Timoté Geimer, CEO @ Dualoop | ProductHooman | S1 E5 🎙️

In this episode of the ProductHooman Podcast, we've invited Timoté Geimer, CEO of Dualoop, a consulting firm specializing in Product Management that helps product organizations transform the way they work.

Timoté has spent 12 years working as a product manager, starting from 0 to making 30 million in revenue and then creating his consulting firm.

In today's episode, we tried to uncover the founder side of running a company as the product person and discussed in detail:

• Difference between working in a product-based and service-based company

• How does Dualoop recruit and deploy people for other product companies?

• What significant problems do product companies face and need consultancy for?

• How can company strategy misalignment be a major roadblock?

• Working as a product manager is more than just about knowing product management best practices

• Cool projects Timoté is currently working on

• Advice for newbie product managers

Here's a short summary of everything we discussed:  

1. Diverse Journey to Success: Timoté started working in a recruiting agency, joining an early-stage startup and eventually leading a consulting firm. As the CEO, he has taken companies from zero revenue to multimillion-dollar figures, which shows his exceptional leadership skills. With a unique and diverse background, he brings a unique perspective to the table. He also shared the difference between working in a product-based company and running a consultancy agency.

2. Overcoming Challenges in Product Management: Timoté and his consultancy firm work with a wide range of companies, ranging from startups to corporate players. They encounter challenges such as skill gaps, conflict resolution, scaling project management capabilities, and talent availability. The key lies in identifying the root causes of these challenges and providing tailored solutions to foster effective product management within organizations. In the conversation, he shared the problems and solutions in detail.

3. Aligning Teams for Success: During the conversation, he emphasized the importance of aligning the product team with other departments, such as sales and engineering. Sharing an example of an early-stage startup, he highlighted the transformative power of aligning the target market with the company's capabilities. By avoiding the pitfall of trying to serve all customer segments simultaneously and defining an ideal customer profile, the startup doubled its revenue.

4. Impactful Projects and Scaling Success: We also discussed the exciting projects Timoté is currently working on. He mentioned collaborating with a successful Belgian company in the mortgage industry to digitalize the niche, emphasizing the value of their work. Additionally, his consultancy firm is involved in coaching companies in department restructuring and developing training programs in discovery. They're also focused on developing their unique approach to project management.

5. Product Management Tool Stacks: While asking about tool stacks, Timoté his enthusiasm for frameworks and project management approaches advocated by industry leaders such as Marty Cagan, Teresa Torres, and Melissa Perri. Emphasizing the importance of discovery techniques, his company doesn't favor any specific delivery frameworks but often uses Scrum. Jira, Confluence, Cycle.app, and Notion are among the tools they rely on. He also expressed his disappointment with Productboard's focus on enterprise-level features rather than enhancing their discovery capabilities.

6. Continuous Learning and Pragmatism: Timoté shared two key learnings from his journey: the importance of not trying to change organizations too quickly and the understanding that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to product management. He emphasized the need to align organizational ambitions with the desired future state and make changes accordingly. Recognizing both good and bad product management practices in large companies and startups, he stressed the importance of being pragmatic, considering the unique characteristics and people within an organization, and focusing on people as the core of project management.

7. Advice for newbie Product Managers: For newbies, Timoté highlighted the significance of self-learning and diversifying knowledge sources beyond blogs and podcasts. He recommended exploring academic research and foundational knowledge in sociology, psychology, and analytics to gain a deeper understanding of product management principles. He also emphasized practical experience and learning from primary sources, along with the value of qualitative research techniques and scientific approaches like shadowing.

Connect with Timoté Geimer:

• LinkedIn  
• Twitter

Connect with Dualoop:

• LinkedIn  
• Twitter