post

Footer About

Footer Contribute

Footer Get Involved

Footer Links

Mind the Product

Artificial Intelligence (AI) & Machine Learning (ML)

Microsoft lays off 3% of workforce while renogiating partnership with OpenAI

Podcast

How to build the right product culture during transformation – Joca Torres (Product Consultant)

B2B product management

Building Product Teams

Business Strategy

Data Driven Product Management

Digital Transformation

Diversity and Inclusion

Minimum Viable Product

OKRs

Prioritisation

Product Design

Product Research

Product Development Process

Product Ethics

Product Discovery

Product Leadership

Product Management Career

Product Strategy

Stakeholder Management

🌎 <a href="https://www.mindtheproduct.com/world-product-day/" style="color:#FFFFFF;text-decoration:underline;">Happy World Product Day!</a> Be sure to celebrate product, yourself, and your peers today! 🎉

Context, intent, change, purpose, constraints – a model for communicating requirements

5 difficult conversations and how to have them

DoorDash eats Deliveroo while OpenAI makes its biggest buy: This week’s news roundup

Why great product managers think like therapists

Tools and techniques to scale product teams – Charlotte King (Lead Product Manager, eBay)

Louron serves as the Editor at Mind the Product, bringing nearly a decade of experience in editorial positions across business and technology publications. For any editorial inquiries, you can connect with him on LinkedIn or Twitter.

Louron Pratt

<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/yiweiang/?originalSubdomain=ae" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Yi-Wei Ang</a> is the Chief Product Officer at talabat (Delivery Hero) who has been working in product for over a decade. We caught up with him this week to talk about his journey into product and what he’ll be speaking about at<a href="https://www.mindtheproduct.com/mtpcon/san-francisco/?utm_source=InternationWDContent&amp;utm_medium=content&amp;utm_campaign=mtpconsanfran"> #mtpcon San Francisco 2023</a> on June 14. 
<hr />
<h2><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-full wp-image-34518 aligncenter" src="https://www.mindtheproduct.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/FtcHV58aUAA2WEZ.jpeg" alt="" width="1200" height="628" srcset="https://www.mindtheproduct.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/FtcHV58aUAA2WEZ.jpeg 1200w, https://www.mindtheproduct.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/FtcHV58aUAA2WEZ-300x157.jpeg 300w, https://www.mindtheproduct.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/FtcHV58aUAA2WEZ-1024x536.jpeg 1024w, https://www.mindtheproduct.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/FtcHV58aUAA2WEZ-768x402.jpeg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" /></h2>
<h2>Getting started in product</h2>
Looking back on his career, Yi-Wei explains how he started in a Design Researcher role at IBM. “I loved the fact that I could go deep to understand customers and how they used our product. We regularly got into the crux of understanding what was working for our customers and what wasn’t.”
After a few years of working in research for IBM, Yi-Wei then transitioned into product at Microsoft where he worked at Microsoft&#8217;s Developer Division (DevDiv) to build products for the builders of the world. “At Microsoft, I was responsible for developing tools to make it easier for engineers to build apps in the Windows Ecosystem. Building products for software engineers is character building, as they have the highest standards for what their tools must be able to do!” he says reflecting on his time at the large technology firm.
Since starting his career as a Product Manager for Microsoft, he has grown in his craft from strength to strength, undertaking roles such as Head of Growth, and VP of Product working for a number of organisations across the globe.
Most recently, Yi-Wei has been enjoying building products that sit in the intersection of technology and the physical world at talabat (Delivery Hero). In his current role as a Chief Product Officer, he has seen the team grow from 20 to 130 people over the past few years as they rise to the challenge of building products for a growing base of customers who order food and groceries through the digital app. Yi-Wei and his product team have been relishing the challenge of building a product that offers an engaging experience for its users both on the digital and physical side.
<h2>Creating a culture of failing</h2>
The last time Yi-Wei spoke at #mtpcon Digital APAC in 2021, he delved into the topic of rethinking our relationships and maximising commercial business impacts through ‘product-led’ decision-making—<a href="https://www.mindtheproduct.com/driving-commercial-impact-for-product-teams-by-yi-wei-ang/">you can read a recap of his keynote here</a>. This time around at #mtpcon <a href="https://www.mindtheproduct.com/mtpcon/san-francisco/?utm_source=InternationWDContent&amp;utm_medium=content&amp;utm_campaign=mtpconsanfran">San Francisco</a> in June, Yi-Wei feels like it’s important to speak about the importance of team culture in product teams.
“2023 is the year of being reflective and being experimental. How do we build a culture that allows for vulnerability and by extension, courageous decisions to be made? And why is it important? That’s the question that I’ll be looking to answer in my keynote session.” he explains.
Today, there’s so much learning material out there that tells us to create a mindset of continuous discovery and experimentation. However, the starting point of teams being able to do that is whether their organization’s culture allows for vulnerability and failure. Yi-Wei believes that instilling this thinking has to come both from the individual, and more from the organisation. Companies play a key part in planting this mindset of free thinking and discovery within the culture of the company.
There are so many moments as a product manager where you need to make courageous decisions. For example, deciding to go down a path not taken by a dominant competitor, or to take a product decision that goes against conventional wisdom, he explains. “The hardest part of product is when these moments come up and you need to make these calls.
“If you’re in an environment that allows for bold decisions and experimentation, then that’s where the real innovation starts to develop,”  Yi-Wei says.
<h2>All sounds pretty straightforward…right?</h2>
Many product managers and leaders already know the importance of experimenting and failing. However, the challenge arises when you try to encourage your whole team to think in this way.
“If you speak to nine out of 10 product managers and ask them if they know the importance of discovery and prototyping, they’ll say ‘yes, of course’, but many leaders don’t know why it’s so hard to instil this culture and have been battling this issue for years” he explains.
Yi-Wei hopes that his talk at #mtpcon San Francisco will give product managers and leaders a few ideas to feel heard, and be hopeful that organisational culture can change over time with the right resources and communication methods.
“When product managers can gain the power to influence this culture of failing and experimentation, then that’s where the real magic starts to happen” he closes.
<hr />
Join Yi-Wei and other amazing keynote speakers at<a href="https://www.mindtheproduct.com/mtpcon/san-francisco/?utm_source=InternationWDContent&amp;utm_medium=content&amp;utm_campaign=mtpconsanfran"> #mtpcon San Francisco, happening on June 14</a>. Join us in person or online.

