Product Leader Micro-Interview: Jonathan Hyde - Director of Product Management

Just a quick reminder why these micro-interviews exist!

Too much product content still reflects the idealised version of the job. Most of the real craft sits with operators who are actually doing it — thinking deeply, listening hard and delivering — not shaping their work to fit an algorithm.

This series is for them. And you.

Each Micro-interview gives you a glimpse into how product leaders think when they’re dealing with complexity, constraint, politics, sub-optimal structures and consequence — the parts of the job most newsletters avoid.

Every Monday, I’ll share a new micro-interview. Short, honest, practical. No hype. Just thoughtful product operators talking about how the work actually gets done day in, day out.

For part 2 in the series we have Jonathan Hyde, Director of Product at Titanbay

I first connected with Jonathan quite a few years ago when I was helping run ProductTank in the Milton Keynes, bringing together a community of local product leaders. Today, he is a product leader at Titanbay. Europe’s fastest-growing private markets infrastructure provider, dedicated to making private markets simpler and more accessible. At Titanbay he operates in one of the most highly regulated and complex spaces in financial services. Exactly the kind of product leader this series exists for.

In 362 words, Jonathan shares:

• How to build product in a complex, regulated ecosystem

• Why dyslexia can be a genuine product superpower

• Why long-term scalability beats short-term comfort

• How Notion, Tableau and Cursor reshaped his product lens

• Why trust is the starting point for all leadership

Here’s Jonathan:

1. What’s your current role, and what makes it noteworthy?

I’m Director of Product at Titanbay. We’re building the infrastructure to connect the private market ecosystem—wealth managers, private banks, asset managers, fund administrators, and more. The space is complex, fragmented, and highly regulated. Our product has to do more than deliver great technology—it has to align incentives, simplify operations, and create a shared experience where everyone can move with confidence.

2. What superpower or lens do you bring to product work?

My dyslexia. I think in pictures and make connections between information in ways others might not. It lets me see problems from multiple angles quickly, and often spot patterns or solutions that aren’t obvious at first glance.

3. What’s a product decision you made that felt wrong to others at first, but proved right over time?

Prioritising long-term scalability over short-term convenience rarely feels “right” to everyone in the moment—but I’ve seen time and again that investing early in the right foundations saves vast amounts of time and pain later.

4. Which product (besides your own) changed how you think about building, and why?

Using Tableau 15 years ago taught me I could ask my own questions of data. Notion showed me how the barrier to creating a product could be lowered overnight by rethinking how we build. More recently, Cursor convinced me the age of static wireframes is over—code prototypes are now the fastest way for product teams to explore and align.

5. Describe a moment when strategy and reality collided. What gave, and what stayed?

When I joined a law-tech startup as Head of Product, the strategy was bold and expansive—value everywhere you looked. But we had a small team and limited capacity. We stepped back, assessed what we could ship quickly by recombining existing pieces, and focused there first. What gave was the idea of tackling everything at once. What stayed was the ambition—we just gave it a clear direction. [Editor’s note: an approach coincidentally aligned to this post from last week]

6. What’s a leadership lesson your team has taught you that you didn’t expect to learn?

You don’t need to be an expert in a discipline to lead it well. At Titanbay I lead Product Management, Product Design, and our Insights & Analytics team. I’m a product specialist—but my team taught me that curiosity, empathy, and great questions matter more than subject-matter expertise. If you listen, challenge thoughtfully, and show respect, you can lead across any function.

7. What moment, belief, or principle defines how you lead?

“Build trust. Every new role or relationship starts with a trust balance of zero.”

You earn it through high-quality commitments, follow-through, and consistent communication. Do that—and show up every day with integrity—and you can build a strong team, a collaborative culture, and a great business.

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If you’re a product leader who’d like to share your views and experiences, message me:

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