I’m your host, Jason Knight, and One Knight in Product is your chance to go deep into the wonderful world of product management, product marketing, startups, le...
Myles Sutholt's Hot Take - Leaders Need to Get Better at Using Data for PM Performance Reviews (with Myles Sutholt, Head of Product @ Field Intelligence Inc)
Myles Sutholt is a Germany-based product leader working for an Africa-based startup where he's helping to digitise the health supply chain across the continent, with a "laser focus" on creating user value alongside business value and fostering motivated, dynamic teams.
His hot take? That leaders too often rely on gut feel and recency bias when performing performance reviews, relying on point-in-time assessments and trying to be nice rather than supporting the career growth of their teams.
Find Myles on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/myles-sutholt/.
If you'd like to appear on Hot Takes, please grab a time: https://www.oneknightinproduct.com/hot!
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20:09
Most PMs Aren't Good At Strategy - Enter The Decision Stack! (with Martin Eriksson, Co-founder of Mind the Product & Creator of The Decision Stack)
Martin Eriksson is the co-founder of Mind the Product, and co-author of the "Product Leadership" book. Martin has worked with a multitude of companies and has been heavily involved in the VC side of product management. These days, he's advising and coaching companies as well as trying to help us all make good decisions by writing a new book, "The Decision Stack", alongside its supporting website.
Episode highlights:
1. The vast majority of company employees don't know what their company strategy is...
It's important for everyone in the company to be aligned on what's important, where the company's going and how they're going to get there. It's crucial for product and business leaders to do the work; both to create a vision and strategy and to share it with everyone who is needed to execute it.
2. ... but, worse still, the vast majority of companies don't even have a strategy to speak of
Strategy is about making a coherent set of choices about how we're going to achieve our goals or make our company vision real. But, too many companies have fluffy, vague vision statements that could mean anything, and leaders who want to do everything all at once and don't want to make choices. This limits their ability to actually achieve anything.
3. It's hard to create a product strategy if you don't have a company strategy, but you should do it anyway
A product strategy should support the company strategy and vision but, if there's no company strategy or vision, it's hard to create or defend such a strategy. On the other hand, you should still do the work to create one; either you'll get to go and execute the strategy or you'll have a straw man proposal to provoke further discussion around what the strategy should be.
4. A lot of product people are pretty bad at strategy, and we need to get better
Back in the day, a lot of product managers were expected to write specifications and get stuff done. They weren't even expected to be strategic, and many still aren't to this day. These skills are learnable; product people need to do their best to up their game, and company leaders need to get more comfortable both delegating responsibility and coaching their employees to have these skills.
5. The answer is not "Founder mode"
"Founder mode" can be used to justify just about any behaviour, invites "hero syndrome" and can lead to micromanagement and single points of failure. Good leaders absolutely need to be deeply involved in their business, but this should not be at the expense of creating strong, aligned teams that can take many day-to-day decisions without them.
Contact Martin
You can catch up with Martin on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/martineriksson
You can also check his website: https://martineriksson.com
Keep up-to-date with The Decision Stack: https://www.thedecisionstack.com/
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1:07:48
Martijn Versteeg's Hot Take - PMs Need to Spend Less Time Learning and More Time Doing (with Martijn Versteeg, Founder @ Group Effort & Organiser @ Product Mastery Conference)
Martijn Versteeg is the founder of Group Effort, an organisation that fosters connections & facilitates the growth of scale-up leaders through peer groups, offsites and workshops.
His hot take? That product people should stop looking for the "golden nugget" of knowledge. Martijn argues that instead of seeking a single breakthrough insight, product managers should focus on consistent iteration and learning through small, incremental steps.
Find Martijn on LinkedIn or check out Group Effort.
Also, remember to check out the conference that he's organising, and we'll both be speaking at: Product Mastery Conference
If you'd like to appear on Hot Takes, please grab a time!
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22:37
Martijn Moret's Hot Take - Most PMs Neglect Data Due To a Lack of Time and Skills (with Martijn Moret, CEO @ DataSquirrel.ai)
Martijn Moret is the founder of DataSquirrel.ai, a company focused on leveraging AI to humanise and simplify data analysis for product managers and non-tech managers.
His hot take? Most product managers neglect data—not because they dislike it, but due to a lack of time and skills, which can lead to wrong priorities and poor decision-making. He also highlights the current limitations of AI in data analysis, emphasising that while AI accelerates workflows, it still requires human oversight for reliable outcomes.
Find Martijn on LinkedIn or check out DataSquirrel.ai.
If you'd like to appear on Hot Takes, please grab a time!
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22:08
OKIP LIVE: Jason and Maja's Christmas Fireside Chat (with Maja Voje, Founder @ Growth Lab and author "Go-To-Market Strategist")
🎄 Deck the Halls with Go-To-Market! 🎄
I spoke with Maja Voje for a convivial Christmas chat about all things product and growth. We discussed:
2024 Retrospectives and 2025 Predictions
Product Management and Go-To-Market Strategies
AI in Workflows and Whether Product Management is Dead 💀
LinkedIn Growth Strategies
Balancing Opportunities and When To Say No
Networking and Community Building
This is the audio of that conversation, but you can see us both (complete with Christmas hats!) on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/live/XdjiVO-gXOg?si=XM1wQs-QwP6lx_rr
Check out my appearance on Maja's podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6kip2mtuyE
... and Maja's previous appearance on my podcast: https://www.oneknightinproduct.com/maja-voje
Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays to you all!
I’m your host, Jason Knight, and One Knight in Product is your chance to go deep into the wonderful world of product management, product marketing, startups, leadership, diversity & inclusion and much more!
My goal with One Knight in Product has always been to bring real chat to the over-idealised world of product management and mix thought leader interviews with day-to-day practitioners from around the world. I want to ask hard, but fair, questions and bring some personality and good, old-fashioned dry British humour to building products.
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