Building A Community of Product Leaders
The ProductStart team has trained and consulted with 100s of software companies over the last few decades. Working with over 25,000 product professionals, the most common question is “How can we take ideas we’ve learned and turn them into action?” That’s because the skills learned in traditional learning and coaching environments often don’t meet today’s needs.
The dynamic changes of the workplace and the significant growth of product organizations was the genesis of ProductStart. We’ve built our product to provide assets for the community, companies, and aspiring product managers to address the following needs:
- Guided toolset completion, from product ideation to product launch
- Access to best practices to define and deliver strategic products
- Empower entrepreneurs, start-ups and product teams with the methods to understand market opportunities
- Provide organizations a common language and tools to consistently analyze opportunities and up-skill remote teams
Leadership
John Milburn, Founder and CEO
After working in Marketing, Development, Sales, and as an Executive at large and small technology companies, John Milburn became an Instructor at Pragmatic Institute, specializing in Product Management, Requirements, and Roadmapping. He later built a successful consulting practice, Practical Growth Strategies, where he consults with startups and small companies (2 successful PE acquisitions) and was a founder of ProductStart.io – tools and e-Learning for Product Professionals.
Steve Hardwick, Founder and CTO
Steve is an accomplished professional with over 20 years experience bringing technology products to market, He has worked in a wide range of software, hardware, and semiconductor organizations, including large (Dell and Siemens), and small companies (3 successful startups) in 3 countries. Steve has a Bachelor of Science from the University of Manchester, England and is a technology patent holder.
Charles Topping, Marketing
As founder of The Win-Loss Agency, Charles Topping has built a reputation as a truth-teller in business, working closely with product professionals to defeat inside-out culture. Charles designed and facilitates workshops for Market-Driven Business and designed the Pragmatic Labs series for Pragmatic Institute. Charles has led hands-on workshops and research initiatives for 100s of companies around the world.
Jon Gatrell, Advisor
Jon has served in leadership roles a numerous organization around product and operations. Prior to joining the team, Jon worked as instructor and course designer for Pragmatic Institute where he trained nearly 15,000 product professionals in the art of outside-in business. Jon serves as an active board member in several software companies and serves as CPO and COO at Loren Data Corp.