Podcasts about product teams

Are you aiming to drive meaningful product outcomes in a fast-paced tech environment? In this podcast hosted by Jonathan Ozeran, DoorDash former Senior Product Director David Jesse will be speaking on building high-impact product teams through disciplined leadership and customer focus. Drawing from his extensive experience scaling product teams at companies like eBay, Groupon, and DoorDash, David shares actionable insights on how product leaders can prioritize effectively, maintain team momentum, and deliver transformative results.

If you're building a tech product but don't have a technical background, this episode will save you months of wasted time and thousands in unnecessary spend. In this re-release of one of our most popular early episodes, Tech for Non-Techies founder Sophia Matveeva shares the 5 biggest mistakes non-technical founders make — and how to avoid them. Whether you're a  founder, a corporate innovator, or leading a new digital venture, these lessons will help you lead product teams effectively and build better tech businesses. You will learn: Why hiring a developer first is a mistake — and who to bring in instead The crucial difference between product metrics and business metrics (and how to use both wisely) How Facebook and WhatsApp built great products by focusing on engagement before monetisation What non-technical leaders must know about giving clear, measurable instructions to product teams What success looks like in the early stages — and why early growth shouldn't be the goal Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Non-Technical Founders' Challenges 02:26 The Importance of User Experience Design 10:36 Understanding Product vs. Business Metrics 16:21 Setting Clear Goals for Product Teams 20:13 Embracing Flexibility in Product Development 24:32 The Journey of Product Improvement Over Growth   FREE COURSE: 5 Tech Concepts Every Business Leader Needs To Know   Growth Through Innovation If your organisation wants to drive revenue through innovation, book a call with us here. Our workshops and innovation strategies have helped Constellation Brands, the Royal Bank of Canada and Oxford University.   Listen to Tech for Non-Techies on: Apple Spotify YouTube Amazon Podcasts Stitcher Pandora For the episode transcript, go here: https://www.techfornontechies.co/blog/256-top-mistakes-non-technical-founders-make-how-to-avoid-them

In this episode of Culture & Quota, we get brutally honest about what happens when psychological safety issues fester inside your sales and product orgs. We walk you through a practical, no-BS process: how to first admit the problem, measure the financial and productivity drag it causes, and finally—how to decide when and how leadership will address it.We'll break down:Early warning signs from your AE floor and product sprintsHow to quantify the hidden cost of fear-based silenceInternal audit strategies to surface what's not being saidTiming and frameworks for executive interventionProven tactics to rebuild safety without fluff—think trust contracts, fail-forward systems, and leadership modeling vulnerabilityThis one's for CROs, CPOs, Heads of People, and founders who know culture isn't just vibes—it's velocity.

Jessica Zwaan joined us again on The Modern People Leader to unpack how to structure a people ops as a product team. She shared four ways to build an HR squad, how to use a spider diagram for squad design, and why it's smart to pilot just one squad first.---- Sponsor Links:

Most companies have a mission statement. But few are truly mission-driven in practice. In this episode, Jason Fraser joins Ashok to unpack what it actually means to prioritize mission over profit — and how the best organizations are able to do both. Jason reflects on the differences between performative mission language and the kind of operational decision-making that aligns tightly with purpose. He shares the concept of “mission ratios” and how teams can use them to identify where they're constrained, where they have leverage, and how to get disproportionate outcomes from limited inputs. Drawing on examples from Patagonia, World Central Kitchen, and a federal asylum processing team, Jason walks through the tools and frameworks that mission-first leaders can use to improve focus, clarity, and measurable impact. Whether you're running a nonprofit, a B Corp, or just trying to do more meaningful work, this episode gives you language and direction to guide your team's decisions. Plus, Jason shares how to spot the ratios that matter most — and what to do once you find them. Unlock the full potential of your product team with Integral's player coaches, experts in lean, human-centered design. Visit integral.io/convergence for a free Product Success Lab workshop to gain clarity and confidence in tackling any product design or engineering challenge. Inside the episode... What really defines a mission-driven organization Mission vs. permission work: how to make trade-offs without guilt Why purpose can actually boost profitability and team alignment Introducing “mission ratios”: the unit economics of social impact Frameworks for identifying your most limiting constraints How to apply the impact mapping tool to optimize outcomes Lessons from World Central Kitchen, Earthshot Prize, and a USCIS case study Tractability vs. leverage: how to prioritize what's actually solvable The hidden assumptions that reduce efficiency and how to challenge them How organizations can operationalize ethics without compromising viability Mentioned in this episode Jason and Janice's book, Farther, Faster, Way Less Drama  Jason's workshops and events: https://missionratio.com/events/ Jason's linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonfraser World Central Kitchen Patagonia CERO Bikes The Earthshot Prize  Climatebase Fellowship Good Strategy, Bad Strategy by Richard Rumelt Impact Mapping by Gojko Adzic Deloitte Study Target versus Costco  Value Chain  Unlock the full potential of your product team with Integral's player coaches, experts in lean, human-centered design. Visit integral.io/convergence for a free Product Success Lab workshop to gain clarity and confidence in tackling any product design or engineering challenge. Subscribe to the Convergence podcast wherever you get podcasts including video episodes to get updated on the other crucial conversations that we'll post on YouTube at youtube.com/@convergencefmpodcast Learn something? Give us a 5 star review and like the podcast on YouTube. It's how we grow.   Follow the Pod Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/convergence-podcast/ X: https://twitter.com/podconvergence Instagram: @podconvergence

The episode uncovers a hidden obstacle quietly holding back innovation in banking and finance — toxic team behaviors. It explores ten damaging dynamics common within digital product teams, from siloed communication and ego-driven decisions to fear of failure and neglecting user feedback.While many banks invest in new technologies and management frameworks, they often overlook the root cause of stagnation: a culture that undermines collaboration and user-centered design. These behaviors can hinder progress more than any resource or tech gap. The real driver of digital product success lies in fostering a healthy, customer-centric culture.Tune in to discover practical strategies to recognize and eliminate these toxic patterns, strengthen team dynamics, and build financial products that truly meet user needs — positioning your organization for lasting market leadership.Find out:How specific toxic team behaviors undermine digital product innovation in the banking sectorWhat strategies can financial institutions use to address and eliminate these harmful dynamicsWhy building a genuinely customer-centric culture is essential for successful digital product developmentRead the full article on UXDA's blog: https://www.theuxda.com/blog/culture-innovation-banking-eliminate-10-toxic-behaviors-digital-product-teams* AI podcast on UXDA article powered by Google NotebookLM

The “AI memo” craze is officially here—and it's more than executive theater. In this episode, Brian Balfour and Fareed Mosavat break down how leading CEOs (Shopify, Duolingo, Box, Meta) are using public AI manifestos to jolt their companies into a faster, smarter future—and what product leaders must do next to turn those words into shipping velocity. What we cover: - The 5-Layer AI Memo Framework—ownership, expectations, directives, accountability, constraints—so your decree actually drives behavior. - Experiment → Learn → Share Loops that turn scattered tinkering into org-wide best practices. - Concrete “forcing-function” constraints (team-size caps, prototype-only reviews, head-count ceilings) that accelerate adoption. - Why value creation beats cost cutting—and how to put AI on the roadmap, not just the balance sheet. - Meta's new AI app: a real-time case study on distribution, context, and the missing zero-to-one spark. - Cultural fault lines—leaders, followers, laggards—and playbooks for bringing the middle 80 % over the line (before performance reviews do it for you). Whether you're drafting your own AI memo or figuring out how to implement the one that just landed in your inbox, this conversation delivers the practical moves to convert manifesto hype into measurable product momentum.

How do you move from dabbling with AI and vibe coding to building real, production-grade software with it? In this episode, Austin Vance, CEO of Focused returns and we transition the conversation from building AI-enabled applications to fostering AI-native engineering teams. Austin shares how generative AI isn't just a shortcut—it's reshaping how we architect, code, and lead. We also get to hear Austin's thoughts on the leaked ‘AI Mandate' memo from Shopify's CEO, Tobi Lutke.  We cover what Austin refers to as ‘AI-driven development', how to win over the skeptics on your teams, and why traditional patterns of software engineering might not be the best fit for LLM-driven workflows.  Whether you're an engineer,product leader, or startup founder, this episode will give you a practical lens on what AI-native software development actually requires—and how to foster adoption on your teams quickly and safely to get the benefits of using AI in product delivery. Unlock the full potential of your product team with Integral's player coaches, experts in lean, human-centered design. Visit integral.io/convergence for a free Product Success Lab workshop to gain clarity and confidence in tackling any product design or engineering challenge. Inside the episode... Why Shopify's leaked AI memo was a "permission slip" for your own team The three personas in AI adoption: advocates, skeptics, and holdouts How AI-driven development (AIDD) differs from “AI-assisted” workflows Tools and practices Focused uses to ship faster and cheaper with AI Pair programming vs. pairing with an LLM: similarities and mindset shifts How teams are learning to prompt effectively—without prompt engineering training Vibe coding vs. integrating with entrenched systems: what's actually feasible Scaling engineering culture around non-determinism and experimentation Practical tips for onboarding dev teams to tools like Cursor, Windsurf, and Vercel AI SDK Using LLMs for deep codebase exploration, not just code generation Mentioned in this episode Cursor Windsurf LangChain Claude GPT-4 / ChatGPT V0.dev GitHub Copilot Focused (focused.io) Shopify internal AI memo Unlock the full potential of your product team with Integral's player coaches, experts in lean, human-centered design. Visit integral.io/convergence for a free Product Success Lab workshop to gain clarity and confidence in tackling any product design or engineering challenge. Subscribe to the Convergence podcast wherever you get podcasts including video episodes to get updated on the other crucial conversations that we'll post on YouTube at youtube.com/@convergencefmpodcast Learn something? Give us a 5 star review and like the podcast on YouTube. It's how we grow.   Follow the Pod Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/convergence-podcast/ X: https://twitter.com/podconvergence Instagram: @podconvergence

