitalwerkstätten, which create apps and digital learning programs for children of different age groups. She continues to create new initiatives to improve education and working environments for families. In 2020 she published “Das Neue Land” (A new country) where she describes her vision and ideas of what needs to change in Germany to secure a bright future for our young ones.
*Product discovery is a central role at Ziegert Group, as it helps us to gain insights around a set of ideas and puts our theories and assumptions to the test. By using different techniques such as customer interviews, A/B testing and continuous iteration on existing insights and new opportunities, we can develop new products that are truly valuable to our customers.
