Product Innovation Series with Aram Melkoumov

In this episode, Manos Kyriakakis talks with Aram about ways of achieving product/market fit in the world of startups. Manos also gives examples of metrics you can use to show whether you’ve got product market fit. They also get into confidence, arrogance, and assumptions in product.

Show Notes

Manos Kyriakakis is a Head of Product & Growth at Simpler. They’re aiming to allow shoppers all over the world seamlessly checkout from anywhere. In the past, Manos has worked with other VC-backed startups in industries such as insuretech, ad-tech, and travel-tech, including Pricefox.gr, Avocarrot, Market Group, and Welcome Pickups. He has also collaborated with companies as a consultant and co-founded his own company.

SHOW NOTES:
0:00 | Introduction to Manos Kyriakakis
2:05 | Achieving product/market fit for startups
3:56 | Metrics that show whether you have hit market fit for your product
5:51 | Early challenges in attaining market fit at Simpler
9:35 | Knowing if you are on the right track
14:07| What Manos has done to ensure product vision is common with all stakeholders
17:26 | Confidence, Arrogance, and making Assumptions in products
19:43 | Getting rid of ego from the equation
21:24 | Product biases that Manos has had to deal with frequently
22:44 | The one question Manos desires to be asked as a product manager
24:21 | Becoming not entirely data-reliant in decision making
25:54 | Wrap-up


QUOTES:

“To achieve product /market fit, an entrepreneur should be as close as possible to the target audience. This means being in a good market with a product that can satisfy that market.” [3:24]

“As a product leader, you are responsible for ensuring the product vision is protected and all stakeholders have a clear grasp before making decisions.” [14:07]

“It’s easy for product managers to be arrogant, overconfident, and make assumptions about their products. Such negligence is also easily transferred to the team” [18:32]


Connect with Manos Kyriakakis

Personal Website: https://manoskyriakakis.com/
Company’s Website: https://www.simpler.so/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/manoskyr/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/manoskyr

What is Product Innovation Series with Aram Melkoumov?

Product Innovation Series is an in-depth interview series featuring product & innovation leaders from small startups all the way to Fortune 500 behemoths. Our guests share their battle-tested perspective on what prevents teams from shipping a great product.
The show is hosted by Aram Melkoumov, the CEO of Crowdlinker.