Ben Melbourne
Build better products.
Solve customer problems. Grow your business.
Product leadership that improves your
ability to define, align and execute on
your product strategy.
Work with me
Product strategy that delivers
Value driven product strategy
Navigate the uncertainty by being purpose-driven, customer-centric and outcome-focussed. Product strategy that is responsive and adaptable.
Align your strategy and execution
Coherence in your strategy stack is critical to delivering outcomes. Connect the narrative all the way from your business strategy, OKRs, product strategy, roadmaps, and into delivery.
Discover & solve the right problems
It’s easy to fall into the trap of making assumptions about customer needs. Fuelling customer-centricity requires getting out the building’ and talking directly to customers.
Prioritisation from opportunity to outcome
Ideas are cheap. Building the wrong ones is expensive and wasteful. Opinions and gut feelings just don’t cut it as prioritisation tools. Build rigour into your prioritisation and delivery process with a laser-like focus on measurable outcomes.
Delivery leadership
High-performing delivery teams don’t just happen.
Set your delivery teams up for success right from the project kick-off onwards with an outcome driven focus that empowers them to take ownership of the problem they are working on.
“Ben was instrumental in accelerating our product strategy pivot and business transformation towards becoming a SaaS platform. He also worked tirelessly to improve our product operating model and foster cross-functional collaboration across the entire business. And he did all this with a sense of calm under pressure during challenging times.”
Niamh Tobin - Chief Product Officer at Genie Solutions
I work with you, I don’t do it to you
I don’t believe in out-of-the-box, plug-and-play frameworks. Whilst learnings can be drawn from these, every organisation needs to find their own way. You need to build systems and processes that fit your needs - not just try to copy an operating model from the latest darling of Silicon Valley.
In whichever way works for you
Facilitation - I can guide your team through a shared journey.
Coaching - I happily teach, mentor and share my experience.
Playing a role - I also love just getting stuck in and doing the work.
“If you have the chance to work with Ben, take it. Ben's passion for experience design is infectious. His brilliant facilitation skills and holistic thinking were key for shaping the online vision.”
Jürgen Spangl
Chief Experience Officer
Atlassian
A principles based approach
Customer focussed
Start with your customer. Understand their needs and how you can solve their problems.
Build empathy
Nurture your ability to connect with people,
both your customers and colleagues.
Measure outcomes, not outputs
Give teams a problem to tackle and measure progress against, not just a to-do list to complete.
A bias towards action
Take small iterative steps. Learn by doing.
Course correct as you go.
Purpose-driven leadership
Focus on your organisation's purpose.
Align your strategy, objectives and teams towards it.
Start simple, then evolve to complex
Whether it be building new products, teams or processes.
Autonomous, cross-functional teams
Empower teams with all the right capabilities required to get on with doing their best work.
Seek & embrace feedback continuously
Both for your products and yourself.
It fuels learning and growth.
A little bit about me
Hi - I’m Ben Melbourne, a customer-centric and commercially-minded senior product leader. I have a passion for building innovative products and growing successful companies.
I love working with companies that have a strong purpose and mission, along with a clear strategy for achieving these. Companies that have a relentless focus on customers, a culture of curiosity, collaboration and continuous improvement. Either that, or aspire to become like this.
Many years spent working as a consultant (Thoughtworks) has given me a rich diversity of experience. I’ve seen many industries up close (Health, Financial Services, Telecommunications, QSR, Education and Manufacturing). It’s developed my sense-making capabilities, which I use to question norms and challenge assumptions.
My journey has taken me through many different organisation types and sizes (small, medium, enterprise, government, start-ups, scales-ups, B2B, B2C). I’ve seen the patterns (and anti-patterns) of how successful organisations grow and evolve.
My experience hasn’t just been consulting. I‘ve also been there for the long-haul, working in permanent roles (Genie Solutions, ThoughWorks). I’ve led teams, owned products and run businesses. There are some challenges that take many strategic iterations to overcome. I’ve been on that journey.
Whilst I currently live in Brisbane, I’ve been fortunate enough to live and work in various places across the globe (Australia, England, Canada & Germany).
LinkedIn can tell you my full bio.
I can tell you the stories that go with it.
