Product Game Plan

Heather J Smith
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The Product Game Plan is a podcast for enterprise product managers. It’s about how to incorporate soft skill methods and data-forming activities into your existing professional operating model, so that you have consistent stakeholder alignment, and confident, informed decisions that render favorable outcomes. Join Heather J Smith each week, to learn valuable insights including how to gather customer insights to build or evolve your product , so that you solve your customer’s problems, why relationships matter for getting anything done, and what to pitch to secure product funding so that your customers have what they need to run their businesses. You can expect workshop-style episodes and interviews with experts to help you have prolific business results. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  1. 03/26/2025

    How are you crafting irresistible product pitches?

    Securing funding for your product isn't just about having a great idea. It's about telling a compelling story that resonates with stakeholders and decision-makers. As product managers, we often get caught up in the technical details and forget the power of narrative. But here's the truth: a well-crafted story can make all the difference in getting your project green-lit. In my latest podcast episode, I break down the art of creating a persuasive business case. I share strategies for synthesizing customer feedback, market data, and revenue impact into a cohesive narrative that captures attention and drives action. Key takeaways include: How to structure your pitch for maximum impactThe importance of quantifying problems and solutionsTechniques for weaving in customer stories and contextual examplesWays to clearly communicate your resource needs and timelineRemember, your stakeholders weren't present for all those customer interviews and data analysis sessions. It's your job to bring that information to life and make a compelling case for investment. Does your funding pitch have stack-ranked user problems and aligned stakeholder solutions? If not, this episode will give you the tools to create one that does. VALUABLE RESOURCES My free guide Check out my programs and workshops  ABOUT THE HOST Heather has had more than 25 years of experience working with 1000s of customers and securing hundreds of millions of product funding.  Early in her career, she was successful at rapidly growing start-up organizations, and over the past 15+ years she has a record of aligning diverse teams to deliver value for customers and strategies for organizations.  All through having a focus on solving customer needs to achieve business outcomes. CONNECT & CONTACT Visit my community on Mighty Networks  Find me on LinkedIn Email:  info@listen-evolve-inspire.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    6 min

  2. 03/13/2025

    Does your team have efficient productivity touchpoint communication?

    As product managers, we often focus on the technical aspects of our role, but it's the soft skills that can make or break our success. In this episode of Product Game Plan, I share a recent experience that highlights the critical importance of communication touchpoints for productivity in enterprise product management. I discuss how a simple check-in with a team member revealed a misalignment in expectations, leading to unnecessary stress and potential burnout. This situation underscores the value of open communication and the need for regular updates, especially in fast-paced environments where priorities can shift quickly. Key Insights on Communication and Productivity How to identify and address communication gaps that can impact team productivityThe importance of resetting expectations across teams and stakeholdersStrategies for maintaining open lines of communication in a busy work environmentWays to leverage modern communication tools for swift updates and realignment I discuss examples that illustrate how proactive communication can prevent misunderstandings, reduce stress, and improve overall team efficiency. By implementing these strategies, you can create a more balanced and productive work environment for your team. "Managing expectations should be carefully planned between business stakeholders and external customers and their users." VALUABLE RESOURCES My free guide Check out my programs and workshops  ABOUT THE HOST Heather has had more than 25 years of experience working with 1000s of customers and securing hundreds of millions of product funding.  Early in her career, she was successful at rapidly growing start-up organizations, and over the past 15+ years she has a record of aligning diverse teams to deliver value for customers and strategies for organizations.  All through having a focus on solving customer needs to achieve business outcomes. CONNECT & CONTACT Visit my community on Mighty Networks  Find me on LinkedIn Email:  info@listen-evolve-inspire.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    7 min

