Product to Product

Your product, your community, your emotional wheels Nov 09, 2021

Good product managers are customer-obsessed. They build products and features that will solve their customers' problems. But Peter Yang from Reddit argues that great product managers focus on how products make customers feel. Dive into this episode with us as Peter teaches us all about the emotional wheel and how PMs can learn a thing or two from gaming.

Want all the highlights quickly? We've got them for you here:
https://roadmunk.com/guides/podcast-product-to-product-peter-yang-emotions-optimized/

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How Webflow PMs use product sense to drive their roadmaps Oct 26, 2021

Is product sense a superpower? In this candid conversation, Webflow PM Frank Ramirez, details the tough transition he made into product management, the mistakes early PMs make, and much more. This episode may even help you discover your PM superpower!

Want all the highlights quickly? We've got them for you here: https://roadmunk.com/guides/podcast-product-to-product-frank-ramirez-webflow-pm-product-sense-roadmap/

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Are User Interviews a Waste of Time? Oct 13, 2021

It's always a good idea to talk to your customers. But Hinge's Chief Product Officer, Michelle Parsons, thinks we're looking for the wrong things in our user interviews.

In this episode of Product to Product, Latif and Michelle dissect how a good product sense might actually make you prioritize quantitative data over qualitative data. Michelle brings a wealth of experiences from her time at Netflix, Spotify, and Kayak. You might want to share this episode with your product friends.

Want all the highlights quickly? We've got them for you here: https://roadmunk.com/guides/podcast-product-to-product-michelle-parsons-are-user-interviews-a-waste-of-time/

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A Scientific Approach to Product Sense Sep 30, 2021

Product sense is more than a gut feeling or intuition. Avrum Laurie, VP of Product at Wealthsimple, walks us through a scientific approach to employing product sense predictably and effectively.

In this episode of Product to Product, Avrum shares example after example of how he and his team think about product sense. Latif uncovers how Wealthsimple ships impactful products loved by Canadians from coast to coast. Pull out a notepad for this one, you'll want to take notes!

Want all the highlights quickly? We've got them for you here: https://roadmunk.com/guides/podcast-product-to-product-avrum-laurie-scientific-approach-product-sense

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What does product sense look like at a startup? Insights from a CEO Aug 31, 2021

Data is important but it's only one piece of the puzzle. Kristin Chen, the CEO of Top.gg, reminds us that data can only show us where a fire is but not what caused it.

In this episode of Product to Product, Kristin guides Latif through her most noteworthy product management experiences from Soundcloud, Pinterest, and Twitch. Now, as she leads Top.gg, you'll learn how she's deploying product sense as a startup CEO.

Want all the highlights quickly? We've got them for you here:
https://roadmunk.com/guides/podcast-product-to-product-kristin-chen-product-sense-startup-insights-from-ceo/

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Can you lose product-market fit? Balancing data and customer stories Aug 19, 2021

Don't get too comfy once you've found product-market fit! Our guest today, Ramli John, warns companies that if they don't keep their thumb on the pulse of their customers they could lose their market.

On this inaugural episode of Product to Product's season 8, Latif and Ramli dive into what product sense looks like in a number of contexts. Throughout this conversation you'll hear them cover a range of topics; from customer stories to product-led growth.

Want all the highlights quickly? We've got them for you here: https://roadmunk.com/guides/podcast-product-to-product-ramli-john-balance-data-customer-stories/

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Early adopters and laggards give the most useful user feedback - Abhi Bhatt @ Amazon Alexa Jul 28, 2020

(Disclaimer: These episodes were recorded prior to the coronavirus outbreak as well as the Black Lives Matter marches.)

For Abhi Bhatt, Head of Product at Alexa Identity, who’s worked on innovative and category shaping products (like the first generation Motorola Razr phone and North’s AR smart glasses), early adopters and laggard customers give the most insightful feedback.
He says product teams need to work backwards when building something that hasn’t been done before. You’ll need to figure out the segmentation and what the customer base will look like. Also, find out what these customers care about. Based on the psychographics and demographics, choose a segment that has the most resonance. Ultimately, product teams should be spending a lot of time with their customers, to the point that they become your “partner” in development.
When it comes to customer feedback, Abhi says quantitative data is like looking in the rear-view mirror. It’s already happened! It reflects on how people are behaving in the sandbox you’ve created. On the other hand, qualitative data points to understanding why they are behaving this way and the motivations behind it. This set of data also pressure tests if you’ve built the right thing for customers. Both lenses need to be applied to your product, whether it’s early and innovative or a mature product.

