Who Owns the Experience of Work? Managers as Product Managers | Alex Komoroske

This is the third in a series of episodes with world-leading product management  experts about how we might build product management best practices into team leadership. 

Alex Komoroske spent years as either a Product Manager or Director of Product Management for platforms that most of us use every day: Chrome, Google Maps, Google Earth, and others. He then went on to lead corporate strategy at Stripe, another platform \most of us use every day.  While at Google, Alex wrote an internal how-to called “Practical PM Stuff” that many Google PMs referred to as the Product Managers Bible.  It covered everything from basics like how to answer an email to esoterica like the difference between complexity and ambiguity or how Schelling points form in organizations. 

In this episode, Dart and Alex discuss:
- Work as an ecosystem, not a machine
- Indirect influence over direct control
- How frameworks can kill creativity
- The role of product management in work design
- How companies stifle innovation
- The power of riding momentum
- Managers as curators, not controllers
- Balancing autonomy and structure
- Why great ideas bypass leadership
- And other topics...

Alex Komoroske is a product leader and systems thinker who specializes in platforms and ecosystems. Alex is known for his "Gardening Platforms" approach, which encourages guiding ecosystems toward greatness instead of controlling them. Now Co-CEO of Common Tools, he continues to explore how technology and organizations evolve.

Resources Mentioned:
Finite and Infinite Games, by James Carse: https://www.amazon.com/Finite-Infinite-Games-James-Carse/dp/1476731713

The Stacy Barton conversation about Disney storytelling and work. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/immersive-experience-design-how-to-use-story-to-design/id1612743401?i=1000599527522 

The Marty Cagan conversation about product management and work   https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-to-design-products-people-love-principles-and/id1612743401?i=1000668997003 

The David Obstfeld conversation about brokering social networks and work https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/social-networks-the-1-predictor-of-economic/id1612743401?i=1000677462011 

Connect with Alex:
Website: https://www.komoroske.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-komoroske-6597336/
Twitter: https://x.com/komorama

Work with Dart:
Dart is the CEO and co-founder of the work design firm 11fold. Build work that makes employees feel alive, connected to their work, and focused on what’s most important to the business. Book a call at 11fold.com.