  3. 03/06/2025

    The Power of Human Connection in Building Thriving Business Ecosystems

    In this episode of the Product Game Plan, I share insights from my recent European event that highlight the importance of maintaining strong relationships with customers and partners. We'll explore how these connections can drive product quality, foster loyalty, and ultimately lead to business growth. Key Takeaways:Discover why product quality should be your top priorityLearn the value of human loyalty in business relationshipsUnderstand the power of continuous engagement with usersExplore strategies for creating effective customer and partner advisory forumsGain insights on building processes that support future strategies BEST MOMENTS When you scale up, practice will smooth the edges of your unpracticed self." "It is your commitment to the process that will determine your progress." "Goals win you the game, but systems keep you in the game. So fall in love with the cycle of continuous improvement." VALUABLE RESOURCES My free guide Check out my programs and workshops  ABOUT THE HOST Heather has had more than 25 years of experience working with 1000s of customers and securing hundreds of millions of product funding.  Early in her career, she was successful at rapidly growing start-up organizations, and over the past 15+ years she has a record of aligning diverse teams to deliver value for customers and strategies for organizations.  All through having a focus on solving customer needs to achieve business outcomes. CONNECT & CONTACT Visit my community on Mighty Networks  Find me on LinkedIn Email:  info@listen-evolve-inspire.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    7 min

  4. 01/23/2025

    How to forge exceptional customer relationships

    Building strong customer relationships is the cornerstone of any successful product strategy. As product managers, we often focus on features and functionality, but the real magic happens when we connect with our users on a deeper level. I've discovered that forging meaningful connections with customers falls into two distinct categories: those we're just getting to know and those we've built a rapport with over time. Let's explore strategies for both scenarios. KEY TAKEAWAYS Cultivating New Customer Relationships When approaching new customers or users, preparation is key. Before any interaction, I make it a priority to: Research their company, industry, and specific use casesAnalyze their purchase history and support ticketsIdentify key stakeholders and decision-makersThis groundwork allows me to enter conversations with context and demonstrate genuine interest in their business. The Power of Follow-ThroughRegardless of the relationship stage, following up on commitments is non-negotiable. After every meaningful interaction: Summarize key points and action itemsSet clear expectations for next stepsDeliver on promises, no matter how smallThis consistency builds trust and shows customers that their input is valued and acted upon. DM me in my community on Mighty Networks, ask me anything! BEST MOMENTS “Let them know that the evolution of your product relies on honest and constructive feedback from users like them.” “Building rich relationships with your various stakeholders, especially your users, will transform you into an expert, shape you into a trusted resource, and actuate the accuracy of your knowledge toward your business's objectives for your customers.” “If you listen to and solve problems for a broad base of your customers, your investments will become aligned with your business intentions.” “You may need to carry the conversation with some users. Remind them that you asked for the meeting so that you could listen to their experiences, even if the feedback is not favorable. VALUABLE RESOURCES My free customer baseline guide + bonuses My free tips for conducting customer feedback sessions Check out my programs and workshops  ABOUT THE HOST Heather has had more than 25 years of experience working with 1000s of customers and securing hundreds of millions of product funding. Early in her career, she was successful at rapidly growing start-up organizations, and over the past 15+ years she has a record of aligning diverse teams to deliver value for customers and strategies for organizations. All through having a focus on solving customer needs to achieve business outcomes. CONNECT & CONTACT Visit my community on Mighty Networks  Find me on LinkedIn Email: info@listen-evolve-inspire.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    11 min

