The essence of product management | Christian Idiodi (SVPG)

Christian Idiodi is a partner at Silicon Valley Product Group. After a long product career and founding multiple companies, Christian now spends his time working closely with product leaders at companies big and small to implement and improve their discipline of product management. In today’s episode, we discuss:
• Why there’s often a negative perception of product managers, and how we can fix this
• The four attributes of a product manager’s job: value, usability, viability, and feasibility
• The power of finding reference customers
• How Christian developed a process for high-volume hiring to help companies like McDonald’s and Starbucks
• Tactical tips for coaching, building relationships, and building trust as a leader
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Find the full transcript at: www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/th...
Where to find Christian Idiodi:
• X: / cidiodi
• LinkedIn: / cidiodi
• Website: www.svpg.com/
Where to find Lenny:
• Newsletter: www.lennysnewsletter.com
• X: / lennysan
• LinkedIn: / lennyrachitsky
In this episode, we cover:
(00:00) Christian’s background
(03:56) The negative perception of product managers
(07:58) How to become a PM people want to work with
(11:30) The definition of a product manager
(14:46) Where new PMs fail
(16:59) Reference customers: what they are and why they are so important
(24:05) A quick summary of how to build a product that people want and love
(26:44) How to determine product-market fit
(29:54) The benefits of this approach
(34:11) Real examples of using reference customers
(40:06) Doing things that don’t scale
(48:40) How to get better at coaching and build trust with leaders
(55:53) The fastest way to build trust
(01:00:01) What to do in the absence of good coaching
(01:02:51) How to get into product management
(01:04:16) The pitfalls of early promotions
(01:11:11) How to train someone for a promotion before giving the promotion
(01:13:30) How to find a good coach
(01:14:40) Christian’s product work in Africa
(01:21:22) The importance of passion and empathy in product work
(01:22:54) Lightning round
Referenced:
• Marty Cagan on LinkedIn: / cagan
• The nature of product | Marty Cagan, Silicon Valley Product Group: www.lennyspodcast.com/the-nat...
• Silicon Valley Product Group: www.svpg.com/
• Enhanced Product Discovery by SVPG Partner Christian Idiodi at Lean Product Meetup: • Enhanced Product Disco...
• Geoffrey Moore’s technology adoption curve: fourweekmba.com/technology-ad...
• Stripe: stripe.com/
• Building a culture of excellence | David Singleton (CTO of Stripe): www.lennyspodcast.com/buildin...
• Building beautiful products with Stripe’s Head of Design | Katie Dill (Stripe, Airbnb, Lyft): www.lennyspodcast.com/buildin...
• Rippling: www.rippling.com/
• Snagajob: www.snagajob.com/
• Howard Schultz on LinkedIn: / howardschultz
• Tesla portable charger: shop.tesla.com/product/mobile...
• Innovate Africa Foundation: www.innovateafrica.io/about/
• Inspire Africa Conference: www.inspireafricaconference.com/
• Inspired: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love: www.svpg.com/books/inspired-h...
• Empowered: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Products: www.svpg.com/books/empowered-...
• Transformed: Moving to the Product Operating Model: www.svpg.com/books/transforme...
• Succession on HBO: www.hbo.com/succession
• Billions on Showtime: www.sho.com/billions
• Real sports app: www.realapp.link/
Production and marketing by penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email [e-mail].
Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.

[@_omorewo]

I really enjoyed listening to Christian... Like I could really relate with most of the things he said and I even had actionable takeaways. This is my favorite interview on this channel

[@freeman35423gs]

Great! He is so excited about his work, that you can’t help but think - what I can do to get such pro-active state 👏👏👏

[@krishsubramanian9703]

The best source for PM stuff is Lenny’s YT / Newsletter. The amount of fluff that’s on the SM is mind boggling. Every TDH is claiming to the PM expert offering templates, processes and other irrelevant stuff. Hope you continue on bringing exciting podcast and genuine PM leaders in 2024.

