When your product is not THE product by Emily Tate at #mtpcon London 2025
This #mtpcon London keynote from former Mind the Product managing director Emily Tate, now VP of Product at IVC Evidensia, examines the job that internal product managers do. Watch the video in full or read on for our key takeaways.
Emily starts with an anecdote about a Citibank loan to Revlon – $900m was supposed to be moved to an internal account but it ended up being sent to an external account. It transpired that the staff had omitted to tick two boxes and so the mistake was ruled to be a human error and Citibank was unable to retrieve about a quarter of the payment.
There is so much technology powering our companies that no one externally ever sees, says Emily, so every company is a tech-enabled company. More of us are building the internal enabling products than are building the consumer tech products we all know and talk about.
Building internal products
We tell ourselves that the products we build for internal users don’t have to be as polished as those that are built for external customers, even though we have the tools and techniques to build them just as well as the products we want to sell.
- Bad internal products impact your productivity. Knowledge workers lose about 5.5 hours a week to poor digital experiences, says Emily.
- Bad internal products also impact happiness. Twenty nine percent of respondents to a recent Computer Weekly survey said their internal technology made them want to quit.
- Good internal products can drive real value. They can reduce the time spent on tasks and provide insights for better decisions.
How is internal product management different?
There’s a perception that things have to be done very differently when you build things for your colleagues, Emily says, but this isn’t entirely correct. Broadly, the same product skills and techniques apply to B2B, B2C and internal products. But it’s nuanced and some specific areas are more important, and Emily presents four lessons she’s learned about internal product management.
You don’t own the metric
In internal product management, partners are on the hook for delivering outcomes, they evaluate the options to meet their goals. They bring product options that require tech and success is building to their requirements. Emily explains some ways to work with stakeholders in this scenario.
Viability is your biggest risk
Will it work for the business? Emily has found that viability – rather than value, usability or feasibility – is the most important thing to look at in an internal product. Will the business support investing in your product? Emily says your biggest competitor is “good enough”. Will the business support rolling it out?
Users should be easy to access
It’s not always that simple – you still will have gatekeepers between you and your users. Your users may be sceptical or fearful of what you’re doing, so make sure you show empathy with your users.
Storytelling and narrative are even more important
You can’t assume that people will be on board with an MVP, says Emily, and it will take time to win trust in your vision.
“Building internal products can be a really difficult job,” says Emily. “But when you get it right it is so fulfilling. You are helping your colleagues reach their goals. You are helping your company reach success.”
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About the author
Eira Hayward
Eira is an editor for Mind the Product. She's been a business journalist, editor, and copywriter for longer than she cares to think about.