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Customer feedback is constant and helps grow user empathy–Sarah Pyo @ Shopify Jul 14, 2020

(Disclaimer: These episodes were recorded prior to the coronavirus outbreak as well as the Black Lives Matter marches.)
Shopify Product Lead Sarah Pyo says it’s crucial for PMs to be close to user feedback; by joining customer calls, reviewing feedback channels and blocking out time with the customer success team. These sessions, called “bridge the gap” meetings at Shopify, remind PMs that empathy is the core of user-centric products. It’s easy to lose sight of this as you’re working with various stakeholders on day-to-day tasks, Sarah cautions.
Sarah also says that, for product people, the user is your BOSS. Creating an experience that resonates with them should be prioritized. If you build it, they will come. Likewise, if you build a product users love, you will reap the benefits for your company, she adds.
Sarah advises that, in order to ensure your metrics give you real feedback instead of setting up vanity metrics you can gamify, PMs need to have requirements in place while chasing a product company’s ultimate North Star.

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Ditch the MVP, embrace the MLP and listen to your users - Veronica Hudson @ Twilio Jun 30, 2020

(Disclaimer: These episodes were recorded prior to the coronavirus outbreak as well as the Black Lives Matter marches.)
Ditch the MVP, embrace the MLP and listen to your users, says Veronica Hudson, senior PM at Twilio at the time of the interview (She’s now at ActiveCampaign in the senior PM role.). A product can be viable, but are customers going to use it? She says PMs should figure out what the problem you’re solving is and pinpoint who you can solve it most widely for. The goal of an MLP is to be able to release an open beta and not feel like there needs to be a gatekeeper of who can use it, Veronica adds.
Also in this episode, listen to how Veronica, who originally worked in NYC’s book publishing industry, finds the evolution of female pop stars like Jennifer Lopez and Robyn to be inspirational.
For Veronica, quantitative and qualitative feedback work hand in hand. She suggests PMs spend time with support teams to learn what hacks they’re teaching users and you’ll find underlying customer problems that the data can’t tell you.

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Focusing on the wrong customer segment? Fire them - Asheesh Birla @ Ripple Jun 02, 2020

(Disclaimer: These episodes were recorded prior to the coronavirus outbreak.)
Fire the customer if you need, says Asheesh Birla, Ripple’s SVP of Product, when talking about the importance of customer segmentation. Asheesh says if your company is going after the wrong customer and fixated on why they’re unhappy, it’s time to re-evaluate if they’re a fit for your product. Instead, the winning Venn diagram in his opinion is this: a customer segment whose pain points your product can easily solve.
Also in this episode, find out how early in Asheesh’s career he volunteered to carry luggage on a work trip for Thomson Reuter’s COO (who was 20 levels higher than him on the org chart at that time!) and how he was able to gain a mentor through that.
For Asheesh, product teams who are too tactical in their daily triage miss the forest for the trees. He says you need to understand whether the landscape is changing in a macro way or if a new competitor is coming in. Your product org may be making incremental changes, but startups need to make massive changes to be successful, he adds.

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10X better (than competition) or bust - Jeetu Patel @ Box May 19, 2020

(Disclaimer: These episodes were recorded prior to the coronavirus outbreak.)
Build a product that’s 10X better than your competition, said Jeetu Patel, Box’s Chief Product and Chief Strategy Officer, in the new episode of Roadmunk’s Product to Product podcast. Jeetu says in order to do this, a product company shouldn’t obsess about the competition, but should focus on their customers. He adds that if you’re just replicating another product, a user won’t see the value in switching their behaviour since it doesn’t solve their problems any differently.
Also in this episode, find out how Jeetu went from making $4.25 an hour as a waiter to investing in his first company at age 22 with a $250,000 loan in hand and then moving onto being a senior technology executive whose company has 70M users and 100,000 customers.

Jeetu also cautions teams to avoid the shiny object syndrome where they’re chasing the thrill of new features. There’s a balance, but make sure your core product is given the love it needs too, he warned.

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Your mission justifies why ideas are prioritized - Christine Yoon @ Hubspot May 05, 2020

(Disclaimer: These episodes were recorded prior to the coronavirus outbreak.)

