About

Practical Product Strategies to Profitably Grow

Product Management

Phronesis Advisory was founded by Irene Liakos, a proven product management expert with 20+ years of experience in creating valuable and viable products for large corporations, scale ups and startups.

I am on a Mission to rid the world of awful product experiences, shape products customers love, are willing to pay for and grow, while creating the product thinking needed in your product team to succeed.

I do this through:

1. Advising and supporting founders and C-suite executives on good product thinking, transforming to the product model and ensuring they’re solving the most impactful problem customers are willing to pay for. Profitable product growth.

2. Coaching and teaching product people and product teams on the product model to transform their product practice and achieve both viable and valuable products. Leveling up their product mindset, habits for sustainable product growth.

I believe in the power of practical wisdom. Successful product management requires more than just theoretical frameworks – it demands a blend of knowledge, experience and a deep understanding of your unique business dynamics.

Get to Product Market Fit (and keep it). Shape Products that Solve Real Problems for Customers. Create Customer Love that Fuels Growth with Scalable, Profitable and Sustainable Products.

Two women and a man looking at the camera and smiling. Irene at a Product Coaches dinner with Marty Cagan.

“People have lined up for my product, overnight, in sleeping bags, waiting to be the first to purchase on launch day! ”

Irene Liakos

Irene Liakos

Meet Our Founder

Irene has launched and managed category creating products that set the tone for future Product Innovation. These include:

  • The Precursor to Android with the Telstra Hiptop in Australia - the first phone that people queued for, with an app store, auto backed up. Over 350K users, 80% New to Telstra, with the highest mobile average revenue per user (ARPU) even today.

  • The award winning Virgin Mobile Data Gifting that automatically had 1M users gifting and receiving data on the platform. Reduced Churn and Increased Acquisition without sacrificing ARPU.

  • Clean beauty skincare brand, Kadee Botanicals. Grew community to 10,000+ in Instagram, email and retail. Invited to the Emmys!

All these products were at the right time, right place and solved a problem that people were willing to pay for – creating value for the user and the business. They were all products that customers loved, shared, brought new customers and profitably grew.

De Risking ✨Desirability, ✨Viability, ✨Feasibility and ✨Sustainability.

Irene’s experience in Product Management has been across B2B, B2C, in Tech, Fintech, Finance, Telco, Hardware, Software, DeepTech, DroneTech, CleanTech, Travel and SaaS.

She’s teaches through AGSM@UNSW, the ICAgile Certified Product Manager course, Coaches Product Teams and is available to help your Products Grow Profitably!

Ready to grow your products profitably? Let’s chat!

What Others Have Said…

  • "Instrumental in delivering Transformation"

    Irene played a major role in the transformation of Telstra.com. She was instrumental in delivering fundamental changes to the site and was always positive, innovative and collaborative in her approach - highly regarded by the team.

    Omar Khalifa
    Former Director, Telstra

  • "Highly recommend Irene to other product organisations."


    Irene completed 3 remote sessions of product training for the team at Class Ltd covering a huge amount of content in an engaging and interactive way, drawing on her own extensive experience and other case studies to bring the learning to life. We really valued what was delivered and highly recommend to other organisations looking to build capability on good product management.

    Amy Johnson
    Former Head of Product, Class Super

  • “Her work is incredibly impactful.”


    Irene is an outstanding leader, educator and product professional.

    Her work with our team has been incredibly impactful in a very short amount of time, and has brought clarity to product strategy and delivery.

    I highly recommend Irene.

    Craig Boshier
    Former COO, Airmap

  • "Quickly Understand Issues. Provide Quality Advice"


    Meeting Irene was certainly delightful. Not only was she able to quickly understand the landscape of my issues, she expertly gave quality tips/advice to help me navigate the world of product. I highly recommend Irene!

    Adannia Eze
    Hilti North America

  • “Irene had a wealth of information to present, however her great strength was communication.”


    Irene had a wealth of information to present, however her great strength was communication. Irene was able to engage with a very large group of inductees in a personable way, while still engaging the whole group. I learned so much, I couldn’t recommend her more!

    Elric Marshall
    Westpac

  • "Recommendations backed with in-depth research and thought"

    Irene is incapable of performing any task in a less than disciplined and thorough manner. All recommendations she brings to the table are backed with in-depth research and thought. She is adept at managing priorities and has never failed to meet a deadline. Irene is a joy to work with as she approaches all tasks with enthusiasm and is a highly co-operative team member.

    Mei Sien Loke
    Former General Counsel, Melbourne IT

  • "Highly engaging and insightful in navigating and overcoming problems"

    Irene is very knowledgeable and always willing to share her deep expertise in Product Management linked to her experience in Telecommunications as well as Financial Services. She is highly engaging and insightful in navigating and overcoming common problems that product managers face in implementing product change including engagement with key stakeholders. I look forward for the next opportunity to collaborate with her and always enjoy her enthusiasm and passion in delivering great outcomes for customers.

    Trevor Lee

    Service Owner, Group Product Chapter Capability and Rhythm, Westpac

  • "Irene takes her job very seriously and goes above and beyond"


    She takes her job very seriously and goes above and beyond, like when she spent hours patiently listening to me on the state of the company, providing a sounding board to help us clarify our thinking on the next steps.

    She is also very flexible with timezones, which played a central role for us since we had to connect 3 continents with over 16h of gaps.

    I highly recommend her

    Francesco Guglielmino

    CEO, Cuebiq

  • "Practical Advice with Rich Industry Experience"

    Irene's thoughts and ideas have created a richer understanding of product management for me. Specifically, she has impacted the way I think about product management in small companies compared to large companies.

    I felt empowered to make important career decisions with confidence. Her practical advice comes with rich industry experience. In every meeting with Irene I came with big questions and always left with concrete solutions and plans.

    For anyone that is stuck and is seeking clarity and confidence, I highly recommend speaking to Irene.

    Amaar Iftikhar

    Product Manager, Optus

  • "Irene is an outstanding mentor and guide in the field of Product Management"

    Irene Liakos is an outstanding mentor and guide in the field of Product Management. I had the privilege of being mentored by her, and the experience is truly invaluable to my professional growth.

    If you get the chance to have Irene as your mentor or coach take it. She knows her stuff, is super motivating, and will definitely give your career a boost.

    Samriddhi (Sam) Shrivastava
    Product Manager - Wilson AI

  • "What doesn't she know?!"

    What an amazing course! I'd love to take more courses with Irene. What doesn't she know?!

    She presented complex concepts in a clear and understandable manner, with the latest trends and developments in the field of product management, as well as a solid set of models and history of what has come before and how we got here. For example, I didn't know that product management actually came out of marketing!

    Katherine (Kat) Widomski Mohn

    XDI

  • "She has the ability to command a room and get buy-in on ideas"

    I was impressed by Irene’s ability to deal with clients, effortlessly. She has the ability to command a room and get buy-in on ideas. These skills often take years to develop among consulting professionals, but they seemed to come perfectly naturally to her. She is also one of the hardest workers I have ever work with and would be honoured to work with her again.

    DeVilliers Malan,
    Senior Product Manager, Cover Genius

Ready to unlock the full potential of your Products?

Let’s drive some Profitable Product Growth with Practical Wisdom!