News

The Propel Post - July 2023

Written by Ben Ross | Propel Ventures Co-Founder | Jul 2, 2023 11:58:26 PM

It has been an awesome month for Propel with the ingestion of big ideas from big names. In this update you will learn what is on our mind and how we are learning with a view to continually improving our product, design and engineering services.

Mid month, Paul and I attended Sam Altman’s presentation and came away with a bunch of gold nuggets that you can read here.

Insights From Propel Ventures & Sam Altman

TLDR: The key mindset shift for me was the idea that we should start experimenting with Chat GPT to solve a problem, don't burden yourself with too much analysis up front about the proposed solution.  Sam suggested the best approach is to just get stuck in and experiment and play with the new technology. 

Pick a problem that you are passionate about and use that as an excuse to get familiar with the capability of the new AI tools. This mindset shift is critical because we are about to enter a world where development could be 20x more efficient, and in that world, what would you build?

 

 

Christian Idiodi Provided His Perspective on Product-Led Thinking in Agile Delivery

Last week we held a Propel Product Masterclass with Christian Idiodi. Christian is a Partner at Silicon Valley Product Group and a product leader with over 15 years of experience building successful enterprise and consumer products, Christian shared his expertise on how to embed product-led thinking in agile delivery for greater product success.

You can read a summary of his key points here and you can catch the video of his whole presentation at this link.

This was one of the best presentations about how product managers can improve Agile software development processes that I have listened to in a long time. I urge you to take a look.

 

Propel Was Recognised As a Great Place To Work ... Again

This month Propel Ventures was recognised as one of Australia's best workplaces in tech in 2023.

It is always nice to achieve recognition for the small and big things that we do to empower our staff and make work great.  We are deeply influenced by Patrick Lencioni, who pronounced that everyone deserves to have a great manager, and this mindset hit me as a truth that all leaders should live up to.

Our Chief Product Officer, Amy Johnson recently penned a blog about how to use trust to move from feature teams to empowered product teams - you can read that at this link.

To achieve great place to work, our secret is our investment in our people managers. At Propel we have created our own mini-MBA for our leaders to learn about how to be a great manager by exposing themselves to the works of thought leaders such as:

  • Patrick Lencioni
  • Daniel Pink
  • Andy Grove
  • Jim Collins
  • Kim Scott 
  • Bruce Tuckman


 

We Launched Part 2 Of Our E-Book On Product Led Transformation

Last week we launched part 2 of our Product-Led Transformation e-book series, in this part we dive into the 5 pillars that we see in organisations achieve product success, time and time again.

This book contains dozens of examples and practical tips about how to transform, with lessons from some of our favourites, Melissa Perri, Marty Cagan, Radhika Dutt, Jim Collins.

 A compelling vision, principles and focused strategy

 Theme / outcome based roadmaps

 Team topology aligned to customer value

 Clear roles and responsibilities

 Shared success metrics and flywheel

Click on the image of the book above for a free copy!

 

We Developed v1 of Propel's Chat GPT Customer Discovery Research App - Waitlist Available

We have developed version 1 of our ChatGPT-powered application development journey with the development of an app which will save us hours of time distilling insights from customer interviews using the power of generative AI.

Our Chat GPT app automates the following four tasks: 

 Define a UX research plan
 Distil the insights from the user interviews
 Capture the quotes which evidence the customer insights
 Present the analysis in a compelling manner

If you are interested to be amongst the first users outside of Propel to use our tool, you can sign up to our waitlist at this link 

 

Register For Our Next MasterClass Event On August 9th with Jon Smart

In our next Masterclass, discover the secrets to building a world-class organisation with Jon Smart, lead author of the acclaimed book "Sooner Safer Happier," in this exclusive in-person Product Masterclass.

Jon draws on his extensive experience in leading ways of working in large, traditional organisations and working with over 40 global companies to share hard-earned lessons in changing ways of working, effective leadership, and delivering on strategy.

Jon's expertise in business agility, thought leadership, and coaching make this a must-attend event for anyone looking to gain valuable insights into how Agile and Lean ways of working can help empower teams, improve production, create better services for customers and achieve sustained product success.