We’re back with another episode of Product to Product, a podcast brought to you by Roadmunk.
In this episode, Christine Yoon, a Product Manager within Hubspot’s Business Enablement team, says having a solid mission is critical to justifying why an idea is prioritized. This mission is what makes it easier to say no to requests that don’t fall directly inline with the goal.
As a PM, Christine likes to start by using customer journey maps to understand the daily friction points that a user will face. With this understanding, she believes it helps product teams gain empathy when making decisions. Her process with feedback and idea management is to analyze the feedback using a product prioritization matrix and then using an additional filter of weighted scorecards to validate the importance with stakeholders.

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Customer feedback points out problems, PMs find solutions - Niki Agrawal @ Bumble Apr 21, 2020

Hey product people,

(Disclaimer: These episodes were recorded prior to the coronavirus outbreak.)
We’re back with another episode of Product to Product, a podcast brought to you by Roadmunk.
In this episode, Niki Agrawal, a PM at Bumble, says while users influence most of the problems Niki’s team looks to solve, it’s up to the PMs and stakeholders that have influence to determine what will actually be shipped. With Niki’s team, they also take the input from their BI (business intelligence) group that has more insight into user feedback.

She adds that their product team collects data through monitoring social media and app store reviews as well as outbound user research.

One of the Bumble features Niki helped launch was photo verification, which came from users wanting to make sure they were safe when meeting people from the app. The process of creating the photo verification feature included receiving feedback through user testing.

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Feedback + idea management is half science, half art - Rose Yao @ Google Maps Platform Apr 07, 2020

(Disclaimer: These episodes were recorded prior to the coronavirus outbreak.)
Season 6 of Product to Product is back with episode 2. This season, we’re talking about feedback and idea management.
In this episode, Rose Yao, a Senior Director of Product at Google Maps Platform, says feedback and idea management is part science and part art. PMs can look at data to determine the ROI and impact the feature will have, but it’s also important to seek out patterns, she says. Propose big questions like: “Where is the world going?” and take it from there.

Rose adds that in order to get insightful feedback, you should design the user study just as thoughtfully as you’re designing your product. Otherwise, you’re creating an echo chamber of what you think is important instead of focusing on the user.
She says that when it comes to collecting feedback, there’s nothing more powerful than talking to the users of your product.

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Customer driven roadmapping - Latif Nanji @ Roadmunk Mar 24, 2020

Season six of Roadmunk’s Product to Product podcast is back and we’ve given it a refresh! A new format, host and style. Thank you so much for following along and listening to our previous episodes. We really appreciate it. This season, we’re talking about feedback and idea management. How does your team go from feedback to feature?

And that isn’t the only new thing at Roadmunk. We’re also super excited to share the feedback and idea management suite we just shipped. Now with Roadmunk, you can:

Capture, manage and analyze customer feedback in one organized place
Create a backlog of customer-validated product ideas
Systematically surface high-impact ideas using built-in prioritization templates
Commit to ideas by promoting them to your roadmaps

In this season’s kick off episode, Roadmunk’s own co-founder and CEO Latif Nanji chats about how our new feedback and idea management suite will help product teams.

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A tool kit for hyperscale - Nick Caldwell @ Looker Dec 03, 2019

During rapid growth, a company runs the risk of creating silos and diminishing overall productivity. There needs to be a balance between being independent, yet engaged with company’s business goals, which sometimes means a complete reorganization of the company’s org structure.

In this episode, Nick Caldwell, Chief Product Officer at Looker, shares three items in his tool kit for hyperscaling. He says although the tool kit isn’t prescriptive, you can pick and choose what fits best for your company.

If you liked what you heard, please rate, review and subscribe! Find us on iTunes, Google Play or Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Or get the latest episodes delivered right to your inbox by subscribing here.

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How to retain the all-stars you've hired - David Cutler @ Spotify Nov 19, 2019

After the long, stressful and expensive process of hiring and onboarding a new employee to your team, what comes next is retaining the all-star you’ve just hired. Product companies with a low talent churn creates stronger company culture as well as loyalty. However, building a retention culture isn’t easy and it often takes up a lot of the PM’s time.
In this episode, David Cutler, a Product Director at Spotify, says you need to extract the highest value from someone in your product company by figuring out how each individual thrives at work.

If you liked what you heard, please rate, review and subscribe! Find us on iTunes, Google Play or Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Or get the latest episodes delivered right to your inbox by subscribing here.