As startups grow, product teams often find themselves caught between speed and structure. In this episode of The Product Experience, Charlotte King, Lead Product Manager at eBay, shares practical insights from her work leading teams through this transition at companies including Moonpig, Flipdish, and ThoughtWorks. Charlotte unpacks how to define product's role during scaleup, build team structure around strategic value, and use tools like Wardley Mapping and Team Topologies to support organisational change. She also introduces the DHM model (Delightful, Hard to copy, Margin-enhancing) and discusses how to make strategy tangible for cross-functional teams. This conversation is especially useful for product leaders, heads of product, and founders navigating scale.Chapters1:13 – Charlotte's background2:36 – Product's role in startups, scaleups and enterprises4:35 – What product teams need to succeed during scale6:42 – Defining product's role as the company grows9:00 – Using Wardley Mapping to assess team maturity14:30 – Creating and communicating guiding principles20:30 – Using the DHM model to prioritise value25:48 – Structuring teams with Team Topologies29:03 – Multidisciplinary collaboration in practice30:41 – Lessons from leading transformation32:30 – Final reflections and takeawaysFeatured Links: Follow Charlotte on LinkedIn | eBay | Wardley Maps | What we learned at #mtpcon London 2025' feature by Kent McDonald and Louron PrattOur HostsLily Smith enjoys working as a consultant product manager with early-stage and growing startups and as a mentor to other product managers. She's currently Chief Product Officer at BBC Maestro, and has spent 13 years in the tech industry working with startups in the SaaS and mobile space. She's worked on a diverse range of products – leading the product teams through discovery, prototyping, testing and delivery. Lily also founded ProductTank Bristol and runs ProductCamp in Bristol and Bath. Randy Silver is a Leadership & Product Coach and Consultant. He gets teams unstuck, helping you to supercharge your results. Randy's held interim CPO and Leadership roles at scale-ups and SMEs, advised start-ups, and been Head of Product at HSBC and Sainsbury's. He participated in Silicon Valley Product Group's Coaching the Coaches forum, and speaks frequently at conferences and events. You can join one of communities he runs for CPOs (CPO Circles), Product Managers (Product In the {A}ether) and Product Coaches. He's the author of What Do We Do Now? A Product Manager's Guide to Strategy in the Time of COVID-19. A recovering music journalist and editor, Randy also launched Amazon's music stores in the US & UK.

In this episode on The Product Experience, we welcome back Matt LeMay—author, consultant, and champion of no-nonsense product thinking. We dig deep into the ideas behind his new book Impact First Product Teams and explore how teams can focus on what really matters: delivering business impact.Featured Links: Follow Matt on LinkedIn and his website | Buy Matt's new book 'Impact-first Product Teams' | Sudden Compass | Randeep Sidhu's episode on The Product Experience: 'Lessons from building the UK's test and trace app'Chapters00:00 – The Myth of Rational Business01:03 – Matt's Accidental Journey into Product02:20 – What Are “Impact-First” Teams, Really?04:50 – Why OKRs Are Often Just Theatre07:12 – Best Practices ≠ Business Value10:00 – Who's on the Product Team, and Why It Matters12:30 – Dealing With Cross-Team Goal Conflicts15:00 – Culture Change via Strategic Goal Alignment17:00 – Proactive Conversations About Impact20:00 – Commercial Awareness for Product Teams24:00 – Platform Teams & Measuring Amplified Impact27:00 – What Do Good Impact-First Teams Look Like?31:00 – Customer-Centricity vs. Business Impact34:00 – Discovery, Metrics & Mission-Critical Goals36:00 – Culture, Strategy & Individual Leverage41:00 – BAU vs. Innovation: Set Clear Expectations44:00 – The Ego Trap in Product Work46:00 – Matt's Final Zinger on Capital and FeelingsOur HostsLily Smith enjoys working as a consultant product manager with early-stage and growing startups and as a mentor to other product managers. She's currently Chief Product Officer at BBC Maestro, and has spent 13 years in the tech industry working with startups in the SaaS and mobile space. She's worked on a diverse range of products – leading the product teams through discovery, prototyping, testing and delivery. Lily also founded ProductTank Bristol and runs ProductCamp in Bristol and Bath. Randy Silver is a Leadership & Product Coach and Consultant. He gets teams unstuck, helping you to supercharge your results. Randy's held interim CPO and Leadership roles at scale-ups and SMEs, advised start-ups, and been Head of Product at HSBC and Sainsbury's. He participated in Silicon Valley Product Group's Coaching the Coaches forum, and speaks frequently at conferences and events. You can join one of communities he runs for CPOs (CPO Circles), Product Managers (Product In the {A}ether) and Product Coaches. He's the author of What Do We Do Now? A Product Manager's Guide to Strategy in the Time of COVID-19. A recovering music journalist and editor, Randy also launched Amazon's music stores in the US & UK.

What does it mean to find out what your team is actually good at—and how do you use that insight to grow, scale, and lead effectively?In this episode, Amir sits down with Pallavi Pal, Head of Product at Grata, to unpack the nuanced art of identifying strengths within product teams. From hiring with purpose to fostering technical and soft skills, Pallavi shares how she built her team from the ground up and established a culture of collaboration and excellence. Whether you're a product leader, aspiring manager, or simply navigating your growth path in tech, this conversation is packed with frameworks and hard-earned lessons.✨ Key Takeaways“Good” is personal and team-specific – Recognize where individual team members naturally lean in and where they need support.Hiring with intention matters – Building a team from scratch allows leaders to define what “good” looks like for each role early on.Balancing technical and soft skills is crucial – Successful PMs don't just understand the product—they empathize with users and collaborate effectively.Path to people management starts with mentorship – Use mentorship as a low-risk way to identify potential managers.Culture isn't just top-down – Product teams should reflect company values while fostering technical curiosity and peer collaboration.Metrics can't be mandated – Teams need to co-create their North Star metrics and OKRs to stay engaged and aligned.⏱️ Timestamped Highlights[00:20] – Introducing Pallavi and the focus on identifying what your team is great at[02:05] – Observing behaviors to identify strengths and hesitations[05:22] – Hiring to match specific skill sets across different product functions[08:20] – The balance between domain knowledge, technical skills, and soft skills[12:03] – Identifying future people managers within your team[16:21] – Building a product culture that aligns with company values but has its own identity[21:06] – How to define and align around standards and metrics in product[24:21] – How to connect with Pallavi for follow-up questions

When Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke issued an internal memo calling AI a “baseline skill,” it sent rippiles across the industry. In this solo episode, we break down what the AI mandate actually says, why it's happening now, and how teams can apply the same principles to drive smarter, faster product development. Whether you're skeptical or inspired by the move, there's plenty to unpack about leadership, culture, and what it really takes to scale AI adoption. You'll hear six specific actions from the memo that are already shaping how Shopify operates—from prototyping to peer reviews—and tactical ideas for applying each one inside your own organization. With references to historical moments from Apple and Amazon, this episode puts the memo in broader context and makes the case for why now might be the time to stop experimenting with AI and start committing. Inside the episode... Why Shopify's CEO believes AI is now a mandatory skill How the company is embedding AI into its prototyping phase What it means to include AI usage in performance reviews Tactics for encouraging peer learning and internal sharing A case for self-directed experimentation with structured demos How to get your team building value with AI—without waiting on infosec The role of leadership in modeling AI adoption Historical parallels from Amazon and Apple Practical ways to explore AI before requesting new headcount A reminder that AI isn't just for technical folks Mentioned in this episode Shopify AI memo by CEO Tobi Lütke: https://x.com/tobi/status/1909231499448401946 Nike's internal AI design tools: https://about.nike.com/en/stories/nike-design-athlete-imagined-revolution Unlock the full potential of your product team with Integral's player coaches, experts in lean, human-centered design. Visit integral.io/convergence for a free Product Success Lab workshop to gain clarity and confidence in tackling any product design or engineering challenge. Subscribe to the Convergence podcast wherever you get podcasts including video episodes to get updated on the other crucial conversations that we'll post on YouTube at youtube.com/@convergencefmpodcast Learn something? Give us a 5 star review and like the podcast on YouTube. It's how we grow.   Follow the Pod Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/convergence-podcast/ X: https://twitter.com/podconvergence Instagram: @podconvergence

Imagine a world where product teams collaborate with security teams. Where product designers can shadow their security peers. A place where security team members believe communication is one of the most important skillsets they have. These are key attributes of human-centered security—the type of dynamics Jordan Girman and Mike Kosak are fostering at Lastpass.In this episode, we talk about:What cross-disciplinary collaboration looks like at Lastpass (for example, a product designer is shadowing the security team).A set of principles for designing for usable security and privacy.Why intentional friction might be counterintuitive to designers but, used carefully, is critical to designing for security.When it comes to improving security outcomes, the words you use matter. Mike explains how the Lastpass Threat Intelligence team thinks about communicating what they learn to a variety of audiences.How to build a threat intelligence program within your organization--even if you have limited resources.Jordan Girman is the VP of User Experience at Lastpass. Mike Kosak is the Senior Principal Intelligence Analyst at Lastpass. Mike references a series of articles he wrote, including “Setting Up a Threat Intelligence Program From Scratch.” 

Christine May helped spearhead behavioral science at Noom, shaping it into an engine for user segmentation and accountability. As their former Head of Behavioral Science, she championed Noom's “big picture” motivation model—tying everyday habits to goals—and played a role in scaling one-on-one coaching into a digital system for millions. Now, Christine helps consumer tech startups build habit-forming experiences rooted in evidence-based psychology.In our conversation, we explore:The book club principle: How to embed accountability in features customers actually wantWhy 90% of users reject direct accountability features (and how to solve this)How Noom's lengthy sign-up flow acts as a commitment filterThe counterintuitive confidence level that predicts user successWhat makes fixed-length plans more effective than endless subscriptionsHow to design rewards around behaviors instead of outcomesThe unexpected way social desirability drives product engagementThis episode is packed with practical insights on designing for sustainable behavior change, creating effective accountability systems that users actually want, and the surprising psychology behind what motivates people to stick with challenging goals.Enjoy this episode? Rate it and leave a review. It really helps others find the podcast.Learn more about Kristen and Irrational Labs ⁠here⁠.

Join us as we sit down with Ana Nad and Lejla Vulovic after their talk at the Agile meets Architecture conference to dive deeper into their experiences of building and scaling product teams across multiple European markets. We discuss: How to structure multi-site teams for success Overcoming regulatory, cultural, and organizational challenges Lessons learned from delivering lending and foreign exchange products in a global bank The evolving role of architecture in enabling agility What worked, what didn't, and what's next? Tune in to hear firsthand insights! Links Video of Ana's and Lejla's talk at Agile meets Architecture

Shane Koller joined us on The Modern People Leader. We talked about adopting a product mindset in HR, how Ancestry's people team built their “product roadmap”, and why even great HR programs fall short when they're not connected.---- 

Are you struggling to build a world-class product team in B2B SaaS? In this podcast hosted by Cassio Sampaio, SoSafe Chief Product and Technology Officer Gonçalo Gaiolas will be speaking on the secrets of high-performance product management. Drawing from his extensive experience at OutSystems and SoSafe, Gonçalo shares insights on autonomy, founder relationships, and the evolving landscape of product leadership in technology companies.

