The Product Podcast

Many companies talk about personalization, but few have enough valuable data to make it actionable. In this talk, Brianne Kimmel presents a framework for collecting the right data at the right time and best practices on how to build personalized programs to keep users engaged over time. She also discusses how you can learn more about your customers without overwhelming them and how to build scalable user engagement programs.Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

Jonathan Lai, former Product Manager at AMEX, talks about the mindset, tools, and tactics you should use but most people neglect. For people who are trying to switch careers and become Product Managers, this talk is relevant because Jonathan shares counterintuitive strategies to help you stand out at MeetUp events. And for seasoned Product Managers, he talks through some advanced tactics on how to leverage your community to get to the next level in your career. Jonathan also shares some mistakes he's made along his journey as a Product Manager.Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

The panelists discuss the differences of a Product Manager role in small and large organisations across different types of companies. They talk about how different it is building a physical product versus a non-physical one. They also share their insight on what different product titles include in small versus large companies. Moderator: Carlos González de Villaumbrosia is the CEO of Product School. Panelists: Matt Bariletti, Lead Product Manager at Banjo. Fred Radford, Product Manager at 8x8. Chris Painter, Head of Product at Zippy Inc.Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

Security is the biggest challenge in IoT today. In this talk, Daniel discusses the importance of security in the internet of things, and what product managers need to take into consideration when building IoT products. He talks about the fact that customers need to be able to trust a product they use and pay for, and this includes security. Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

Jenny Li, Product Manager at Mixpanel, shares her three key ideas in product management from her experience. Firstly, product managers are business owners, secondly, they manage their environment and lastly, they create opportunities. She discusses each point with real-life examples. Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

In this talk, David will share 9 lessons that he has learned over the years while working as a Product Manager at Facebook. He talks about the importance of preparing for success and having diverse teams. He also discusses the qualities of a good product manager, and more specifically the fact that a PM needs to be adjustable.Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

In this talk, Dan Olsen discusses what product market fit is, what it means to have it and how to achieve it. He shares his methodology on how companies can find product market fit from the book he wrote "The Lean Product Playbook". He also talks about the problem space vs. solution space framework.Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

The product women talk about the importance of diversity and inclusion in a team, and how crucial it is to acknowledge and recognize different personality types in a team. They also discuss what it means to be successful as a product manager. Moderator: Laura Holmes, Senior Product Manager at Google. Panelists: Gloria Lin, Product Leader at Stripe. Evonne Johnson, Head of Product at Accompany. Jackie Bavaro, Head of Product Management at Asana & Co-Author of Cracking the PM Interview.Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

In this talk, Kenneth shares his insights and hacks on leadership. The first thing you need to do is "let go of being right". That's not the focus in your job as a product manager. He also talked about how to be effective, how to get stuff done, how to communicate and influence. Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

Product Managers are generalists leading product teams of domain experts (developers, designers, etc). This can lead to gray areas of responsibility and conflict. Product Managers are responsible for the success of the product and are expected to weigh-in on all product elements - from design to development to delivery - yet at the same time defer to other team members on important product decisions. John Kresse talks about some of the gray areas he's experienced in his product management career when working with fellow team members. He provides resources for working effectively with these colleagues to get the most out of your team.Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

The internet of things is proliferating thanks to the availability of better and faster connectivity in and outside the home; as well as the strong push for the adoption of the smart home by key players, especially with voice assistants. In this talk, Gaurav covers creating IOT products and experiences with his views on: - The precursors to help make decisions about whether you should make a connected smart device. - Learnings about each component - the hardware, the cloud; and the end user applications as they relate to the user’s journey through your product’s experience.Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

Gayle McDowell is the Founder and CEO of CareerCup and the author of Cracking the Coding Interview, Cracking the Coding Interview and Cracking the Tech Career. She talks about how to prepare for Product Manager interviews, what top companies like Google, Amazon, and Microsoft really look for, and how to tackle the toughest problems. She also discussed how PM role varies across companies, what experience you need, how to make your existing experience translate, what a great PM resume and cover letter look like, and finally, how to master the PM interview questions. Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

In this talk, Byron Jones, Product Manager at Optimizely, talks about the different experimentation cultures and the seven habits involved in them. He also shares a hack to get your idea funded; frame it as an experiment. He dives into the importance of an experimentation culture in a company and how to build it.Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

Tyler gives an introduction to our cognitive biases and the psychology of decision making (drawing heavily from Thinking Fast & Slow) to help frame a set of practical tips and tricks for making your arguments as persuasive as possible. Being effective as a Product Manager requires influence without authority - convincing a broad portfolio of stakeholders to work together on a shared vision. Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

The journey to becoming a Product Manager is often unconventional, but it becomes all you focus when you determine it is for you. Jon discusses the two most common paths, MBA and startups, while also exploring alternate opportunities that have proven equally as successful. He includes real world examples that will focus on the unique benefits of each option. Everyone's path is unique, and there is no one right way but there is a way that may be better for your situation.Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

Joining a company as a new product hire is an exciting opportunity to kickstart or fuel your product career. How you establish yourself, as a role/function in your company will play a huge role in determining your success as a Product Manager. Ramping up to start owning the company goals and building a product is an incredible trajectory. In this talk, Harbani Malhotra talks about the attempts to lay out recommendations on how to go about this new journey you have embarked on.Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

A Product Manager is often referred to as the CEO of the product; Ahmad Weshahy, Product Manager at Google, talks about a different view on this analogy and why it might not be the most accurate description. This talk provides a brief summary of what the overall job entails for those who aren’t very familiar with it, a typical day in the life of a Product Manager, and the importance of balancing what a Product Manager must achieve. This includes maintaining the product’s strategic outlook and looking after the smallest details in the execution.Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

Ashwini Lahane, Product Manager at Amazon, talks about transitioning into Product Manager roles and taking it a notch up by thinking like a marketer. She discusses the importance of marketing tactics for Product Managers and the traits of a good Product Manager. She also shares her insight on how Product Management and Product Marketing fit together.Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

How to build great roadmaps? Great roadmaps require right trade-offs, right prioritization, strong execution rigger and above all success metrics. A strong roadmap is your channel to success. Sudha talks about how there is no one size that fits all, but there are certain techniques that can help you get there. Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

Every company is different. Every team is different. Every Product Manager is different. In Carly Robinson's two years working at Slack as a Software Engineer building features for Enterprise Grid, she's had the opportunity to work with several Product Managers with distinct styles and varying levels of experience. Her talk explores challenges her team encountered working on high impact, cross functional projects in a hyper growth startup environment. She hopes to empower listeners with knowledge that will improve their abilities to lead Engineers and actualize projects while avoiding some of the mistakes they encountered along the way. Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

Whether you are the first Product Manager at a fast growing consumer startup or one of many Product Managers at a big internet company, the time eventually comes where every Product Leader is forced to ask "How are we going to make money with this thing?". In this talk, Rahul shares his insights on the right mental models to use to help you attack the problem. He uses examples from his career and from large revenue generating products in the market to help you build a rubric. He will aslo share a basic framework to attack any monetization product problem. Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

Machine Learning, ML, is a powerful tool for creating dynamic, personalized experiences. But a truly useful ML-based product cannot be created without the right UX and insightful human intervention to avoid embarrassing mistakes. Power of your product is not the Machine Learning model but how thoughtful you were in creating value and making every interaction useful. While building Smart Replies in LinkedIn Messaging, there were numerous ways where Arpit's team enhanced the product using human intervention and Machine Learning models.Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

A Product Manager is often referred to as the CEO of the product; Ahmad will talk about a different view on this analogy and why it might not be the most accurate description. The talk provides a brief summary of what the overall job entails for those who aren’t very familiar with it, a typical day in the life of a Product Manager, and the importance of balancing what a Product Manager must achieve. This includes maintaining the product’s strategic outlook and looking after the smallest details in the execution.Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

