The Product Leadership Podcast from Lighthouse London

Want to get in touch with Bianca Berning? Have a look at all of her work here. Want to learn more about font design? Have a look at Dalton Maag!

In this edition of the Product Leadership Podcast, Alice and Russ chat about how we created the Spacer plugin for Sketch from an internal problem we had and then turned it into a commercial product. Along the way they cover: How Spacer was created to solve issues that our own designers were facing, staying curious about your audience and connecting with them and the importance of getting the right feedback and using it to improve your product. Lighthouse London is a UX and UI design studio who help teams bring new digital product MVPs to market and breathe life into existing tools.

For this edition of the Product Leadership Podcast we invite John Monks from Curve once again, where he talks to Tom on how to facilitate remote workshops and allow for creativity to flow - even when you're miles away from your team

In this episode of the Product Leadership Podcast Tom is joined by Jonathan Hollis from Mountside Ventures. They chat about the wide range of funding options available to startups, how Jonathan's company makes the fundraising process more efficient for both investors and startups, and the effect Covid-19 has had.Along the way they cover:What startups should do in preparation for taking their proposition to market.Why the UK is a great place to invest in early-stage companies (and to be an early stage company!)How funds have responded to the need for remote investing, and what goes on in an institutional investor's head.How similar the process really is to the one we see on Dragons Den.Grab Mountside's list of funds still active during Covid-19 here

John Monks from Curve talks to Tom about how to run amazing creative workshops and the main pitfalls to avoid. Along the way we discuss:How to manage troublemakersWays to encourage collaboration with teamsWhy PowerPoint is just the worst

Stop thinking of launch as a date in the diary, and instead focus on the smaller, more subtle stages and release your product by increments.Dan and Tom discuss how little is actually needed to start sharing your ideas, and the stages involved in using a 10x launch strategy.Along the way they cover:#1 Not being afraid to launch to a tiny group - you're ideally placed to speak to users directly when your idea is still just a scribble on the back of a napkin, so now's the time to get feedback.#2 Early stage MVPs and faking it before you start to scale.#3 The importance of experimenting while you're still able to move quickly- and how established companies envy this ability to release something imperfect and learn.#4 Tom's preferred sandwiches if you invite us to your launch party. (No plain cheese, please.)Read more about the 10x Launch Strategy here 

Prioritising the contents of your feature backlog is a vital part of determining your product roadmap. Tom and infrequent co-host Russ talk us through how to go about backlog weighting in order to work out what you should be building next.  They cover:Weighting by perceived value - Chatting to your users, stakeholders and frontline customer service team about what people are lacking, longing for or frustrated by.Weighting by analytics - Using Google Analytics etc to provide the least subjective picture of what's needed.Weighting by cost/resource - Working out  the effort needed by teams to get the feature completed.The tension between prioritising fixing bugs and building new things.We also find out why sorting tasks alphabetically isn't a sensible framework! Grab our backlog weighting template here (we've added some example features and scored them to get you started)

Dan and Tom talk about the mini pitch process, our tried and tested methodology for showing the people who matter that an idea is worthy of taking forward. We use this at the end of our Idea Generation Workshops to help innovation teams from larger companies convince management that the product ideas they've come up with are going to make an impact. But it's something that can be used by just about anyone who needs to get an idea out into the world so we thought we'd share. They run through: What each of the five slides represents, and why each matters. Tips and tricks for filling our your pitch. 3)...And the German word for mullet. (literally 'short at the front, long at the back.'

Why do some businesses seem to have the best ideas and launch the best products time and time again? Dan and Tom discuss the innovation lessons we can learn from them.

Dan and Tom talk about how to make sure you get great results from the UX and UI designers you hire and how hiring the world's greatest designer might not guarantee amazing results if you don't give them the right information to work with. Along the way, they discuss The mistakes that businesses make when briefing talented designers What sorts of processes you can put in place to get the best from your design team What a great designer will expect from you to allow them to do their best work

We're back! An embarrassing period of silence but Tom and Russ are back with some handy advice for UX and UI teams kicking off a relationship with an external product development team. Along the way they discuss What's needed to build a seamless working relationship How to use agile techniques to speed up delivery What the common pitfalls are and how to avoid them

We talked to Steve about how he helps teams discover their inner creativity through workshops that take them out of their comfort zone and into the realm of uncertainty. Along the way we discussed: Challenging norms and constant experimentation to help push innovation in organisations How something as simple as lunch choices can help people be more creative Why we should be listening to more "inexperts"

