124 / Mastering Product Management: ‘Zooming Out’ for Strategic Clarity, with Shelly Kalish

Product Momentum Podcast

In product, it’s easy to lock in on a user-focused or customer-centric mindset. Not necessarily a bad thing, but it can be if we lose sight of the bigger picture. As product managers, we have a business to run. We have team members to grow and develop. We’re responsible for broader financial metrics. Shelly Kalish describes this “zooming out” approach as a way to take a more macro view of our role and establish some context for it.

In this episode of Product Momentum, Paul Gebel is joined by Shelly Kalish, a global product leader with over ten years of experience at companies like Meta/Facebook, American Express, and now SitterCity.

“Zooming out is centered on taking a step back from our product to be able to see a bigger picture,” Shelly adds. “It’s everything from learning about market trends, technology, competition, etc. And it requires us to understand the goals of the business from the perspective of sales, marketing, and finance.” Put another way, it requires communication, that critical skill underlying the “three-legged stool” of product management: impact, optics, and execution.

Shelly also discusses the importance of “zooming in” not only in operational terms of examining the day-to-day optics and communication strategies,but also how we can grow to be a general asset for the organizations and teams we serve as product leaders. This zoom-in, zoom-out approach can be useful both for product growth as well as our individual career growth, Shelly explains.

Be sure to catch the entire episode to hear Shelly’s thoughts about:

• How lateral growth can revitalize your career
• How to prioritize and manage your seemingly endless to-do list
• How inclusivity and creativity drive innovation

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