Ricky Leung

I recently completed Marty Cagan's "Transformed" and I'm sold on the Product Operating Model. My team has been operating by some of the principles and proven practices, but I see many opportunities to take it to the next level. If anyone has successfully #transformed their product organization, I want to hear about it. I want to know what went well and what didn't. My first initiative is to involve developers more in the discovery process. I want developers to hear directly from our customers the problems they want to be solved. #productmanagement #productoperatingmodel

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Great description of Zillow housing super app in this Stratechery interview with Jeremy Wacksman: Imagine managing your entire real estate transaction from your phone, all in one place — everything from virtual touring and on-demand tour booking, to a 24/7 group chat with your agent and loan officer, to tracking the status of your loan like you’d track a pizza delivery. Easier. Simpler. And all pulled together on Zillow, with you in control. That’s the customer experience we’re building, and we’re putting some serious AI firepower behind it. Come join us: https://lnkd.in/gad2qMST

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Strategic alignment across product and field is complex and not easy to get right, but it's a pleasure to work alongside Brett Crane, Trevor Jett (Childers), and Jarod Greene. It's wonderful to be in conversation with them, sharing what we have learned, in this webinar: https://lnkd.in/gc-qp7Hk

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It was great chatting with the Identity Jedi David Lee, about my journey and experiences in the world of Identity. Thanks for having me on the Podcast! Here are some key takeaways I shared in the podcast based on my personal experience: Identity is a business enabler: Identity is no longer just a cost center. It is a linchpin of security and a core part of every organization's business strategy. This transformation is driven by the need to offer tailored experiences, satisfy privacy and compliance requirements, and protect your IT systems from bad actors. Championing customer best practices: As cybersecurity builders and practitioners, we are responsible for educating customers and end users about the right security configurations, as misconfigurations can serve as another entry point for threat actors. Future Trends in Identity Management: Zero trust remains a significant theme in Identity. It's like the old mantra with a new meaning. With Passwordless adoption continuing to grow after native support from the major platforms (Apple, Google, etc.), we are seeing more innovations in the pre and post-authentication part of the identity journey. AI will further accelerate these innovations by enabling organizations to process data quickly, improve the accuracy of outlier analysis and alerts, and automate corrective actions for effective and timely remediations. https://lnkd.in/giZkJGSc #identity #cybersecurity #security

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🚨Early Saturday morning post 🚨 Having watched the latest episode of Talking Roadmaps yesterday, this was a post I wanted to get out before starting the weekend. Phil and Justin have curated an amazing group of guests for their Talking Roadmaps series. As evidenced by their latest guest, Paweł Huryn, who cites a number of book recommendations at the end of the episode, each author mentioned has been a previous guest on the series. I have been following Phil and Pawel for a while, so found myself nodding along in agreement to the points made in the episode as they discuss theoretical versus in-practice roadmap and product management practices. However, there was one point, where I thought, “Oh, that’s not my experience”. That was around Pawel’s commentary on Jira Product Discovery (JPD). His observation was that JPD is missing the Opportunity element of product discovery, but instead uses the concept of Ideas. It seemed to imply that Ideas came from the mind of the product manager or internal stakeholders, without customers being involved in the process. I thought this was interesting as I’ve used JPD as a tool for faciltating product discovery. I found it particularly useful when I was the Product Manager for our Automation engine in my current organisation. It felt like a simple versatile tool. I used the Ideas construct to model the Opportunities. I then used assocaited ‘Insights’ to reference related information, such as direct conversations with customers, customer surveys, support feedback etc. It made me question, “was I using JPD in a unique way?”. I went to the JPD documentation to review what was the intentional use of an ‘Idea’, and it seemed to confirm the intended versatility: “Every great feature starts as an ideas that needs to be validated, tested, and shaped. In Jira Product Discovery, ideas are a type of issue, like epics and tasks. Ideas can be problems, opportunities, potential solutions, or feature requests. They capture the myriad of suggestions and feedback product teams receive from around the business, from customers, or from their own research”. I’ve taken a tangent to focus on one small aspect of what was a great episode. Let's get back to the core message... If you’re in the Product space, check out the Talking Roadmaps series, and just take a look at the back catalogue of guests they’ve had - amazing! (I'll return to the tangent in the comments 🙂)

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A handy visual guide for Product folks about to contemplate and communicate, well, just about anything. As with so much in our domain, simple at surface, elaborate to execute, but priceless when proper.

