"My manager gave me detailed instructions on what to do, but I kept asking why" #Noonies2021

Hey Hackers! I’m Noa Ganot, founder of Infinify - a product leadership academy and strategic consulting service, designed to help product leaders and their companies grow.

First of all, a huge thank you to the HackerNoon community and staff for nominating me for a few 2021 Noonies awards! I’ve been nominated in the following categories please do check out these award pages and vote:

1. HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - leadership:

   ​​https://noonies.tech/award/2021-hackernoon-contributor-of-the-year-leadership

2. HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - management: https://noonies.tech/award/2021-hackernoon-contributor-of-the-year-management

3. HackerNoon Contributor of the Year - product-management: https://noonies.tech/award/2021-hackernoon-contributor-of-the-year-product-management

As someone in the tech industry, I believe that the most exciting technology of the present is the entrance of big data into the medical field because it has the potential to revolutionize so many lives.

It really demonstrates the possibilities that open up when we learn from past events at real scale. Learn more about my thoughts and opinions on https://ganotnoa.com/deep-product/ and my journey in the tech industry via the interview below.

1. What do you do and why do you do it? (tell us your story)

Infinify helps product leaders and their companies grow. We provide product-market fit strategic consulting and specialized mentoring services, alongside our flagship program the CPO Bootcamp.

I founded the company since I saw firsthand how challenging the role of the product leader is, and how little resources they have to power their growth.

The product leader’s manager (e.g. the CEO) is typically not a product person and cannot guide them professionally.

On the other hand, their role is so critical to the company’s success that it must be performed in the best possible manner.

It is my personal passion and mission to help product leaders grow and take their companies to new heights.

2. Tell us more about the things you create / write / manage / build!

We offer various training programs: digital courses, lectures, and the CPO Bootcamp - a unique training program for senior product leaders who want to step up their game and upgrade their management skills. They may further use it to upgrade their skills in order to fit the product leadership role better or to enter the ‘major league.’

Furthermore, we offer ‘Deep Product,’ the blog that reveals insights and advice from the deeper layers of product leadership.

3. How did you end up on your current career path? Do you like it?

I was an R&D manager on my path to becoming a VP someday when I found myself in the product field quite by chance and simply fell in love.

In 2005, after many years of being involved in R&D for several companies, I joined Attunity (later acquired by Qlik for $560 million) as development manager for a new product they wanted to build.

My manager gave me detailed instructions on what to do, but I kept asking why.

After some market research, I returned to him and said that what they were asking me to do would not achieve the goal they were striving for.

After asking a lot of questions and getting detailed answers from me, he was convinced.

The project’s resources quadrupled in order to support the new direction, and once the product was released, it was a huge success.

Long story short, this experience opened me up to a new and fascinating world that led me to change direction and become a product leader.

As luck would have it, at the time I entered the product field, ‘product manager’ was considered a very senior position, which allowed me to experience a wide range of challenges.

I managed one of Imperva’s two products at the time, with an end-to-end guarantee on the roadmap, and direct involvement in the results, i.e. sales of the product. I led the product for 3 years until an IPO of close to half a billion dollars in 2011.

I then moved to eBay, where I founded and managed the product management group at the company's development center in Israel. My team of professionals and I, established a very strong development group that led to the transfer to Israel.

The transfer included significant parts of the company's Structured Data group, allowing us to produce and manage notable business insights based on working with Big Data on a scale not yet seen in Israel.

After serving as a startup mentor in various programs, I joined Twiggle during their seed phase, when their technology still had no product. During my time there, Twiggle grew to nearly 100 people as we raised another $15 million owing to my personal involvement.

We then started selling the product to some of the largest eCommerce companies in the world.

In 2017 I recognized a gap in the understanding and application of the strategic role of the person leading the product in the company and started my own consulting firm.

Since then, I have been accompanying product leaders and company executives in strategic processes that change their entire company's view of the market -- helping senior product people succeed in this all too complex and important role.

4. What tech are you most excited or passionate about right now and why?

The revolution of the medical field with the help of technology. Specifically, what big data and AI can do for medicine as we know it today.

The ability to learn from the knowledge accumulated from humanity as a whole instead of just your local doctor is exhilarating. It has the potential to provide better care for everyone on the planet.

5. What tech are you most worried about right now and why?

Not so much tech, but rather how tech is used for fake news, violence, and hate speech.

I have three young daughters, and I’d like to see them able to navigate safely in the world of social media.

6. If we gave you 10 million dollars to invest in something today, what would you invest in and why?

Following my answer to the previous question, I would invest in technologies that help keep our children safe online.

This includes both education and prevention. Technology is awesome, and I love that my daughters are experiencing it early on. However, to allow them to experience it freely and fully we must make sure they are safe.

7. What are you currently learning?

I’m currently learning about how to scale your business without compromising quality. So far, if I tried really hard, I was able to win on both fronts - not only make my products more scalable, but make them much better at the same time.

It takes some creativity as well as a ton of commitment, but it's doable. When it isn't, it's still worth the effort because this way, you have a better grasp of the real constraints and boundaries of your business.

Now, it’s time to take it to the next level :-)

8. What’s the best advice you’ve ever given someone?

Don't wait for an invitation to do product strategy, because you won't get it.

Not because your managers don't want you to, but simply because they don't know how and what to ask.

Often, when I talk to CEOs about the gaps they see with their product leaders, they say something like "I want my product leader to be more strategic".

That's great, really, since that's a major part of the role. But when I ask them what they mean by that, or to give me examples of what they want to see, they don't know what to say.

If they haven't worked with a great product leader before, they don't even know what to ask.

It's on you as a product leader to educate them, so that the next time around, they will know exactly what it's like to work with a great product leader and set the bar for your successors.

9. What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

Whenever you talk to someone, start two levels back from what you think they already know.

==If you miscalculated and they know less than you think - this gets you covered. If they knew but don't quite remember - this helps to get them back up to speed quickly. ==

If they know more than you think, it’s still useful, as it helps them to make the context switch from their previous meeting or thought more smoothly.

Apply this in your emails, presentations, meetings, or any other form of communication, whenever you want to make sure the other side gets what you’re saying.

About HackerNoon’s 2021 Noonie Awards

The annual Noonie Awards celebrate the best and brightest of the tech industry, bringing together all who are making the Internet and the world of tech what it is today.

Please be sure to check out our award categories, nominate, and vote for the people and companies who you think are making the biggest impact on the tech industry today.

The 2021 Noonies are sponsored by: bybit, Dottech Domains, and Avast. Thank you so much to these sponsors who are helping us celebrate the accomplishments of all our nominees.