What happens when you build a business around what you genuinely love? In this episode of The Tech Trek, Amir sits down with Michael Farb, CEO of Boatsetter — the Airbnb of boats — to unpack how passion can be a strategic advantage in tech entrepreneurship.Michael shares his journey of launching multiple businesses rooted in personal interests, from college sports to global philanthropy to now, outdoor water adventures. Together, they explore what it really takes to turn a personal obsession into a scalable business, how to identify real opportunities in your hobbies, and why solving a specific problem matters more than chasing a massive market.Whether you're dreaming about launching your own thing or leading product inside a startup, this conversation is packed with insights on product-market fit, customer discovery, and building teams who care as much as you do.

How many logins do you use at work each week? If you're not sure, you're not alone. A 2024 report found that the average employee uses 36 cloud-based services daily—engineering teams use twice as many! Yet, over half of SaaS licenses go unused, wasting valuable resources.In this episode, host Hannah Clark sits down with Moshe Mikanovsky, founder of Products for Good and co-host of the Product for Product podcast. Moshe shares his framework for selecting the right tools, helping organizations boost adoption, productivity, and cost efficiency. Tune in to learn how to make smarter software choices!Resources from this episode:Subscribe to The Product Manager newsletterConnect with Moshe on LinkedInCheck out Products for Good and Product for Product podcastMoshe's frameworks

In this episode of the Ducks Unlimited podcast, host Matt Harrison sits down with longtime friend Jim Ronquest to share their favorite hunting stories. They reflect on the busy months following duck season and discuss the upcoming turkey season. As they reminisce about past adventures, listeners can expect a blend of entertaining anecdotes and insights into the world of hunting. Tune in for a lively conversation filled with camaraderie and anticipation for the spring season ahead!Listen now: www.ducks.org/DUPodcastSend feedback: DUPodcast@ducks.org

Global Agile Summit Preview: Unifying Strategy, Discovery, and Delivery in Product Development With Roman Pichler In this BONUS Global Agile Summit preview episode, we explore a crucial topic that's shaping how we approach product development—sometimes in ways that serve us well and sometimes in ways that hold us back.  There's a growing trend in our industry to explicitly separate strategy, discovery, and delivery into distinct activities or even different teams. On the surface, this seems logical: strategy decides the right thing to do, discovery figures out how to do it, and delivery gets it done. But is this division actually helping us? Or is it creating barriers that make great product development harder? The Origins of Product Discovery "I think it's partly based, at least on Marty Cagan's work, and his insight that many teams are very much focused traditionally on delivering outputs, on writing code. And I think his original intention was to say, 'Let's not worry about creating outputs. Let's also make sure that what we creating makes sense.'" Roman Pichler shares insights on how the concept of product discovery emerged as a reaction to teams being overly focused on outputs rather than outcomes. He explains that conceptually distinguishing between product strategy, discovery, and delivery can be helpful—much like organizing clothes into different sections of a wardrobe. However, in reality, these activities must be connected, informing and guiding each other rather than existing as sequential steps. The Risks of Separating Product Strategy, from Discovery, and from Delivery "If we have a group of people who takes care of strategic decisions, a different group focusing on product discovery, and another group—the tech team—who focuses on product delivery, and those groups don't talk as much as they could and should do, then suddenly we have a sequential process and handoffs." One of the primary challenges with separating strategy, discovery, and delivery is the risk of creating handoffs between different teams. Roman highlights how this sequential approach can slow down value creation, lead to knowledge loss, and increase the likelihood of introducing mistakes. This separation can create barriers that ultimately make product development more difficult and less effective. In this segment, we refer to the podcast interview with Tim Herbig on the concept of Lateral Leadership, and how that is critical for product people. Integrating the Work Streams "What I usually use as a visualization tool is three work streams: a strategy work stream, a discovery work stream, and a delivery work stream. The strategy stream guides the discovery stream. The discovery stream guides the delivery stream, and then the delivery stream informs the discovery stream, and the discovery stream informs the strategy stream." Rather than seeing strategy, discovery, and delivery as separate phases, Roman suggests visualizing them as parallel work streams that continuously inform and guide each other.  This approach recognizes that strategy work doesn't just happen at the beginning—it continues throughout the product lifecycle, adapting as the product evolves. By integrating these work streams and ensuring they're interconnected through feedback loops, teams can create a more cohesive and effective product development process. The Power of Collaboration "The important thing is to make sure that the different areas of work are not disjointed but interlinked. A key element to make that work is to use collaboration and teamwork and ensure that there aren't any handoffs, or avoid handoffs as much as possible." Collaboration and teamwork are essential to successfully integrating strategy, discovery, and delivery. Roman emphasizes the importance of bringing product people—who understand customer needs, business models, and stakeholder relationships—together with tech teams to foster innovation and create value. This collaborative approach helps overcome the challenges that arise from treating these activities as separate, sequential steps. Building an Extended Product Team "Form a big product team, a product team that is empowered to make strategic decisions and consists not only of the person in charge of the product and maybe a UX designer and a software developer, but also key business stakeholders, maybe somebody from marketing, maybe somebody from sales, maybe a support team member." Roman advocates for forming an extended product team that includes not just product managers, designers, and developers, but also key business stakeholders. This larger team can collectively own the product strategy and have holistic ownership of the product—not just focusing on discovery or delivery. By empowering this extended team to make strategic decisions together, organizations can ensure that different perspectives and expertise inform the product development process. Practical Implementation: Bringing it all Together "Have regular meetings. A specific recommendation that I like to make is to have quarterly strategy workshops as a rule of thumb, where the current product strategy is reviewed and adjusted, but also the current product roadmap is reviewed and adapted." Implementing this integrated approach requires practical mechanisms for collaboration. Roman recommends holding quarterly strategy workshops to review and adjust the product strategy and roadmap, ensuring they stay in sync with insights from development work. Additionally, he suggests that members of the extended product team should attend monthly operational meetings, such as sprint reviews, to maintain a complete understanding of what's happening with the product at both strategic and tactical levels. Moving Beyond Sequential Thinking "Unfortunately, our software industry has a tendency to make things structured, linear, and assign ownership of different phases to different people. This usually leads to bigger problems like missing information, problems discovered too late that affect 'strategy', but need to be addressed in 'delivery'." One of the challenges in adopting a more integrated approach is overcoming the industry's tendency toward linear, sequential thinking. Roman and Vasco discuss how this mindset can lead to issues being discovered too late in the process, after strategic decisions have already been made. By embracing a more iterative, interconnected approach, teams can address problems more effectively and adapt their strategy based on insights from discovery and delivery. About Roman Pichler Roman Pichler is a leading product management expert specializing in product strategy, leadership, and agility. With nearly 20 years of experience, he has coached product managers, authored four books, and developed popular frameworks. He shares insights through his blog, podcast, and YouTube channel and speaks at major industry conferences worldwide. You can link with Roman Pichler on LinkedIn and check out the resources on Roman Pichler's website.

Product teams are key in enabling product-led growth and offering successful products. In this episode, I explain what product teams really need to do a great job and how you can best support the teams you work with.

In this episode of No Hacks Snacks, I talked to André Morys, CEO and founder of konversionsKRAFT, to explore the benefits of integrating agile product teams with experimentation. André discussed the often separate worlds of CRO/AB testing and agile product development, and why merging them can lead to better outcomes. He highlighted the legacy issues that keep these areas apart, and the advantages of making experimentation a core part of product strategy. The conversation also explores the biases and challenges that hinder product teams from embracing experimentation, what are the main obstacles they face, and how can they overcome them? How might AI help eliminate these biases and accelerate better decision-making? Lastly, André shares his insights on how large companies can break down silos. What strategies can they use to foster collaboration and create synergy between product development and experimentation?Tune in and let us know what you think about this.---If you enjoyed the episode, please share it with a friend!No Hacks websiteYouTubeLinkedInInstagram

In last week's episode of The Mindtools L&D Podcast, we explored sales enablement from the perspective of sales and marketing teams. But where do product teams fit in? Beyond building products, what role do these teams play in generating revenue?  For the second instalment in our two-part series on sales enablement, Ross D and Lara are once again joined by Darren Bezani, Chief Salecologist at Salecology, to discuss:  why it's important to involve product teams in sales enablement;  the behaviors we want product teams to demonstrate;  how L&D can support this, beyond simply providing training.  To learn more about Darren's work, head to salecology.com.  In ‘What I Learned This Week', Lara mentioned A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Mass.  Ross D recommended Warren Zanes' book Deliver Me from Nowhere, exploring the making of Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska.  For more from us, visit mindtools.com. There, you'll also find details of our award-winning performance support toolkit, our off-the-shelf e-learning, and our custom work.    Connect with our speakers     If you'd like to share your thoughts on this episode, connect with us on LinkedIn:  Ross Dickie  Lara Kidd  Darren Bezani 

Substack Week: Why Product Management is Broken and How to Fix It With Anton Zaides In this SPECIAL Substack Week episode, we dive deep into the current state of product management with Anton Zaides, a seasoned software engineer and leader. Anton shares his perspectives on why product management is fundamentally broken and offers practical solutions for organizations looking to improve their product development processes. The Journey to Engineering Leadership "I started to search for content from other engineering managers and focused on practical insights." Anton's journey spans 15 years in software engineering, from game development to DevOps and scaling startups. His transition to leadership revealed a gap in practical leadership content, which inspired him to start sharing his own experiences. Drawing from his four years as an engineering leader in a startup, Anton noticed patterns in product management that needed addressing, leading to his viral article on the topic. The Broken State of Product Management "My team was working on a feature, that got canceled the day after it was released." Product management faces several critical challenges in today's technology landscape. Anton identifies key issues including the development of unused features, increasing software complexity, and misaligned incentives that discourage innovation. Through his conversations with industry professionals, he discovered these problems were widespread, with teams frequently building features that get canceled or go unused. Despite following Agile methodologies, many organizations fail to properly evaluate feature impact, leading to wasted resources and frustrated teams. Product Managers vs. Program Managers "The PM spent only 5% of his time on talking to customers." One of the core issues Anton identifies is the transformation of product managers into glorified program managers. In many organizations, product managers spend most of their time managing JIRA tickets and dependencies rather than engaging with customers and driving innovation. The pressure to deliver on predetermined roadmaps, often dictated by executive teams, leaves little room for challenging assumptions or testing ideas with minimal scope. This shift away from customer interaction and strategic thinking has reduced the product manager's role to primarily managing internal processes. Fostering Better Product Management "PM's should be like a founder for the product business." To improve product management, Anton advocates for several key changes: Offloading program management responsibilities to the team Trusting product managers to make strategic decisions Requiring specific industry knowledge and experience Encouraging face-to-face customer interactions Moving product managers closer to commercial roles Involving engineers in customer conversations Organizational Structure and Communication "The more links you have in the communication chain, the worse the information gets communicated." Anton proposes a shift towards a more functional organizational structure where Product and Engineering work together more closely. He emphasizes the importance of direct communication between technical teams and customers, warning against over-reliance on data alone. The solution involves bringing everyone closer to the business side and creating stronger networks between organizations and engineers. Practical Implementation Tips "Get engineers to visit customers." Key recommendations for improving product management include: Involving engineers in customer and sales conversations Giving engineers visibility through release messaging and communications Establishing strong collaboration between engineering leaders and product managers Ensuring product managers have deep domain expertise Creating opportunities for direct customer interaction Treating product managers as business owners rather than project managers Recommended Resources for Further Study Anton's Article that we review in this interview: “Product Management is broken, a change is coming”  John Cutle's article on Product Manager's Responsibilities  Anton's Article on how to work effectively with your Product Managers A book recommendation: Empowered by Marty Cagan An episode of Lenny's podcast with Brian Chesky [The Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast Recommends]

Security in Sync: Aligning Enterprise and Product TeamsListen to the latest episode of Agent of Influence featuring Nancy Brainerd from Medtronic as we explore bridging the gap between enterprise and product security, fostering dynamic collaboration, and harmonizing efforts across teams to create a unified approach to cybersecurity.+ + +Find more episodes on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts, as well as at netspi.com/agentofinfluence.

Brian Tolkin is the Head of Product @ Opendoor where he has spent the last 6 years and is responsible for product strategy and product and design teams. Before Opendoor, Brian spent an incredible 5 years at Uber through their wildest growth periods. In Today's Episode with Brian Tolkin: 03:53 Brian's Journey at Uber: Launching China Pool 05:07 Product Lessons from Uber's China Launch 08:22 The Role of a PM in a Pre vs. Post AI World 10:16 Product Development Process in an AI World 17:43 The Importance of Simplification in Product Management 19:21 OKRs and Prioritization in Product Management 23:12 The Importance of Feedback Loops in Product Development 23:38 Evaluating Product Changes: User Adaptation vs. Bad Decisions 25:00 Balancing Gut Instinct and Data in Product Leadership 25:38 The Role of Simplicity in Product Design 27:02 Consensus vs. Dictatorial Product Leadership 27:54 Hiring for the Best Product Teams 31:33 How to do Effective Sprint Management 38:39 Quickfire Round: Insights and Advice      

Whether you prefer the term data-driven, or data-informed, or data-dazzled, it doesn't matter—today's tech cannot survive without high quality data sets AND the tools to use them effectively. But we also can't afford to think about data as the responsibility of just one or two departments in the organization—instead, we need to be going into 2025 with a mindset of data democratization. In other words, our business is our customers, so what our customers are saying should be everyone's business. My guest today is Mario Ciabarra, Founder and CEO of Quantum Metric. Quantum is a Gen-AI powered analytics platform that allows companies to interpret data into useful insights for different stakeholders so that everyone—from the first day product designer to the company founder—can bake empathy for customers into every decision. We discussed how this works in practice, considerations around data hygiene, and some predictions on how Gen-AI will drive the evolution of analytics this year and beyond.Resources from this episode:Subscribe to The Product Manager newsletterConnect with Mario on LinkedInCheck out Quantum Metric

Orson Scott Card is the author of Ender's Game, one of the most influential science fiction novels ever written, and its sequel Speaker for the Dead, among other bestselling works. Ender's Game is widely read in schools across the US and has been included in some educational curricula. In our conversation, we explore: His approach to creating page-turners: Why telling users what's coming beats clever "hooks"  His method of ensuring the reader understands his writing (great for design teams)  His unique perspective to character development that could help with customer interviews  The one trick Orson uses for getting real feedback This episode teaches product teams how to apply storytelling principles to build more engaging, intuitive products. Whether you're working on marketing, user experience, or team leadership, Orson Scott Card's insights on crafting immersive narratives that respect both audience and reality offer valuable lessons for anyone building products people love (and pay for). Enjoy this episode? Rate it and leave a review. It really helps others find the podcast.Learn more about Kristen and Irrational Labs ⁠here⁠.

Discover the strategies and stories behind the most innovative product teams of 2024, where intentional leadership and a vibrant culture are the foundations of success. This special episode features insights from renowned tech leaders and product visionaries, including Ben Foster, co-founder of Prodigy Group and former Chief Product Officer at a leading fitness wearable company, who emphasizes the power of communicating an inspiring product vision to unify and energize teams. Farhan Thawar, Head of Engineering at Shopify, shares how writing and critical thinking drive alignment and scale in one of the most cerebral and innovative organizations. Janice Fraser, a veteran of TaskRabbit and Netscape, introduces actionable leadership frameworks like the "two-meeting model" to foster durable decision-making and team commitment. Jose Moreno, former Netflix engineer, sheds light on the company's "context over control" philosophy and how it empowers teams to deliver billions in value. Deepika Yerragunta, Head of Platform Products at PepsiCo, shares her unique approach to hiring product managers, emphasizing the importance of curiosity, active listening, and ruthless prioritization, while revealing how her fresh perspective as an outsider has driven transformative innovation in traditional industries. Whether it's structuring communication, hiring and training exceptional product managers, or building an empowering culture rooted in collaboration and diversity, this episode offers powerful lessons to help entrepreneurs and product leaders level up their organizations. Don't miss the chance to learn from the best and apply these transformative strategies to your own product teams. In this episode... How to communicate inspiring product visions that energize teams The role of writing in driving alignment and innovation Leadership frameworks for making durable decisions Expert tips on hiring and training top-performing product managers Mentioned in this episode... Shopify's engineering playbook: https://shopify.engineering/running-engineering-program-guide Netflix Culture Deck: https://jobs.netflix.com/culture Barbara Minto's SCQA Framework: https://modelthinkers.com/mental-model/minto-pyramid-scqa Unlock the full potential of your product team with Integral's player coaches, experts in lean, human-centered design. Visit integral.io/convergence for a free Product Success Lab workshop to gain clarity and confidence in tackling any product design or engineering challenge. Subscribe to the Convergence podcast wherever you get podcasts including video episodes to get updated on the other crucial conversations that we'll post on YouTube at youtube.com/@convergencefmpodcast Learn something? Give us a 5 star review and like the podcast on YouTube. It's how we grow.   Follow the Pod Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/convergence-podcast/ X: https://twitter.com/podconvergence Instagram: @podconvergence

In the age of remote work, product teams can take a lot of forms, and are no longer limited to the talent pool of a specific geographic area. That means many of us are working closely every day with colleagues in completely different time zones, while also building products for customers around the world. And while the ability to connect, collaborate, and sell internationally offers a wealth of opportunities, it also comes with a whole world of intricacies and challenges.My guest today is Craig Guarraci, who has spent the past 30 years working for Big Tech companies like Amazon and Microsoft, and is now putting his experience to work as a Career Coach. Given his background and current focus, Craig is MORE than familiar with some of the more delicate challenges of building and launching products internationally. We discussed the considerations PMs, executives, and entrepreneurs need to be thinking about when working across borders, and how to make sure your best efforts don't get lost in translation.Resources from this episode:Subscribe to The Product Manager newsletterConnect with Craig on LinkedInCheck out Tech PM Career Path

Welcome to another episode of Supra Insider. This time, Marc and Ben sat down with Tal Raviv and Joshua Herzig-Marx to explore AI's seismic impact on product development. This conversation unpacks how revolutionary tools like Replit and Vercel v0 are democratizing prototyping and reshaping traditional roles across design, engineering, and product management.Delving beyond surface-level observations, our guests share provocative insights on AI agents' role in reshaping workplace dynamics and envision the emergence of AI-native enterprises. From reimagining established workflows to envisioning AI-first companies, this episode delivers crucial insights for anyone building products in the AI era.All episodes of the podcast are also available on Spotify, Apple and YouTube (video).New to the pod? Subscribe below to get the next episode in your inbox

 In this episode, Ross Webb, former product leader at Amazon and Just Eat, reveals how successful product organizations mirror championship sports teams through intentional collaboration, defined roles, and productive tension. Five experienced product leaders share their strategies for building and leading high-performing teams. Key Topics Discussed: Creating natural cross-team collaborationBuilding genuine engineering partnershipsManaging productive tension between teamsRemote team relationship buildingDesigning complementary team structures Featured Guests: Phil Hornby introduces his innovative "3 hats" approach to breaking down silos and encouraging natural collaborationBecca Cooke shares insights on creating true engineering partnerships beyond simple delegationBrian Flanagan explains how to balance product and engineering relationships through healthy tensionKatherine Cunliffe reveals strategies for building strong relationships in remote teamsMel McVie demonstrates how to build diverse teams that complement each other's strengths Key Insights: The importance of dedicated collaboration time through "office hours"How to empower engineers through problem-solving vs prescriptionThe distinction between product owning "what" and engineering owning "how"Building personal connections in remote environmentsThe value of hiring for complementary strengths Actionable Takeaways: Implement the 3 hats approach to create natural collaborationCreate dedicated office hours for cross-team supportFocus on problems rather than prescriptive solutions with engineeringPrioritize informal connections in remote settingsHire for your blind spots to create stronger collective teams Join the Top Prods Community: Take your product leadership journey to the next level by joining our community at https://www.top-prods.com. Connect with mentors, access structured guidance, and accelerate your career growth alongside fellow product leaders. Resources Mentioned: Top Prods Community4 Pillars of Product Success Guide Connect with our guests on LinkedIn to learn more about their approaches to building high-performing product teams.

From Intel's engineering labs to Silicon Valley's unicorns, OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) have transformed how tech companies translate vision into measurable outcomes. But what separates successful OKR implementations from failed experiments? And how can technology leaders avoid the common pitfalls that derail even well-intentioned rollouts? In this episode, we dive deep with leaders who've shaped OKR practices at some of tech's most influential companies. Our guests Josh Seiden, Holly Bielawa, and Deepika Yerragunta share battle-tested insights from their experiences at Intel, Amazon, Google, and beyond. The episode compiles the best segments around getting started on your OKR journey, de-risking and iterating your rollout, and our guests' tips on self-checking the health of your OKR implementation.  Whether you're launching your first OKR initiative or iterating on an existing framework, you'll learn practical strategies for cascading objectives across teams while maintaining strategic alignment. Our conversation includes war stories from the field, as well as intuitive insights on what actually works: fostering genuine collaboration, maintaining human centricity, and achieving the elusive balance between ambition and accountability.  Watch full episodes with Josh, Holly and Deepika here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL31JETR9AR0FGx2A9HQbq2e1Xywkqb6BQ     Inside the episode... Why OKRs are a powerful alternative to traditional goal-setting frameworks. How OKRs promote collaboration and alignment across all levels of an organization. Best practices for implementing OKRs: starting small, iterating, and setting clear priorities. Tips for integrating OKRs into your product teams using human-centered design principles. Differentiating between business OKRs and product OKRs to avoid organizational misalignment. How to set and measure strategic objectives with actionable, customer-centric key results. Lessons learned from failed and successful OKR implementations, including war stories from the field. The role of product operations in making data accessible for measuring OKR progress. Why tying OKRs to compensation or promotions can derail the intent of the framework.     Mentioned in this episode Measure What Matters by John Doerr Outcomes Over Outputs by Josh Seiden Escaping the Build Trap by Melissa Perri Continuous Discovery Habits by Teresa Torres Who Does What by When by by Jeff Gothelf, Josh Seiden User Story Mapping by Jeff Patton     Convergence Episodes featured  Building Customer-Centric Teams: Josh Seiden on OKRs and Agile Agile and Beyond Conference 2024: The Latest in A.I. Innovations and Product Development Strategies (features the interview with Holly Bielawa) Driving Cultural Change: PepsiCo's Deepika Yerragunta on Customer Obsession and Product Mindset Unlock the full potential of your product team with Integral's player coaches, experts in lean, human-centered design. Visit integral.io/convergence for a free Product Success Lab workshop to gain clarity and confidence in tackling any product design or engineering challenge. Subscribe to the Convergence podcast wherever you get podcasts including video episodes to get updated on the other crucial conversations that we'll post on YouTube at youtube.com/@convergencefmpodcast Learn something? Give us a 5 star review and like the podcast on YouTube. It's how we grow.   Follow the Pod Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/convergence-podcast/ X: https://twitter.com/podconvergence Instagram: @podconvergence  

A better understanding of product-led sales will help you succeed and grow as a successful product-led business. In today's podcast, Wes Bush welcomes Thomas Schiavone, co-founder, and CEO of Calixa to share his insights on how to turn signups into revenue. Learn about the different tests to implement, how to prioritize your projects, and the crucial questions you need to ask yourself to monetize your product-led funnel.  Show Notes: [02:12] These are the three questions you need to consider.  [04:25] What should you think about your sign-ups?  [07:08] Why you need to test your PLG motion. [09:48] It's important to prioritize users, but what's next? [17:29] These are what you should consider to start an effective revenue machine. [21:29] What else can you to for testing and generating revenue? [30:17] The two crucial elements you need to watch out for.  [32:02] Yes – company size matters, too About Thomas Schiavone He is a co-founder and CEO of Calixa, a platform for product-led sales. Thomas Schiavone has also worked as a Product Team at Twilio in the past. About Calixa Calixa offers sales teams the insights they need to prioritize, close, and develop clients in a sea of self-service signups. Profile Thomas Schiavone on LinkedIn

Rohini Pandhi is a product leader at Mercury, and previously spent over seven years at Square/Block leading product work on Square payments, invoicing, and the Bitkey hardware Bitcoin wallet. She's also the co-founder of the startup bootcamp Transparent Collective and is an active angel investor. In our conversation, we discuss:• Key indicators that it's time to hire PMs• How to build your early PM team• Why founders should initially take on the product manager role themselves• How to attract top PM talent• What she's learned about going multi-product• A case for investing in quality• More—Skip the Mercury Personal waitlist: https://mercurytechnologies.typeform.com/lenny—Brought to you by:• Cloudinary—The foundational technology for all images and video on the internet• OneSchema—Import CSV data 10x faster• Airtable ProductCentral—Launch to new heights with a unified system for product development—Find the transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-to-build-your-product-team-from-scratch-rohini-pandhi—Where to find Rohini Pandhi:• X: https://x.com/rohinip• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rohinipandhi—Where to find Lenny:• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/—In this episode, we cover:(00:00) Rohini's background(05:00) The role of product managers at Mercury(09:51) Key indicators that it's time to hire PMs(13:18) Building the product team at Mercury(19:53) Why you should avoid hiring PMs too early(22:26) The different flavors of product management(26:15) How to attract top talent(35:59) Advocating for quality in product development(44:10) Going multi-product(46:37) Organizational structure for multi-product success(50:57) Organizational culture for multi-product success(52:07) Customer obsession and product development(57:36) More lessons from going multi-product(01:05:57) Transparent Collective: supporting underrepresented founders(01:09:54) Lightning round—Referenced:• Immad Akhund on X: https://x.com/immad• Mercury: https://mercury.com• Square: https://squareup.com• Pioneers, Settlers, Town Planners [Wardley]: https://orghacking.com/pioneers-settlers-town-planners-wardley-9dcd3709cde7• Jason Zhang on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-zhang-5645a860• What is ‘Dogfooding'?: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/14/business/dogfooding.html• Mercury Bill Pay: https://mercury.com/bill-pay• Zip: https://zip.co• Jira: https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira• The art and science of pricing | Madhavan Ramanujam (Monetizing Innovation, Simon-Kucher): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-art-and-science-of-pricing-madhavan• Gokul Rajaram on designing your product development process, when and how to hire your first PM, a playbook for hiring leaders, getting ahead in you career, how to get started angel investing, more: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/gokul-rajaram-on-designing-your-product• Gokul Rajaram on X: https://x.com/gokulr• Transparent Collective: https://www.transparentcollective.com• 16 Reading Tips from Naval Ravikant: https://alexandbooks.com/archive/16-reading-tips-from-naval-ravikant• Shrinking on AppleTV+: https://tv.apple.com/us/show/shrinking• Bad Sisters on AppleTV+: https://tv.apple.com/us/show/bad-sisters• Slow Horses on AppleTV+: https://tv.apple.com/us/show/slow-horses• Severance on AppleTV+: https://tv.apple.com/us/show/severance• Presumed Innocent on AppleTV+: https://tv.apple.com/us/show/presumed-innocent• Waymo: https://waymo.com• Adam Robinson on X: https://x.com/IAmAdamRobinson• Cyan Banister—From Homeless and Broke to Top Angel Investor (Uber, SpaceX, and 100+ More): https://tim.blog/2024/11/28/cyan-banister• Bobby Matson on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bobbymatson• Jobs at Mercury: https://mercury.com/jobs—Recommended books:• Vectors: Aphorisms & Ten-Second Essays: https://www.amazon.com/Vectors-Aphorisms-Ten-Second-James-Richardson/dp/0967266890• The Inner Game of Tennis: The Classic Guide to the Mental Side of Peak Performance: https://www.amazon.com/Inner-Game-Tennis-Classic-Performance/dp/0679778314• Pachinko: https://www.amazon.com/Pachinko-National-Book-Award-Finalist/dp/1455563927• Cutting for Stone: https://www.amazon.com/Cutting-Stone-Abraham-Verghese/dp/0375714367• The Song of Achilles: https://www.amazon.com/Song-Achilles-Novel-Madeline-Miller/dp/0062060627—Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.—Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed. Get full access to Lenny's Newsletter at www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribe

In this episode, Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia interviews Karandeep Anand, President and Chief Product Officer at Brex, one of the fastest-growing fintech companies in the world.Founded in 2017, Brex quickly became the go-to financial services partner for most Silicon Valley startups, with 80% of Y Combinator startups using their platform. This rapid growth led to over $1.2 billion in funding and a $12.3 billion valuation. Brex now serves a wide range of companies, from startups to large enterprises, including over 150 public companies with a combined estimated market cap exceeding $2.9 trillion.Karandeep's impressive career includes 6.5 years at Meta, where he led a team of 3,000 people and served 200M+ businesses globally, and 15 years at Microsoft, heading product management for Azure's application and developer platforms. At Brex, he has been instrumental in transforming the company's Product Management culture and expanding its product into a comprehensive financial platform offering corporate cards, treasury solutions, and software for travel and expenses in one place.In this episode, we explore Brex's evolution from a startup-focused company to serving enterprise customers, the integration of AI in financial products within a highly regulated environment, and the restructuring of product teams for efficiency and innovation. We also discuss Karandeep's unique perspective on product-market fit and the importance of continuous innovation in a rapidly changing market.What you'll learn:Karandeep's approach to evolving Brex from a startup-focused company to serving enterprise customers.How AI is integrated into financial products in a highly regulated environment.Strategies for restructuring product teams to drive efficiency and innovation.The importance of PMs spending more time on customer calls and listening to customers.A third go-to-market motion mixing PLG and SLG: Assisted Product-led growth.Why product-market fit is a journey, not a destination, and the importance of continuous innovation.Key Takeaways:AI Integration: Karandeep highlights the use of AI not just in products, but also to reduce change management costs for customers.Product Team Restructuring: He discusses the transformation of Brex's product team, emphasizing the role of PMs as ""mini-CEOs"" for their product lines.Customer-Centric Approach: Karandeep stresses the importance of PMs being directly involved in sales calls and customer interactions.Continuous Innovation: He argues that product-market fit is not a static goal but a continuous journey in today's rapidly changing market.Go-to-Market Strategy: Karandeep introduces the concept of "assisted PLG" as a hybrid approach between product-led and sales-led growth.Social Links:- Follow our Podcast on Tik Tok here- Follow Product School on LinkedIn here- Join Product School's free events here - Find out more about Product School hereCredits:Host: Carlos Gonzalez de VillaumbrosiaGuest: Karandeep Anand

Last year we visited Specialized's eMTB facility in Cham, Switzerland to ride some bikes and poke around their ebike innovation centre. We sat down with Jan Talavasek, Marco Sonderegger, and Joe Buckley, three of the key people behind eMTB development at Specialized, to talk about past, present, and future. We also got a special appearance from the venerable Marketing Todd, who swears Specialized is done making new bikes and that we should stop asking sneaky questions about future models. They had a lot to say, and we got a few tidbits out of them, so the pod runs a bit long. Alternatively, you can read the article + photos here. This was recorded before we'd figured out how to press the big red button to do video podcasts, but we'll be back soon with our regularly scheduled podcast. 03:07 The Evolution of E-Bikes & the Development of the Turbo Levo 14:58 The Shift in Perception of eMTBs 30:52 Brand Equity & the Levo's Original Name 33:51 The Swiss Office 44:02 Future Developments in eMTBs 50:20 Understanding E-Bike Performance Metrics 56:51 The Impact of Market Timing 01:00:00 Engineering for Performance, Legislation, & Consumer Safety 01:12:04 Charging Technology and Battery Longevity 01:15:59 Data-Driven Design and Testing 01:24:02 Field Testing and Component Tracking

How can product leaders effectively lead teams and drive success when entering a new industry? In this episode hosted by Mark Bailes, Sentara Health Head of Product Cybersecurity Commercialization Shane Wooten shares his insights on positioning yourself for success when transitioning to a new vertical. Learn how to build trust and credibility with experienced teams, sell a compelling product vision, and leverage your core product skills to make an impact - even without prior industry expertise. Shane draws on his diverse background, spanning entrepreneurship, Fortune 500 companies, and now healthcare, to provide practical advice for product managers looking to take on new challenges and accelerate their careers by expanding into unfamiliar markets.

Fabrice des Mazery, Chief Product Officer at productROI joins Melissa Perri on this episode of the Product Thinking podcast, discussing shifting product managers' mindsets from builders to investors. Drawing from his extensive experience, including leading product at TripAdvisor's TheFork, Fabrice shares insights on evaluating product decisions through an investment lens, building stakeholder relationships, and creating a balanced product portfolio. He emphasizes the importance of understanding business metrics, ROI, and risk assessment in product management, while offering practical advice on how to communicate with stakeholders, using their language rather than product jargon.

Derek Ferguson from The Fitch Group returns to share how his team of 600+ developers leverages generative AI tools like Amazon's CodeWhisperer and implements DORA metrics to boost productivity and team health. In this second part of the conversation, he delves into the transformative impact of these tools and the innovative strategies driving adoption and success at scale. Listen to Derek's experiences in introducing cutting-edge tools to a large organization, his lessons in fostering experimentation, and the surprising parallels between today's AI adoption and the internet boom. From the role of community practices versus centers of excellence to pragmatic advice on technology adoption, this episode is packed with actionable insights for leaders and developers alike. Stick around for Derek's perspective on the evolving role of technologists in an AI-driven world and how music creation intersects with his tech expertise. Inside the episode… • Exploring generative AI for software development and its transformative potential. • Implementing DORA metrics to boost productivity and enhance team alignment. • Lessons learned from scaling technology practices across large organizations. • The balance between prescriptive guidance and fostering creativity in teams. • Insights into creating impactful developer communities of practice. Mentioned in this episode • Generative AI tools (e.g., Amazon's CodeWhisperer) • DORA metrics (DevOps Research and Assessment) • Tools for music and tech crossover (e.g., RipX, Replicate) Unlock the full potential of your product team with Integral's player coaches, experts in lean, human-centered design. Visit integral.io/convergence for a free Product Success Lab workshop to gain clarity and confidence in tackling any product design or engineering challenge. Subscribe to the Convergence podcast wherever you get podcasts including video episodes to get updated on the other crucial conversations that we'll post on YouTube at youtube.com/@convergencefmpodcast Learn something? Give us a 5 star review and like the podcast on YouTube. It's how we grow.   Follow the Pod Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/convergence-podcast/ X: https://twitter.com/podconvergence Instagram: @podconvergence  

What does it mean to lead with impact in a world of uncertainty, ambiguity, and endless best practices? In this compelling episode of Rocketship.FM, we explore how product teams can directly tie their work to measurable business success, ensuring alignment with company goals while resisting the low-impact work that often derails progress. Drawing from the soon-to-be-released book Impact First Product Teams, our guest shares actionable insights on setting meaningful team goals, keeping impact at the forefront of every step, and avoiding the pitfalls of "low-impact death spirals." Whether you're a product manager navigating tricky trade-offs or a leader seeking clarity in your team's contributions, this episode offers a blueprint for building resilient, results-oriented product teams.

In this episode of the Convergence Podcast, Ashok welcomes Derek Ferguson, Chief Software Officer at Fitch Group, for the first of a two-part series. Derek shares how his unique blend of a music background and decades in product leadership have shaped his approach to leading high-performing software teams. From his insights on disciplined creativity to the vital relationship between agile methods and microservices, Derek provides a wealth of actionable advice for building successful product teams. Derek also unpacks the challenges of aligning business stakeholders with technology teams, earning their trust, and navigating complex migrations with an innovative yet pragmatic approach. Whether you're curious about how design, agile, and DevOps intersect or you're leading a team striving to deliver better software faster, this conversation is packed with invaluable lessons. Unlock the full potential of your product team with Integral's player coaches, experts in lean, human-centered design. Visit integral.io/convergence for a free Product Success Lab workshop to gain clarity and confidence in tackling any product design or engineering challenge. Inside the episode… • How a music background translates to product leadership. • Building trust with business stakeholders in agile environments. • Why microservices, agile, and DevOps are a winning trio. • Real-world stories of disciplined creativity at work. • The importance of rethinking legacy processes in migrations. Mentioned in this episode • Fitch Group • Agile coaching • Microservices and DevOps methodologies • Integral.io

If you're going to scale user acquisition, it's pretty hard if not impossible to do it without rock-solid forecasting. In this episode of Growth Masterminds, host John Koetsier chats with Nathan Ceulemans, an exec at Kohort, about forecasting and predictive analytics. Nathan shares insights from his experience at Leanplum, SensorTower, and Kohort. We discuss how accurate forecasting can enhance scaling efforts for games and apps and talk about the importance of predicting retention and monetization and the challenges of integrating monetization natively. Real-world examples highlight how forecasting can lead to smarter spending and greater growth, like the success of Candy Crush. Tune in to understand the critical balance between retention and monetization, effective UA strategies, and the potential benefits of advanced forecasting methods. 00:00 Introduction to Growth Masterminds 01:03 The Importance of Forecasting in Scaling Games 01:32 Understanding User Acquisition and Financials 02:24 Forecasting Retention and Monetization 04:15 Challenges in User Acquisition and Scaling 07:31 The Role of Product Teams in Forecasting 13:17 Accuracy in Forecasting with Neural Networks 17:51 The Impact of Accurate Forecasting on Growth 22:35 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

The Product Team is joined by the Sales manager to discuss some of their hunting experiences through the fall. They cover deer, antelope, and Elk from all over the West, including rifle and archery. It's been a busy fall.

Curious if your product team is caught in common traps that limit success? Join Brian and David Pereira as they explore how to simplify workflows, make smarter bets with prioritization, and shift from output-driven thinking to delivering real value. Overview In this episode of the Agile Mentors Podcast, host Brian Milner chats with David Pereira, author of Untrapping Product Teams. Together, they dive into the common traps product teams face, the differences between project and product management, and practical strategies for prioritization. David shares insights from his book, offering advice on building healthier backlogs, creating adaptable roadmaps, and moving beyond a feature-obsessed mindset to focus on delivering true value. References and resources mentioned in the show: David Pereira Untrapping Product Teams by David Pereira Certified Scrum Product Owner® Training Advanced Certified Scrum Product Owner® Mountain Goat Software Certified Scrum and Agile Training Schedule Subscribe to the Agile Mentors Podcast Want to get involved? This show is designed for you, and we’d love your input. Enjoyed what you heard today? Please leave a rating and a review. It really helps, and we read every single one. Got an Agile subject you’d like us to discuss or a question that needs an answer? Share your thoughts with us at podcast@mountaingoatsoftware.com This episode’s presenters are: Brian Milner is SVP of coaching and training at Mountain Goat Software. He's passionate about making a difference in people's day-to-day work, influenced by his own experience of transitioning to Scrum and seeing improvements in work/life balance, honesty, respect, and the quality of work. David Pereira is a seasoned Product Leader with over 15 years of experience guiding Agile teams to deliver real value faster. As CEO of omoqo GmbH and a top writer on product management, David is passionate about helping teams overcome challenges, unlock their potential, and simplify their workflows to drive meaningful outcomes. Auto-generated Transcript: Brian (00:00) Welcome back Agile Mentors. We are here for yet another episode of the Agile Mentors Podcast. I'm with you as always, Brian Milner. And today I have Mr. David Pereira with us. Welcome in, David. David Pereira (00:12) Let's be here. Brian (00:14) Very excited to have David here with us. David is the author of a new book called, Untrapping Product Teams. So product owners, this is going to be a discussion that I know you're going to find very interesting. We're going to be talking about a lot of things that have to do with product teams and sort of the ins and outs of working with your products. So David, just for starters, what inspired you to write the book? What was the main problem you were trying to address when you sat down to write this? David Pereira (00:42) pain. I have worked as a product person for many companies throughout the years, different countries, different sides. And one thing that I realized is that there many things going wrong. And sometimes we just don't know that it's wrong and it hurts. Then when we realize the question is, what are we going to do about it? So I started writing about untrapped products. From this perspective, Brian (00:43) Ha ha ha ha. David Pereira (01:12) of there's something wrong, we might not see, but let's start from this and then maybe we can transform how we work for the better. Brian (01:23) Awesome. Yeah, that's a great take on it. Cause I agree. There's certain times when as a product owner, know I've, you you're kind of chugging along and things are going okay, but then something happens and it's sort of like, wow, this is painful. I don't know where it's, I can't put my finger on what's going wrong, but there's something happening here. And you you try to push through it and just get past it sometimes. And it's, that's not always the best strategy. I know you talk about there being sort of these dangerous traps that are kind of typical traps that product people fall into. Can you share any of those with us? What are some of the dangerous traps you identified here? David Pereira (02:01) Sure, there's the classic one called the gigantic backlog. So the team looked at it and we're talking about product owners, but sometimes product owners get demoted to backlog owners and they don't even notice that. So that's one of the most classic traps, but there's also another I call the calendar driven framework. You may think you work with agile, but then you realize that you only do what is in your calendar. So that digitates what you're doing and so on. And you fall prey to what I call as a meeting marathon. Brian (02:38) Yeah. I want to go back a little bit to your, to the big backlog kind of, idea there, because I, I know that's a issue I've talked with people about in class a lot. And, I just want to get your take on this. Cause I, one of the things, you know, we'll, we'll discuss in classes sometimes just the idea of having too big of a backlog and, and kind of wrestling with it and trying to get it in shape. But the question always comes up, you know, you what's the. the right number. We ask a question in class and say, how big is your backlog? And you'll see different reactions from people. Some people, less than 50, other people 250, other people 1,000 plus items. Is there a number? Is there a number that beyond which it's all of sudden now too big? David Pereira (03:24) Yeah, for sure. So for me, first is understanding what is the backlog about. It is a vehicle to drive whether when you look at the backlog, should be able to tell a story. You should know where you're heading to. But when you look there, if you see a 60 year old Christmas wishlist that has everything in but you cannot connect anything, that's when it starts smelling. So for me, a good backlog will have no more than I would say two, three things ahead of us. There might be some things that are directions that we will continue refine and get it better and so on. But if we would have something that takes us like six months of work to get it through, maybe we are doing project management. Brian (04:12) So that's an interesting distinction. if we're moving into product, how would you define that then if we're saying project management versus product management, how do you define that difference? David Pereira (04:23) So project management in general, we assume we know what needs to happen. So we start planning on when we do what and how long we're gonna invest in this and so on. Product management is more about starting what is value, what do we want to achieve? And then we start embracing the unknown, facing reality, learning from it. And then the backlog will emerge from our learnings. So it means we know where we want to land, but how we're gonna get there. We know where to start, but not the next 3, 4, 5 steps. Brian (04:56) Love that. So that gets us kind of into talking about road mapping a little bit because I know that's one of the things you talk about in your book and kind of the idea of trying to plan a little bit far in advance. So if we have a backlog, it's really more two to three sprints versus six months. Do you recommend the product owners roadmap for longer than two to three sprints or is the roadmap just a two to three sprint roadmap? David Pereira (05:24) Sure. So the roadmap for me, it is about a different flight level. So the backlog is the now. What are we doing right now in the next two sprints as we talked about? The roadmap, we're looking at what is the overarching goal we are pursuing. So that could be, for example, a milestone that we aim to achieve for the next two, three months. And then the backlog will march towards that. But for the roadmap, I think it's still important to have something like, what is the direction for six months that maybe we are considering. But the farther we go, the more I would say blurry it becomes. It's more like a direction and we can feel free to adapt that. Brian (06:13) So help me understand here, because one of the things I think that I hear a lot of questions about in class is, since 2020, the Scrum Guide has added this idea of a product goal. And we've always traditionally thought about having a vision for the product. So now we have sort of this nested nature of having a vision, a product goal. And of course, we've always had sprinkles. How do you see those things related? relating to some sort of road mapping. David Pereira (06:45) Let's take a company here as an example. I like looking at the SpaceX. What is the vision? The vision is something audacious, inspiring, that people can connect with. Might be very hard to achieve, but it gives us guidance. For SpaceX, would say two words, populate Mars. That's the vision. It's very far. And what would be a roadmap goal? For example, something they achieved already. It's a step to get closer to the vision. Build a reusable rocket. That's something they spent a lot of time doing, and that could be a roadmap item. Then when you go to the sprint ghost, it's just a smaller step towards that. Brian (07:35) Gotcha. Yeah, that's great way to put it. I like that idea and I appreciate you using kind of a real world example. I think that kind of drives it home for everybody. I think it's obviously one of the things we talk about quite a bit in Agile is that idea of that we don't have any problem with planning. Planning is a good thing. What we have a problem with is plans that are so concrete that they're inflexible. So when we... I've always thought as a product owner, when we try to create these roadmaps, the further we get out from today, the looser, the less defined it is, the more rough the idea is, and the less people should count on there being any date that's going to be met based off of that longer term horizon. Of course, there are exceptions to this. You mentioned SpaceX, mean, SpaceX has a multi-year goal. I mean, they have something that's kind of further out to the future. So I think that there are some exceptions that we probably could make in there. But I think you're right. Think about them in that steps as far as vision to product goal to sprinkle. One of the other things that I found kind of interesting in reading up and thinking about your book is you talk about the difference between coordinated and collaborative workflows. Can you define those? Tell us a little bit about what you meant by that, the difference between those two. David Pereira (08:31) Yeah, of course. I start with a question. When we are talking about coordinative development flow, step back and then reflect. Do you talk more about work than you do it? Or you just go and do work on it? If you feel like you are all the time talking about work, everyone is talking about it, you have so many meetings discussing and so on, but then you wonder who is doing the work, then there's a chance you are in the coordinative development flow. The collaborative development flow, it's a little bit chaotic. There are many things happening. Teams are looking at what can we do right now? What can we do next? They are adapting all the time and so on. Plans are actually means to an end. They are not reached. They point a direction. Teams may have a plan, but it's very simple. It is not a predictive thing. When you are in the coordinative development flow, things take long. For example, you may have a lot of ideas in the beginning, then that means you need to find the most promising idea, speculation. So you may use frameworks to have the best scoring and understand what is the idea most promising. Then you invest time and crafting high fidelity prototypes and so on. There's a lot of coordination back on Perf. But if you go to a collaborative, you say, all right, I have all of these ideas here. Which ideas are worth? That's the first question. Then you say, how do they meet our, for example, product vision? How do they relate to our strategy? How do they contribute to our goal? And if you don't have answers to that, you use your friend called trash bin. So you put the things in your trash bin and then you start moving forward. And you say, all right, how do I know this has desirability? It's viable from the business. How do I know we can do it? then start running experiment. And then some things you realize, actually customers don't need it, then you don't pursue. So that's why it looks like chaos because you don't know what will get to the end, because things will fall apart on the way because you learned they don't make sense. On the coordinate, you know what gets to the end. You just don't know if it's the right thing. Brian (11:18) That's a great point. And you're right. If we think of this from an experimental mindset, the product development game here as more experimentation, think you're right. There's going to be things that don't, the experiments that don't turn out the way we expected, just like there is in any kind of experimentation. that can be some of the most productive moments actually is when you have those experiments that turn out differently than you anticipated because that can lead you in areas that are surprising and new and have value that you might not have otherwise recognized, I think. So yeah, I love that. I think that's a great way to talk about it. It makes me think a lot about prioritization as well because I know that's a big area for us as product owners and... You know, someone sent me an article the other day that, that I share sometimes with people that's, it's a blog post that someone put out there. was like 127 different ways to prioritize your backlog. It's just, they're all methods, right? They're all the things that you probably, all of us have probably heard and, you know, things like Moscow and, and other things like that, that people are typically use, to prioritize their backlog or rice or. relative weighting or something like that. But one of the things that I find kind of interesting with that, and I want to get your take on this David, is sometimes when I will use something like relative weighting, for example, or rice, very much more of an analytical approach, right? And we're trying to try to analyze it based on several factors and see what the score comes out at the end, which one's higher than the other. but one of the interesting kind of a sideline effects that I've noticed in myself as a product owner is sometimes I'll find that I'll run that kind of a process on several features and I'll get to the end and you know, I've got three features and know, a feature, a, and C and, you know, I'll take a look at the results and look, you know, it looks like feature B is number one feature C is two and, and a is three and Sort of in my head, I kind of feel this dialogue happen where I think, huh, really B is number one. Wow. would have never thought that would have been the case. That's surprising. I can't believe B came out as number one, but maybe I answered those questions incorrectly. Maybe I should go back and change my answers in doing this analysis because that can't be right. B shouldn't be one. B should maybe be two or three. And I kind of call it the the gut instinct, you know, it's kind of that gut instinct moment where you look at the results and it feels wrong, right? And I know you talk in your book kind of about, you know, opinions without evidence and kind of the idea of, know, it made me kind of think about that scenario where sometimes you'll run it through some kind of a prioritization technique and there'll be a definitive answer, but you kind of have that instinctual moment that feels like maybe this is not right. How do you handle those moments, David? Do you have any problem overriding results or do you always take the results of some kind of a prioritization technique that you've tried to use? David Pereira (14:44) Mm-hmm. So prioritization is something quite interesting. What I see is many companies search for certainty. We need to ensure that we find what drives value. So we take some time analyzing that. The problem is that we start injecting a lot of speculation. We think what it's right, but we don't. What I see is prioritization is a bet. So I think about placing bets. Say, all right, so there are all of these cool ideas here. I try looking, for example, at potential. As of now, what do we know about it? How many customers would care about it? How much would they care about it? Can we deliver something of that? I say, all right, let's invest one day and see what we can learn about it. Then we can move to the next. And then we can invest maybe two days. And if we don't like what we learn, then we just stop. And if you like what we learned, then we say, let's invest another week. And then we keep going to the point we say, this looks cool. And then we can do something about it. So I say like, let's have a bias toward actions. We can face reality as fast as possible. Then we can learn what makes sense and what doesn't. And I give you a concrete example. When I started about the book, I was thinking, Does it make sense for me to write a book? How do I know that? I got invited to give a keynote. I said, I'm going to speak about something that I would write and I will see how it resonates. I gave this talk 10 times. And then what happens after each talk? Few people would come to me and say, Hey, I like this thing. I like this. I like this. And everything you didn't mention, I started questioning. And then what they like to explore. And after the 10th talk, someone said, when are you writing a book about it? said, aha, now it's coming. I said, I need you to do another experiment. I posted on LinkedIn. said, I'm writing a book. And I had in my mind, if at least 200 people show interest in that, I'm going to interview people to understand their challenge. So I did that. When I decided to write a book, I didn't write the book. I explored. where to write and so on and all of this. Because I was placing bets, small investments that give me information that I can use as evidence. And that's the same what I do with digital products. It is about learning from reality, not from a meeting room. Brian (17:25) I love that. Yeah. I think we've, I know that I've heard that language used quite often, the idea of making small bets or making bets on things, but it really is a revolution. And you're worried way to think about it. like your, your concept of, of thinking, is it worth a day? Right. Is it worth a day to do this? Is it worth me betting a day on, on trying to find out more information about this? is that really how you look at prioritization then is, is, is you prioritize it? Is it, is it kind of, Is it worth the effort to do what it's gonna take to do this thing and think of it that way as a bet? David Pereira (18:01) Yeah, in this direction, because for example, when we explore what is the potential outcome, how many users would care, how much do they care about it? I say, let's see if that is true or not. Let's start learning about it. Then we can have a better understanding of the expected result. Because the danger is when you start talking about these things, it just do a scoring, like a rise, eyes or something else. then you get false confidence. So I want to move away from the false confidence to get closer to reality because in the end of the day, we don't know what we don't know. Brian (18:41) Yeah, I think that's a really good point to make. I know I've run an experiment sometimes in classes where we'll have a couple of different ways of prioritization. I'll give them something complicated like relative weighting or rice. And then I'll give them something, you know, ultra simple, like stack ranking and, you know, have them compare and say how, what's the difference. I know you talking to your book about kind of how important it is to simplify the decision-making process. And so I'm just, what are some of your strategies for that, for trying to simplify that decision making process? David Pereira (19:19) So you need to know what is priority right now. So you can filter out things. For example, if your product is scaling, what matters most? Is it retention? Is it growth? Customer satisfaction? Which is the game you are playing? Because if you don't know the game you're playing, everything is a priority. Then you need to discuss everything. So that's the reason I like starting with what matters most. Because then you remove everything else. then you can look at, so if growth is what matters most, let's think about what will contribute to that. Then we go from this. Brian (19:56) Yeah, that's a great way to look at it. I think you're right. I it's the outcome that we're trying to drive, right? I mean, we're rebuilding features or we're proposing to build something so that we have this outcome. And if we're not really driving that outcome, then we're wasting our time. We're not really doing what we're trying to do. Yeah, that's a great point. I know one of the other points you talked about in your book is kind of this idea of periodically doing product health checks. David Pereira (20:12) Exactly. Brian (20:23) And that was kind of an interesting new concept for me. I not heard that really spelled out in any way. Can you help the listeners kind of understand what you mean by a product health check? David Pereira (20:34) For me, it's a falling. We may start doing things without challenging them. We don't know if they are good, we don't know if they are bad. We know how to do them. And then that becomes our routine, our habit. On Monday we do this, on Tuesday we do that, on Wednesday we do the other. And we keep doing, and they give some results. But the problem is, is it the right thing? So I like stepping back. and looking at a few aspects so we can say, where do we stand? And then you may uncover something that is, I'm not doing it or something that I'm doing that contributes to a bad result. I always ask teams, when was the last time you retired a feature? And sometimes I hear only crickets. And then I say, when was the last time? I say, we never retired a feature. Said, what is your definition of a good product? And some people tell me, well, a good product is the one you have all features you need. There's nothing else to add. We're not there yet. And then I asked them, can you open Google? How many features do you see in the homepage? For me a good product is the one you have nothing else to remove. It's a bit different. So when you have these health checks, you have the moment of challenging, having a different perspective. And then you have the chance of saying, I want to change. I want to do different. Then you can improve how you work. Brian (22:10) Yeah, that's a great way to look at it too, because you're right. we're, you know, I think about this oftentimes when I talk to people about, you know, kind of their vision or even their customers and users. And really, if you can't understand or you can't really define who it is you're targeting or what it is you're trying to achieve, we shouldn't be doing it, right? We should stop and understand those things first before we move forward. I know one of the other things that you'll you talk about in the book is kind the feature obsessed or feature focused mindset. And just kind of wondering, you what kind of practical advice could you give to different product owners, product managers that are struggling in some way with that feature focused mindset? David Pereira (22:57) Ask more questions. That's where I start. Whenever you come with a feature, you say, what is that for? What does it enable the user? What would be the other options? Let me give you an example. In one of the places I worked, we realized that we had trouble with signup. And then someone came with an idea. Of course we have a problem. Because, let me do this again. Of course we have a problem. Because... We have to create a login all the time. If we have social login, then it's amazing. And then we put the Google login there. And we said, with Google login, we will simplify the sign up process. Nothing happened. Sign up rate remained the same. Then I started interviewing people who came to our website, but didn't sign up. What I learned from them was, I don't understand your value proposition. And then you asked me to create a user, you're going to load me with emails. Why am I going to do that? I'm not going to do it. And then I realized that the friction was something else. The value proposition was unclear and they didn't want to give their data. So we could put whatever login method, it would not help. We started with the wrong question. Brian (24:17) Yeah, that's a great example. I appreciate you sharing that because I think that's a common problem I think we have in the product area is kind of we see a response or we see that something's not going the way that we thought. And I know I can have the inclination at least to jump to what I think is the reason behind it. without actually verifying that that's the reason behind it. And that's a great example, right? mean, hey, we thought if we add a sign up and do it through Google, that's going to remove friction. It'll make it easier for people to sign up and we'll get more signups. Well, not if they don't really understand what your value is and why would I come back to this site? Why do I want to get emails from you? I'm not clicking on the button to go through giving you my Google information if you haven't sold me. Right? Yeah. Yeah, that's a great point to make. Well, the only other thing I'd say is I know one of the kind of time-honored discussion topics here when we talk about this stuff is really people who focus more on the output and getting distracted by outputs versus really focusing on value. What kind of advice would you give to people who either don't really understand the difference or find themselves kind of slipping back into being more focused on output versus value. David Pereira (25:53) Talk about assumptions. We all assume something is gonna happen. Sometimes it's just in our subconscious. We need to bring to our conscious level. For example, we say, this feature is gonna be a success because, then come your assumption, because customers want, because customers will understand how to use it, because the business can collect value. These are assumptions. And then you can say, How can I test these assumptions before I invest time into creating the feature? Then you learn. Brian (26:29) Yeah, I agree. That's so important. Honestly, that's one of the biggest paradigm shifts I think I went through as a product owner is that kind of shift in understanding these things in my backlog, they're assumptions. They're not requirements. They're not things that have to happen. They are things that could possibly happen. And the idea is to determine if they're the right thing to happen or not. And if not, then we should move on. Well, this is awesome. I think the books, the topic of your book sounds really fascinating and I hope everyone goes to check that out. It's called, Untrapping Product Teams. And again, David Pereira is the author here. We're put links to all this into our show notes. So if you wanna click on that and find out more, we'll put you in the right place so you can find out more. just, I'll give you kind of a sampling here just so you kind of understand my... My own boss here, Mike Cohn, has a quote here about it that says it's his new favorite product management book. So it's just, he's got people like Marty Kagan, Martin Dalmigeon that's kind of weighed in on this. Petra Willie has given quotes about this. So there's lots of big names that have read this and given it good reviews and said this is a really important work in the product area. Really encourage you to check that out. David, I can't thank you enough. Thanks for making time to come on the show. David Pereira (27:59) Glad to be here.

In this episode of the Roller Door, Garen and Hannah chat with some of the group that brought the Vala, Santa Cruz's new full power e-bike, to market. You'll hear from Kiran MacKinnon, Jesse Carlin, Peter Mueller-Wille, and Mark Matson on choosing a new suspension platform, picking a drive system, and bringing the bike to life. If you're curious about the particulars of the Vala, like power statistics, geometry, and details, be sure to listen to our other episode, titled 'Introducing the Santa Cruz Vala, with Product Manager Jack Russell.' If you have questions for the team here at Santa Cruz Bicycles, please email them to podcast@santacruzbicycles.com.  We thank you for listening!

Maria Angelidou is a seasoned product leader, having spent close to a decade at Meta where she was VP of Product and General Manager for some of the largest products such as Facebook Groups (2B+ users), Events, Profile, and Search. Before that, Maria led the Facebook App Monetization team, driving billions of dollars in revenue. Today, Maria is the Chief Product & Technology Officer at Personio, an HR tech company with an ambitious mission to unlock the power of people for SMEs. In Today's Episode with Maria Angelidou 1. How to Hire the Best Product Teams: What are the three different archetypes for PMs today? What non-obvious traits does Maria look for in new product hires? How does Maria structure the hiring process? What works? What does not? Does Maria do take home assignments? How has her approach changed here? What is Maria's biggest advice to candidates on both compensation and title? 2. How the Best Product Teams Do Product Reviews: What does every team get wrong in how they do product reviews? What are the four different type of product reviews? How often does Maria do a product review? Who is invited? Who sets the agenda? How is it structured? What makes good vs great product reviews? 3. Europe vs US: How Product Teams Differ: What is the single biggest difference when comparing product teams in the US vs EU? Does Maria agree that the work ethic is less in the EU? Which class of employee would Maria say is more entitled? What could Europe do to be more competitive with the US? What was the biggest surprise to Maria on returning to Europe from the US?  

Eli Goodman: Keeping Product Teams Aligned, Advice for Product Leaders in Remote Teams NOTE: We want to thank the folks at Tuple.app for being so generous with their stories, and supporting the podcast. Visit tuple.app/scrum and share them if you find the app useful! Remember, sharing is caring! Eli reflects on the unique challenges of being a product manager for a distributed team. He emphasizes the importance of staying in touch with reality, testing assumptions, and journaling as key habits for success. He also shares tips on how to pair effectively with colleagues to maintain accountability and stay aligned with the team's goals. Listen in to find out what are some of the key habits that can help product managers thrive in remote environments. Featured Retrospective Format for the Week: The Sailboat Retrospective In this episode, Eli Goodman, Head of Product at Tuple, shares his favorite retrospective format: the Sailboat Retrospective. Eli explains why this format helps teams visualize their progress and challenges while promoting open communication. He highlights the importance of retrospectives in creating alignment and continuous improvement within distributed teams.    About Eli Goodman Eli Goodman has been working on software teams for 17 years. He's been a full-stack developer and engineering manager at both large and small companies, including Etsy and Headspace. A few years ago, Eli transitioned to product management and is now the Head of Product at Tuple, a remote pair programming service used by companies such as Figma, Shopify, and many others in the software industry. You can link with Eli Goodman on LinkedIn, or email Eli at Eli@Tuple.app.

Mike Hudack is the Co-Founder and CEO of Sling, a peer-to-peer payments app whose vision is to simplify the way the world connects financially. Previously, he held roles at Monzo Bank as Chief Product Officer, Deliveroo as Chief Product and Technology Officer, and Facebook where he led ads product and sharing product. In Today's Episode with Mike Hudack We Discuss: 1. Product: Art vs Science: What is the true art of product? What makes the great product leaders and PMs? Is simple always better in product? How do you retain product simplicity with time? When should data be used over intuition in product building? 2. Lessons from Leading Ads at Facebook: What are Mike's single biggest product lessons from building the ads product at Facebook? How did a meeting with Mark Zuckerberg discussing a product change, alter how Mike thinks about product today? What makes Zuck so special on product? What are the biggest mistakes that Facebook made when it came to the ads product? What did they not do that he wishes they had done? 3. Leading Product at Deliveroo: What I Learned: What are Mike's biggest takeaways from his time at Deliveroo on how to make consumer products? What did Deliveroo do from a product perspective that worked so well? What did he learn? What were the single biggest product mistakes that Deliveroo made? What did he learn? How fast do you know when a consumer app is working or not working? When do you go against data and follow your intuition? 4. Building the Biggest Bank in Britain with Monzo: What are Mike's biggest lessons on product building from his time at Monzo? What did Monzo not do that he wishes they had done? Why does Mike think the US is crucial for Monzo? How did Monzo change how Mike thinks about competition? What do you do when your competitor, Revolut, is outshipping you at such a speed?