The Retro

Today we're joined by Donald DeSantis. Donald is a founder, designer, investor, and (soon to be) author. He was previously co-founder of Hightower (now VTS), which he grew from an idea in a Seattle coffee shop to a 250 person company. In this episode, we talk about why people join early-stage startups, the foundational and operational obsessions of founders, the golden triangle of hiring and why Merit is called Merit.

Today we're joined by Jen Hau.Jen Hau is currently a Senior Product Manager at Truss. Previously Jen has held product leadership roles at Troops, VTS and VenueBook. Jen also has worked as an Operations Manager at Compass, worked at one of David Chang's restaurantS, volunteered for the 2008 Hilary campaign and has a law degree. Full disclosure Jen is a coach, investor, advisor in Merit along with being a friend.Thanks for joining us, Jen!

Today we're joined by Urim Choi, Director of Product at Eden Health and a coach on Merit. At Eden Health, Urim is building a new type of primary care delivery platform.Urim has nearly a decade of experience in Product Management across healthcare, commercial real estate, and ad-tech.Urim has led many big projects in his time as a PM, including launching the AppNexus Data Marketplace, leading the internationalization efforts of VTS, and scoping and launching Blink Health's first home delivery business in under six months.In this episode we talk about

Today we're joined by Kwame Thomison.Kwame is currently the Founder and Principal at Magnetic, which provides coaching for engineering leaders and social learning experiences for emotional intelligence, software delivery best practices, leadership, and more.Kwame has more than a decade of building software for companies such as Facebook, Google, and Asana. Kwame is also a coach on Merit where he enjoys coaching engineers who are looking to level up in their career.In this episode we talk aboutJoining a healthy engineering culture and learningBecoming not just senior, but an expert, in your craftTranslating technical expertise into a team-wide missionWhether you're just starting out or many years into your career, I think you'll really enjoy this episode!

Today's format is a bit different than normal, as we're going to interview my co-founder, Kirk Fernandes. As such, joining us today as co-host is Stephanie Del Paggio. Stephanie is a Product Manager at Harry's, a direct to consumer company which designs, builds, and distributes quality grooming solutions. Stephanie's early in her PM career — so we figured we would have a lot to ask our guest today about learning the craft of PM. Today our guest is Kirk Fernandes, who's my co-founder at Merit. Kirk is also one of the Merit coaches where he focuses on coaching Product Managers at every level of career. Kirk started his career at Microsoft, where he was a Product Manager on a variety of teams including Outlook. After Microsoft, Kirk was the Head of Product at Hightower, and became a Lead Product Manager at VTS by way of a merger.

Today we're joined by Will Howard, who's a coach a Merit. This year, Will co-founded Do What Works, which provides companies data and insights to help them run better tests faster. Before that, he was a Director of Engineering at Meetup, where over 11 years he hired an unknowable number of engineers and led various teams of 5 - 30 people.

Today we're joined by Kate Matsumoto. Kate is a Senior Product Designer at Etsy, which is an online marketplace where people can make, sell, and buy unique goods. She previously worked for CreativeMornings and Tattly. When Kate's not at her monitor, you can find her at her pottery wheel, or hosting the podcast, "So where are you from?". Kate is also a coach on Merit, where she enjoys connecting with other designers to help them craft their own careers.

Today we're joined by Jackie Jiménez, a Staff Software Engineer at Meetup, where she's worked on Product and Platform teams. Prior to Meetup, she led engineering teams at SportsRocket Media, where she was a Director of Engineering.Jackie is passionate about diversity and inclusion in tech, writing clear and maintainable code, and building reliable architecture solutions.