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I've been thinking a lot about what separates good product from great product. I keep coming back to these 3 principles: 1) Instant. A great product delivers what the user wants, fast. 2) Frictionless. Every click or swipe or tap feels natural. Effortless. No need to stop and think "how do I do this?". Smooth, intuitive experiences win. 3) Personal. It's about making each user feel like the product was built just for them. Any more you'd think to add?

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It always feels good to get a product release out that reduces friction and makes adds more power to the fingertips of your users. In this video (https://lnkd.in/gzy9SYan), Moser Labs highlights how we've increased the speed at which you can work with Clear Path. If you're an Atlassian Jira user, start your free trial to start experiencing the power of Visual Backlog Management. Moser Consulting

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Have a quick read on how to convert your users into loyal product advocates!

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Looking forward to talking with Jeff Harris, who's been through it here at Yotascale. From the why and what of how GenAI can impact your product and business, to the how (and how not) of smart architecture and implementation, it should be an excellent conversation.

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If you're running a data or AI-focused startup, connect with Stephan Goupille and his team! When three of the industry's brightest data minds join forces to back your venture, you get more than just funding – you gain invaluable operator expertise. They understand the challenges and opportunities you face because they've been there themselves.

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We've had an EM role open on our team for several months. This is a post about everything we learned from why we haven't filled it yet. I'd love to get your help in filling it! 🤝 The role: - EM for our 0-to-1 team within Postman, with the goal of defining and winning our category for a new kind of API-level monitoring/observability tool. Our team came into Postman through an acquisition and we're now building the Postman version of our product, using the same tech. - Help scale our product and team from alpha into beta. We are a department with six engineers and approved headcount to grow a lot more in the next year. - The role is 60% prioritization/roadmap management, 40% building the team. The current team members are high-ownership, independent, founding engineer types. 🤔 Misconceptions, miscalibrations, and lessons: - Initially, the role was called "Senior Engineering Manager, Observability." Instead of getting the product engineering managers we were looking for, we primarily got interest from platform/infra EMs. We got thousands of inbound applications and spent months zeroing that out. 🙀 - Previously, our recruiters were sourcing a lot of folks with observability backgrounds. We've learned that since we're actually building a new kind of observability product, much more focused on UX, the profile we're looking for is product-focused rather than tech-focused. No observability experience required. - When people think Postman, they often think of our core product: the API client. So we were getting more interest from folks looking to scale a product, rather than 0-to-1 "I want to build a team and product" types. Postman actually has several other products, for instance testing and Flows, our no-code tool. There is a lot of interesting 0-to-1 work on our way to growing as a multi-product platform! - Some people have the perception that Postman isn't one of the high-growth companies because they're not seeing lots of their friends joining Postman. Postman has quadrupled since 2020, BUT a lot of the engineering growth has been in India. (Postman is the biggest SaaS company to come out of India!) Our team is part of a recent change to grow our US engineering presence. Many of us leaders across the company are looking for folks to join early cohorts of US-based product engineering and platform teams. 💡 What we've changed on our end: - We've deemphasized the "observability" part of the job and emphasized the "new product" and "product engineering" parts of the job. - We've also switched our own reachouts to look for people with product engineering experience at SaaS companies with product-led growth. 👩‍🚀 Help us find our EM! We now have a solid pipeline, but haven't yet made a hire. We'd love to hear from you if: - You have thoughts about how to improve our EM search. - You know someone we should meet. - You're a scrappy EM looking for an opportunity to build a new product while growing a team. Look forward to hearing from you!

