Which Product Ops Pillar to Start With
Choose your first product ops investment by company stage and where your biggest fire is
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 4
- Confidence
- 90%
You cannot build all three product ops pillars at once with one person, so you sequence based on company type and pain. High-growth companies typically start with business and data insights because they need to monitor what they're doing and get strategic inputs fast. Larger enterprises in transformation typically start with process and governance because they lack a product operating model entirely. In all cases you begin with one person and the single highest-leverage pillar.
Origin
Melissa Perri and Denise Tilles, from patterns observed across the companies profiled in their Product Operations book and their CPO/masterclass cohorts.
Core principles
- 01Start with one person, not a team
- 02Pick the pillar tied to your most painful current fire
- 03Company stage predicts the likely starting pillar
- 04All three pillars ultimately serve rapid strategic decision-making
How to run it
- 1
Diagnose your company type and stage
Determine whether you are a high-growth startup (need to monitor and get strategic data inputs) or a larger enterprise in transformation (need an operating model and roadmap transparency).
Pro tip High-growth → lean toward business and data insights first. Enterprise/transformation → lean toward process and governance first.
- 2
Identify the biggest burning issue
Do a listening tour and light user research across the org. Your perception of the biggest need may be wrong — validate where the most impact can be made quickly with a team of one.
Pro tip Look for where PMs are spending the most time on non-strategic work — that is usually your first pillar.
Watch out Don't pick the pillar that merely sounds most massive; pick where one person can make the most difference quickly.
- 3
Deploy one person against that pillar and prove value
Put a single person on the chosen pillar, target quick wins, and celebrate and communicate them. Show what's achievable 'above the line' with a team of one and what sits 'below the line' pending more investment.
Pro tip Usually one person gives so much leverage it frees the org to tackle the next hurdle; only then add a second person.
- 4
Add expertise for the next pillar deliberately
When the next hurdle exceeds the first person's expertise, add someone suited to that pillar — the pillars need genuinely different backgrounds.
Watch out A data-insights hire and a process/governance hire are different people; don't assume one person covers all three pillars.
In the wild
Shintaro Matsui created the product ops role at Amplitude. His top tip was doing a listening tour to find where a team of one could make the most difference quickly, then celebrating those wins and mapping what's above vs below the line for a one-person function.
→ Built momentum and demonstrated quick wins that justified expanding the function.
Common mistakes
Trying to launch with a full team
Perri and Tilles almost never see successful functions start with an entire team; it usually starts organically with one person feeling the pain.
Building the pillar that sounds biggest instead of highest-leverage
An opportunity can be huge but too massive for a team of one; pick where one person creates impact fastest.
Is it for you?
Best for
A product leader standing up product ops for the first time who must choose where a single first hire will have the most impact
Not ideal for
Companies that already have a mature multi-pillar product ops function and are optimizing rather than starting
From the transcript
“So, we usually see that high-growth companies start with business data and insights”
“We see larger companies and enterprises kind of go more towards the process and governance, especially if they're in let's say a transformation”
“We say to like like get started with one person.”
“where can you make the most difference quickly? Where can you have the most impact? So, identifying those, celebrating those wins”
From the episode
The ultimate guide to product operations
Melissa Perri and Denise Tilles