The ultimate guide to product operations | Melissa Perri and Denise Tilles Lenny's Podcast: Product | Growth | Career

Melissa Perri is the CEO of Produx Labs, a product management training organization; author of the seminal PM book The Build Trap; and a former Harvard Business School professor of product management. Denise Tilles is the CPO at Grocket, Melissa’s colleague at Produx Labs, and a seasoned product leader with over a decade of experience. Together they authored the new book Product Operations: How successful companies build better products at scale. In today’s episode, they share insights, strategies, and real-world experiences to master all things product ops. We discuss:
• What exactly product operations is
• The three pillars of the product ops role
• The biggest benefits of adding product ops to your organization
• Which tasks product managers should offload to product ops and which they need to own
• How to help PMs embrace the value of product ops
• Examples of companies that have implemented product ops well
• Who and how to hire for this role
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This entire episode is brought to you by Jira Product Discovery—Atlassian’s new prioritization and roadmapping tool built for product teams
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Find the full transcript at: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/the-ultimate-guide-to-product-operations-melissa-perri-and-denise-tilles/#transcript
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Where to find Melissa Perri:
• X: https://twitter.com/lissijean
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissajeanperri/
• Website: https://produxlabs.com/
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Where to find Denise Tilles:
• X: https://twitter.com/dtilles
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/denisetilles/
• Website: https://www.denisetilles.com
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Where to find Lenny:
• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com
• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/
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In this episode, we cover:
(00:00) About our guests, Melissa Perri and Denise Tilles
(03:46) How common is the product operations role?
(07:41) The benefits of having a product ops person in your organization
(09:16) How to help PMs embrace the value of product ops
(11:44) The three pillars of the product ops role
(15:25) How user research fits in
(18:35) Why product ops will be an essential role for product managers to thrive
(24:24) Which tasks product managers should offload to product ops and which they need to own
(28:58) Project management vs. product ops
(29:44) The jobs of a product ops person
(37:38) Why the product ops role will never become obsolete
(39:31) How many product ops people you need
(45:13) First steps in building out a product ops team
(47:06) What to look for in your first hire
(51:11) Key skills needed for a product ops person
(57:29) Who product ops should report to
(59:50) An example of rolling out product ops at Athena Health
(1:09:35) Lightning round
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Referenced:
• Product Operations: How successful companies build better products at scale: https://www.productoperations.com/
• Produx Labs: https://produxlabs.com
• How to create a winning product strategy | Melissa Perri: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/how-to-create-a-winning-product-strategy-melissa-perri/
• Blake Samic on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/blakesamic/
• Escaping the Build Trap: How Effective Product Management Creates Real Value: https://www.amazon.com/Escaping-Build-Trap-Effective-Management/dp/149197379X
• Athena Health: https://www.athenahealth.com/
• Pendo: https://www.pendo.io/
• PopSQL: https://popsql.com/
• Understanding the role of product ops | Christine Itwaru (Pendo): https://www.lennyspodcast.com/understanding-the-role-of-product-ops-christine-itwaru-pendo/
• Doodle: https://doodle.com/en/
• Stephanie Leue on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephanie-leue/
• Jira: https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira
• Dovetail: https://dovetail.com/
• Looker: https://cloud.google.com/looker/
• Brian Bhuta on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianbhuta/
• How to sell your ideas and rise within your company | Casey Winters, Eventbrite: