October 1

Add Product Ops to Make Your Team More Efficient

One sure sign that your organization is in rapid scale mode is when you need to add a new team to make your product managers more effective. In most organizations, this team is referred to as product operations. Also known as prod ops, this team takes over the blocking and tackling of product management so that your product managers can focus on discovery and delivery.

Product Operations: What it is & why it’s more important than ever. Sales operations and marketing operations roles have been a staple at SaaS companies for quite some time. However, product operations (or “prod ops”) is a relatively new role and one that is less clearly well defined and understood. So what is the role of product operations and how does it help product teams? Casey Paxton explains what product operations is, the core responsibilities, examples of how some companies use product operations, why the role matters, and some benefits of product operations.

(via @TeamParlor)

The 5 W’s of product operations. Product operations, product ops, or prod ops has been gaining pace across organizations of different shapes and sizes of late. You’d be forgiven for thinking that product ops is a ‘mere’ support role, and while the primary objective of the function is to assist the product team, in reality, product operations teams play a vital role in product development and delivery and can be a vital piece of the product-led puzzle. Max Duce gives you the lowdown on product ops and answers who, what, why, when, and where is product ops?

(via @PLEDalliance)

Product managers have way too much on their plates. It’s time to hire product ops. It was only a matter of time before product ops became the next “ops” along the same lines as sales ops and marketing ops. But what exactly is product operations? How and when should organizations add it into the mix? And what does it take to make it work? Blake Bartlett spoke with Christine Itwaru about these exact questions. As the Director of Product Operations at Pendo (and someone who is deeply passionate about product operations), Christine offered some great insights.

(via @OpenViewVenture)

Product operations: From zero to one.  Before Joshua McLaughlin created a Product Ops function in his company, the product team at large had to absorb the responsibilities. Product leadership owned some duties while others fell to the Product Managers. Joshua liked being a Product Manager but he knew he wanted to work on more than a single product and have a broader impact across his team. As a result, Joshua felt the nudge towards product operations and decided to show what he’s doing and how he’s doing it as he goes.

(via @joshmcla)

Meet the team: Product operations at Robinhood.  Among the myriad teams that a company employs, product operations is one of the newer roles appearing in businesses with a human component to their daily operations. Broadly speaking, product operations dedicates itself to bridging differences between various functions within a company. Each team may work differently, be focused on discrete tasks, or have a different way of communicating. To give you an idea of what product operations looks like at one company, Marco Calderón shares his experience of working in product operations at Robinhood.

(via @RobinhoodApp)

Kent J McDonald

About the author

Kent J McDonald writes about and practices software product management. He has product development experience in a variety of industries including financial services, health insurance, nonprofit, and automotive. Kent practices his craft with a variety of product teams and provides just in time resources for product people at KBP.media and Product Collective. When not writing or product managing, Kent is his family’s #ubersherpa, listens to jazz and podcasts (but not necessarily podcasts about jazz), and collects national parks.


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