16: Developing a Culture While Scaling Product Organizations

In this episode of the How to Succeed in Product Management Podcast, marketing professor Jeff Shulman and The Product Management Center advisory board members Red Russak and Soumeya Benghanem welcome Vishal Ghotge (Remitly) and Tatyana Mamut (Pendo.io) to talk about shaping a culture as the organization starts scaling. There are many risks associated with scaling up, but the right set of rules, tools, and norms help formulate a culture that can direct individual performance and drive future business success.   Support for How to Succeed in Product Management is brought to you by Apptentive, which enables product managers to measure shifts in customer emotion and gather actionable feedback across the mobile customer journey. To learn more, go to Apptentive.com/UW.   What to Listen For: 00:00 Intro 06:50 When scaling, what works in one place might not work in another 08:26 The challenges that come with scaling a product organization 14:03 Always orient toward the holistic customer experience  16:06 Look at the mechanisms set around the organization 19:21 Best practices to help in scaling 25:09 Culture is the set of rules, tools, and norms that organize and structure how people work 29:37 Center decisions and conversations around the company mission and values 31:59 Change can be hard for a lot of people 35:55 It’s important to understand what the appetite for risk is from the top 41:24 Shaping an organization where it's okay to talk about things 44:35 Take more risks while meeting all needs that your leadership might have of you 49:48 Emotional intelligence plays a big role through scaling pains 52:49 Focus on getting the right people and build trust with them 56:10 Friction creates a lot of innovation