In this Focus Forty episode of The Design Your Thinking Podcast, I talk to Joe Cotellese who is an executive-level product developer and Head of Product Management at AWeber and we talk about focusing on customer experience.

Who is Joe Cotellese?

Joe is an executive-level product developer who has a real passion for creating consumer facing technology products.

Over the last 20 years he has worked with a range of companies – from pre-investment startups to large corporations – to bring high-tech consumer products to life.

Much of his recent focus is in product management and product marketing with a concentration on SaaS, iOS and Android product development. He is also well versed in product lifecycle management, product roadmaps, product positioning, business models, product requirements documents, user stories, UX and interaction design.

Throughout the course of my career he has either directly managed, launched, or developed software for the following:

– An online video advertising network
– An interactive music video network
– A 3D body scanning system to help women find great fitting clothes
– Video set top boxes for hotel pay-per-view services
– A personal video recorder akin to TiVo
– Audio sound cards for the music and video game industry
– A SaaS marketing automation platform that helps businesses connect with their customers

He has been included in a few lists of Product Managers to follow.

In this particular episode, you will learn

1. Why is Joe successful as a product manager?
2. How Joe manages staying productive?
3. Joe’s secrets in managing the balance between being productive and being creative
4. What Joe believes are the top 3 things a Product Manager should be good at
5. Joe’s view of how the discipline of Product Management would change in the next 5 years
6. How does Joe see the role of a Product Manager evolve in the years to come?

Highlights

• Team
  • Delegate and Trust
• Tools & Processes
  • Getting Things Done
  • Omni-focus
  • Treat Your Own Life As if it were a Product
    • Vision
    • Mission
    • Roadmap
• Balance
  • Headspace
  • Scheduling time
  • Consume less content
• Getting in touch with customers
• Focus on solution
  • Selling and customer experience
  • What else do they need to get job done?
• Fail fast
  • Failure is Feedback

Useful Links

• Joe’s Twitter handle – @JoeCotellese
• Joe’s website link – joecotellese.com/dyt
• Books
  • Creating Flow with Omni-Focus by Kourosh Dini
  • Getting Things Done by David Allen
  • Creativity Inc. by Ed Catmull
• Tools
  • Ethnio