Understanding the role of product ops | Christine Itwaru (Pendo) | Free Podcast Summary

Christine Itwaru is a longtime product operations leader at Pendo and, more recently, has taken on the larger role of principal strategist there. Before leading product operations, Christine spent 12 years in product management.

We delve into the rapidly growing field of product operations and discover how Christine is shaping the role industry-wide. She helps us define the role of product operations, what kind of person would be a good fit for the product operations role, when your company would benefit from product operations, and what red flags to look for if you decide to go down this path. 

Spending time with customers and observing their pain is essential to falling in love with product development.

Product Operations (Product Ops) is an increasingly popular role in product management designed to address the most common and complex issues that product teams typically face. It enables companies to better manage data, derive insights from both qualitative and quantitative data, and significantly improve business outcomes by working closely with existing product management teams.

Product Operations (Product Ops) role helps product managers by taking on some of their responsibilities such as managing the voice of the customer and driving business metrics. It is now considered a valuable addition to the team.

Product Ops gathers information from different sources and shares it with product managers to help make informed decisions. Pendo’s unique approach to voice of customer involves collaboration to improve their product in multiple areas.

The Product Operations team collaborates with multiple teams to optimize processes, tools, and content in product development. They educate revenue teams and create technical documentation to support customers and ensure successful launches.

Product ops creates educational guides and playbooks for customers, improving their understanding of the product. Transparency is key to success and buy-in from leadership is necessary. Product managers can benefit from this role.

Product operations play a critical role in offloading certain responsibilities from product managers, allowing them to spend quality time with customers and address their pain points, ultimately driving outcomes for customers.

Product operations can strengthen product planning processes and sustain organizational growth by offering strategic insight, setting up processes, and allowing product teams to focus on driving value.

A product operations team plays a vital role in ensuring internal cohesion and customer satisfaction during a product launch. Focusing on people and maintaining feedback loops can ultimately lead to a successful and positive launch experience.

Conducting surveys, sharing information, and differentiating product ops from product marketing can improve communication and ensure internal team education on product value and usage, resulting in a more efficient product team

• Product operations (product ops) can often streamline planning processes for product teams, particularly in less mature organizations.
• While some may see product operations as a band-aid for inefficiencies, they are often a sign of growth and opportunity within an organization.
• The primary role of a product operations professional is to understand the product, customer, and inner workings of the business to provide strategic value and advice to product teams and leaders.
• Ultimately, the goal of product operations is to set up processes and systems and then step aside to allow product teams to focus on driving strategic value.

Product ops is not a one-size-fits-all solution. It depends on the size, stage, and needs of your organization.

Product ops requires a certain skill set and mindset. You need to be analytical, organized, adaptable, empathetic, and collaborative. You also need to be comfortable with ambiguity and change.