Make Things That Matter
Make Things That Matter
MJ Jastrebski: How to build resilience and stay buoyant as a CPO
0:00
Current time: 0:00 / Total time: -1:15:09
-1:15:09

MJ Jastrebski: How to build resilience and stay buoyant as a CPO

From product market fit to global expansion: scaling up in retail tech
MJ Jastrebski

MJ Jastrebski is the CPO of Stylitics, a rapidly scaling retail technology company that helps retail websites automate styling and bundling for their consumers.

In this conversation, we explore how product roles and product strategy evolve over time, and zoom in on :

  • how to stay buoyant through the ups and downs

  • how your role as a product person changes as you climb the career ladder

  • how your mindset must change when you become an executive

  • and how strategy evolves as a company moves from finding PMF to scaling up

Listen now on Apple, Spotify, Google, and Youtube.


Topics discussed

(00:07:20) Understanding product roles/levels, influence, and career growth.

(00:13:10) Product and process management at different levels.

(00:19:22) Leadership training emphasizes accountability among executive teams, prioritizing cross-functional exec peer relationships & alignment.

(00:28:27) The importance of buoyancy.

(00:36:17) How mindfulness and empathy are important for effective leadership.

(00:43:41) What Stylitics is doing and how it's scaling up

(00:47:12) Expanding internationally and into new verticals. Emphasis on shipping and team muscle building.

(00:55:38) Creating product families to address pain points, setting expectations, iterating with alpha, beta, and GA stages, building retailer relationships, understanding different market needs.

(01:02:08) Changing roles, building skills, and evolving identity.

(01:11:30) Creating psychological safety is crucial for innovation. It allows people to take risks without fear of judgment or failure. This enables organizations to gather more information and make better decisions.

Links & resources mentioned

Find the full transcript at: https://podcast.makethingsthatmatter.com/mj-jastrebski-how-to-build-resilience-and-stay-buoyant-as-a-leader/#transcript

Related episodes:

People & orgs:

Books:

Other resources:

Discussion about this podcast

Make Things That Matter
Make Things That Matter
What if our products and companies gave more life to everything they touched? Making this a reality is our quest, through impactful product leadership, strategy, decision making, and culture.