Melissa Perri is the CEO of Produx Labs and Author of Escaping the Build Trap: How effective product management creates value. She believes that as companies scale, they lose track of what makes them successful and they just “ship.” Companies forget to bring products back to the overall strategy and talk with their customers. Brian Ardinger, Inside Outside Innovation Founder, talks with Melissa about getting out of the build trap and having a customer-centric culture. 


Companies in the Build Trap
- Software startup - Growing and trying to exit. Look for product managers early. Can get out of build trap. 
- Enterprises - Haven’t scaled through software. Brings in others to be product managers. A new discipline. Struggles with build trap. 


As companies scale, they are close to the customer. As they execute, they forget to talk to the customer. Athena Health developed a portal for user research with its customers. 


Escaping the Build Trap Takeaways
- Explains how to think about Product Management
- Step-by-Step processes
- Helps people understand what Product Management is and how to set it up. 
- Helps managers implement a system.


Product Trends
- More people understand discipline
- Silicon Valley thought - You own software, streamline, talk to customers, and turn ideas into business models
- Agile school of thought - Product owner vs. product managers - Similar roles


Product Manager Role
- Has authority on how to build, and sometimes on what to build.
- Teaches product managers to question why. Can the team build it in a better way? Push back. Show why it should be different.


For More Information:


For more information on product management or to connect with Melissa, see http://www.produxlabs.com, https://melissaperri.com or on https://twitter.com/lissijean. You can find her book, Escaping the Build Trap on Amazon.


If you enjoyed this podcast, you might also enjoy: Ep. 119 – Voltage Control’s Douglas Ferguson on Inside Innovation, Ep. 99 – Ryan Jacoby with Machine & Author of Making Progress, and Ep. 90 – Teresa Torres with Product Talk.


Find this episode of Inside Outside Innovation at insideoutside.io. You can also listen on Acast, iTunes, Sticher, Spotify, and Google Play




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