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🚀 Unlock the Power of Intelligent Links with SpecLink! We are thrilled to have Beth Stroshane, a juggernaut in the #construction specifications community and a passionate advocate of #Sustainability, #EmbodiedCarbon and #CollaborativeDesign in the built environment, joining us as our guest speaker for our next #SpecTalk webinar on November 20! 🎙️ Beth has played a pivotal role in shaping #SpecLink, pushing for more #collaborative, #configurable, and #data-driven workflows that are redefining the future of #specification management. Her forward-thinking approach is making specifications (and the built environment) smarter, more efficient, and more connected than ever before. Join us for the aptly titled SpecTalk: "𝐋𝐢𝐧𝐤 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐕𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐟𝐲" on November 20 and discover how to elevate your specification process with SpecLink's advanced #intelligent linking. Learn how to accelerate spec writing, boost accuracy, and streamline workflows from one of the industry’s most influential voices! 🔗 𝐑𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐧𝐨𝐰: https://lnkd.in/gnb8cFXk I will be tuning in from the sidelines along with Daimon, Akshaya, Deborah, , Matt, Matthew and Will for this exciting #SpecTalk. Can't wait to witness Dory's quirky math being transformed from : "👥 Coordination + 📋 Specs = 😖 Pain" 𝐓𝐎 "🤝 Coordination + 🔗Links + 📋 Specs = 😌 Bliss"! #SpecLink #CollaborativeDesign #IntelligentLinks #Specifications #Specifiers #Architects #Engineers #Innovation #WeareRIB #BuildBetterTogether

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Would it be possible to have some help updating this section of our website on Framer? Simple edits: 1) Update to say Terms and Conditions, 2) put a heart between "with" and "in" and 3) Put Space Needle within the word Seattle. 4) If possible, make "Built with <3 in Seattle a really cool mini interactive graphic. 5) Ensure that the spacing is adjusted so that it looks right. I'm new to Framer and am having some trouble.

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The Power of Saying - Nothing One of the most valuable lessons I have learned in my professional career is the importance of truly listening 👂—whether it’s to customers, team members, or stakeholders. (Many thanks to my UX and research partners who taught me this.) 🤔 Why is this important? Listening isn’t just about hearing feedback; it’s about understanding pain points, gathering diverse perspectives, and uncovering insights that help you move forward together. Here are some of my lessons learnt. Listening is a Skill: Just like any other skill, effective listening needs to be cultivated. Make a conscious effort to practice and improve. Listen to Learn, Not to Respond: Shift your mindset to focus on understanding rather than preparing your next point. This opens the door to deeper insights. Be Genuinely Curious about the "Why": Asking "Why" is such a powerful tool in uncovering the reasoning behind feedback. Understanding motivations can lead to breakthrough ideas. Encourage Dialogue: Ask open-ended questions that require more than a yes/no answer. This fosters richer discussions. 💡 Takeaway: Prioritize enhancing your listening skills—it's a game-changer for your professional growth and team dynamics. What other tips or tricks do you have for improving listening skills? Share your insights below! #ProductManagement #Leadership #Listening

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Excellent episode by Melissa Perri, highlighting: 1. Pendo's vision to be a comprehensive platform for product managers, integrating both quantitative and qualitative data to help product managers make informed decisions. 2. The importance of balancing short-term customer needs with long-term strategic goals, and how Pendo leverages emerging technologies like AI and large language models to address real customer pain points while fostering a culture of innovation. 3. The role of product operations, including program management and systems management, in supporting product launches, coordinating cross-functional efforts, and ensuring a seamless customer experience. https://lnkd.in/ggvSK24t

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Questions are keys to the doors of next big thing. Now that big thing might be an idea, insight, or just another great question. So ask questions! That’s one of the thing I do at Shiprocket #innovation #ideas #coaching #leadership

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Here are my key takeaways from an amazing and insightful podcast on the future of product management by Marty Cagan and hosted by Lenny Rachitsky: - Understand your customers and users well by having "1st hand interactions" - There is a difference between developing a feature vs. solving a customer problem - Many-a-times PMs are doing more project management than product management - Product management is much more than just authoring stories at JIRA or administering backlog or conducting scrum ceremonies - Some key principles: -- Innovation is more important than predictability -- Learning is more important than failure -- Principles are more important than processes -- Demonstrating "real ownership" https://lnkd.in/g6TQSZp6 #productmanagement #products #customers #products #quality

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