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Over communicating is the key to alignment - Priya Wellington @ Medium Nov 05, 2019

Getting stakeholder alignment is an idea in the product world that seems like an obvious objective, but it’s often one of the toughest parts of a PM’s job. It’s worth investing the time to make sure everyone’s on board with your business objectives even if it feels redundant.

In this episode, Priya Wellington, the Group PM at Medium, says over communicating is key to aligning stakeholders, especially at media companies where the editorial department is a major stakeholder. She adds that frequent communication, in-person or online, allows people to know they're being heard, even if the ideas aren't acted on right away.

If you liked what you heard, please rate, review and subscribe! Find us on iTunes, Google Play or Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Or get the latest episodes delivered right to your inbox by subscribing here.

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Tech debt: a love/hate relationship - John Hung @ Asana Oct 22, 2019

Nobody likes to be in debt and technical debt, the deliberate shortcuts made to ship your product faster, but that end up taking more time to fix, is no different.
In this episode, we talk to John Hung, a PM from Asana, about how he makes the business case to stakeholders to clean up tech debt. John adds that ignoring tech debt will only lead to “death by a thousand paper cuts” and hinder your product org’s scalability.
If you liked what you heard, please rate, review and subscribe! Find us on iTunes, Google Play or Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Or get the latest episodes delivered right to your inbox by subscribing here.

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You've hired your PMs, now trust them - Brandon Chu @ Shopify, Christina Perdikoulias @ DigitalEd Oct 08, 2019

We recently hosted a panel discussion with two veteran PMs in Toronto as part of our Product 2 Product event series...and we recorded it!
In this episode, Shopify’s VP Product & GM of Platform, Brandon Chu, and Christina Perdikoulias, DigitalEd’s President and CEO, talk about how to set the strategy and culture in the early stages of a product team.
Brandon says that you need to trust the PMs you’ve hired, otherwise, why hire them at all? (Sometimes, you need to learn to let go!) Christina thinks product management is born out of chaos and that adaptability as well as resiliency is paramount to product companies scaling successfully.
If you liked what you heard, please rate, review and subscribe! Find us on iTunes, Google Play or Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Or get the latest episodes delivered right to your inbox by subscribing here.

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How structure eases growing pains for product teams – Jeff Lash @ Forrester Sep 24, 2019

As a product company scales, the complexity of the business also increases. The more employees there are building your product, the more coordination happens between several teams. One of the challenges of a growing product organisation is the need for consistency and order. For a scaling product company that has cross functional teams, a lack of structure can frustrate people and bottleneck other goals that are being prioritised.
In this episode, Forrester’s VP and Group Director of Product Management Research and Advisory, Jeff Lash, will talk about how processes can help a company grow at scale.
If you liked what you heard, please rate, review and subscribe! Find us on iTunes, Google Play or Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Or get the latest episodes delivered right to your inbox by subscribing here.

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How to successfully onboard new PMs – Cem Kansu @ Duolingo Sep 10, 2019

Product to Product, a podcast for / by product people, is back for season 5!

This season, we’re diving into the growing pains of a scaling product company. We’ll be giving PMs tactical advice on how to overcome common roadblocks when their teams are going through crazy growth. To kick off this season, we have Cem Kansu talking to us about programs and techniques he uses to make sure new hires are set up for success right from the start.

The onboarding process is more than just having a laptop set up for your new employee on their first day. Product companies need to recognize that onboarding is equally as important as hiring. It’s counterproductive to overlook the onboarding experience because it’s costly to start the process all over again––especially when a company’s goal is to scale sustainably.
Cem is a Director of Product Management at Duolingo who’s been focused on onboarding new employees.
If you liked what you heard, please rate, review and subscribe! Find us on iTunes, Google Play or Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Or get the latest episodes delivered right to your inbox by subscribing here.

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Referrals are a retention play – Pratik Shah @ Airbnb Jun 03, 2019

Your most loyal users will help you find your next most loyal user—through referrals. Airbnb's Pratik Shah says they’ll also stick around longer.

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Scaling a monetization strategy as you scale - Katie Guzman @ Asana May 21, 2019

The average SaaS company spends 8 hours on pricing—don’t do this. Asana's Katie Guzman walks us through how a $$ strategy can evolve with your product.

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Unlocking user onboarding for growth - Emily Lonetto @ Clio May 07, 2019

This episode, we're joined by Emily Lonetto, who works in growth at Clio and calls herself "strangely obsessed" with onboarding.

