Chris Redrich (he/him) - Bootstrapper & SaaS PM

A new adventure begins

Hello there! 👋 My name is Chris Redrich. I am a product management leader with fifteen years of experience building SaaS and marketplace products. I have led teams of 3 all the way to teams of 120 to build world-class web and mobile products. From the B2B collaboration space to talent

Product Management

12 Skills You Need to Unlock a Product Management Career

So you want to become a product manager? You’ve worked in sales and/or technical support for tech startups, but you want to be part of the magic in creating the product. I can see why you’d be drawn to the role of product manager. It’s a

Product Management

These Useful B2B Products Make You Feel Successful

Emotion plays a very strong role in why customers buy and use products. This is even more important for B2B products where the buyer is not always the user. Building B2B products that drive highly engaged users can be difficult. You find yourself balancing the needs of new customers while

Product Management

How to Brainstorm a Startup Idea That Doesn't Suck

Most startup ideas suck. Every startup founder wants to believe that their idea is really great. The truth is that great startup ideas are not aha moments, they are refined by learning. Startup ideas are like uncut diamonds. They have to be cut, refined, and polished before they're

Getting to the Why: 5 Ways to Extract Customer Feedback

Customer feedback is a double edged sword. Startups need customer feedback to iterate, but making sense of the firehose of information can be overwhelming. Startups cannot build their companies in a vacuum devoid of customer feedback. Customer feedback comes from all over the web including Twitter, user forums, Facebook, and

Product Management

The 3 Product Management Tools Your Startup Needs Now

The human desire for tools that improve workflow dates back millions of years. Tools have evolved far beyond the days of stone hammers and spear-heads, while our desire to find new and better ways to do our jobs remains unchanged. Product managers tend to be on the forefront of new

Product Management

How I Pivoted Product Strategy and Grew SaaS Deal Size by 10x

Sometimes the most mundane projects can turn out to be turning points for your startup. Of course, you may not even realize the impact of some of those projects until months or years later. Years ago I was just starting out as the product manager for a SaaS collaboration product

Product Management

How to eliminate risk from your startup idea

Whether you are new to startups or a startup veteran, you will face the fear of building something that nobody cares about. Startup founders (myself included) build before validating ideas. This guide is not intended to replace the fantastic work of Steve Blank, Marty Cagan, or Eric Reiss. They have

Leadership

Three Team Leadership Lessons You Can't Miss

The differences between leadership and management are well studied, documented, and taught in business schools; however, the two are almost always confused in practice. Look at any job description for a product management leadership role and you’ll find things like “Directly manage product managers and team members&

Product Management

The Must-Have Skill for Product Managers

I was recently in an interview and I was asked what skills and traits made a great product manager. I paused for a moment and collected my thoughts before responding. Instead of jumping to listing the skill qualifications for a great product manager, I jumped to the must-have “soft

Growth

The Worst Business Advice

There’s this piece of advice that is routinely given to young entrepreneurs, young professionals, and anyone else who struggles with self-doubt. It has often been retorted to me in moments of authenticity where I share my doubts. On the surface, it’s great advice. Fake it until you make

Growth

Four Ways I Broke the Fear Cycle

Fear is a funny thing. It has a way of convincing you of all sorts of inaccuracies about who you are, what you are good at, and what you’re not good at. Fear running rampant and unnoticed for too long will push you into the dark corner of routine

Growth

Avoiding the Tunnel Vision of Success

For most of my life I have actively pursued this elusive ideal called success. I believed that it was the foundation to happiness. The inherent flaw in that logic is now painfully obvious. I have a nearly unhealthy level of motivation for success. It is something that I will attain