Roee Froman | Taboola | Building Storytelling That Sells, and Making Product Decisions With Less Risk - Product Builder Podcast episode with Eyal David
00:37:08

Roee Froman | Taboola | Building Storytelling That Sells, and Making Product Decisions With Less Risk

Host: · Guest: Roee Froman

In this episode

  • You don't sell a feature — you sell a precise problem: start from the customer's real pain, not the solution, and frame it so they say "that's exactly where it hurts".
  • A good PM knows how to break a complex problem into digestible cubes — and to build human trust with customers to distill the real problem.
  • A feature must serve the company's goals: think in Dev-to-Cash and Time-to-Market terms, not just "how much effort".
  • A prioritization spreadsheet doesn't decide for you — it exposes what you're betting on; the weight of each criterion is ultimately a business decision.
  • Talk to Legal, Support, Engineering, Sales and the CPO before a heavy decision; one strong customer quote is sometimes worth more than another chart.

Listen to this episode

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Episode Description

Roee Froman, Product Marketing Director at Taboola, on one of the most critical places in product work: how you take a big, messy problem, break it down, prioritize well — and then tell it so a customer, leadership and internal teams understand why it matters. Through the example of a startup trying to break into the market, the episode dives into the practice of discovery, working with stakeholders, prioritizing with a spreadsheet, thinking in Dev-to-Cash and Time-to-Market, and building a story that starts from the customer's real pain, not from the solution.

Chapters

  1. 00:00 · Meeting Roee and his background in Product, Pre-Sales and Product Marketing
  2. 01:38 · The most important skills for product people: breaking down problems, and people
  3. 03:34 · Start from the end: what the company goal really demands of the product
  4. 04:50 · A startup example: automating a manual financial process
  5. 05:52 · Does the feature serve the company's goals?
  6. 07:04 · Who must be part of the discussion before you build
  7. 09:54 · Improve the story without falling in love with it
  8. 11:51 · How a spreadsheet helps frame bets, not replace a decision
  9. 14:12 · Strong opinions, loosely held — how to approach prioritization
  10. 17:02 · Ask customers about alternatives, not just wants
  11. 18:42 · Understanding what motivates each stakeholder
  12. 21:49 · How to build a story around a real problem
  13. 23:38 · The Roaming-world example: how clear pain led to a big deal
  14. 26:38 · How to weight metrics differently by context
  15. 29:03 · Communication channels: face-to-face, Zoom, email and what each enables
  16. 32:43 · Books and tools that helped Roee in storytelling and negotiation
  17. 33:56 · The best way to improve: join sales calls
  18. 35:35 · Negotiation as a meeting of needs, constraints and capabilities
  19. 36:22 · Why this episode is relevant for founders too, not only product people
Read the full transcript
Full transcript with speakers and timestamps

Selected quotes

“A product manager who isn't a people person is in trouble.”
— Roee Froman
“I like to come equipped with the company's capabilities, not with solutions.”
— Roee Froman
“Quotes are sometimes better than any number you can bring.”
— Roee Froman

Questions & answers

Why "sell a problem, not a feature"?

Because people buy when they feel you're solving a real problem for them, not because of a shiny logo or a nice feature. Roee recommends distilling the customer's problem (and notes it's sometimes harder to sell a big problem than a distilled one), and building a story around it that connects to their pain and KPIs.

How do you build a sales story that starts from the customer's pain?

Start from the problem — bring the customer into their world of pain ("when you close the year, what's hardest for you?"), and only then connect the product's capabilities to the solution. Roee tells of a big Roaming-world deal closed fast because the pain was clear — and stresses coming "equipped with the company's capabilities, not finished solutions".

How do you use a prioritization spreadsheet without letting it "decide" for you?

The spreadsheet is meant to frame the discussion, not be absolute truth. Collect criteria (leveraging infrastructure, dev availability, revenue potential, fit to vision), score all features uniformly, and remember that each criterion's weight reflects the bet the company chooses — e.g. a high weight on Time-to-Market when dev resources are scarce.

Who should you involve before deciding on a heavy feature?

Roee calls it idea-to-execution: identify everyone involved — Engineering, Legal (especially in finance/regulation), Support, Sales and the CPO — understand what motivates each persona (fewer glitches? less downtime? a specific KPI?), and give them feedback to keep trust and continuity.

What's the best way to improve at storytelling and sales?

Practice in the field: join sales calls as a "fly on the wall", gradually lower the salesperson's and the customer's defenses, and learn from there. Roee also recommends Simon Sinek's Start With Why and Never Split the Difference on negotiation as a meeting of needs, constraints and capabilities.

People & resources mentioned

People

Companies & orgs

  • Taboola
  • Michal Sela Forum

Tools

  • Excel / Spreadsheet (feature prioritization)
  • Priority
  • Zoom
  • Gemini
  • API
  • SMS

Books & media

  • Start With Why — Simon Sinek
  • Never Split the Difference
Product Marketing Storytelling Prioritization Decision-making Customer problem Dev to Cash Sales Taboola

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