She's built several onboarding flows in her career and gives us the low-down of how to hook your users, right off the bat. 🎣

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North stars are leading you astray - Brian Balfour @ Reforge Apr 23, 2019

Welcome back to another episode of Product to Product, the podcast for / by product people hosted by Roadmunk.

This season, we’re taking a deep dive into growth and giving PMs practical, sustainable, non-hacky ways to grow your product.

Brian Balfour, CEO at Reforge, joins us for this episode. He calls himself anti-North star metrics because they “oversimplify” growth. Brian has helped redefine other shiny metrics to keep teams on track at companies like Hubspot.

If you liked what you heard, show us some love by rating and reviewing us (5 stars only!) Find us on iTunes, Google Play or Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Or get the latest episodes delivered right to your inbox by subscribing here.

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Building world-class growth teams - Willie Tran @ Mailchimp Apr 09, 2019

Welcome back to another episode of Product to Product, the podcast for / by product people hosted by Roadmunk.

This season, we’re taking a deep dive into growth and giving PMs practical, sustainable, non-hacky ways to grow your product.

Willie Tran, Growth PM at Mailchimp, joins us for this episode. He's worked on several scaling growth teams and he shares his many opinions on how to build growth teams. (He prefers the term "squads").

Plus: he's got some strong opinions about how growth teams should function within itself, and also work with the rest of the organization.

If you liked what you heard, show us some love by rating and reviewing us (5 stars only!) Find us on iTunes, Google Play or Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Or get the latest episodes delivered right to your inbox by subscribing here.

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All PMs should be growth PMs - Shaun Clowes @ Metromile Mar 26, 2019

Season 4 of Product to Product, a podcast for / by product people, is finally here!

This season, we’re taking a deep dive into growth and giving PMs practical, sustainable, non-hacky ways to grow your product.

First up—Shaun Clowes on why all PMs should be growth PMs.

Whereas core PMs own parts of the product, growth PMs own KPIs and experiments. They also tend to be way more data-driven.

This new distinction between core and growth PM implies that PMs aren’t as focused on growth as their orgs would like them to be, but our guest doesn’t think that’s helpful.

Having worked on both sides, Shaun was the head of product growth at Atlassian before joining MetroMile as their Chief Product Officer.

If you liked what you heard, show us some love by rating and reviewing us (5 stars only!) Find us on iTunes, Google Play or Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Or get the latest episodes delivered right to your inbox by subscribing here.

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Season 4 Teaser Mar 05, 2019

Back on air March 26, season 4 tackles a brand new theme—growth.

We’re giving you tactical, sustainable, non-hacky ways to grow your product.

Each episode a member of our team will discuss one growth topic with a product person from a really cool company.

We’ve got an awesome lineup this season, with product people who’ve worked at high growth companies like Reforge, Atlassian, Mailchimp and Asana.

You can subscribe to Product to Product on iTunes, Google Play or Spotify, or get the latest episodes delivered to your inbox by subscribing here.

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Is there a downside to dogfooding? - Nick Franklin @ ChartMogul Nov 13, 2018

It's our season 3 finale of Product to Product, a podcast for / by product people!

We're breaking down, dissecting and debunking the product buzzwords you love to hate, and hate to love.

In our last episode, we’re joined by ChartMogul’s Founder & CEO, Nick Franklin to talk about dogfooding.

What happens when you use your own products? You can get some great insights from loving and hating the same things as your customer.

Nick weighs in on some of the cultural changes that can happen in your organization when you eat your own dog food, or even how it can skew your product decisions.

You can subscribe to Product to Product on iTunes, Google Play or Spotify, or get the latest episodes delivered to your inbox by subscribing here.

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Debunking the "V" in MVP - Anaid Chacon @ Dropbox Oct 30, 2018

It's our second last episode of Product to Product's third season, a podcast for / by product people!

We're breaking down, dissecting and debunking the product buzzwords you love to hate, and hate to love.

Up next–to share her views on MVP–is Anaid Chacon, Product Manager at Dropbox

The MVP has been a hotly debated topic in the last couple of years, spawning strongly worded articles with titles like, “The MVP is dead” or “I hate MVPs. So do your customers.”

