Everything you need to know about impact-first product teams - Matt LeMay (Product Consultant and Advisor)

In this episode on The Product Experience, we welcome back Matt LeMay—author, consultant, and champion of no-nonsense product thinking. We dig deep into the ideas behind his new book Impact First Product Teams and explore how teams can focus on what really matters: delivering business impact.

Featured Links: Follow Matt on LinkedIn and his website | Buy Matt's new book 'Impact-first Product Teams' | Sudden Compass | Randeep Sidhu's episode on The Product Experience: 'Lessons from building the UK's test and trace app'

Chapters 00:00 – The Myth of Rational Business 01:03 – Matt’s Accidental Journey into Product 02:20 – What Are “Impact-First” Teams, Really? 04:50 – Why OKRs Are Often Just Theatre 07:12 – Best Practices ≠ Business Value 10:00 – Who’s on the Product Team, and Why It Matters 12:30 – Dealing With Cross-Team Goal Conflicts 15:00 – Culture Change via Strategic Goal Alignment 17:00 – Proactive Conversations About Impact 20:00 – Commercial Awareness for Product Teams 24:00 – Platform Teams & Measuring Amplified Impact 27:00 – What Do Good Impact-First Teams Look Like? 31:00 – Customer-Centricity vs. Business Impact 34:00 – Discovery, Metrics & Mission-Critical Goals 36:00 – Culture, Strategy & Individual Leverage 41:00 – BAU vs. Innovation: Set Clear Expectations 44:00 – The Ego Trap in Product Work 46:00 – Matt’s Final Zinger on Capital and Feelings

Our Hosts Lily Smith enjoys working as a consultant product manager with early-stage and growing startups and as a mentor to other product managers. She’s currently Chief Product Officer at BBC Maestro, and has spent 13 years in the tech industry working with startups in the SaaS and mobile space. She’s worked on a diverse range of products – leading the product teams through discovery, prototyping, testing and delivery. Lily also founded ProductTank Bristol and runs ProductCamp in Bristol and Bath. Randy Silver is a Leadership & Product Coach and Consultant. He gets teams unstuck, helping you to supercharge your results. Randy's held interim CPO and Leadership roles at scale-ups and SMEs, advised start-ups, and been Head of Product at HSBC and Sainsbury’s. He participated in Silicon Valley Product Group’s Coaching the Coaches forum, and speaks frequently at conferences and events. You can join one of communities he runs for CPOs (CPO Circles), Product Managers (Product In the {A}ether) and Product Coaches. He’s the author of What Do We Do Now? A Product Manager’s Guide to Strategy in the Time of COVID-19. A recovering music journalist and editor, Randy also launched Amazon’s music stores in the US & UK.