Summary
Product Operations builds the foundation for product and delivery excellence by reinforcing product strategy with metrics, infrastructure, business processes, and best practices. It brings operational discipline to large, complex programs, enabling product managers to maximize the value and outcomes their teams deliver. In this talk, Ivana Ng, Director of Product at Nava PBC, will draw on her experiences co-building modern, user-centered ProductOps and Product Management practices at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Department of Veterans Affairs, to show what ProductOps looks like in reality, and how it can level up your program.
Key Insights
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Nava scaled from 100 to 185 team members in three months by partnering with subcontractors to meet CMS project demands.
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Product operations is essential for coordinating large, multi-company teams rapidly while maintaining quality and continuity.
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Shared processes like product briefs and unified product development lifecycles foster consistent outcomes across 14 scrum teams.
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Government contracts impose strict restrictions on tool choices, making selection of shared, approved collaboration tools critical.
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Data-driven experimentation embedded in product cycles helps validate hypotheses and improve user outcomes in government services.
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Embedding product thinking within government agencies is crucial to sustain improvements beyond contractor tenure.
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Running 3 new hires per day with varying company cultures demands clear roles, responsibilities, and onboarding processes.
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In complex projects, shared tools streamline license management, reduce bureaucracy, and boost communication efficiency.
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In the Vermont integrated benefits project, consolidating document upload and adding clearer help text raised compliance by 12%.
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Product operations drives four business outcomes: better collaboration, increased output, more efficiency, and higher organizational visibility.
Notable Quotes
"We had to scale quickly but responsibly because when you have millions of people depending on these services, you can't afford to cut corners."
"It felt like we were flying the plane while building it—new people joining every day who needed to know where to go and what to do."
"Product ops is the blueprint for rapid but sustainable growth."
"Every new feature starts with a product brief outlining the problem, success criteria, and rollout plans."
"Shared tools can make or break collaboration in government programs involving many contractors."
"Defining success criteria upfront and baking measurement into the product is critical but often missed."
"Embedding product thinking into government agencies ensures impact lasts beyond contractor contracts."
"We hired about three new team members per day from different companies to build out this project."
"Experimentation is developing hypotheses and validating through user research and iteration—it's at the heart of user-centered agile."
"A 12% improvement in compliance rate came from consolidating the upload flow and adding document-specific help text."
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