Podcast

Avoiding the 'Feature Factory' Trap with Partho Ghosh

Written by Sopheon | December 4, 2023

Partho Ghosh is a customer-centered, data-informed product executive and GM who specializes in B2B SaaS, MarTech, product-led growth, and creating measurable product processes that lead to efficient growth and market fit. He is the VP and Product & General Manager at SecurityScoreCard, the global leader in cybersecurity ratings, response, and resilience. He also serves as an advisor for OpenView, through which he advises on product-led growth. Before working at SecurityScoreCard, Partho served as a general manager for Hootsuite. Partho holds a Bachelor’s of Business Administration, Business Management from British Columbia Institute of Technology.

Partho joins me today to explore the “feature factory” trap and how having a clear product management lifecycle can help avoid it. He emphasizes the importance of future thinking in product management decisions, even when dealing with short-term revenue goals. He outlines his philosophy on product management and the “Build, Measure, Learn” principle. Partho also highlights the value of having a data-informed mindset and offers advice to product managers seeking leadership support.

“I’ve always used ‘feature factory’ in a negative connotation, but that might be unfair if you’re a scaling start-up. Founders need revenue growth, profitability, and to make ends meet.” - Partho Ghosh

This week on Innovation Talks:

  • Partho’s background as a business analyst, his transition into product management, and diving into B2B SaaS
  • The challenges of testing and validating the effectiveness of a free-to-sales motion in the self-serve space
  • The importance of future-thinking in product management decisions
  • Navigating organizational changes and cultural shifts
  • Careers as marathons and the evolving nature of the professional journey
  • The need for continuous learning in product management
  • Embracing generative AI and how customer expectations around AI have changed
  • The transformative nature of technological advancements
  • Partho’s product development process and lifecycle
  • The “Build, Measure, and Learn” philosophy
  • The value of rooting decisions in data and why companies need to invest in analytics capabilities
  • Experimentation beyond split testing
  • Overcoming challenges in measurement and learning
  • Allocating resources to data analysis and promoting a data-informed mindset
  • The crucial role and challenges of collaboration within a product team

Resources Mentioned:

Connect with Partho Ghosh:

This Podcast is brought to you by Sopheon

Thanks for tuning into this week’s episode of Innovation Talks. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a review wherever you get your podcasts.

Apple Podcasts | TuneIn | GooglePlay | Stitcher | Spotify | iHeart | Amazon

 

Be sure to connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, and share your favorite episodes on social media to help us reach more listeners, like you.

For additional information around new product development or corporate innovation, sign up for Sopheon’s newsletter where we share news and industry best practices monthly! The fastest way to do this is to go to sopheon.com and click here.