The ultimate guide to product operations | Melissa Perri and Denise Tilles

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 — This entire episode is brought to you by Jira Product Discovery —Atlassian’s new prioritization and roadmapping tool built for product teams — Find the full transcript at: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/the-ultimate-guide-to-product-operations-melissa-perri-and-denise-tilles/#transcript — Where to find Melissa Perri: • X: https://twitter.com/lissijean • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissajeanperri/ • Website: https://produxlabs.com/ — Where to find Denise Tilles: • X: https://twitter.com/dtilles • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/denisetilles/ • Website: https://www.denisetilles.com — Where to find Lenny: • Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com • X: https://twitter.com/lennysan • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/ — 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 — 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: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/how-to-sell-your-ideas-and-rise-within-your-company-casey-winters-eventbrite/ • Thinking beyond frameworks | Casey Winters (Pinterest, Eventbrite, Airbnb, Tinder, Canva, Reddit, Grubhub): https://www.lennyspodcast.com/thinking-beyond-frameworks-casey-winters-pinterest-eventbrite-airbnb-tinder-canva-reddit-grubhub/ • Shared services model: https://www.gartner.com/en/finance/insights/shared-services-model • Shintaro Matsui on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/smatsui/ • Tableau: https://www.tableau.com/ • Jen Cardello on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jencardello/ • Tim Davenport on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tim-davenport-28249b9/ • Traffic: Genius, Rivalry, and Delusion in the Billion-Dollar Race to Go Viral : https://www.amazon.com/Traffic-Genius-Rivalry-Delusion-Billion-Dollar/dp/0593299752 • The Art of Action : https://www.amazon.com/Art-Action-10th-Anniversary/dp/1529376963 • Continuous Discovery Habits: Discover Products that Create Customer Value and Business Value : https://www.amazon.com/Continuous-Discovery-Habits-Discover-Products/dp/1736633309 • Deutschland89 on Hulu: https://www.hulu.com/series/deutschland-89-a4cf05f7-b4f2-44c7-84a1-4034671944b9 • The Fall of the House of Usher on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/81414665 • Love Is Blind on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/80996601 • The Haunting of Hill House on Netflix: https://www.netflix.com/title/80189221 • Dragonboat: https://dragonboat.io/solution/product-operations/ • Vistaly: https://www.vistaly.com/ — Production and marketing by https://penname.co/ . For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com . — Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribe