Podcasts

Tanguy Crusson

Guest: Tanguy Crusson - Head of Jira Product Discovery. Tanguy has been with Atlassian for over 10 years, working on various products like HipChat and Stride, and has led Jira Product Discovery from idea to one of the fastest-growing products in Atlassian's history. Key Takeaways: Create Scarcity: To innovate within a large company, emulate a startup by creating scarcity and autonomy. This helps avoid over-investment and allows for rapid iteration without being bogged down by existing processes. Lighthouse Users Program: Start with a small number of users (e.g., 10) to validate your product before scaling. This helps refine the product based on direct feedback and ensures you're solving real problems. Ignore Competition: Focus on solving customer problems rather than reacting to competitors. This helps maintain a unique value proposition and avoids the trap of becoming a fast follower. Communicate Progress: Regularly update stakeholders with concise, impactful updates that include customer feedback and product demos. This builds internal support and demonstrates momentum. Incubate, Iterate, Integrate: Develop new features or products in isolation to test concepts, then integrate them into the main product once validated. Topics Covered: Innovation in large companies, product incubation, competitive strategy, customer feedback loops, internal communication strategies, product development stages.

Jeffrey Pfeffer

Guest: Jeffrey Pfeffer - Professor of Organizational Behavior at Stanford's Graduate School of Business. Jeffrey is renowned for teaching one of the most popular courses at Stanford, "The Paths to Power," and is the author of several books on power dynamics, including "The Seven Rules of Power." Key Takeaways: Get Out of Your Own Way: Overcome imposter syndrome and stop self-sabotaging behaviors like excessive apologizing. Recognize your worth and the value you bring to your role. Break the Rules: Stand out by doing things differently. This can make you memorable and help disrupt the status quo, leading to increased power and influence. Network Relentlessly: Build a broad network by being generous and connecting people. Focus on weak ties to gain new insights and opportunities. Show Up Powerfully: Master body language and presence. This includes making eye contact, speaking confidently, and using open body postures to convey authority. Use Your Power: Actively use your power to accomplish goals, which in turn can lead to more power and resources as success breeds success. Topics Covered: Power dynamics, imposter syndrome, networking strategies, personal branding, influence tactics, leadership presence, career advancement strategies.

Cam Adams

Guest: Cameron Adams - Co-founder and Chief Product Officer at Canva. Cameron has been instrumental in building Canva into a design powerhouse, with a focus on democratizing design and fostering a unique company culture. Key Takeaways: Coaching Over Management: At Canva, everyone has a coach instead of a traditional manager. This approach focuses on skill development and career progression, fostering a culture of continuous growth and learning. Giving Away Your Legos: Emphasizing the importance of scaling by delegating responsibilities and finding joy in building teams and passing on knowledge, which is crucial for personal and company growth. Freemium Strategy: Canva's freemium model aligns with their mission to democratize design, allowing widespread access while supporting business viability through strategic subscription offerings. SEO and Internationalization: Early investment in SEO and internationalization has been pivotal, with a focus on creating localized experiences that resonate globally, driving significant user growth. AI Integration: Canva leverages AI to enhance user experience by focusing on user goals and integrating AI seamlessly into the product, supported by in-house development and strategic partnerships. Topics Covered: Canva's culture and growth, product management philosophy, freemium strategy, SEO and internationalization, AI integration, company scaling and leadership dynamics.

Matt Dixon

Guest: Matt Dixon - Sales Expert and Author. Matt is renowned for his groundbreaking research on sales effectiveness, including his bestseller "The Challenger Sale," which has sold over a million copies worldwide. His latest book, "The JOLT Effect," offers insights from analyzing 2.5 million sales conversations. Key Takeaways: Most sales are lost not to competition but to customer indecision, driven by fear of failure rather than fear of missing out. The JOLT method helps overcome indecision: Judge the level of indecision, Offer a recommendation, Limit exploration, and Take risk off the table. Build trust by being transparent about your product's limitations and demonstrate expertise to become a trusted advisor. Under-promise and over-deliver to manage customer expectations and ensure satisfaction. High-performing salespeople share the decision-making burden with customers, reducing their fear of making a wrong choice. Topics Covered: Overcoming customer indecision, The JOLT method, Fear of failure in sales, Building trust with customers, The Challenger Sale principles.

Bangaly Kaba

Guest: Bangaly Kaba - Director of Product Management at YouTube. Bangaly has held significant roles in growth and product management at major tech companies like Facebook, Instagram, and Instacart, and has advised startups including Twitter. His experience spans scaling platforms to billions of users and driving impactful product strategies. Key Takeaways: Impact Framework: Bangaly emphasizes optimizing for impact, which he defines as the primary driver of career advancement. Impact is a function of environment and skills, and understanding these components can guide career decisions. Understand Work: He advocates for dedicating intentional time to "understand work" before execution. This involves data analysis, user research, and strategy development to de-risk projects and ensure informed decision-making. Managing Complex Change: Bangaly uses a framework involving vision, skills, incentives, resources, and action plans to drive change. Missing any component can lead to issues like confusion or resistance. Adjacent User Theory: Identifying and understanding adjacent users—those just outside your current user base—can unlock new growth opportunities. This involves using the product from their perspective to identify gaps. Coaching and Mentorship: Building a "coaching tree" by mentoring others is crucial. It not only helps develop future leaders but also enhances your own skills and impact. Topics Covered: Career growth, impact optimization, understand work, managing complex change, adjacent user theory, coaching and mentorship, growth strategies at Instagram and YouTube, product management insights.

Kenneth Berger

Guest: Kenneth Berger - Executive Coach and first PM at Slack. Kenneth has over 10 years of experience in tech and transitioned into coaching, focusing on helping startup leaders avoid burnout and live fulfilling lives. Key Takeaways: Articulate Clearly: Clearly define what you want. Use complaints as inspiration to uncover underlying desires and articulate them effectively. Ask Intentionally: Approach requests with humility and clarity. Avoid falling into habitual patterns of either not asking or demanding. Accept Responses: Learn to accept "no" as valuable data. Understand that a "no" is often a "not yet" and use it to iterate and refine your approach. Embrace Fear: Recognize that fear is often unfounded and can be managed. Focus on vision and inspiration rather than fear-driven motivation. Integrity and Relationships: Maintain integrity by expressing your true desires and building strong relationships, especially with founders if you're a first PM. Topics Covered: Asking for what you want, Overcoming fear, Integrity in leadership, First PM challenges, Effective communication strategies.

Jag Duggal

Guest: Jag Duggal - Chief Product Officer at Nubank. Jag has extensive experience in product management, having previously led monetization at Facebook and strategy at Google, making him a credible voice in product strategy and innovation. Key Takeaways: Nubank focuses on being fundamentally different rather than incrementally better, aiming for products that customers love fanatically. The company uses the Sean Ellis score to measure product-market fit, requiring at least 50% of users to be very disappointed if a product were to disappear before scaling it. Nubank's success in launching new business lines is attributed to a strong focus on customer pain points and a culture that prioritizes customer love and feedback. The company believes in building a global bank on a single code base and is exploring AI to create a personal banker experience for all users. Jag emphasizes the importance of strategy, clarity, and courage in making concentrated bets rather than hedging. Topics Covered: Nubank's growth strategy, product-market fit measurement, customer-centric product development, category design, future of FinTech, AI in banking, strategic thinking.

Vikrama Dhiman

Guest: Vikrama Dhiman - Head of Product at Gojek. Vikrama is a renowned product leader in Asia, having worked at companies like Directi, Airtel, MakeMyTrip, and WizIQ, and is known for his strong reputation in building product and design talent. Key Takeaways: Focus on Outputs: Early in your career, prioritize executing and delivering outputs rather than obsessing over impact. This includes shipping products, running experiments, and contributing to go-to-market strategies. Quality Artifacts: Produce high-quality product artifacts like PRDs and strategy documents to demonstrate your impact on the team and organization. Operating Model: Develop a collaborative operating model by raising difficult issues without being difficult to work with, and focus on facilitating decision-making rather than making all decisions yourself. Growth Mindset: Maintain a focus on what you can control, embrace change, and continuously reassess and improve your skills across data, design, technology, and strategy. Role Clarity: Understand that the PM role is about being the glue that connects various functions, and focus on enhancing the team's overall output and energy. Topics Covered: PM skill development framework, career growth impediments, PM role clarity, contrarian views on effort and intent, attributes of great PMs, transitioning into product management.

Hamilton Helmer

Guest: Hamilton Helmer - Author of "7 Powers". Hamilton is a renowned strategist whose book is considered a seminal work on sustainable competitive advantage, influencing leaders like Peter Thiel and Reed Hastings. Key Takeaways: Power and Strategy: Power in business requires both a benefit and a barrier. It's crucial to understand if your business has a "castle" (benefit) and a "moat" (barrier). Timing for Strategy: Founders should always consider strategy, even pre-product-market fit, to understand potential sources of power. Common Misconceptions: Many startups mistakenly believe they have power through branding or data scale economies, which are often not true sources of power. Network Economies vs. Effects: Not all network effects translate into network economies, which require material impact on business margins. Operational Excellence: While crucial for business success, operational excellence is rarely a source of power as it can often be mimicked. Topics Covered: Power and strategy, timing for strategic thinking, common misconceptions about power, network economies vs. network effects, operational excellence, AI's impact on power, economic trends and challenges.

Annie Duke

Guest: Annie Duke - Special Partner at First Round Capital. Annie Duke is a former professional poker player, author of the bestselling book "Thinking in Bets," and a decision-making consultant for companies. Key Takeaways: Independent Discovery: To improve decision-making, gather opinions independently and asynchronously before group discussions. This reduces bias from dominant voices and ensures diverse input. Pre-Mortems with Kill Criteria: Use pre-mortems to identify potential failure signals and set pre-commitment actions if those signals appear, enhancing decision quality and timing. Shorten Feedback Loops: There is no inherently long feedback loop; identify correlated short-term indicators to assess long-term decisions, such as funding rounds in venture capital. Explicit Over Implicit: Make implicit assumptions explicit to examine and improve decision quality, as intuition can be both right and wrong. Alignment vs. Reality: Avoid striving for complete alignment in decisions; focus on understanding diverse opinions and making informed decisions despite disagreements. Topics Covered: Decision-making frameworks, independent discovery, pre-mortems, feedback loops, explicit vs. implicit assumptions, alignment in decision-making, venture capital decision analysis.

Kayvon Beykpour

Guest: Kayvon Beykpour - Former Head of Product at Twitter. Kayvon was instrumental in transforming Twitter's product culture from stagnant to dynamic, leading initiatives like Twitter Blue, Spaces, and Super Follows. He joined Twitter through the acquisition of his company, Periscope, a pioneering live-streaming platform. Key Takeaways: Cultural Transformation: To change a risk-averse culture, start with small wins to build momentum and trust. Use storytelling to align and inspire teams around a new vision. Sacred Cows as Roadmaps: Identify and challenge sacred cows within the organization as they can serve as a roadmap for innovation and change. Acquihires for Innovation: Bringing in entrepreneurial talent through acquihires can drive ambitious projects and cultural shifts, as seen with initiatives like Spaces and Communities. Frameworks with Nuance: Avoid rigid adherence to frameworks like Jobs-to-be-Done or OKRs. Use them as tools, not rules, and balance them with good judgment and product taste. Competing with Giants: When competing with major platforms, ensure rapid execution and integration to leverage existing user bases, as seen with Periscope's challenges against Facebook. Topics Covered: Product culture transformation, acquihires, Jobs-to-be-Done framework, Twitter's product strategy, Periscope's journey, competing with major platforms, consumer product development.

Carole Robin

Guest: Carole Robin - Stanford professor and co-founder of Leaders in Tech. Carole taught the renowned "Touchy Feely" course at Stanford's Graduate School of Business, which focuses on interpersonal dynamics and has been transformative for many leaders. Key Takeaways: 15% Rule for Disclosure: To build deeper relationships, disclose 15% more than you're comfortable with. This encourages reciprocal vulnerability and strengthens connections. Three Realities Framework: Recognize the three realities in interactions: your intent, your behavior, and the other person's perception. Stay on your side of the net by focusing on your intent and behavior to avoid assumptions. Feedback Formula: Use the structure "When you do X, I feel Y, because..." to give feedback that builds relationships rather than creating defensiveness. Art of Inquiry: Ask open-ended questions starting with what, when, where, and how to foster understanding and avoid defensiveness. Avoid "why" questions as they can make people defensive. Vulnerability in Leadership: Appropriate vulnerability can enhance leadership effectiveness by building trust and relatability. Topics Covered: Building relationships, feedback techniques, vulnerability in leadership, mental models, interpersonal dynamics, emotional intelligence.