Olena Gorbatiuk

Last night at ProductTank London we heard from 4 different speakers on the topic of Product Culture. My key takeaway is this... 'Good' product culture lacks definition. You might read about the importance of product culture, or ask about it when interviewing. You may even try to evaluate how good or bad the product culture is at your company. But here's the bottom line: product culture 𝘪𝘴𝘯'𝘵 something that you'll usually find written down, like you would a strategy, a roadmap, or a vision. Hearing someone describe it will inherently be biased. Product culture is the shared values, beliefs, behaviours, and practices that shape a team, org, or company's identity. It changes when you change your beliefs, behaviours, and practices. Not satisfied with the product culture at your company? You're more empowered to change it than you might think. How have you gone about improving product culture at your company?

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PM Stereotype #3: The Strategist This is the missing half of the Product-Owner —a mid-level PM solely responsible for thinking of the “big picture”, looking at the users, business and market, talking to managers and stakeholders and devising the perfect roadmap. However no PM, senior has she may be, can do a good job without having tactical understanding of the software and the team. Handing off features to someone else to figure out the “small details” has never worked. Product development requires many iterations and changes. Splitting the decisions across two people makes everything slower and less effective.

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5 ways Product Leaders Are Winning As a Product Recruiter, I get to speak with Product Leaders every day. Here are 5 key insights I've gathered to share with you 🎯 Prioritisation is Key Product Leaders know that not every task or feature is equally important. Their ability to prioritise and pick what makes the most strategic and business sense is what sets them apart and drives successful outcomes. 💡Embrace Continuous Learning The product management landscape is ever-evolving. Those who thrive are the ones who are always learning. Seek new challenges and knowledge and keep being adaptable and relevant. 📊 Master Your Metrics Understanding key performance indicators is crucial. Successful leaders not only create effective products but also ensure those products deliver tangible value to users. 🤝 Create Strong Connections: Building strong relationships within teams and across departments is fundamental. The ability to connect and influence others is just as vital as product expertise. 🎉 Celebrate Every Milestone: The journey from concept to launch can be lengthy and challenging. Effective Product Leaders take time to celebrate small wins, which boosts team morale and motivation. Those are just 5. What would you add to this list? Please do share. I need to keep learning too!

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When i was reading the “PM Burnout Report” i indeed payed the most attention to the part Petra is talking about So today, If you’re a Head of Product or a Product Lead, take a moment to reflect: • Are your Product Managers clear on their roles? • Do they have a well-defined scope of work? • Are their efforts recognized and appreciated? • Do they have a clear growth plan with set goals? If you have got at least one “no”, you might need to do a better job Burnout can stem from various factors, but as a leader, it’s your responsibility to prioritize your team’s well-being. When you take care of your team, they can take care of the product.

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Last week, we hosted the ‘Be a Standout Product Manager in 2025’ webinar – one in a series of events related to the Product Management Career Accelerator from King's College London! If you missed it, you can now watch the recording below. During the session, our expert panel of Flow Bohl, Yasmin Desai, Timothy Quijano and Alexander Cohen shared: 🤖Top skills for 2025: AI literacy, data-driven decision-making, and agile methodologies. 📈Career strategies: Personal branding, networking tips, and staying competitive in a fast-evolving field. 🧑‍💻Emerging trends: Insights into how technology is transforming product management. Whether you’re an aspiring product manager, a career changer, or a professional looking to advance, the discussions provided actionable takeaways to help you thrive in 2025 and beyond. Looking to redefine your career path next year? Explore the King’s Product Management Career Accelerator – a programme designed to give you the skills, confidence, and connections to stand out. Learn more here: https://lnkd.in/eTXp9cKe

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First thing I tell my mentees and anyone curious about product management is this: be prepared for people to be unhappy with you. You’ll often have to say no, push back, challenge stakeholders, and rigorously prioritize. And that’s okay—it’s part of the job. You can’t please everyone, and learning this early on can help prevent burnout. Stay resilient and focused on delivering value. 🚀

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I would zoom out a bit. A/b testing is just a side effect of following a scientific approach to building a business and product. Not everything I worked on at Booking.com was an a/b test. We still needed to find a way to validate each hypothesis. Still don’t copy Booking’s playbook blindly. There are more nuances that make this approach successful. Your business might be operating under different constraints and context that requires a different playbook.

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The 2024 Product Academy Burnout Report sheds light on a growing issue in the product management space: burnout. With 49% of respondents having experienced burnout, many self-diagnosed, the report identifies key risk factors including lack of role clarity, power-accountability imbalance, and low support from organizations. Interestingly, senior product leaders report lower burnout risks, yet 43% still view burnout as a taboo topic, leading to silence out of fear of career consequences. In my view, burnout is both an individual and systemic concern. Individually, we need to find ways to develop self-awareness, set boundaries, and build resilience. Systemically, organisations must focus on clear communication, role clarity, and creating environments where people feel safe to speak up. All of this is easier said than done. But, reading and talking about reports like this are a great first step.

