People Driven Products

As Head of Product Research & Education at Amplitude, John Cutler uses his product management background to create educational programs for cross-functional teams.

Show Notes

The role of a product manager is not to be a mini-CEO, according to John Cutler, Head of Product Research & Education at Amplitude. The product manager should not be the only decider. Instead, the product manager should function as a team facilitator bringing context and guiding discussions. 

John was fanatical about that view of the product manager’s role. He still agrees with it, but he’s softened his stance a little. 

In the three years he’s worked at Amplitude, which offers digital optimization tools used by more than 1,000 enterprise customers, John has met with more than 500 product development teams. 

Seeing how different teams operate has given him an appreciation for the role culture plays in team dynamics. “Different versions work in different settings,” John says on this episode of People Driven Products. 

Before joining Amplitude, John was a consultant and had no desire to go back to working for an employer. Then, Amplitude’s Head of Marketing reached out and recruited John as a product evangelist. That was three years ago.

“My philosophy was that the product would just sell itself. I really do actually believe that Amplitude sells itself,” he says.

In this episode, hear John discuss his obsession with cross-functional teams (and how to make them work effectively), and why analytics and research are essential for building a successful team.

What is People Driven Products?

As a PM, your job is to make products and features your users love. But we all know that’s easier said than done.

That’s why we made People Driven Products. You’ll learn how to make products people love and get insights from the PM leaders behind some of the fastest growing and most successful tech companies in the world.

The show is hosted by Ryan Glasgow, who has over a decade of experience managing products at companies like Weebly and Vurb (acquired by Snapchat) and is now the Founder and CEO of Sprig (formerly UserLeap).

In each episode, he’ll be talking with PM leaders at companies that are masters of gaining customer insights, and making customer-centric products.

You’ll learn from some of the best PMs in the world and get practical advice on how to create a customer-centric product team, build a customer-focused culture (and get your company on board), get user feedback quickly, make decisions from those insights, craft a compelling story from the data you gather, help your company make the right product decisions, and most importantly, make products people love.

We can’t wait to share these insights with you, and truly hope that each one helps you and your company, create people-driven products.

Subscribe to be notified when new episodes are released, or submit your question to Ryan at ryan@sprig.com.