What do machine learning products need? Devdatta Gangal from Uber talks about Machine Learning (ML) and how it has gone from research and engineering to consumer products. He discusses the role of a Product Manager in building ML-powered consumer products and shared his experiences. He also explains how there is no playbook for a Machine Learning Product Manager. The main questions he tackles are what role does a Product Manager play among smart engineers & researchers, and how do you prepare for a product role on machine learning heavy products.Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

It is often said that a great idea is worthless without polished execution. In this talk, Akshay explains some tactics for executing your ideas within an organization. This could be as simple as a new feature that you want to build, or something as complex as a total priority shift. As a Product Manager, you don't have the luxury of authority for forcing a team to do something. In many cases, the teams that you need to convince may not even be in your organization. This talk touches on some techniques that you can use to turn your ideas into a reality.Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

To be successful, IoT products require a new breed of Product Manager capable of managing an end-to-end solution from a business and technical perspective. Daniel discusses why IoT products are a big opportunity for Product Managers, and also points out the complexities involved in building IoT products. Daniel introduces the building blocks of the IoT technology stack from a Product Management perspective, including smart devices, cloud platforms, and cloud applications. He also describes how these components fit together and introduce the IoT Decision Framework, a strategic framework to guide Product Managers in decision-making around IoT technology, business, UX, security, and more. Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

Groundbreaking technologies like neural-net algorithms, along with the ability to run much more powerful computation, started a new era in Machine Learning. We're now able to use Machine Learning for products in ways we could only dream about and companies from all around the world are starting to seize the opportunity. Ronnie Falcon from Google talks about the role of Machine Learning in the industry, what every Product Manager needs to know about Machine Learning and how Product Managers contribute to Machine Learning based products. Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

How do some Product Managers drive innovation while others get mired in the day to day? The answer cuts to the core of product management: prioritization. Alexander Lovell, Director of Product Management at Salesforce, will talk about how to be a true Product Leader by separating the urgent from the important, balancing today's demands against tomorrow's goals, and realizing nothing is indispensable - but everything has consequences.Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

Travis Corrigan discusses what it’s like having Apple showcase your app to the world during their Keynote presentations. From initial meetings to launch and press events, this candid talk gives a behind-the-scenes look at the entire process.Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

E-commerce is not just for retailers anymore. While business-to-consumer, B2C, e-commerce gets most of the attention, growing at 10%+ per year, business-to-business, B2B, e-commerce isn’t far behind at 7%+ growth per year. Across both, Product Managers play a critical role in defining the next generation of e-commerce experiences for consumers and businesses to increase sales/conversion, build loyal customers, and support brand positioning. Brendan Foley, Head of Product at Atlassian, talks about the major trends driving e-commerce today across B2C and B2B and the key areas on which Product Managers must focus across the e-commerce funnel: attracting site traffic through SEO, enabling search/browse and rapid product discovery, and ultimately, the purchasing of products and repeat visits.Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

Making good decisions is a Product Manager's secret weapon. Every day a Product Manager makes macro and micro decisions that enable their teams to design and build. It is uniquely their job because Product Managers tend to have the most context in a company. Learn frameworks of how to make good decisions and examples of how Jennifer has done this at XO Group's The Knot.Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

Product Management in the Gaming industry; what’s so different about it? Join us for a walkthrough of the rise of social and mobile free-to-play gaming and the evolution of the Product Management role within it. At the crossroads of creativity and business, this key role has reshaped video game development and redefined corporate cultures by forcing entertainment companies to adapt to the millennium’s new platforms. From Associate to Director, from concept to sunset, you’ll learn the responsibilities of the Gaming PM, their roles within the game development team and the impact they can have on their players.Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