core/freeform

Making product magic with cross-functional collaboration by Ebi Atawodi

10 years Wiser: Lessons learned from scaling Wise by Nilan Peiris

Breaking down misconceptions to create healthier teams by Adrian Howard

Creating courageous product teams with Yi-Wei Ang

Mastering perspective – zoom in, zoom out as a product leader by Navya Rehani Gupta

Building healthy and high performing teams with West Monroe

The importance of psychological safety for remote teams by Diana Stepner

Common transformation pitfalls by Marty Cagan

Building a digital product organisation, brick by brick by Nils Michaelis

Product, dance, and pockets of brilliance by Pippa Topp

Creating a culture of vulnerability in product teams with Yi-Wei Ang

ProductTank Pune

ProductTank Hyderabad

ProductTank Valencia

ProductTank Auckland

ProductTank Helsinki

ProductTank Barcelona

ProductTank Lomé

ProductTank Wellington

ProductTank San Diego

ProductTank Canberra

ProductTank Perth

ProductTank Hong Kong

ProductTank Bangkok

ProductTank Doha

ProductTank Tel Aviv-Yafo

ProductTank Baku

ProductTank Reston

ProductTank Raleigh

ProductTank Charlotte

ProductTank Washington

ProductTank Richmond

ProductTank Cluj-Napoca

ProductTank Zagreb

ProductTank Amsterdam

ProductTank Edinburgh

ProductTank Paris

ProductTank Hamburg

ProductTank München

ProductTank Manchester

ProductTank Bristol

ProductTank Oxford

ProductTank Madrid

ProductTank Des Moines

ProductTank Dallas

ProductTank Portland

ProductTank Curitiba

ProductTank Chicago

ProductTank Austin

ProductTank Philadelphia

ProductTank Montevideo

ProductTank São Paulo

ProductTank Los Angeles

ProductTank Gdansk

ProductTank Stuttgart

ProductTank Pittsburgh

ProductTank Bangalore

ProductTank Chennai

ProductTank Mumbai

ProductTank Fribourg

ProductTank Norwich

ProductTank Zürich

ProductTank Newcastle Upon Tyne

ProductTank Jacksonville

ProductTank Florianópolis

ProductTank Tallinn

ProductTank Denver

ProductTank San Francisco

ProductTank Sheffield

ProductTank Tokyo

ProductTank Valletta

ProductTank Bologna

ProductTank Vancouver

ProductTank Milano

ProductTank Columbus

ProductTank Belfast

ProductTank Montréal

ProductTank Seattle

ProductTank Lausanne

Product Management Foundations BST

Product Management Foundations ET

ProductTank Reading

ProductTank Bielefeld

Communication & Alignment BST

Communication & Alignment ET

ProductTank Frankfurt

ProductTank Bonn

Creating a culture of vulnerability in product teams with Yi-Wei Ang

Louron Pratt

Read more