Giff Constable
Author, entrepreneur

54 / Navigating Complexity and Uncertainty

Description
As a product leader, it can be hard to work within a multitude of constraints: profits, product-market fit, time, customers’ needs; the list goes on. Giff tackles the tough questions and elaborates on the product leader’s job as “chief synthesizer.”
In this episode of the Product Momentum Podcast, Sean and Paul welcome Giff Constable, a self-proclaimed “healer” within the product community. He has a vast breadth and depth of knowledge pertaining to testing new ideas, innovation, and teamwork.
Giff’s experience in many roles such as chief product officer, CEO, and consultant in “messy situations” has given him unique insight into the role of product within organizations and how product leaders can advocate for their products in ever-changing markets. All in all, he stresses the importance of “looking uncertainty in the eye” in everything you do.
Listen to hear Giff’s thoughts on:

Sacrificing short-term gains for long-term success in business models, research, and continuous improvement.
Asking the hard questions and challenging your assumptions as a product leader.
Experimentation and user research strategies for both new and seasoned product managers.

Giff’s Recommended Reading:
Talking to Humans: Success starts with understanding your customers, by Giff Constable with Frank Rimalovski.
Testing with Humans: How to use experiments to drive faster, more informed decision making, by Giff Constable with Frank Rimalovski.
Gibson Biddle’s writings

About Giff
Giff Constable is a product leader, entrepreneur, and author. He was most recently the Chief Product Officer at Meetup, and earlier was the CEO of Neo, a global innovation consulting company acquired by Pivotal. He is the author of two books on how to test new business ideas, which are used as core curriculum in top university entrepreneurship programs and accelerators around the world. He has two headstrong children, an extraordinarily lazy dog, and publishes science fiction when life permits under the pen name GW Constable. To hear more from Giff, check out his blog, giffconstable.com.