The Product Podcast

In this talk, Product Manager at Facebook provides a clear scope of a product manager role, the mechanics of the product development process, and the communication needed to ensure transparency across stakeholders. Additionally, she talks about how to use user feedback to inform decisions. Aigerim Shorman is a Product Manager at Facebook. Before Product Management, she founded her own company Wist, was in investment banking, and taught with Teacher for America. She holds a Bachelor's Degree in Science. Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

Influencing without power is a key aspect of being a Product Manager. Being data-driven and data-comfortable is critical for today's product managers to influence without power. You may know how what A/B tests are, but how can you tactically set yourself and your teams up for success? What strategies can you adopt? In this talk, Ketan Nayak, Product Manager at Dropbox, covers how you as a Product Manager can use data as your biggest weapon to influence people, set your teams up for data success and go beyond just AB testing to make decisions.Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

"Transitioning to a product management role from scratch or another position is a process that I have been through many times - and fundamentally what has helped me is following product management processes to get the job (and life!) of my dreams!" This talk covers some of the key practices to help you get your desired Product Manager job and more out of what you want in life. Jocelyn Miller discusses what hiring managers need to see to say yes to hiring you into a product role and what specific processes and approaches to use (as inspired by great product management) to get a Product Manager role.Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

Product managers are sometimes reviled and other times revered. In this talk, Sammy Shreibati, Product Manager at LinkedIn, goes over the differences between the roles and what to expect. He discusses how to shift your thinking from "what" to "why", how to start working like a product manager and why you should always have a story. Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

In this talk, Gayle McDowell, the author of the book "Cracking the PM Interview", teaches 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. Gayle discusses how the ambiguously-named "PM" (product manager / program manager) 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 (estimation questions, behavioral questions, case questions, product questions, technical questions, and the super important "pitch").Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

Growth Leader from Zendesk, Brianne Kimmel, and Director of Partnerships at Trello, Anthony Marnell, talk about the best practices on how to turn customer feedback into actionable insights. They also discuss why customer feedback matters, what the best practices for sharing customer feedback with internal teams are and how to evaluate signal vs. noise.Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

What exactly is a Bitcoin? Bitcoin is the world's first finite digital resource, 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. Tyler Odean from Google gives an introduction to Bitcoin that covers questions like what is Bitcoin, how does it work and why does it matter.Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

Product managers are hired to build the future of products. However, when working on products and companies that are already at large scale, many Product Managers get stuck in ‘incrementalism’. This is the classic ‘local maxima’, and the proverbial ‘death by a thousand cuts’. Product Manager at YouTube, Seung Nam, talks about the challenges of building products at scale, and shares some challenges and lessons learned from rebuilding YouTube.com. Main takeaways that Seung discusses are how to create a vision, and share it, how to build design principles, and actually uphold them and how to back it up with complete data. 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? Carlos González de Villaumbrosia, Product School Founder and CEO, covers int his talk how to grow your career once you're a product manager, what makes a successful Product Manager and how to understand the role and importance of product managers in today's tech industry. Carlos also shares some tactical tips on how to transition to product management and grow your career. Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

Pricing is one of the most important skills a Product Manager needs to have. Whether it be pricing a new product, service launch, pricing an upgrade or just thinking about price cuts to stay competitive. In this talk, Aditya Vikram Bhuwania discusses how to understand how top firms think about pricing, various pricing strategies, architecture and implementation. He talks about the importance of pricing, different pricing strategies as well as price setting and architecture.Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

In this talk, Matt Wolf, Product Manager at StubHub, talks about the stages of companies, small and large company teams, key differences in company size, and how to understand the Product Manager role based on company size. He gives insight on what the company needs are at different stages, how to think about your career arc and where you want to be over the long term. From this talk, you can learn how to think strategically about your career path and company size.Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

Product management is about creating change. Metrics are the guideposts that help us ensure that the changes we make are leading to the results we want. They let us forecast, provide early warning signals, and create incentives for action. In this talk, Meghan Cochran, former Product Manager at Sephora, discusses designing good metrics, gaining alignment among a broad range of stakeholders, and communicating progress effectively. She talks about the trade-offs of looking at rates & ratios vs. absolute numbers, and funnels, cohorts, and other fascinating and exciting measures of success.Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

