Celebrating the Birth of Product Management With the Industry Leaders of 2020

July 16th, 2020 | MSPM Program

Just a few months ago, CMU MS in Product Management Program celebrated a very special day – 05/13/31. It was on this day, 89 years ago that Procter & Gamble promotions executive Neil H. McElroy wrote a memorandum that gave birth to the field of Product Management. MSPM, the first degree program to focus exclusively on building better product managers, struck ten “51331” commemorative coins and sent them to industry leaders who represent the best of what’s happening in our field in 2020. We’re excited to share who they are with you today.

Teresa Torres
Product Discovery Coach
@ Product Talk

“Too much of the world is created by people who think they know what other people want. Most of us have no idea how often we are wrong. Great Product Managers recognize both things and work to co-create solutions with their customers; but, co-creation is foreign to many of us. I’m passionate about spreading the word so that we have more human-centered products, services, policies and laws in the world.”

April Dunford
Speaker, Author, CEO
@ Ambient Strategy

Ash Maurya
Founder
@ LEANSTACK

“After spending years building multiple products with mixed results, this became my mantra: ‘Life's too short to build something nobody wants.’ I turned introspectively to study why products fail – starting with my own products and then expanding to study other products by way of coaching and advising. The end-goal is creating a practicable meta-framework for shortening cycle times from idea to product/market fit.”

Sachin Rekhi
Founder & CEO
@ Notejoy

"I'm obsessed with creating delightful product experiences, which fuels my passion for the craft of product management and search for the best practices on how to repeatedly delight customers. I also love sharing everything I've learned in the process, now with over 150+ product essays on SachinRekhi.com."

Steve Johnson
Founder & CEO
@ Under10 Consulting

“I’m obsessed with building successful products — and the key is getting the right information directly from potential buyers and users of the product. My focus is on standardizing the product roles and building a playbook of methods to ensure that every product decision is based on its impact on customers.”

Rich Mironov
CEO
@ Mironov Consulting

“Companies spend incredible amounts of time and money building software – but so much of it doesn't matter, or doesn't work, or frustrates the intended users. My passion for great product work comes from my love for understanding important problems and rallying great teams around solving them.”

Jeff Lash
VP and Group Director, Product Management Research
@ Forrester

“Product Management ultimately focuses on helping people and making their lives or work better. It marries two aspects that I've always been interested in – understanding needs, problems and opportunities; and coming up with creative solutions. In the work that I do now at Forrester, I have the chance to apply these aspects even further – helping Product Management leaders and their teams learn how to improve their practices so they can help people and organizations.”

Dan Olsen
Product Management Trainer, Consultant and Author of The Lean Product Playbook
@ Olsen Solutions

“I enjoy sharing best practices and helping product teams improve their skills. I am passionate about creating the learning resources that I wish had been available to me when I started my product management career.”

Roman Pichler
Product management author, consultant, and trainer
@ Pichler Consulting Limited

“My passion for product management comes from the desire to help product people do a great job and master the challenges of successfully managing digital products.”