How do you think about the right ratio of products to product operations managers? We are a multi-product company.

Unfortunately there’s no perfect ratio – each Product Ops team I’ve run or learned about has a very different structure and mandate! I’ve heard of successful models with Product Ops to PM ratios of 50:1 and of 1:1, so it’s less about the number and more about working with what you have. If you understand the pain points of product leadership and front line PMs, you’ll be able to develop a strategy that delivers value to the Product team regardless of the number of resources you have.

That being said, I do have two rules of thumb I’ll share about resourcing:

• If you are embedding Product Ops within pods, target 2-3 pods per Product Ops resource. While it’s not a perfect science, I’ve noticed other embedded functions (like Program Managers, QA Analysts, Scrum Masters) try not to go beyond 3 pods. It makes sense – more than 3 pods and sprint ceremonies alone would take up most of the calendar! If your pods are especially big or complex, you may need to stick with a 1:1 ratio, but this can be a very tough resourcing ask if you don’t have a track record for results.
• If you are a Product Ops team of 1-2 and have a PM team of ~7+, you should be looking for work that can impact the whole Product organization – you do not have enough resources to embed with specific pods! These may include things like optimizing the Product Development Lifecycle or creating a standard Go-To-Market checklist. Remember to engage stakeholders early and often and I highly recommend piloting your recommendations with a subset of the department!

It all depends on the size of the product and requirements scope. I tend to see this role as a right-hand to product VPs / GMs, so oversight of the product portfolio within that construct often determines the scope for the prod ops person. 

Alternativley, I've also seen the role built out in a way that's similar to product marketing.