EP 152 - From Project to Product Mode with Thomas Hartmann
From Product for Product Management by Matt Green & Moshe Mikanovsky
April 15, 2026 · 59 min
About this episode
Thomas Hartmann discusses the transition from project mode to product mode in B2B software companies.
We’re joined by Thomas Hartmann, co‑founder of Product Masterclass and co-author of From Project to Product Mode: A Game Plan to Unlock Scalability for B2B Software Products, for a candid look at why so many B2B software companies get stuck in “project mode” and what it really takes to become product‑led.Thomas shares his journey from entrepreneurship and lean startup experiments in San Francisco and Munich and to working with large organizations trying (and often failing) to scale. Over years of coaching and transformation work, he and his co‑founder and co-author, Sebastian Borggrewe, saw the same pattern: teams with a strong product mindset trapped inside companies that still behave like project shops, where sales and single big clients dictate the roadmap and success is measured by project delivery, not product outcomes. Join Matt and Moshe as they explore with Thomas: - How to recognize whether your company is truly in project mode or product mode - Why B2B software behaves very differently from B2C when making this shift - The “egg” analogy: product teams as the yolk, surrounded by an environment (the egg white) that often doesn’t care how things get built, only that they…
People in this episode
Hosts: Matt Green, Moshe Mikanovsky
Guest: Thomas Hartmann
Topics covered
- B2B software
- product management
- project mode
- product-led companies
- scalability
- entrepreneurship
Keywords
- project mode
- product mode
- B2B software
- scalability
- product mindset
- lean startup
- coaching
- transformation
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Product Masterclass
Books & works: From Project to Product Mode: A Game Plan to Unlock Scalability for B2B Software Products
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