Intuit Mailchimp Global Head of Product on Leading Product at Public Companies | Priyankka Mani | E221 | #TheProductPodcast
“Product management is not about, ‘I have a great idea, let’s go build it.’ It’s about understanding where the consumer is struggling today and the opportunity for you to fill a gap.”
In this edition of #TheProductPodcast newsletter, we explore the world of product management with Priyankka Mani, former Chief Product & Design Officer at Lonely Planet. With a rich background spanning roles at Google, Amazon, and leading digital transformation initiatives, Priyankka shares invaluable insights on consumer-focused thinking, emotional intelligence in product leadership, and the art of driving innovation in diverse environments.
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There are many incredible lessons to learn from Priyankka Mani. Here are a few of the top ones:
Consumer-Focused Thinking in Product Management
“The biggest learning in my early days was that product management is not about, ‘I have a great idea, let’s go build it.’ It’s about understanding where the consumer is struggling today and the opportunity for you to fill a gap.”
Priyankka emphasizes the importance of putting the consumer at the center of product development. She explains that her transition from marketing to product management at Amazon taught her to focus on solving real consumer problems rather than just implementing ideas. This consumer-centric approach ensures that products are built to address genuine user needs and pain points. Priyankka highlights how this shift in thinking led her to examine why consumers were churning after being acquired on Amazon’s mobile platform, ultimately driving her to develop more engaging product experiences
The Power of Relationships and Emotional Intelligence
“One of my biggest learnings was the importance of relationships, especially when you’re working with multiple cross-functional teams. How do you bring these organizations together and have them march toward a vision?”
Priyankka highlights the crucial role of emotional intelligence in product management, particularly when working across different teams and organizations. She stresses the importance of making people feel heard and being empathetic to different perspectives. This skill became especially vital during her time at Lonely Planet, where she had to navigate the challenges of digital transformation in a traditional media company. Priyankka shares how she learned to use emotional literacy and intelligence to deal with people’s fears about technology replacing their jobs and to bring diverse stakeholders along on the transformation journey.
Embracing Failure as a Learning Opportunity
“There was a time in my life when my fear of failing and my fear of rejection stopped me from trying new things. I learned to reframe my approach when I understood that feedback as learning.”
By reframing failure as a learning opportunity, Priyankka has become a more successful product leader. This mindset allows for bold innovation and continuous improvement. She emphasizes the importance of creating psychological safety within teams, especially in organizations where failure is not as accepted as it is in the tech world. Priyankka shares how she encouraged her team at Lonely Planet to “fail fast, but also fail responsibly,” asking them to provide explanations rather than excuses for their decisions.
Driving Digital Transformation
“Digital transformation can be very tough. It can feel frustrating to have to have conversations around topics that you would take for granted in more evolved tech setups.”
Priyankka shares her experience in leading digital transformation initiatives, emphasizing the importance of humility and learning from diverse perspectives when navigating this challenging process. She details her approach at Lonely Planet, where she had to balance the need for rapid digitization with the existing organizational culture and investor expectations. Priyankka highlights the importance of creating a common definition of digital transformation and using prototyping and visualization to help stakeholders understand and buy into the transformation process.
Building and Inheriting Teams
“When I’m hiring my team and putting a team in place, I try to find people with a level of flexibility in how they think about things. I think deeply about, ‘Are they going to be a good fit in the kind of culture that I’m looking to build?’”
Priyankka discusses her approach to team building, focusing on cultural fit and creating a safe space for failure and learning. She emphasizes the importance of finding team members who can adapt to different ways of thinking, especially in organizations undergoing digital transformation. Priyankka also shares her experience of inheriting teams with different backgrounds, such as at Lonely Planet, where she had to work with people primarily from the media world while being the only person with a technology background.
Balancing Data and Intuition
“At a place like Amazon, because we all similarly, all I need is customer data to help you understand why we need to do something right. But in a place like this, I really felt like I needed to use my emotional literacy and intelligence to deal with people better, and not just so. It’s not just data, it’s data, intuition and people coming together.”
Priyankka highlights the importance of balancing data-driven decision-making with intuition and emotional intelligence. She contrasts her experience at Amazon, where decisions were primarily data-driven, with her role at Lonely Planet, where she had to learn to communicate and tell stories in a way that appealed to people from non-tech backgrounds. This balance was crucial in driving digital transformation and getting buy-in from diverse stakeholders.
🔑 Key takeaways
- Put the consumer at the center of product development, focusing on solving real problems rather than just implementing ideas.
- Cultivate strong relationships across teams and use emotional intelligence to navigate complex organizational dynamics.
- Reframe failure as a learning opportunity to foster innovation and personal growth.
- Approach digital transformation with humility and openness to diverse perspectives.
- When building teams, prioritize cultural fit and create an environment that encourages learning and responsible risk-taking.
- Stay connected to users, even in large organizations, to maintain genuine empathy and understanding of their needs.
- Balance ambitious goals with a realistic understanding of market conditions and organizational capabilities.
🎧 Check out the full episode here 🎧
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