Curious about what companies are looking for when hiring Product Managers? Companies may have different approaches as to what they place more emphasis on. However, there are some fundamental core values & skill sets that are clearly evaluated when talking to prospective candidates. Angeli talks through some core skill sets a Product Manager is evaluated on and how to assess your own skill set to determine company fit. Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

The quicker you ramp up in a new project or new company, the sooner you will own your product. While this is true, it is important to build the right foundations during your onboarding period to set yourself up for success. Putting in the effort and time investment up front will pay dividends throughout your tenure. Listen to Alice Liang, from Lenda, for 5 things that you should never miss when you join a new project or company. Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

Product Management is hard to define and many people often give vague analogies, like the "CEO of the product". When you're making a big career change, you need to know the cold, hard truth of what the role is and whether you'd enjoy and succeed at it. Zerzar tackles some of the biggest myths about Product Management and helps clarify whether it would be the right transition for you. Main takeaways: - A Product Manager is not the CEO, but rather the shepherd of a product - Visionaries and those who prefer to avoid details -- beware -The role is highly agile, requiring you to keep an eye on the north star while jumping up and down levels of complexity - Those with a bias for action do incredibly well in Product Management - People skills are an absolute must for this roleSocial Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

This talk is aimed at job seekers, and is completely focused on 1) how to get a higher number of first-round interviews for product management roles 2) how to succeed in those interviews. Matthew Du Pont discusses the key elements, such as, how to get informational interviews with people who you’re not socially connected with, how to turn those informational interviews into invitations to apply to a company and how to ask the right questions to get meaningful information about a company, instead of polite replies.Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

For those of us that have switched jobs before, we know how essential the first month can be. The crucial on-boarding process is where you begin creating relationships, understanding the internal jargon and workings of the company, all while figuring out the scope of your role and how you can make an impact. This talk focuses how to effectively onboard as a product manager. Apart from my own takeaways, the talk contains personally crowdsourced takeaways from among some seasoned PMs in the Bay Area. The first 30 days are when you need to focus on the basics of the role and strategically understand the company and its structure. Thus, this talk should be useful to current PMs, as well as those considering the role to learn more about what life is like as a PM. Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

Ira provides aspiring Product Managers with the early insights into the emotional ups and downs of Product Management and how to keep pushing forward. Main takeaways include, how to be emotionally aware of self and others while managing product, how to handle emotions around product & market failures and wins and how to be an emotional leader.Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

By this point you've probably heard of Bitcoin and may know someone who owns some, but even though you nod your head when it comes internally you were wondering ... what exactly is a Bitcoin? Bitcoin is the world's first finite digital resource. It's a currency that no single person or organization can control - kind of like a digital gold. Unless you have a background in cryptography or economics or both, phrases like cold storage, hard fork, and segregated witness can all seem pretty cryptic. In this talk, Tyler dives into what Bitcoin is, how it works and why it matters.Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

Dan Olsen shares the key ideas from his bestselling book The Lean Product Playbook. Most of us are familiar with Lean Startup and its valuable concepts, such as product-market fit and the build-measure-learn loop. However, many product teams run into challenges when they try to adopt Lean Startup principles because they lack specific guidance on what to do and how to do it. The Lean Product Playbook provides specific, step-by-step guidance on how to apply Lean Startup ideas. Dan describes an actionable model for product-market fit and a 6-step process that explains how to rapidly iterate based on customer feedback, illustrated with real world examples. Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

One major responsibility of product managers is to define and oversee the strategy of a new or existing product. However, ask a product manager to describe the product’s strategy, and the response may be anything from a vague collection of buzzwords to a detailed list of technical functionality. An effective product strategy needs to be well-thought out and comprehensive enough to cover all of the key elements while still being concise and focused enough to be easily communicated and understood. In this talk, Jeff Lash from SiriusDecisions defines product strategy and describes the key elements that product managers need to include in order to define an effective strategy that will increase the chance of product success.Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

