Show Notes
Welcome to CPO Stories! In this new "podcast within a podcast", I'll be speaking to executive product leaders from the UK's biggest companies as well as up-and-coming stars of the future. I'll be digging into how they approach product management within their organisations, how they approached the leap into executive product leadership and trying to get some deep insights into how they view product management practices and culture. If you're a CPO and would like to come on, drop me a line! Or, forward this episode to your CPO and tell them you want them to come on 🙂 About the Episode In this episode, I speak with Debbie McMahon, interim Chief Product Officer at the Financial Times, one of the UK's most well-known and distinctive newspapers. Debbie started out working at the Department for Work & Pensions, moving into a product strategy role there before spending time at the BBC and onwards to the FT. We cover a lot, including:
All about the FT and its move away from being "just" a newspaper How the FT structures Product; size, scope, dependency management and whether they have product owners How to advocate for the value of product management with non-tech leaders and editorial stakeholders Balancing product management idealism and book principles with the real world of the FT The importance of being honest upfront about your organisation's context when hiring people Making the jump to CPO; what was different, what was the same How CPOs can avoid being seen as ivory tower thinkers or, worse still, "poop and swoopers" Why product people should work at the FT
Check out the FT Check out the FT's website: https://www.ft.com, or their careers page: https://aboutus.ft.com/careers. Connect with Debbie You can connect with Debbie on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dmcmahon/.
More from One Knight in Product
On this episode, I speak to Jeff Patton, Chief Troublemaker at Jeff Patton Associates. Jeff is a product management consultant, coach and trainer, and the author of User Story Mapping, a book that has helped product teams around the world think differently about how they build software. We talk about why product management fundamentals are still so difficult to put into practice, how AI can help teams succeed or fail faster, and why understanding what customers actually do remains more important than ever. Episode Highlights We cover a lot, including:
On this episode, I speak to Simonetta Batteiger, a product leadership coach, trainer, speaker and co-organiser of ProductTank Cologne. Simonetta began her career in accounting and finance before moving into product leadership while still maintaining a strong sense of the numbers that the rest of the leadership team really cares about. We explore why product teams can be seen as cost centres rather than sources of business value, how to connect product decisions to meaningful financial outcomes, and why the ability to build more quickly with AI makes sound commercial judgement more important, not less. Episode Highlights We cover a lot, including:
On this episode, I speak to the returning Rich Mironov, longtime product management consultant, product leadership coach, and founder of Mironov Consulting. Rich has spent decades working with product leaders, particularly in complex B2B organisations, and is the author of The Art of Product Management and Money Stories. We explore what the current wave of AI-enabled software development really means for product management: why faster code does not automatically create more revenue, where product judgement becomes more important rather than less, and why the role of product may shift away from delivery management towards deeper discovery, commercial thinking, and go-to-market work. Episode Highlights
On this episode, I speak to Eric Ries, entrepreneur, multiple-time founder and bestselling author of The Lean Startup. Eric has spent years working with founders, leaders and organisations on how companies are built, scaled and governed, and later founded the Long-Term Stock Exchange to explore how businesses can pursue long-term profit and purpose. He's back with his new book, Incorruptible: Why Good Companies Go Bad and How Great Companies Stay Great, just about to celebrate its UK launch. In it, he examines why good companies lose their way, how incentives and governance drive that corruption, and how leaders can build organisations that stay true to their mission as they grow. Episode Highlights We cover a lot, including:
On this episode, I speak to Barry O'Reilly, entrepreneur, executive adviser and author of Lean Enterprise, Unlearn and his latest book, Artificial Organizations. Barry works with senior leaders around the world to improve how their organisations make decisions and perform, and has also spent recent years building and advising AI-enabled companies through Nobody Studios. We discuss what AI changes about leadership when the goal is not simply to produce more output, but to make better decisions. Barry argues that the real opportunity is to use AI to reduce cognitive and administrative load, strengthen judgement, improve organisational context and create more space for thoughtful, high-quality work - without outsourcing the thinking itself. Episode highlights