[@498Afighter]

I would so love to have a manager and mentor like Christian.

[@DoiLoOkLiKeIcArE1213]

Wow! How lucky to have Christian as a boss!

[@ipranay]

Oh this is gold! Reference customers are invaluable!! 19:41

[@markedgood]

My new favorite interview. First time discovering Christian. His experience and knowledge is vast and on-point.

[@coderabsolute9583]

@Lenny - this is one of your best episode - so much information went into this podcast... I enjoyed every bit of it.

[@RVerma90]

Christian's wisdom, very insightful!

[@anvikaanvika9834]

The bestttt podcast ever. The best guest ever. Loved every bit. Thank you for this gem.

[@adebayosegun8162]

Great resource… I have been a PM for over half a decade .. i have not perceived things this way … thank you @lenny and Christain…this hits differently

[@ayushisoni9113]

Great episode! I didn't really notice how impactful the references are until hearing this and I love how so many more good things come out of collaborative problem-solving in addition to the solution. 'Sometimes you don't know how to get the answer, but you know who to go, to get the answer', this is relatable, as I switched from being a software engineer to a Project Manager in advertising, I didn't know a lot of things, but by observing I learned who to go to.

[@teal_hq]

So many gems here. Another fantastic episode-keep 'em comin'! 🙌

[@IDIOTEQTube]

This episode really stands out because we've finally got a ton of specific examples and use cases. Often, guests lean heavily into theory, speaking in broad strokes about their observations and experiences, especially when it's under the spotlight of women's perspectives. It's super refreshing and valuable to dive into and extract more concrete details from guests. Kudos for making that happen!

[@stevenujomu5068]

🔥🔥Great episode. So many nuggets and gems disscussed. Thanks Christian and Lenny.

[@rodriguesbrc]

Oh lord, this was amazing! Really worth every second watching it. Thank you so much!

[@ibaadyusufzai2778]

Beautiful Podcast, so many learning. Thanks Lenny and Christian

[@YonnasTGetahun]

Another great episode. Thank you, Lenny! What an idea - to build a new product a year.

[@huyvu4194]

Awesome interview! Once again remind myself to talk to users are the best way to learn about the problem

[@renuzoraladvancedoralhealt7616]

Fabulous!!

[@oluwatoyinaromokeye2075]

I really enjoyed listening to this

[@IkechiGriffith]

Great episode. Great guest

[@olowoporoku1000]

Inspiring. Now i like product managers

[@markedgood]

Hahah. Well, I won’t go that far… let’s see if they learn from what’s being said here.

[@danielkorsinah8567]

Thanks so much Christian, you are an inspiration. But Ghana Jollof is No. 1

[@wowscortcher]

It's a great episode, but I don't understand how you do the job of a manager when you're still not a manager. Like, who is going to do my job, first and foremost? Then, how will I set meetings with other managers to make decisions? How will my word have any authority if I'm literally doing someone else's job? that's strictly forbidden in most companies. I understand the idea, and in 1/10 cases, you may be able to do that, but for the rest of 9/10, the proposal to get into the role of the job title that I'm after before obtaining it is simply not viable.

[@LennysPodcast]

I asked Christian to share an answer, here you go: Thanks for the question. To be clear - It is more about being coached to be a manager. Your current manager begins to share management responsibility with you to ensure you have space to practice management ( make mistakes. get feedback, observe management, etc.) without the overarching expectations that having the title would present. You authoirty is simply an extension of your managers'. You are not a manager but you are observing or doing managerial activities were possible as a way to learn and practice good management.

[@wowscortcher]

@@LennysPodcast cheers for the answer! Got it. So I'm not actually trying to do the manager's job behind their back, so to say. It is actually an agreement between the manager and myself that I'm preparing/testing myself for the job. I was under the impression that it's something that I need to practice myself alone just to learn (alone) how to do it and if I'm up for it. Cheers again for taking your time to answer!

[@Cenot4ph]

Undocumented? You mean illegal, how we can use language to avoid the underlying issue