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The secret to finding "meaning" in your career as a Product Manager? It’s not about company logos you have in your CV or the number of successful features you have launched. Yes these are important to demonstrate your past achievements but finding meaning is more about knowing what makes a role meaningful and being intentional about crafting your career around those parameters. Mathematically speaking, Meaning = function(Autonomy, Purpose, Joy, Mastery) Now lets's see understand each inputs to above equation: Autonomy ↳ It is the flexibility to decide what to do and how to do it Purpose ↳We find purpose is when you think you are part of something bigger than ourself Joy ↳We feel joy when you love doing what you do and we don't even realise how immersed we are in the task and are in flow. Mastery ↳ Mastery is related to skills one has. Mastery happens when we have opportunity to do great work as per our skills while improving it along the way and also opportunity to learn new ones. If any one the above parameters is missing, we don't find meaning in that activity and have no internal motivation. Eg. •Take out joy from the equation and we feel burnout. •Take out purpose from the equation and we feel lost. •Take out mastery from the equation and we feel dissatisfaction. •Take out autonomy from above equation and we feel suffocated. So anytime you feel you are not satisfied, comeback to revisit what's lacking in your immediate role from your perspective and try to fix that with support of your manager. #productmanagement

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Are you looking to monetise your product idea? Before you start, we recommend you read 'The Product Innovator's Handbook' written by ITERATE ® CEO Gethin Roberts. The Business Book Awards deemed it good enough to participate in their annual celebration, in which authors are recognised for sharing knowledge and expertise from within their industry. We will let you know how the book gets on! #businessbookawards If you are interested in reading the book, which is a guide based on designing and manufacturing a product people will want to buy, follow the link; https://lnkd.in/eGNTwDnN Alternatively, you may have read the book and are looking to take action and get your product to market? If so, get in touch and let's have a conversation. #buythebook #innovatorshandbook #designlife #products #monetiseyouridea #productdesigner #producttomarket #booksbooksbooks #businessbooks

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Product Managers are no strangers to prioritisation. Here's what else they need to prioritise besides roadmaps: The balance between... Meetings, deep work, and career growth Discovery, strategy, and delivery Learning, doing, and resting Most PMs simply focus on prioritising their roadmap. But prioritisation is a skill that 𝗺𝘂𝘀𝘁 be applied in other ways. When was the last time you evaluated how you're prioritising your own time? How do you decide what is important to prioritise for your own career? How do you assess yourself across various dimensions of Product? How often do you, or should you, even do this? I suggest doing it on a bi-annual basis at a minimum. Quarterly is probably the sweet spot. Monthly or weekly is too frequent. Here's another tip: You will benefit from someone else's point of view. Like your Manager, your peers, or others. Ask around. Get comfortable with it. Otherwise, you're approach is limited by how good you are at discerning what good balance looks like. And it takes time, reflection, and failure to figure that out. PMs, what are you doing to balance your time? How do you know you're doing it well? 👍🏻 if you enjoyed this 🎙️ add your thoughts ♻️ repost for your network 💡 follow me for more insights

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How do you know which feedback to prioritise? When and how often should you analyse feedback? How can you incorporate user feedback into your product design process effectively and seamlessly? 📊⁠ ⁠ You’ve got questions, and our guide will answer them: https://lnkd.in/eY6S7AJT 💫⁠ ⁠ Looking to learn more about product design? Combine UX design and UI design to pursue a rewarding career as a product designer through our Product Design Programme. 🌍️ Learn more about the course here: https://lnkd.in/emnpe_VQ ⁠ #product #productdesign #user #feedback #userfeedback #productdesigner #design

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The biggest challenge product leaders face is how to influence change and get their peers on board with what they're trying to achieve within the organisation. But you don't have to do it alone. Discover the Brainmates' Product Leaders Network – an exclusive, peer-to-peer community where senior product leaders can connect, support, and grow. This is what good leaders do – they seek out supportive networks and resources to continuously grow. How would you describe a good product leader in one word? 🎯 #ProductLeadership #ProfessionalGrowth #ProductLeadersNetwork #PLN

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🗓️ Thursday reminder for Product teams: set up your Weekly Insights Summary workflow today, and by Friday, you’ll have all the week’s key insights ready to share with the team. This template pulls together updates, priorities, and top insights so you can head into the weekend feeling on top of it all. Give it a try, and let AI do its thang 🚀 👉 https://buff.ly/4fr91wG

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Info info everywhere, not a piece to glance. 📜 Sounds familiar, right? As Product Managers, we know how overwhelming it can be to juggle multiple sources of information. I’m sharing a solution that I have conceptualised, tackling the issue of information overload head-on! 📊 User Research Insights: - 85% use Slack/Teams for team communication. - 60% rely on Jira/Trello for project management. - 74% have over 10 tabs open at any given time! - 67% feel anxious about unhandled information. 💡 Introducing InfoAttack that provides: Automated AI Tool: Converts chats and emails into organized notes. Comprehensive Capture Tool: Captures and categorizes browser data. 🚀 Check out the full presentation here. I would love to get some feedbacks/suggestions💪 Srijit, Chirag, Mehvish Quadri what do you think? #productmanagement #informtionoverload #theproductfolks #nexleap #learninpublic

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Hey people! You can message me to learn more about the first hand experience and apply

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How do you get UXR a seat at the table? 🧐 Join us this Wednesday at Flux Convergence in London, where Joanna Hagan, UserTesting’s Senior Solutions Consultant, and Sharan Gandhi, Head of User Research at EE, will tackle this crucial topic: "Leading with Strategic Vision: Getting UXR a Seat at the Table." Don’t miss this insightful conversation on making #UXResearch a strategic driver in your organization. Proud to sponsor Flux, the exclusive community for senior women leaders in #UX and design. #UXLeadership #UserResearch #DesignStrategy #FluxConvergence

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Agility is about more than speed. It's Speed X Flexibility. It has long been challenging in complex product tests, but there are ways. In this case study (see link in comments below), we share research approaches that can lead to rapid decisions and near-live feedback, whilst retaining the rigour needed in R&D product testing. #Agile #ProductTesting #Sprint #MarketResearch #MRX

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Honoured to see my article “Master B2B/SaaS Product Strategy with Porter’s Five Forces” featured in the latest issue of Prioritised, Mind the Product / Pendo.io’s newsletter all about Product. 🔗 Links in first comment! #Product #ProductManagement #ProductStrategy #B2B #SaaS #Strategy #PortersFiveForces

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