Neha talks about a few projects she worked on for the visually impaired. The first was in collaboration with TechBridgeWorld, an organization that facilitated the implementation of accessible technologies for developing communities. The second was during her time at Google Maps. Neha Rathi is the primary front end developer for Flow, Sidewalk Labs' mobility subsidiary. Prior to joining Flow, Neha worked on Google Maps in San Francisco. She was responsible for the "popular times" feature as well as keyboard exploration, a screen-reader-compatible tool that makes Maps more accessible for visually impaired users.Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

People don’t want to buy a quarter inch drill. They want a quarter inch hole. This is a profound insight. Customers don't want products, they want solutions to their problems. All great products are built around profound insights. In this talk, Rakesh Goyal, Product Manager at Google, shares some examples of successful products and the foundational insight or ‘secret’ as Peter Thiel would like to call it on which they were built. Through some examples Rakesh will get you started with developing an intuition for discovering foundational insights upon which you can build your next product. Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

Increased competition and higher customer expectations are forcing modern product management teams to up their game to keep pace. In this talk, Richard White, CEO of UserVoice, discusses how product leaders are leveraging customer feedback, collected across the organization, to inform how they build the best product possible in the shortest amount of time. Richard White is Co-founder and CEO of UserVoice. During his time at the helm, starting in 2008, UserVoice has expanded from a small, virtual operation to a company with bi-coastal teams in San Francisco, CA and Raleigh, NC. Richard’s foundational expertise lies in UI design & UX and he has made notable contributions to the startup community through his involvement as an early member of both Founder’s Network and Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC). He speaks at conferences around the world on various topics, including entrepreneurship, UX design, and the critical importance of putting customers at the center of building products.Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

Why do some products capture widespread attention while others flop? Is there a pattern underlying how technologies hook us? In this talk, the author of the book "Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products" talks about a 4 step process called the Hooked Model. Nir Eyal shares a framework that gives entrepreneurs and product designers a new way for thinking of the necessary components in influencing user behavior. He talks about the tactics that companies like Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter use to bring users back again and again without depending on costly advertising or aggressive messaging. He also gives practical insights that create user habits that stick and actionable steps for building products that people love.Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

Product Manager approaches things differently depending on the project, team and size of the company. Shaun Seo from Google talks about the differences in Product Management approaches at big and established companies like Google and GoDaddy, and small startups. He discusses how you can define your role and responsibilities, understand the required granularity of insights and choose the right frameworks.Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

Mike Goos talks about how to define your role on the product team and perform a personal gap analysis. He discusses how you can take ownership while not stepping on toes and the 4 pillars of product management, which are marketing, business, technical and communication style. He also gives recommendations for helpful tools and supplemental training.Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

Curious about what it takes to build Search products? Product Manager at LinkedIn gives an overview of the search and discovery problem, and presents LinkedIn’s approach to navigating and exploring its economic graph using search technologies. She also highlights how LinkedIn uses machine learning to model user intent, understand user query, and rank search results to deliver personalized experiences.Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

In this talk Avneesh Kohl, the Product Manager at Foursquare, talks about how understanding tech will make you a better Product Manager. For the ones that are new to Product Management, he discusses how much technology they should know. He also talks about how to build rapport and what coding language one should learn. Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

Google's "Next Billion Users" effort aims to build better Google products for emerging markets. It does so by adapting current products to better fit the needs & environment of these users, and by building new products from the ground up specifically tailored for users in such markets. Building products for cultures and people that are very different from your surroundings is a complex task. It requires deep research efforts and a highly structured way of solving product questions. In this talk, Joris van Mens explains how Google's product teams solve these types of problems.Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

This is a Q&A talk with Mike Burk, Director of Product at Postmates, to give the audience a chance to ask every question they’ve ever had about product management. Mike also gives an inside scoop on the day-to-day work in Product Management, the challenges of the job and personal insight from his experience at working at different companies. He talks about how he got into Product Management from films and discussed what it’s like to work in a management role. He also discusses how to provide value, and sheds light on how to manage different teams and what lessons he's learned over the years. Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

How is gaming Product Management different from the conventional Product Management? How is monetizing gaming products different? Being a Product Manager in gaming is a very different world. In this talk, Matt Herrick, former Product Manager at PlayStation, discusses data analytics, A/B testing, the gaming ecosystem, and monetization strategies to help attendees better understand this industry. He also answers the audience's questions about gaming Product Management.Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

