Speaking on Product Tank London in 2019
About Beata Kovacs
In 2016 with Marty Cagan in our R&D HQ with Emarsys
I’m a product leader and coach living in London, with 10+ years of experience in digital product management. I’ve personally trained more than 200 product managers on various courses, trainings and coaching programs I’ve assembled and led during my career.
My dad is an electrical engineer, so I grew up around computers and technology. However, I actually ended up in tech by sheer luck at the middle of my 20’s.
I started working as QA manager and soon developed a deep empathy for the users. I spent 50% of my time in heated debates with engineers about missing tooltips or delete functions without confirmations. But even 10 years ago, UX as a discipline was still not considered as an important part of software projects.
But the best part was that I’ve gained incredible stakeholder management, UX and full delivery skills during these years. Ultimately, I was the sole person accountable for project deliveries both internally and externally.
Today when I’m working with other product people, I often revisit those fundamentally important (and often deeply wrong) mental models I’ve learned in those early days. The notion of personal accountability and responsibility, with little or no experience often turns into micro-management, burnout or anxiety and ruins relationships; but with a different mindset, they can be turned into opportunities for leadership, growth and success. But just like someone getting a lightsaber won’t turn them into a Jedi, learning some frameworks, setting up OKRs and submitting board reports won’t get businesses to better outcomes, without allowing the Jedi enough time and focus to understand their power, experiment with the world and figure out a way to create change.
I truly believe that 5 people will always be smarter than 1, and that the job of a product person is to create alignment and help other people make increasingly better decisions. This takes practice, active focus and in a lot of cases, a pinch of hope. Or even better, a pinch of true belief in your own purpose, your mission. Because product management is a marathon, and often gets lonely.
During my years in product I’ve met incredible people who inspired, helped and supported me in countless ways. So now I’m on a mission to become one of them. Helping others to get to even bigger heights, and keep on learning through the shared challenges we all have to tackle on our way becoming real product heroes.
What People Are Saying
“
Jessica taught me so much about a subject I thought I was already an expert on: myself!
”
— KATY F.
“Beata is one of the most enthusiastic, driven and talented colleagues I have ever worked with. A true leader with a mix of creative thinking, innovation and the ability to communicate across many different teams and stakeholders. Beata is self-driven and delivered many large-scale projects that contributed directly to the success of the team and the company. Her in-depth knowledge of digital solutions and ability to build subject-matter knowledge is testament her skill and experience. I would recommend Beata as a highly valued member of any team with the utmost enthusiasm, she brings an incredible work ethic and positivity along with her skills and experience.”
— Linkedin recommendation
“Beata is a person with a true passion for product management. I have worked with her mainly on people related issues and I have experienced her as a person who is capable of understanding and resolving very complex problems with quick thinking and sharp focus. She is devoted to the people she is working with and eager to learn new things, one after the other. She is definitely a very talented professional. I have always appreciated her questions and her challenging style.”
— Linkedin recommendation
“Her ability to think strategically and look at the big picture, even in a high demanding product role, are two main reasons behind her success.”
— Linkedin recommendation
A bit more from me
Blogs
Wootric Blog: The Art of Prioritization
Medium: I’m a product manager and recently I found myself struggling — with myself
Meetups
Product management
ProductTank London: The Elephant in the Room (17 min)
Apply the same discovery processes to legacy products that you would if you were starting from scratch. Pocket-sized principles can guide the way your team works and the way you deliver value to your users.
Product teams / leadership
ProductTank London: Scaling Matters (12 min)
How do we take a product or team to the next stage? Here’s my starter playbook for scaling a startup and the strategic areas that need to be addressed, including: Goals and priorities, Skills and people, Culture and process
London Tech Ladies: Feedback: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (76min with Q&A)
Giving and receiving feedback is one of the riskiest areas in every relationship. Badly executed feedback can be more hurtful than a punch in the face. It can destroy relationships - and trust - faster, than any mistake.
Bad feedback happens for many reasons, but mostly because humans are doing it without even realising it's happening. It's most of the time deeply personal and emotional, rooted in the strongest (negative) emotions such as anger or fear.
Good feedback grows people and relationships, and facilitates constructive conversations even in the most difficult situations. And once you learn how to do it, you'll never want to go back to the old ways.