We discuss ways in which people can introduce innovation to their organisations alongside their everyday activities. We talk about: How leaders can create an innovation stream with small, simple changes How to encourage innovation techniques in your team and see quick results How a focus on customers will give you the power to shift and change and report to the powers that be

We talk about the research techniques we've learned and adopted over the years while talking to customers and users. Learn about why conducting good research is one of the most important parts of any tech project. In the podcast we cover: How to eliminate bias and get the right answers What benefits research will bring and how it could save you money How you should conduct research and who you should be talking to

Any product manager/owner will have a million things to keep on top of and lots of potential ways to take the tool. How do you effectively manage your priorities to make sure you're steering things in the right direction? We give our four top tips for staying on top of the workload and product roadmap.

We chatted to Feast-It founders Hugo Campbell and Digby Vollrath to learn how they built a platform bringing street food to the masses from the ground up. Along the way we learned: How they faked the tech and focused on design and experience to get the startup off the ground How their sales and marketing focus has shifted since launch and the effect it's had Why experimentation and constant change is key to their long-term success

Digital products can bring value to a business in many ways. It's important to know how the product you're developing is going to benefit you and how this will affect your business value. We talk about the four types of value: Direct value Additional value Influence value Innovation value On top of that we talk about examples of some successful businesses who have shown the benefits of these types of value over their product lifetime.

Lighthouse founders, Dan and Tom, explore the process of ideas. They discuss the ways to generate and validate ideas, as well as the role of idea management in the product development process. Along the way we learned: The danger of becoming too attached to an idea Why "lightbulb moments" is a bad expression How to generate ideas when you have none, how to filter when you have too many How keeping an idea a secret is harmful

We chat to Matt Kepple from Makerble and Joana Esgalhado from Friends of the Earth about the recent Startup in Residence program at FOE. We hear how Makerble came about and dive deeper into how this large UK charity are trying to bridge the gap between corporate and startup. Along the way we learn: How the idea came about and what benefit it has brought to both teams What the biggest learnings were from both sides of the table How large and small teams have benefitted from sharing the FOE offices over the past months Links https://www.makerble.com/ https://www.foe.co.uk/ https://www.foe.co.uk/about-us/apply-friends-earth-startup-residence-change-world

We chatted to Aleksander Orlic, CTO and co-founder of Penta, about his insights on the pros and cons with both startup and corporate approaches to product development and innovation. Penta is a digital bank for businesses across Europe based in Berlin, Germany. Aleksandar has over 20 years experience as a software engineer, architect and product manager having worked from startups to banks multi-national corporates. Along the way we discussed: Why corporates struggle with rapid change and fast-moving innovation The pros and cons of life as a developer at a startup How instability is a valuable asset of innovation

Tom talks to us about how Friends of the Earth are trying to focus more on digital to keep up in the ever-changing charity sector. Along the way we discuss: The successes and difficulties in trying to adopt a "Digital First" way of thinking How moving to a digital fundraising approach will extend the charity's life How internal meetings, event and comms have helped excite and educate FoE staff

Hear about Flypay's journey from rusty prototype through major funding rounds to a suite of Point of Sale software for the hospitality industry.

We chat to Chris McLeod from Elkington & Fife about what you need to know when it comes to trademarks and IP for your digital product.

Hear how Mespo are giving customers a smart, non-biased way to save money on their monthly bills using cutting edge technology.

Heidi Pun tells us about her tried and tested approach to product development and how early stage entrepreneurs can bring ideas to market quickly and effectively with little to no technical skill

Tom talks to Simon about his experience of starting a company out of university, going through an accelerator and taking an idea from conception to revenue inside a week.

One of our founders (Tom) recently got back from travelling in India. You may have heard about the situation with their currency at the moment - Tom got a great insight while there. This episode he chats to Simon about it - the issues it causes, possible solutions, as well as a brief discussion about why one of the world's largest (by population) countries made such an unprecedented move in the first place.

Anthony joins Tom for a recap of the talk he gave at our recent event on "Porter's Five Forces". After covering what each force is and how it may affect your business, they do a quick analysis of well-known startup Deliveroo!

Russ and new Lighthouse member Josh chat about Pattern Libraries - what are they? When and why should you use them?

