A better approach to the product team process - John Cutler (Head of Product, Dotwork)

In this episode of The Product Experience, host Randy Silver sits down with product veteran John Cutler to explore why creating great products remains one of the hardest things organisations do. They dive into why so many companies adopt off‑the‑shelf models (“Spotify”, “SAFe”, etc) and still struggle, and how the secret often lies not in what you build but how you build it—specifically the game you design for how you work.

Chapters 00:00 — The stigma around “how you work” 00:54 — Introducing John Cutler (again) 01:25 — What John’s building at Dotwork 02:46 — From fun to formal: doing discovery at scale 04:04 — Why process became a bad word 05:10 — The “cavalier PM” mindset 06:28 — Empowered teams vs. harsh realities 08:00 — What great pockets of practice have in common 09:03 — Managing up vs. doing the right thing 10:24 — Playing the game vs. designing the game 11:20 — What makes a great internal game 12:33 — Defining success: thriving, surviving, progressing 13:46 — Environmental design: why leaders hesitate 15:10 — Making intentional design less intimidating 16:42 — Tools, rituals, and the power of checkpoints 18:23 — The behaviour design playbook 20:41 — Removing blockers: access, repetition, reflection 22:12 — Replayability and the value of feedback loops 23:29 — Fixing the finance game 25:20 — Creating local spheres of trust 26:27 — Starting with behaviours, not frameworks 28:01 — Diagnosing blockers with behaviour design 29:53 — Identifying anti-patterns with TRIZ 31:08 — The myth of corporate rationality 33:19 — When no complaints doesn’t mean no problems 34:13 — Closing thoughts: are you playing the right game?

Featured Links: Follow John on LinkedIn | Dotwork | John's keynote and feature from INDUSTRY Conference Cleveland 2025 at Mind The Product

Our Hosts Lily Smith enjoys working as a consultant product manager with early-stage and growing startups and as a mentor to other product managers. She’s currently Chief Product Officer at BBC Maestro, and has spent 13 years in the tech industry working with startups in the SaaS and mobile space. She’s worked on a diverse range of products – leading the product teams through discovery, prototyping, testing and delivery. Lily also founded ProductTank Bristol and runs ProductCamp in Bristol and Bath.

Randy Silver is a Leadership & Product Coach and Consultant. He gets teams unstuck, helping you to supercharge your results. Randy's held interim CPO and Leadership roles at scale-ups and SMEs, advised start-ups, and been Head of Product at HSBC and Sainsbury’s. He participated in Silicon Valley Product Group’s Coaching the Coaches forum, and speaks frequently at conferences and events. You can join one of communities he runs for CPOs (CPO Circles), Product Managers (Product In the {A}ether) and Product Coaches. He’s the author of What Do We Do Now? A Product Manager’s Guide to Strategy in the Time of COVID-19. A recovering music journalist and editor, Randy also launched Amazon’s music stores in the US & UK.