A majority of product managers find prioritization their biggest challenge at work. Knowing that it can set your product up for success or failure; how do you build, rank and prioritize a product roadmap with multiple stakeholders, limited resources and missing data to back decisions. Flipkart product manager talks about how you can learn how to build, rank and prioritize a product roadmap with multiple stakeholders, limited resources and missing data to back decisions. She discusses how to learn to ask the right questions; should you build a new feature or improve an existing one? She will also shed light on how to manage multiple feature requests from customers, investors and internal teams, and how to visualize and evangelize roadmaps better for stakeholder management.Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

In only a few short years, Slack has become one of the fastest-growing and most beloved enterprise SaaS products of all time. But the secrets behind its growth aren’t what you might expect: it wasn’t all about analytics and A/B testing. Slack's first product manager, Kenneth Berger, tells stories from his time there and shares two surprising principles that helped drive Slack’s success. Combining detailed examples and a behind-the-scenes perspective, this talk provides insights and principles ready to be applied to your own product.Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

Are you trying to get into product management but can't code? No tech background? No problem! Former Product Manager at CBS Interactive, Rekha Gavini, gives tips to set yourself up for success and ways to strengthen yourself in the "tech" area. She discusses how you can dip your feet in the technical stuff, pair your non-tech strengths with Product Manager qualities, and practice thinking and talking tech like a Product Manager.Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

Technology products today collect billions of signals from users, and Product Managers are increasingly responsible for shaping features based on a dynamic flow of data — as opposed to traditional static UI design. How can we most effectively build for the content and data that flow into our products? What is the right way to design machine learning features to jump the expectation gap users experience? Keren Baruch answers key questions about building products in a data-rich world derived from her experience running growth for Yahoo Mail and leading LinkedIn Salary.Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

Are you trying to break into Product Management, or looking to stay on-top of your Product Management game? Come hear insights on how to be a successful PM in Silicon Valley. We'll also cover how to grow your career once you're a product manager. Takeaways: -What makes a successful Product Manager -Understand the role and importance of product managers in today's tech industry. -Get tactical tips on how to transition to product management and grow your career -Have the chance to ask Product School CEO anything in Product ManagementSocial Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

In this talk, Karl Sluis will recap the different approaches to creating the right context for a team, what's worked for him, what hasn't, and provide a few things Product Leaders can try right away to provide better context for their teams. One of the most important jobs a Product Leader has is making sure everyone working on a product, at any time, clearly knows why they're spending their time (minute to minute, commit to commit) on a given piece of work. In Karl's role at Next Big Sound, he experimented constantly with how to create the context for the team. As the direction of the company changed everyone wasn't just brought along for the ride, but was part of determining the course of action. Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

In this talk, Shyam Vijayakrishnan discusses and explores the big world of mobile apps. Specifically he talks about the key concepts when creating and implementing a new app, challenges around scaling a product, and all critical functions that need to perform to sustain and allow the app to thrive! He also sheds light into what to focus on when you put a mobile app out, how to scale a mobile app and how to use analytics/tracking in mobile apps.Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

Many companies require Product Managers to have a technical background - whether it be a formal Computer Science degree or experience with writing code. "Over the years I've been self-conscious about my lack of technical background, yet I’ve learned that technical skills aren’t everything when it comes to Product Management." Jori Bell from Spotify breaks down the myth of needing technical skills to be a successful Product Manager. She talks about how you need to understand the types of skills that will make you a successful Product Manager. She also discusses the importance of bringing non-technical value to a team and how to do it, and how you can build trust with a technical team.Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

Product managers have to be user centric to build great products, but many Product Managers stop short and focus only on generic use cases. A great product that reaches the masses needs to be inclusive of the many different types of users that might use it. Laura Holmes, Senior Product Manager at Google, talks about how to build inclusive products and discusses how biases can impact product design and the many tools for counteracting bias as you build the next unicorn.Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here