Episode 268: Rethinking What Done Means in Product Ops

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May 6, 2026

Guest

Jessica Soroky, product operations leader who built cross-functional cadences at Pendo. Kate Towsey, research ops advisor from BBC and Atlassian who treats knowledge as a managed asset. Trisha Price, product executive and former CPO at Pendo who champions whole-product complete. They discuss redefining done as customers loving the product, treating insights as reusable assets, and cadences that make launches predictable.

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ADVICE

Shift Definition Of Done To Whole Product Complete

Define “done” as whole product complete, meaning customers are buying, using, and loving the feature rather than code just being in production.
Coordinate product ops, product marketing, CRM (Salesforce), enablement, and CSM from discovery through beta to ensure features are turned on and sellable.

ADVICE

Bring Product Marketing Into Discovery

Involve product marketing early as a strategic voice in discovery, not just a translation layer at launch.
Use product marketing to shape pricing, packaging, win-rate strategies, and feature priorities based on buyer behavior and competitive landscape.

INSIGHT

Process Is Cadence And Questions Not Paperwork

Process matters less as documents and more as cadences and the questions asked in preparation.
Use weekly, monthly, and quarterly cadences to set goals, review experiments, and pivot based on metric progress.

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What does it mean for a product to actually be “done”? Not code in production, but customers buying, using, and loving it. In this compilation episode of the Product Thinking Podcast, Melissa Perri brings together three product leaders to explore the systems that make whole product launches consistent.

Trisha Price, then Chief Product Officer at Pendo, argues for shifting the team's definition of done from "code complete" to "whole product complete." She reframes product marketing as a strategic voice in discovery, not a translation layer at launch, and shares how cadences keep the work moving.

Kate Towsey, an independent research ops advisor with experience at BBC and Atlassian, frames organizational knowledge as water that needs a dam to stop it leaking away. Jessica Soroky, then Senior Director of Product Operations at Pendo, closes with what whole product launch and cadences look like in practice.

You'll hear us talk about:

Whole product complete, not just code complete

Trisha Price on shifting the definition of done from "code shipped" to "customers using and loving the product." She explains why a feature isn't done until product marketing, support, sales enablement, and go-to-market are aligned, and how product ops orchestrates the launch.

Knowledge as a managed asset

Kate Towsey on why organizations claim knowledge is their most valuable asset but let it leak through tributaries no one is mapping. She lays out how research ops, product ops, and design ops can work as one system for capturing and reusing what teams learn.

Cadences that keep product orgs aligned

Jessica Soroky on the operating cadences that make whole product launches predictable. She walks through Pendo's six-week product impact meetings, monthly roadmap reviews, and weekly leadership data rituals that reduce surprises and keep strategy connected to customer behavior.

Episode resources:

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Episode 184: Building Products for Product Managers with Trisha Pricehttps://www.produxlabs.com/product-thinking-blog/2024/8/14/episode-184-building-products-for-product-managers-with-trisha-price?rq=trisha Price

Episode 208: Scaling Research Ops to Drive Organizational Change with Kate Towseyhttps://www.produxlabs.com/product-thinking-blog/episode-208-kate-towsey-research-ops?rq=Kate Towsey

Episode 217: Behind the Scenes of Pendo's Product Operations Evolution with Jessica Sorokyhttps://www.produxlabs.com/product-thinking-blog/episode-217-jessica-soroky-pendo-product-operations?rq=Jessica Soroky

Trisha Price on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/trisha-price-3063081/

Kate Towsey on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/katetowsey/

Jessica Soroky on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicasoroky/