More segments from our conversation with Ladislav Bartos  — and shedding some light onto just exactly what makes Ladislav truly The Best Product Person of 2014.

What makes The Best Product Person person of 2014 tick?

Getting to Here

> How did you decide to become a product manager?

About 12 years ago, I was working in a computer training centre in London. One day, a 70-year-old lady came to our centre to learn how to send emails to her grandchildren in Australia. While I helped her set up an email account and explained how to send emails, I observed how difficult this simple task was for her. The biggest challenges she had were mainly related to the design and usability issues of what was at that time a very popular email service provider. That was when I decided to learn how to create easy-to-use online services, and this is why I decided to become a product manager. Since then, every time I work on an online product, I ask myself: Would this old lady be able to use this product or service without any problem?

> What inspires you in your day-to-day work?

The thing that inspires me the most in my day-to-day work is when I see the sparkle in the eyes of the people around me when they are excited, surprised or happy. For example, the sparkle in my 2-year-old son’s eyes when I arrive home, in my colleagues’ eyes when we hit our targets, in customers’ eyes when they first interact with our new product, or even in a fellow passenger’s eyes when you offer them your seat on the bus or train.

Watch the video for more on daily inspiration in product management…

More to Come

Over the next few weeks I will share more of my conversation with other great participants from The Best Product Person of 2014!

Thank you to everyone who participated, nominated, interviewed, AND passed on the word! The nomination period for The Best Product Person of 2015 has begun!  The individual who first nominates TBPP is also awarded!  This year, the first nominator of Ladislav received a $100 gift certificate to Amazon.com.  Nominate your pick for The Best Product Person right now!

http://TheBestProductPerson.com

And, don’t forget, take a moment and congratulate The Best Product Person of 2014: Ladislav Bartos. (tweet)

Enjoy!

Jeremy Horn
The Product Guy

About ‘The Best Product Person’

The Best Product Person (TBPP) is the leading international award honoring excellence in Product Management. Established in 2010, TBPP is awarded annually in association with The Product Guy (http://tpgblog.com) and The Product Group (http://meetup.com/theproductgroup).

TBPP Recognizes 1 person each year, invites them to speak and share their knowledge and experience with the larger product community. The nominations can be submitted by anyone. And, if you are the first to submit the winning nominee, you too will be rewarded  Over the course of the year, the various nominees are interviewed and the finalists narrowed down to: The Best Product Person of the year . The finalists are interviewed and evaluated for excellence in Product along the following lines… Becoming a Product Person, Your Product, Advice to Product People, and Future & Trends.

TBPP is both (1) the way the Product community gets together to recognize excellence amongst our ranks as well as (2) provide, to a large audience, insights into that excellence in a manner we can all learn from and leverage in our own Product journeys.

For more information about The Best Product Person award and past winners visit https://tpgblog.com/tbpp

About ‘The Product Group’

The Product Group is an opportunity for Product Managers, etc. to come together to meet, interact, and network. It’s an awesome way to meet fellow Product People in a laid-back, conversational environment within which sharing and learning can flourish and complement the knowledge base for all on a peer-to-peer basis. The NYC chapter of The Product Group meets the first Thursday of each month. If you are interested in a establishing chapter near you, please contact The Product Guy or The Product Group for more information. (https://tpgblog.com/theproductgroup/ )