159: Build What Matters and Ignore the Rest ft. Mark Vanderweide

People of Product

Prioritization is one of the hardest parts of product management — and most teams are getting it wrong.

They’re chasing the loudest voices instead of real impact.

They’re getting distracted by shiny objects like AI.

They fail to solve incongruencies between various areas of their organizations before executing.Mark Vanderweide, Chief Product & Technology Officer at Bungii, has seen this play out across startups, enterprise organizations, and M&A deals. In this episode, he breaks down how great product leaders fight the noise, focus on real value, and align teams before things spiral out of control.

Additional topics include:

* the difference between buyers and users and why it matters

* key takeaways from Mark’s experience in product management in different company sizes

* how to navigate the challenge of aligning newly acquired teams and leadership

* managing competing interests from sales, ops, engineering, and leadership

* AI hype vs. practical use cases

* what separates high-performing product teams from dysfunctional ones

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