A big shoutout to all product leaders. Welcome to the Product Leaders Podcast by Fireart with your hosts, Dima Venglinski and Tolik Nguyen. Every episode is a deep dive into different aspects of product leadership to enhance the end-user experience. 

In this episode, Tolik is joined by Maxim Kalinovich, Senior Product Manager at EZ Texting. Maxim unpacks the playbook for aligning organizational mindsets to discovery and outcome-based mindsets that align with customer needs. He also shares some insights on an efficient product development process at startups and offers tips for product managers who are just starting out.


Topics we discuss: 

 A discovery mindset has roots in discovering and understanding reality, understanding the user's reality, not yours. Do the solutions you’re working on align with the user's needs from their perspective? There’s little point in working on a solution if you haven’t done a discovery process for the problem. When we look at product development from this lens, we move the needle from output to outcomes.  

As a product leader, it’s essential to spread this thinking across the company. A simple way to do this is to talk to the stakeholders and identify those with a similar mindset, and they will spread the word among other stakeholders.

“The discovery process starts with you stepping away from your ego and asking questions like what is our segment, who are our users, and what are their needs”?   

Aligning Outcomes with User Needs 

The first step is to get in front of the user to try and understand their issues. Customer support is the one-stop shop for insights into what the customers say and their issues. Try and get in front of your most active users with surveys. Opportunities for product development will emerge through this discovery process.

You then need to convert the opportunities into outcomes and goals. Of course, each discovery process will throw up multiple opportunities, and you will need to prioritize based on your defined matrix. 

The discovery process should start with identifying the audience segment you’re trying to address; that is the first goal. Next, identify ten to twenty users in the segment and conduct a discovery process. Keep surveying till discovering new information starts diminishing, and each survey is like the previous one. Now check if your concepts align with the actual customer needs. If you need to pivot, do it before developing your concept proof. 

 Start with your sphere of influence, say your product team, by instilling the discovery and outcome-based mindset in them. Let them become the ambassadors for spreading the word in the company. Spreading the word is a bit like a good coach. The coach doesn’t tell the athlete what to do; instead, they ask questions that drive the athlete’s thought process towards a direction. When outcomes align, the idea belongs to the athlete, just like in inception. 

Maxim describes himself as someone with ten years of product and project management experience for high-trafficked B2B and B2C web SaaS and mobile apps.

Maxim on LinkedIn

EZ Texting on LinkedIn

Dima Venglinski: Dima is the CEO of Fireart Studio, a boutique design and software development company committed to innovation and technology. His client portfolio ranges from startups to established global brands like Rolls Royce, Google, and Atlassian. 

Connect with Dima on LinkedIn

Fireart Studio Website

Tolik Nguyen: Tolik is the CSO and Partner at Fireart Studio and leads the strategy team while solving the company’s end-user issues from an early idea stage. 

Connect with Tolik on LinkedIn

Fireart Studio Website