Building and Scaling Exceptional Product Teams

"Step one was almost just putting that on paper and making sure we were all aligned... One of the first things that we put together was a career ladder..."

• Define clear roles and expectations for PMs.
• Align hiring processes with desired skills and values.
• Develop career paths to support team development.

"One piece of advice I always have is like, don't hire PMs too early... you need to be as close to it as possible... you can't scale yourself in like the decision making or wearing multiple hats..."

• Founders should lead product decisions until it's unsustainable.
• Hiring PMs too early can distance founders from customer insights.
• Bring in PMs when scope exceeds capacity.

"It's kind of like, I don't know, just the heartbeat of how we operate... I kind of expect a customer conversation at least once a week from the team... We're customer obsessed at Mercury."

• Encourage regular customer interactions.
• Embed feedback into development processes.
• Cultivate a culture where customer insights drive decisions.

"We really looked at like, OK, we need to find solutions that tie closer to the existing spaces we're in... so you're not like, it's not about just building a new feature, you are building a new product line."

• Choose adjacent areas with a competitive advantage.
• Leverage existing distribution channels.
• Align new products with customer needs and strengths.

"You want to be an observer... understand what it is that the customer's trying to do, what context... but it's not just customer obsession for the sense of customer obsession, but where does that artistry meet the business?"

• Engage deeply with customers to uncover true needs.
• Balance customer insights with viability and strategy.
• Use research to inform decisions without losing sight of business goals.

"We use this idea of like a pioneer, a town settler, and a city planner... The pioneer is a PM that's really good at 0 to 1."

• Hire 'pioneer' PMs for early-stage development.
• Bring in 'town settlers' and 'city planners' as you scale.
• Align PM skills with current needs and future goals.

"One thing we learned was having new product areas, new seedlings being too close within a true org structure to the core... made it hard for that new product to even grow."

• Create dedicated teams for new products.
• Separate new initiatives to allow them to flourish.
• Regularly review progress and adjust investments.

"The details done right really matter... especially when you're in like a boring industry like FinTech... In order to breed that trust and confidence that the customer base needs in order to save its money with you..."

• Quality can become a competitive advantage.
• Craftsmanship attracts customers and talent.
• Small improvements compound to build a strong brand.

"When you have a functional structure within your org, it's really nice because then you can say, oh, I get to work with these types of PMs... You want to play tennis, you wanna challenge yourself with people that are a little bit better than you..."

• Understand candidates' career goals and offer challenging problems.
• Showcase the talented team they will work with.
• Be transparent about company culture and growth opportunities.

"I think the crux of it comes down to the founders, and the founders are your original PMs... work that product does and the intentionality of making product decisions, it doesn't matter that there wasn't a PM title necessarily at the company..."

• Founders should act as initial PMs to stay close to customers.
• Hire PMs when bottlenecks appear and founders can't scale.
• Clearly define PM roles and expectations to align with company values.