Christine Itwaru

Managing the product team's internal tech stack ensures that data flows correctly between CRM, analytics, and product tools.

"We had someone at one point handle whatever tools connected to Pendo and make sure that those systems are set up for maximum outcomes for the product manager. So, Pendo's connected to Salesforce. We'r..."

PMs who are motivated by organizational health and cross-functional efficiency are ideal candidates for transitioning into product operations.

"I'm seeing more PMs, like I said, go into the space. So, it's no longer being seen so much as a threat. It's being seen as this partner... if you love creating that healthy team environment and one wh..."

Hands-on product management experience is a critical prerequisite for leading a product operations function effectively.

"I strongly advocate for product ops leaders to have done that role, to have actually had hands-on product experience building and understanding customer problems and feeling that pain, because you ver..."

A regular product digest can bridge the gap between product and revenue teams by focusing on value education rather than sales tactics.

"We created this product digest... it's more about here's how you get ready for it, here's how you get jazzed about, and then the handoff... we don't teach them to sell... but we know that the product..."

Directly involving engineers in customer calls builds technical empathy and uncovers insights that PMs might miss.

"Early on, we started bringing in engineers to customer meetings more and more... it's so simple and it's so effective. When we started doing it, the response from the engineering team was great and th..."

Product operations focuses on internal education and functional understanding, while product marketing focuses on external positioning and sales enablement.

"Product marketing positions help the revenue team sell their lead gen for all of the outbound and the campaigns that they're running... For us, it's about educating and it's about helping our internal..."

Successful product launches require 'readiness'—ensuring internal teams know how to talk about and support a feature, not just when it's shipping.

"There's the knowing something's coming and then there's the knowing what to do with it. You can use just some status keeping thing to say, 'This is coming in Q4'... but it's what to do with it and how..."

In-product education and content should be considered a core part of the 'definition of done' for any feature release.

"Treating content is a part of the development lifecycle process. You really want to treat it as a part of definition of done. When you think about product-led growth... it's all about creating that ex..."

Standardizing the planning and prioritization process is often the first high-impact task for a new product operations function.

"In less mature product orgs who first bring in product ops, the first thing they ask them to do is streamline the planning process... How do I actually just get the people to plan the same way and giv..."

Directly observing customer struggle is the foundational experience for building product empathy and identifying real problems.

"Speaking as a former PM, I would not ever give up spending time with customers and watching their pain. That's how I fell in love with product was I saw my internal customer 12 years back now fighting..."

Direct customer interaction is a non-negotiable core responsibility of a product manager that should never be offloaded to operations.

"I cannot see product managers saying, 'I don't want to be a part of that conversation.' Then you know what? I'm going to say it then don't be in product."

Product operations centralizes and synthesizes diverse feedback sources to provide PMs with actionable insights during planning cycles.

"The synthesis of both this qualitative and quantitative data as a theme that I saw arising across our customer base... bringing all of these different inputs that would traditionally be handled by pro..."

Cross-functional feedback sessions reveal how product issues impact different parts of the business, from onboarding to sales deals.

"We brought those folks in a room together... our head of professional services team at one point was like, 'Whoa, this could truly impact what we do from an onboarding perspective and now we have this..."

The guest defines this as a distinct discipline focused on creating systems that allow product teams to thrive, bridging the gap between product, sales, and success.

"Product operations for a VP or a head of product or a product manager is the creation of some system that allows you to thrive or allows your team to thrive in product management."