In a nutshell, information theory defines a logarithmic measure that only depends on the probability of events and is impartial to the value of the event itself. In other words, information theory treats alien landing and earthquakes equally if they occur at the same frequency. This impartial perspective will guide our product development and simultaneously enable more data-driven design while restricting the information we reveal to the outside world for a potential misuse. In this talk, Nikon Rasumov, Director of Product Management at Symantec, discusses how to build more secure products and make hackers’ lives more difficult. He also discussed how building products that enable a strong foundation for data science and increase in revenue are important.Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

FinTech is a fast growing area presenting numerous product management opportunities at startups as well as enterprises. It is a highly regulated complex industry made up of technology, finance, accounting, legal, regulation, privacy laws, etc. In this talk Sheela Ursal, former Amazon Payments Head of Product, gives a glimpse into the world of Fintech, especially into Fintech Product Management. She talks about cross functional teams, markets, users and technologies. She also discusses Industry trends that are driving the growth and interest.Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

Understanding how to access and interpret data is critical for the modern Product Manager. In this talk, a data scientist at Airbnb teaches the basics in data-informed thinking as well as resources and tools for SQL, python and R. She discusses how you can up-level your skills in interpreting A/B tests, incrementally, and when and why to use Machine Learning techniques.Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

How important is prioritization? In order to build the best possible solution, a product manager needs to understand WHY they are building. Once the problem and stakeholders have been identified, how does a PM tackle solving it? In this talk, Jeff Betts, a Product Manager at Google, covers this problem-solving framework and shares insights and anecdotes from his user-first approach to product development and prioritization strategy.Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

While it can be intimidating for people without technical backgrounds to jump into a technical environment, there is amazing potential to affect change and act as a multiplier. In this session, Andrew talks about lessons he has learned in how to better understand, prioritize, and tackle technical issues facing engineers in the workplace. He discusses how you can understand the key business metrics and their relationship to the engineering level metrics without any tech knowledge and utilize tools that monitor those metrics. He also talks about how you can use transparency and democratization to adapt and prioritize. Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

In this talk, Ryan Cunningham, a Product Strategist at UberEats, discusses how he transitioned from Finance into Product. He walks through the key skills that transfer and those that don't, as well as unexpected areas that will require a steep learning curve, particularly in culture and how to spend your time. Based on his experience and lessons learned, Ryan provides insights on how to make this transition as frictionless as possible.Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

In this talk Carlos González de Villaumbrosia, the Founder and CEO of Product School, is holding a mock interview workshop, discussing the lay of the land in terms of the 5 most commonly asked questions. In a group session the group practices answering these questions. He gives an overview of the interview situation, things you should do to prepare for the interview and how to answer the questions in the most interesting and influential way. With a short introduction to the whole interviewing process and a Q & A with the group, he discusses how to talk about your previous experiences in the interview and show your motivation towards the position.Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

What are the common mistakes, misunderstandings and misconceptions new product managers often have? How can you avoid them? Product management encompasses lots of different disciplines and responsibilities but not all of them will be summed up in a job description. While everyone will talk about setting product strategy, defining features, maintaining a roadmap, managing an engineering team, and putting together a successful product launch, what else do you need to know to be a successful product manager? Alexis Baird talks about how you can learn the tricks of the trade and nail it like a Product Manager. She also burst the myths of common misunderstandings and misconceptions in product management.Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

Why does analytics matter? As "big data" and "data science" become increasingly mature practices, businesses have started to demand ROI from their investments in analytics. In fact, senior stakeholders at some companies cast doubt on the need for data science. Gordon Silvera, a Senior Data Scientist on Spotify's Data SWAT squad, discusses why enterprise analytics is essential to sustained company growth. He talks about a framework that can guide companies towards best-in-class enterprise analytics, as well as show how Spotify has brought this framework to reality. Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

From vertical to horizontal product management. In this talk LinkedIn`s Senior Product Manager, Christian Byza, talks about how his roles changed from owning a vertical slice of a solution to a horizontal ownership of an entire market and what it takes to build great products in a large organization He also talks about the 10 rules to follow in product management and the difference between horizontal and vertical product ownership.Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

While each company and each interview can be unique, there are general patterns and tips that you can follow to present your best self during the interview process. Chandan Lodha, former Product Manager at GoogleX, walked through various types of questions and what you can do to best prepare yourself for applying and interviewing at these companies. Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