  5. 01/08/2025

    3 Essentials for your funding pitch

    Before I ever book a meeting with my management to ask for funding, lay out a strategy for my product's needs, or ask for sponsorship, I make sure what I'm asking for is grounded in reality.  Therefore, you will need an accurate and believable pitch. Precise prioritization of what should be in your pitch requires real user data, which means you need a broad enough sampling of user feedback to prove out the story for your pitch. Anything less than hard facts will only embarrass you and risk your credibility. KEY TAKEAWAYS The first thing I always do is seek out enough information from end users.Here's a pro tip: I always ask my users to prioritize what's most important to them before concluding each feedback session. Doing so will reinforce the accuracy of your foundational dataThe second action I take is sharing the summarized, prioritized user feedback with my business peersThe second action output will include summaries of prioritized user feedback and business priorities, which were mapped using user data. My third action is to share the business output with my stakeholders. This output is aimed at making informed decisions based on a combination of prioritized user and business needs.The stakeholder analysis's output should include details of resources, effort scoping, timelines, and budget requirements. I like to summarize these details into points within the overall product program pitch DM me in my community on Mighty Networks, ask me anything! BEST MOMENTS “When I prepare for a pitch, I need to anticipate the questions and possible push-back moments from what I'm presenting. The pitch needs to make sense right away to the new listeners.” “The priorities of what I'm asking for must be rock-solid, or I won't get the business to invest in my strategy.” VALUABLE RESOURCES My free guide Check out my programs and workshops  ABOUT THE HOST Heather has had more than 25 years of experience working with 1000s of customers and securing hundreds of millions of product funding.  Early in her career, she was successful at rapidly growing start-up organizations, and over the past 15+ years she has a record of aligning diverse teams to deliver value for customers and strategies for organizations.  All through having a focus on solving customer needs to achieve business outcomes. CONNECT & CONTACT Visit my community on Mighty Networks  Find me on LinkedIn Email:  info@listen-evolve-inspire.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    6 min

  6. 12/23/2024

    5 reflective questions to set you on a productive path

    As December comes to a close, I like to revisit my year. From a fiscal year perspective, I review the goals of my mid-year in-flight programs. Are your programs on track, and can you measure their trajectory? What must occur from January through June to accomplish your goals? Then, what strategic business outcomes can you plan for and fulfill to meet goals between July and December? KEY TAKEAWAYS Another way I reflect on my year is to assess if my work compelled me to evolve how I interacted with my customers, partners, peers, stakeholders, and management.  Did I target and act on my professional development goals to level up my skills and add one new habit to my professional operating model, making my goals a reality?Did I receive or seek out feedback from others about how I can evolve my techniques for interacting with the teams I work with?Did I cultivate any new customers and partners into advisory roles this year?Looking beyond myself, who did I mentor or support with their role or career?  DM me in my community on Mighty Networks, ask me anything! BEST MOMENTS “As a professional, it’s essential to constantly assess what’s working and what’s not working so that you can evolve your next opportunity.” “Challenge yourself to mature a reputable operating model. Then, work it into your daily practice.” VALUABLE RESOURCES My free guide Check out my programs and workshops  ABOUT THE HOST Heather has had more than 25 years of experience working with 1000s of customers and securing hundreds of millions of product funding. Early in her career, she was successful at rapidly growing start-up organizations, and over the past 15+ years she has a record of aligning diverse teams to deliver value for customers and strategies for organizations. All through having a focus on solving customer needs to achieve business outcomes. CONNECT & CONTACT Visit my community on Mighty Networks  Find me on LinkedIn Email: info@listen-evolve-inspire.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    5 min

  7. 12/03/2024

    How to lead Product Insight Sprints

    This conversation delves into the methodology of conducting Product Insight Sprints, emphasizing the importance of user feedback in product development. I outline the process from planning and preparing for the sprint, engaging users during the sessions, categorizing and prioritizing feedback, for assessing implementation efforts and creating an executive pitch deck. The focus is on fostering genuine relationships with users and stakeholders to drive informed business decisions and enhance product usability. KEY TAKEAWAYS The goal of design sprints is to reduce adoption risks and improve a user's experience by: Hearing use case-specific feedback directly from usersGetting answers to critical business questions to make informed decisionsComing up with new ideas with users and subject matter expertsAligning teams under a shared visionDeveloping scope estimates with all teamsPrototyping an idea, developing wireframes or workflowsValidating it rapidly with usersFinally, having a formulated a data-driven, user-validated pitch for your management and stakeholders BEST MOMENTS “I consistently check in with users and stakeholders to stay current with what users need and keep my relationships genuine and accessible should I need to make various business decisions.” “This product insight sprint is a series of sessions in which users of products and employees from various teams share and discuss usability feedback and run ideation sessions that conclude with a nicely formed pile of stack-ranked decisions for a specific product.” ‘In a nutshell, a product insight sprint is a series of time-bound processes that use design thinking activities to help design or redesign a product, service, or feature.’ VALUABLE RESOURCES My free guide Check out my programs and workshops  ABOUT THE HOST Heather has had more than 25 years of experience working with 1000s of customers and securing hundreds of millions of product funding.  Early in her career, she was successful at rapidly growing start-up organizations, and over the past 15+ years she has a record of aligning diverse teams to deliver value for customers and strategies for organizations.  All through having a focus on solving customer needs to achieve business outcomes. CONNECT & CONTACT Visit my community on Mighty Networks  Find me on LinkedIn Email:  info@listen-evolve-inspire.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    17 min
  8. Build Indispensable Stakeholder Partnerships

