Austin VOP #108: Wayne Lopez of Vertify | The Highest Paid Person's Opinion
Austin Voice of Product - Inspiring the next generation of Product leaders
Austin Voice of Product
It was a blast talking to Wayne. He had cogent advice on why business value is critical, how to double down on your key skill as a PM, and what he does to build empathy and learning as a PM. He also shares the evolution that Vertify has taken from building data integrations to providing insights for sales and marketing teams. It is great to see a co-founder that leads with product.
Read more: Product Managers are Rooted in Business Value
What I’m Reading
It is uncanny - no matter what organization you are in - there are always execs that have opinions. Two months into my new role - I have seen it here at Procore - although it is less egregious than the last company I was at. I think it is human - a person in power is paid to make decisions. But when it comes to product, those decisions are based on opinion and biases and not grounded in what would be best for customers. Jeff Gothelf has a good piece on this - The Highest Paid Person’s Opinion - with advice on how to deal with it.
The highest paid person’s opinion and, in fact, anyone else’s opinion on how a product should be designed and developed is just that — their opinion. It’s a hypothesis. It’s their best guess about how to solve a current customer problem with a future product or service. Now, it can be a really good guess. It can be an educated guess backed up with data and insight but it’s still just a guess. It’s the team’s job to test and prove that this hypothesis is more valid than the others it’s considering.
Austin Product Events
November 8 — The Product League
How to get hired as a Product Manager: Tips from PM Hiring Managers
More events on the Austin Product Events page.
In The Community
The Great Reshuffle continues!
Trevor Bruner started a new job as Principal Product Manager at SailPoint 💪
Glen Ford is VP of Product at iMerit Technology👍
Annan Patel joined Sellers Shield as their Head of Product 🙌
Mandana Varahrami is now Chief Product Officer at CipherHealth 👏
Yours in product,
Reza