We've had a couple of Ignite alumni on the show already (Ben from Chew.tv and Gilbert from Leaf.fm to name two) - this time we have a director! Tristan Watson was an entrepreneur himself who mentored Ignite at the very beginning, before joining the team full-time. In this episode he tells us about success and failure; what they look and feel like as well as what sets a team up for each! We talk about whether London is really the best place to start your startup, and how best to prepare your application for Ignite (or any similar accelerator). Tristan also shares some of his biggest surprises encountered in running Europe's #1 seed-stage accelerator! Tristan: @tristanwatson Ignite: @igniteaccel

We chatted to Gilbert Corrales, CEO and Co-founder of Leaf, about how a close-knit group of Costa Ricans came to the UK and turned a hypothesis based around music streaming into an app used all over the globe. Among other things we discussed: Why you shouldn't worry about user churn How Leaf adopted a test-driven approach to developing new features How a simple chat box took on a life of its own!

Moving quickly and innovating gets harder the larger you get, but the rewards for getting it right are great. Howard Rees from CSC came in to chat with us and outline how he goes about getting larger, more mature companies to "think like a startup".

Ben Bowler from Chew.tv popped in to chat DJing, grime, startups and building a community with us.

Tom chats with James Routledge (formally MatchChat - Ignite100 - NowNative - Seedcamp) about his new venture making Mental Health easier to talk about, as well as the journey that got him to where he is now.

What is a business accelerator? What does it do? Could one help you and your startup? Stan's been through one of the best, and he tells Dan all about his experience, sharing his thoughts on general accelerators and who they might help.

Dan and Tom have a chat about "Creativity Inc' by Ed Catmull, the president of Pixar. Hear the secret's behind Pixar's success and how the company focuses on creativity across the entire organisation

How Lighthouse's latest side project, Bandit, is attempting to gain traction by starting small and learning directly from its early adopters

Dan and Russ talk about Lighthouse's approach to designing prototypes and how we maximise them for learning, not aesthetics

Stan talks about his startup journey, creating two business in five years which took them from humble beginnings to graduating Techstars in 2015

Dan and Tom talk about how to chat to customers and get awesome feedback on your product. What should you be asking? Where can you find your users and much more...

We chatted with Rozel Studio founder Howard Gray about how to evaluate your startup ideas and choose which are the best ones to test and launch

What are the steps needed to get your startup idea out of your head and into the real world? Follow these three simple steps to start engaging with your audience and learning about your product without the need for any technical knowledge More episodes and articles on the Lighthouse London blog http://wearelighthouse.com/blog/

We all sat around and talked about our high and lowlights of 2015 as well as our wishes for 2016. There's also a tense vote for the internal results of the Best Christmas Card competition.

Russ chats to Tom about Coin, a side project he set up in early 2015. He discusses where it's at now, where it might go and what problems it needs to overcome in the future.

As part of our hack day trip to Bath we got round a table and talked about the recent re-design of the Lighthouse website. There were laughs, there were tears, there was authentic rural background noise.

How do we use these simple tools for great learning in design and build projects? Where do wireframes end and prototypes start? We're not sure we have all the answers but we gives it our best shot!

Kick off meetings, are they the best meetings? Everyone's so positive and excited. Russ and Dan immerse themselves in these most cherished moments in the client/agency relationship, the bit before anything's gone wrong. Why are they important? What should be covered in one? Would a game of Twister work?

And you may ask yourself, how did I get here? Russ & Tom learnt design over 10 years apart, in this week's podcast they discuss how they started their careers and how things done changed. Hear Tom grapple with how long ago it all was and raise an eyebrow at the role Russ' printer played. Most of all, enjoy!

Prototyping is great. So great that we talked and recorded and it's a podcast. Dan & Tom on the mics. What are prototypes? Why are they so useful? How can they save your startup idea? We discuss how prototyping can help both startups and established businesses and why recently we've become addicted to them.

Dan and Christy discuss choosing technologies. Trying to stay impartial because unbalanced views are the biggest problem, they fail to be impartial. There was swearing. Apologies to any technologies offended. What are the different aspects around choosing a technology Tried and tested vs cutting edge The biggest mistakes we've made Why developers are not the people to ask It's a long one but if you stick around there's the opportunity to hear Christy's vision for Lighthouse, which is frankly terrifying. Watch out for the accompanying blog post which tries to make sense of the madness.

Christy and Russ discuss their personal experience of side projects, of which they have started many and finished few. Why do side projects? Why is finishing them so hard? What happens to the unfinished ones? Some real insights into the design and dev duo's process (or lack of) and lessons learned.