On this episode, we’re joined by Anaid to explore the MVP concept. As an engineer-turned-PM, she’s built her fair share of MVPs and has been on both sides of the development table. With Anaid, we’ll explore what the MVP really means, why this anti-MVP sentiment has evolved, and also what alternatives exist for product people to use instead of an MVP.

You can subscribe to Product to Product on iTunes, Google Play or Spotify, or get the latest episodes delivered to your inbox by subscribing here.

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#NoEstimates: Myth or movement? - John Cutler @ Amplitude Oct 16, 2018

We bring you episode 4 of Product to Product's third season, a podcast for / by product people!

This season we're exploring the product buzzwords you love to hate, and hate to love.

Up next to share about his views on #noestimates is John Cutler.

In recent years, many agile enthusiasts have adopted a no estimates practice (there’s even a hashtag!) The idea is that within agile sprints, estimates do not actually add value to your process or work—just extra effort. As a result, many people in the agile community are making product decisions without estimates.

As a go-to writer and thought leader in the agile space, John Cutler, has seen how this practice has become a point of contention within the agile community. Having heard from both avid supporters and critics of the practice, John wants to explore the pros and cons of the concept and how a PM and their team are ultimately impacted by it. We’ll also break down how a product team can successfully apply this practice.

You can subscribe to Product to Product on iTunes, Google Play or Spotify, or get the latest episodes delivered to your inbox by subscribing here.

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The “shittiness” of being a “shit umbrella” - Kristen Huntley @ NBC Oct 02, 2018

It's another episode of Product to Product, the podcast for / by product people hosted by Roadmunk.
This season we’re exploring the product buzzwords you love to hate and hate to love. Each episode, a member of our team tackles one popular product term or phrase with an awesome product person.
This episode we have Kristen Huntley, Director of Product, Personalization at NBC. She's offering her opinion on the buzzy phrase "shit umbrella."

While it's not the "warmest" metaphor, this buzzphrase captures a big part of the PM role. But Kristen thinks the definition can vastly improve.

Kristen and our colleague Eleni explore how this term can set up an "us vs. them" mentality for your product teams and how much "shit" a PM should deflect versus translate to their team. Also, is this term a humble-brag or just plain self-deprecating?

You can subscribe to Product to Product on iTunes, Google Play or Spotify, or get the latest episodes delivered to your inbox by subscribing here.

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CEO of the product: An accurate title for PMs? — Anup Dhalwani @ Uber Sep 18, 2018

Welcome back to another episode of Product to Product, the podcast for / by product people hosted by Roadmunk.
It’s season three of the podcast and we’re exploring the product buzzwords you love to hate and hate to love. In each episode, a member of our team breaks down one product term or phrase with a product person from a really cool company.
Anup Dhalwani, Senior Product Manager at Uber, joins us for this episode. He’s offering his take on a highly-debated “buzzphrase” he hears around Silicon Valley: “CEO of the product.”

While some PMs embrace this term wholeheartedly (sometimes too much), others are completely opposed to it. In Anup’s case, he’s on the fence. He thinks the title can work for PMs—under a few conditions.

Anup and our CEO Latif Nanji explore how this term can work and how its definition changes company to company. Plus: they discuss how the title can be an ego-driven term that can maybe rub other team members the wrong way.

You can subscribe to Product to Product on iTunes, Google Play or Spotify, or get the latest episodes delivered to your inbox by subscribing here.

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Explaining the why — Leora Katz, Product Manager @ Buzzfeed Sep 04, 2018

Product to Product, the podcast for / by product people hosted by Roadmunk, is officially back for season 3! 🎉
For our third season, we’re tackling product buzzwords. Each episode a member of our team tackles one product buzzword with a product person from a really cool company.

Join us this season as we break down, dissect and debunk the product terms you love to hate and hate to love.
We’re kicking this season off with Leora Katz, Product Manager at Buzzfeed.(Buzzfeed to start the buzzword season just made sense.)

While "explain the why” might seem like an overrated phrase to some product managers, to Leora it's a product "buzzphrase" that's fundamental to good product management. Unfortunately, she doesn't believe every PM establishes "the why" often (or well) enough.

So, our colleague Eleni speaks with Leora about how PMs can set better context and ultimately get better at bringing their product team along for the product development journey.

You can subscribe to Product to Product on iTunes, Google Play or Spotify, or get the latest episodes delivered to your inbox by subscribing here.

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Season 3 Teaser Aug 27, 2018

Premiering on September 4th, season 3 tackles a brand new theme: product buzzwords. We’re breaking down the product terms you love to hate & hate to love.