    11/30/2024

    Build Indispensable Stakeholder Partnerships

    Landing programs and messaging are super important, so you want to translate them in a way that will engage folks. Engagement is number one. With it, you will be able to move very quickly. Key to your accomplishments is driving alignment and engagement with your stakeholders, who will be the most important people in implementing those programs. When crafting executive messaging, assume you only have five minutes with a senior audience. You must land all the important stuff on that first slide. The first slide needs to make the goal clear. Because senior audiences will be able to look at an excellent summary in two seconds, grock, what they want to know to address your ask for support. You could have 1000 appendix slides, but you need to land the important stuff upfront They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel. - Maya Angelou. To be a courageous leader, you must lead with the desire to build trust and accept vulnerability. How you show up constructs a foundation of how you make someone feel and that progress can initiate positive or even motivational actions. KEY TAKEAWAYS Building next-level partnerships comes from knowing your colleagues; it will add another dimension to your professional relations.When you develop long-term relationships, colleagues will not hesitate to call you after a meeting because they want to clarify a topic they weren't aware of during a program update, were caught off guard by a specific detail, or sensed frustration due to noticeable body language. Perhaps they could see that everyone wasn't on the same page and reached out to discuss it.If you want to embrace this fail-fast culture, you must be willing to speak up, be vulnerable, and, ideally, have an open culture around you that supports it. BEST MOMENTS “You work with two categories of folks. There are the listeners, colleagues who are going to listen and then respond, or there are people who are just waiting to talk and are not actually listening. My challenge to the listeners here today is to think about: Are you a listener? Are you someone who's waiting to talk?” “Have a solid plan to ground all the stakeholders. If there isn't enough information, they might not be on board. It's important to know early on whether or not everyone involved agrees with how to measure the outcomes and agrees that we've achieved our goal. You need to have people in the room nodding their heads and engaging in the conversation.” VALUABLE RESOURCES My free guide Check out my programs and workshops  ABOUT THE HOST Heather has had more than 25 years of experience working with 1000s of customers and securing hundreds of millions of product funding.  Early in her career, she was successful at rapidly growing start-up organizations, and over the past 15+ years she has a record of aligning diverse teams to deliver value for customers and strategies for organizations.  All through having a focus on solving customer needs to achieve business outcomes. CONNECT & CONTACT Visit my community on Mighty Networks  Find me on LinkedIn Email: info@listen-evolve-inspire.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    42 min
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About

The Product Game Plan is a podcast for enterprise product managers. It’s about how to incorporate soft skill methods and data-forming activities into your existing professional operating model, so that you have consistent stakeholder alignment, and confident, informed decisions that render favorable outcomes. Join Heather J Smith each week, to learn valuable insights including how to gather customer insights to build or evolve your product , so that you solve your customer’s problems, why relationships matter for getting anything done, and what to pitch to secure product funding so that your customers have what they need to run their businesses. You can expect workshop-style episodes and interviews with experts to help you have prolific business results. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Information

  • Creator
    Heather J Smith
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2025
  • Episodes
    16
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Heather J Smith
  • Show Website
    Product Game Plan