I’m joined today by Faraz Jamal - Director of product at Banyan Security

Faraz and I were colleagues at VMware and someone that I’ve worked closely with for few years and even watched him transition into Product Management. Faraz left VMware to join an enterprise B2B security startup few years back and has symbiotically grown with the startup in it’s early stage growth. We spoke about how to go against the Big Fish being an early stage startup in the enterprise space, how they prioritize, make decisions and some hot takes on making gut based decisions. I wanted to get Faraz on this podcast as I felt like he was poised to share stark differences and challenges and he’s seen it on both sides of being with the Big Fish and now swimming as a small fish in the red ocean of enterprise B2B.

Chapters:

00:05:53 The Challenges Of Being A Product Manager: Prioritizing And Problem Solving

00:10:42 Balancing Urgency And Team Growth In Product Development

00:15:14 Leaders Should Remember The Purpose Of Their Company

00:18:44 The Importance Of Gut Instinct In Startups For Career Success

00:23:36 Selling What You Build vs Building What You Sell

00:26:20 Mitigating Risk And Validating Functionality In Product Management

00:29:33 Balancing Customer Segments And Upsell Opportunities For Sales

00:33:22 Prioritizing Outcomes, Pragmatism, And Happiness In Startup Culture

00:35:13 Importance Of Knowing If Employees Are Committed For The Right Reasons

Key Takeaways

1. Prioritization frameworks should start with the company vision and strategy, but also incorporate gut instinct from product leaders to make the right calls.

2. Startups should focus on building for a big shift in the market, rather than trying to compete with larger incumbents on features alone.

3. It's important to identify early on whether team members are aligned with the company's mission and vision, and manage them out if necessary.

Where to find Faraz

Linkedin : ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/fjamal15/⁠

Where to find Naveen

Linkedin : https://linkedin.com/in/naveenpitchandi

Twitter : @numberlock11

Instagram : @numberlock11