freee VP Yoshitaka Miyata on What Makes a Great B2B SaaS PdM

Yoshitaka Miyata, VP of Product Management at freee, explains why product vision is the core skill separating strong PdMs from weak ones in B2B SaaS.

• freee had 10+ products before IPO and grew its PM org from ~15 to 30+ people over 2.5 years — unusually large for a Japanese SaaS startup.
• Japan uses ‘PdM’ (not ‘PM’) specifically to distinguish product managers from project managers, a legacy of the dominant SI/systems-integrator industry.
• B2B PdMs front-load qualitative research and nail specs before coding; B2C PdMs rely on post-launch A/B tests and log analysis — the skill set overlaps but the weighting differs sharply.
• Product vision should be built from three inputs: user problems, competitive benchmarking, and the company’s own mission/vision — all three must stay in sync.
• Miyata’s go-to hiring filter: ask candidates to explain their current product’s user problem, solution, and delivered value in plain language — inability to do so disqualifies.
• Hire a second PdM only after reaching product-market fit in at least one segment; before PMF, keep the full team unified under a single goal rather than splitting by function.
• Team size cap is 8 people; beyond that, split meetings and ownership explicitly to preserve alignment.

2025-06-26 · Watch on YouTube