Each episode a member of our team will discuss one product buzzword with a product person from a really cool company.

To name drop a little, we’ve got product people from Buzzfeed, Uber, NBC, Dropbox and more lined up for the season.

You can subscribe to Product to Product on iTunes, Google Play or Spotify, or get the latest episodes delivered to your inbox by subscribing here.

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From tension to trust: How a PM transformed team culture - Gustavo Melo @ Amazon May 28, 2018

We’ve reached our season finale of Product to Product’s second season! 🙌

In our final episode of the season, we explore the human side of product one last time. And making it even more special, it’s our first live podcast recording. We’re joined by Gustavo Melo, Senior Product Manager at Amazon. (Fun fact: Our CEO Latif Nanji and Gustavo used to work together, so it makes this convo even more exciting.)

When Gustavo (or Gus for short) joined Amazon’s wedding registry product team, he sensed sometension. The technical side of his team wanted to develop cool features, while the non-technical side wanted to deliver business value. Seeing this major gap, Gustavo took it upon himself to reverse this tense team culture around.

Latif sat down with Gustavo to understand how he managed to do a 180 with his team’s tense working relationships. Gustavo offers practical steps other product people can take when trying to bridge the gap between the technical and non-tech sides of their team.

Tune in one last time this season, as after this episode we’re taking a short break. We’ll be back before you know it with a brand new season and theme. ✌️

You can subscribe to Product to Product on iTunes, Google Play or Spotify, or get the latest episodes delivered to your inbox by subscribing here.

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What to do when managing PMs gets messy — Ben Mills @ Venmo May 14, 2018

It’s the second last episode of Product to Product’s second season!

As we reach our final stretch of exploring the human side of product, we’re joined by Ben Mills, Head of Product at Venmo, this episode.

Overseeing a team of 11 product managers, Ben is a step removed from managing the actual product at Venmo. Instead, he’s managing the PMs responsible for different slivers of their product. The thing is, managing other PMs can get messy since PMs will undoubtedly have their own opinions on how the product should work.

Our CEO Latif Nanji sits down with Ben to discuss how he navigates the messiness of managing all these PMs. How does he provide guidance versus micromanaging? How does he balance being process-oriented and progress-oriented? And how does a product team lead handle hard decisions? It’s a conversation that’s beneficial not only to product team leads, but also any PMs looking to understand their leads more.

You can subscribe to Product to Product on iTunes, Google Play or Spotify, or get the latest episodes delivered to your inbox by subscribing here.

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What is product conviction and where does it come from? - Brian Donohue & Michelle Fitzpatrick @ Intercom Apr 30, 2018

And the podcast for / by product people is on a roll, with episode four of Product to Product‘s second season!

As we continue to explore the human side of product this season, we have not one, but two awesome product people on this episode sharing their real-world stories of navigating the human-related aspects of the product space. This episodes features two members of Intercom‘s product team: Director of Product Management, Brian Donohue, and Senior Product Manager, Michelle Fitzpatrick.

Having both joined Intercom back when it was ~30 employees, Brian and Michelle both have plenty of experience making tough, yet successful, product decisions for their users. However, they know that sometimes the data says one thing, while your gut says something else.

So our CEO Latif Nanji interviews the two product veterans about what to do in these ambiguous situations. Can you trust your gut that much to make the right decision for your user? Brian and Michelle explain how a PM can “build their own gut“—or what they refer to as product conviction—so that they can make confident gut-based decisions in unclear scenarios.

You can subscribe to Product to Product on iTunes, Google Play or Spotify, or get the latest episodes delivered to your inbox by subscribing here.

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Changing human behaviours, one AI bot at a time - Sanette Tanaka Sloan @ Vox Media Apr 17, 2018

And we’re at episode three of Product to Product‘s second season, a podcast for / by product people!

As we continue to study the human side of product, this episode shares a unique spin on the real-world stories of navigating the human-related aspects of the product space. Our featured guest is Sanette Tanaka Sloan, Senior Product Designer at Vox Media. (Our first product designer on the podcast! 🙌)

In 2016, Sanette joined Vox Media as the design lead for their first ever innovation team. One of the first big projects she was tasked with was designing a voice bot for the Amazon Echo. The project’s mandate: change the way Vox Media’s audience was finding and consuming their news stories.

