שוקי אהרונוביץ׳ | Augury | The empowered PM
Host: Eyal David · Guest: Shuki Aharonovich · About the host
According to Shuki Aharonovich, Group Product Manager at Augury, a good product manager thinks first in the problem space, not the solution. The core tool is an Opportunity Tree — a breathing document that starts from a metric and breaks it down into problems and opportunities down to atomic ones, and also aligns stakeholders. Solve the smallest, well-defined problem first.
In this episode
- Shuki's three most important PM skills: effective communication and storytelling, problem space thinking, and a growth mindset — the assumption that you can always learn and improve.
- The central exercise in storytelling is editing: trimming down what you say and telling it simply 'to your grandmother or a child,' and at the same time listening more and talking less.
- An Opportunity Tree is a breathing document that starts from a metric, breaks it down into problems and opportunities all the way to atomic problems, and also serves as a strong alignment tool with stakeholders who tend to jump to the solution space.
- It's better to first solve the smallest, most well-defined problem; if one solution happens to touch several branches of the tree that's a bonus, but not the starting point.
- You need to build the tree on data — quantitative when possible, and qualitative (conversations with users and stakeholders) when not; sharing the tree is the safeguard that lets others 'call your bluff.'
- Landing at a good product company with good product leaders is a 'crazy unlock' — you don't know what you don't know until you experience such work processes from the inside.
Listen to this episode
Episode Description
Shuki Aharonovich is a Group Product Manager at Augury, an Israeli startup that detects industrial machine failures months in advance using a physical sensor and cloud-based models, and that sells to the world's largest factories such as Nestlé and Colgate. In the episode he talks about the unique experience of building a product that combines the physical and digital worlds for users on the production floor, and about the long road he traveled until he found a product company with a real 'product culture.' The core of the conversation is Marty Cagan's Empowered PM philosophy — autonomous, metrics-driven teams — and the Opportunity Tree method as a tool for thinking in the problem space and for prioritization.
Full transcript with speakers and timestamps
Selected quotes
“I listened to Marty Cagan's book and tears started streaming from my eyes, because he actually described so well the feelings I felt about how I work today”
“I'm not the best product manager in this industry I'm in, I'm not the best product manager in the company, I have things to learn and things to improve”
“Even the best athletes in the world need coaches”
Questions & answers
What does Augury do?
Augury provides a solution that detects machine failures in factories months before the failure happens. A physical sensor (that looks like a blue salt shaker) attaches to the machine, collects data on vibrations, magnetic fields, and temperature, and sends it to the cloud where dozens of models detect anomalies and problems. The solution replaces the route based monitoring method, in which a technician comes once a quarter to take samples.
What is an Empowered PM?
A term from Marty Cagan's book describing multidisciplinary, autonomous, metrics-driven teams — instead of teams that 'receive' a roadmap from above and implement a cell in an Excel sheet. The PM gets up in the morning, talks to customers, identifies problems, and builds solutions together with the team, out of ownership and closeness to the customer and the problem.
What is an Opportunity Tree and how do you use it?
A method popularized by Teresa Torres: a diagram that starts from a metric/target at the top and breaks it down into all the problems and opportunities preventing you from reaching it, down to atomic problems from which you derive a solution. At Augury it's the first output of discovery, a breathing document that constantly changes, and also serves to create alignment with stakeholders.
What does Shuki look for when he hires a PM?
Three skills: (1) effective communication and storytelling — the ability to explain a complex concept simply and rally people behind it; (2) problem space thinking — the ability to distill problems, separate problem from solution, and prioritize; (3) growth mindset — humility and a constant desire to learn and improve.
How did Shuki become a product manager?
He didn't explicitly decide — he worked on technological side projects (a site with quotes over cat photos, a network of webcams to detect open parking spots in Tel Aviv). His roommate asked whether he'd thought about being a Product Manager; he read about the role and felt it was exactly the jack of all trades that suited him. He started in adtech, and later, following a podcast by Gil Hirsch and Marty Cagan's book, searched for almost a year until he found a real product company — Augury.
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