We all enter a company as part of an organization, each with a set of teams with their own purpose. We start with this sense of mission we attach to our role - whether you are a PM, a designer, a marketer, and more. It’s exciting, and the level of role specialization makes you motivated to reach the goals that you set for that role. But let’s take another step back. Remove the attribute of whether you work on Core Product, Growth, Marketing, Engineering, or Design. Now what do you see your role as?I hope your answer was related to growth, because that’s what the ultimate company goal is. Gaurav Hardikar, Senior Product Manager at Shopkick, talks about how every Product Manager is a Growth Product Manager.Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

In this talk Ane Silva, Product Manager at Cancer Research UK, talks about the struggle of figuring out whether you should or shouldn't build a new feature. She also discusses how you can validate your ideas for new products and features in a simple framework to get you started.Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

In this talk the Senior Product Manager at MongoDB, Jordan Sumerlus, talks about the transition from Consulting to Product Management. He walks through the key consulting skills that transfer across and those that don't.Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

Companies treat the role of product management differently. Miles Lennon, Product Manager at Spotify, shares how they articulate the product development process at Spotify and the role of a PM.Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

Ben Schein, Product Manager at NPR Product, discusses the main points that arise from over engineering, and how to effectively avoid them. Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

In this talk Ketan Nayak, a Product Manager at Dropbox, discusses why and how the function of product management is different in important ways in enterprise software as compared to the consumer web, and why it’s not the drag that everyone thinks.Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

This talk is an "ask me anything" session with the Senior Product Manager at TaskRabbit, Derya Rose. He talks about how he got into product management and answers questions about what it's like to work as a Product Manager at TaskRabbit.Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

Ever wondered what it’s like to work as a Product Manager? What about as a Product Manager at cool companies like Lyft, Amazon or Docusign? Kevin Zhu, Senior Product Manager at Docusign, discusses what it’s like to work in this dynamic role and what it takes to get your foot in the door. He also gives the inside scoop on the day-to-day work as a PM, challenges of the job and personal insight from his experience at all three awesome companies.Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

The Product Book: How to Become a Great Product Manager has just launched, and we are excited to share all the insights with you from the one who co-authored it! In this talk CEO of Product School, Carlos González de Villaumbrosia, talks about what you'll find in the book and answers questions about the book, and how to break into product management. If you want to grab the book in advance, it's on sale for just $2.99 for a limited time only. Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

In this talk Daniel Tunon, a software engineer at OSIsoft, talks about how to go from no prior coding knowledge to crafting your own websites using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. He discusses the basics of how web browsers work and the basics of programming which apply in language. Coding is the ability to take the abstract and make it concrete.Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

An important skill for a Product Manager is the ability to parachute into an existing product and land on your feet. In this talk the Director of Product for Animoto, Paul Yokota, discusses how to immerse yourself in your new company and how to do as much as you can as quickly as you can. He also talks about how you can understand your products problem domain, how to collect good qualitative data, how to set expectations with an new team and how to become the product diplomat.Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

As Product Managers and aspiring product managers, learning is all part of the process. That doesn't change if you've been a PM for one day or ten years. This talk focuses on the lessons Neha Monga, Head of Product for global marketplace pricing at Amazon has learned from launching products over her 10+ years long career as a product manager. Key Takeaways 1. Launch a lot - get better at product launches by doing it often and developing pattern matching. 2. Short term vs. long term - have an idea of what the North Star looks like, but launch intermediate stages that create value for customers and still allows you to validate hypotheses. 3. One-way door vs. two-way door - maximize your optionality. Some launches are a one way door and can never be reversed. Others are two-way doors. Try to create more two-way doors. 4. Have a plan - pivot, double down, abandon. Know what you are looking for from the launch - what decisions and what are the next steps. 5. What are you doing to make the launch a success - releasing a product isn’t good enough. What are you trying to do to actually get - adoption, awareness? Have a strong GTM plan.Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

Tyler Odean, Group Product Manager at Google, gives a whirlwind tour of 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. The true secret to herding cats is to convince the cats to herd themselves!Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

Product Management is more of an art than a science. So, how do you become a Product Manager? Kevin Gu, Product Manager at Etsy, talks about what he has learned before and during his journey in product management. He also talks about what does a Product Manager really do and how you can get started by discussing various approaches to actually get an interview.Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

In this talk George Zeng, Product Manager at Facebook, answers all key questions about Product Management. He will talk about what it means to be an outstanding Product Manager, what a day in the life of a PM actually looks like and how to achieve & maintain a successful PM career.Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

This talk covers the important topics of when to use A/B testing, how to implement it and most importantly, how to measure the results. Anna Marie Clifton, Product Manager at Yammer, talks about why A/B testing sucks. Social Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here