Scandinavian Product Podcast Afonso Franco

My guest today is Gabriele Bufrem - one of the product coaches featured in Marty Cagan's new book Transformed.
I met Gabi last year and love talking with her. She's both a superstar product coach and a great human being. 
Today's episode is like a mini masterclass for product leaders and managers, where Gabi shares practical tips and advice from her experience coaching strong product leaders and teams in companies that we have all heard about.  
We covered:
* The 4 biggest challenges product leaders face
* How to craft an inspiring and clear product vision
* What does a great product strategy look like
* The importance of collaboration, listening, and facilitation in order for product leaders to craft a good product strategy
* Workshops and techniques to surface insights and foster strategic alignment
* How to communicate strategic context to product teams
* Product Principles and OKRs
* Why product leaders should spend most of their time coaching their teams
* And more


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit afonsofranco.substack.com

My guest today is Marty Cagan.
Marty has probably observed and advised more product teams and leaders than anyone in the world.
For many, he's the Godfather of Product Management. Bestselling author of some of the most iconic books in our industry (Inspired, Empowered, and recently launched Transformed). Probably the world's most requested speaker in Product development conferences. And founder and partner at Silicon Valley Product Group - for many, the most credible and highest-quality product advisory group out there.
If you work in Product in Europe, lead product organizations as a product leader, or are a founder / CxO that wants to create a truly innovative company, don't miss this spicy episode. 
Marty and I discussed:
* Moving from Projects to Products
* Why Agile can only help with 1/3 of transformations (and why it's also the easiest part)
* Why Product Leadership is the key to enable transformation 
* Examples of successful transformation cases in Europe
* The importance of product coaches in driving transformation 
* How Europe took Agile in a different direction: process and governance
* Product Ops: good or bad?
* "Product Owners", as we sadly often see in many Scandinavian/European companies, and the risk of obsoletion or replacement
* How AI will impact how we build 
* And more


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit afonsofranco.substack.com

My guest today is the one and only Hope Gurion.
Hope works together with Teresa Torres teaching and coaching product teams on all things continuous discovery, is the founder of Fearless Product, and is one of the featured product coaches in Marty Cagan’s new book Transformed.
Sometimes we meet people that we immediately know are special. 
Hope is one of them :) 
And this conversation is the evidence of why I’ve been such a big fan of Hope’s work for a few years now. 
We discussed, 
* Why is continuous discovery so important
* How to move from leading with outputs to outcomes
* Why shifting to outcomes requires both an upskilling in leadership and teams
* Why most transformations require bringing in strong product leaders 
* What can product teams do to drive transformation 
* Different types of outcomes and how to formulate them
* How product teams should approach business outcomes
* How to share outcomes with other areas of the business (e.g. Marketing, Sales)
* Why formulating and deciding on outcomes is a two-way negotiation between teams and leaders
* And more


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit afonsofranco.substack.com

My guest today is the roadmap sensei Phil Hornby.
Phil is probably one of the few people in the world that has seen hundreds of Product roadmaps. 
He’s the co-creator of the renowned show “Talking Roadmaps” where he regularly interviews thought leaders like Teresa Torres, Marty Cagan, April Dunford, and John Cutler. 
Phill works together with the one and only Bruce McCarthy as a Product Coach at Product Culture, and is the founder of For Product People.
We could have talked about anything Product, but in today's episode we talked about all things roadmaps:
* Why some people hate roadmaps
* Common misunderstandings
* Different types of roadmaps
* How to navigate Now / Next / Later roadmaps and tweak it according to your context
* How can roadmapping - when done well - help us transform our organizations to become more outcome-oriented
* What roadmaps are really for
* How to create different views from your roadmap to communicate with different audiences
* Tips and tricks on all things roadmapping
* And more. 


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit afonsofranco.substack.com

My guest today is Ida Aalen.
Ida is both a good friend and a great product mind from Norway.
If you are a Product Manager or leader in Norway, I bet you have heard about Ida’s work. She’s the author of the first Norwegian Product Management book called “Bedre produkter”, which directly translates to Better Products.
She’s been a product coach for the past year before joining NAV recently as a Product Lead.
Ida and I talked about:
* How writing helps us think
* How to find a balance between the build trap and analysis paralysis
* How to use assumption mapping to avoid getting stuck
* A few characteristics of high-performing teams
* Using health metrics and OKRs to help us stay focused on the most important things
* And more


Listen now 👇
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This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit afonsofranco.substack.com

Today's guest is the one and only David Bland, author of the bestselling book Testing Business Ideas co-written with Alexander Osterwalder and part of Strategyzer's book series. 
David is one of my biggest references in Product. 
His work, combined with Teresa Torres, is such a potent cocktail for anyone wanting to build better products and discover value more effectively. 
One of the things I love about David's work is his emphasis on evidence-based decision-making and how practical he made it for teams to adopt this mindset.
We talked about: 
* How to map your assumptions and which risks to consider first
* Why working collaboratively and across various areas of the business is so important when testing desirability, viability, and feasibility
* Why you should start discovery with a small and 100% dedicated team, and expand as you generate evidence
* How desirability and viability are intertwined, and how to go about de-risking it
* How to frame hypotheses
* How to evolve your evidence from what customers say to what they do (going beyond interviews and surveys)
* How to sequence experiments and get the right balance between running 1 experiment and planning ahead
* How to test willingness to pay
* Characteristics of high-performing teams doing discovery 
* The importance of time-boxing and connecting it with how the company makes decisions and approaches funding
* How leaders can foster a culture of discovery
* And more 


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit afonsofranco.substack.com