191. We Have to Stop Confusing Speed with Progress: Rich Mironov on Real Product Work

Is your product team always sprinting, yet the business impact stays flat? Are sales and stakeholder demands pulling you in ten directions at once? Do you know how to talk about product in a way that makes execs care?

In this episode of the Productized Podcast, host Pedro Ganço sits down with Rich Mironov, a legendary product leadership coach with 40+ years of experience, to unpack what real product work looks like.

Spoiler: it’s not just shipping features faster.

You’ll learn:

➡️ Why speed ≠ progress—and how to tell the difference

➡️ How to protect your roadmap from sales-driven chaos

➡️ What real product incentives should focus on

➡️ How to speak the language of money when talking to execs

➡️ What AI will (and won’t) solve in product discovery

➡️ How to rebuild joy and clarity into your product team’s mission

Chapters:

02:11 Understanding Product Management Basics

04:42 Rich Mironov's Career Journey and Insights

05:28 Transitioning to Portugal and Community Involvement

05:37 Missing Silicon Valley: A Personal Reflection

08:28 The Misconceptions of Product Management

11:51 B2B Challenges: Navigating Sales and Product Dynamics

14:55 The Language of Money: Bridging Product and Sales

17:52 Incentives and Conflicts: Aligning Sales and Product Goals

20:55 Designing an Ideal Organization: Lessons from Experience

26:32 Navigating Product Management in an AI-Driven World

35:09 The Attention Economy: Standing Out in a Noisy Market

35:57 Finding Joy in Product Management

43:06 Lessons from Failure: The CEO Perspective

46:49 The Language of Money in Product Leadership

Join Rich live at Productized Conference 2025 in Lisbon!

Rich's Talk: “Business Cases Are Stories About Money”

Learn how to build financial narratives that actually win over stakeholders.

Rich's Workshop: “Product Leadership, Customer Value, and Talking Money with Stakeholders”

Hands-on lessons in influence, alignment, and navigating real-world product leadership.

🔗 Connect with Rich: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richmironov/

🔗 Connect with Pedro: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pedroganco/

🔗 Rich's Talk from Productized Conference 2024: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-dZnX5u9Cw

🔗 Rich's Previous Podcast Episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGLv0Rzcgz4

🔗 The Art of Product Management Book: https://www.amazon.com/Art-Product-Management-Lessons-Innovator/dp/1439216061

🎟️ Productized Conference 2025 | Oct 2025

Productized offers a high-value, community-centered Conference that balances big ideas, hands-on skill-building, and top-tier networking, all in a dynamic Lisbon setting. If your role involves shaping and scaling products, it's a must go Conference!

🔗 Learn more and join us live in Lisbon: https://www.productized.co

🔔 Don’t forget to subscribe for more episodes from the frontlines of product, design, and transformation.

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