Stepping into this “innovator” design role, Sanette picked up a whole lot while designing an “invisible” AI interface. She experienced first-hand how thoughtful AI product design can ultimately have an impact on “human” behaviours. So, Sanette gets real with our colleague Eleni about how to use product design to ultimately influence audience actions.

You can subscribe to Product to Product on iTunes, Google Play or Spotify, or get the latest episodes delivered to your inbox by subscribing here.

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Personas & JTBD: Getting to know your users better - Mike Belsito & Michael Sacca @ Rocketship.FM Apr 11, 2018

Surprise! It’s a bonus episode of Product to Product‘s second season, a podcast for / by product people!

As we continue to explore the human side of product this season, we’ve paired up with Mike Belsitoand Michael Sacca (same first name!), the hosts of Rocketship.FM, for this episode.

Rocketship is a podcast that dives into everything from product to growth, design to management and everything in between. This past season on Rocketship, the entire season was devoted to product and growth. And one of the topics Mike and Michael did a deep-dive into were the tools product people apply to understand their users better—specifically user personas and jobs to be done.

Since Mike and Michael did so much research on the topics, and interviewed a bunch of people using these frameworks, they shared their insights into what they learned from the episodes. Our colleague, Eleni, picked their brains on what differentiates these two frameworks, how to apply these concepts, and why jobs to be done has become the popular tool on the block.

You can subscribe to Product to Product on iTunes, Google Play or Spotify, or get the latest episodes delivered to your inbox by subscribing here.

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To think, or not to think, like a product manager - Melissa Perri @ Product Institute & Produx Labs Apr 03, 2018

It’s episode two of Product to Product‘s second season, a podcast for / by product people!

This season we continue to explore the human side of product. Up next to share her real-world, practical stories of navigating the human-related aspects of the product space is Melissa Perri, CEO and founder of Product Institute and Produx Labs.

As a product consultant and founder of a product school, Melissa has trained over 2,000 PMs across her career. And her mission has always been clear-cut: teach people how to effectively think like a product manager.

Seeing as product thinking is a unique skill in itself, our CEO, Latif Nanji, sits down with Melissa to investigate what it means to think (and not think) like a PM, what fuels product thinking and how aspiring / existing PMs can learn this abstract skillset.

You can subscribe to Product to Product on iTunes, Google Play or Spotify, or get the latest episodes delivered to your inbox by subscribing here.

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Taking care of your product team's well-being – Lulu Cheng @ Pinterest Mar 19, 2018

Welcome to the first episode of season two of Product to Product, a podcast for / by product people!

For our second season we’ve decided to shake things up. This season, each episode will focus on a specific theme: the human side of product.

We’ll be having candid convos with product people who will be sharing real-world, practical stories of navigating the human-related aspects of the product space. That means we’ll discuss topics like handling tricky relationships with non-technical team members, how to effectively think like a product manger, and how to disrupt human behaviour with human-centered AI design (just to name a few topics!).

For our first episode of the season we’re joined by Lulu Cheng, product manager on the Discovery team at Pinterest. When Lulu first joined Pinterest in 2015, her primary objective was to ship quickly and hit her KPIs. But as she got more comfortable in her role—and the product space—she realized she wasn’t really asking her team, “How are you doing?”

So she made it a personal priority to focus on her team’s “wellness.” Was her team motivated? How was team morale? How are they handling the stress that comes with the role? She realized healthy team members = better team performance = a better product.

So Lulu spoke to Roadmunk's Eleni Deacon about concrete and proactive steps she takes to put her team’s well-being front and centre. Plus: what does this focus on team wellness ultimately mean for her team’s overall performance and product strategy.

You can subscribe to Product to Product on iTunes, Google Play or Spotify, or get the latest episodes delivered to your inbox by subscribing here.

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How a 'free forever' product can = rapid revenue growth – Marc von Brockdorff @ Hotjar Dec 21, 2017

The latest episode of Product to Product, a podcast for / by product people, is here. We spoke to Marc von Brockdorff, co-founder + engineering director of Hotjar.

Hotjar is on a mission to democratize user data and feedback by making their analytics platform accessible to everyone—no matter how small their website.

They’re a startup success story that you don’t hear too often. They’re based in Malta, a tiny island in the Mediterranean, and in 30 months, they bootstrapped their way to over 200,000 users and $10 million in annual revenue.

An integral part of their success is their freemium pricing model. Their free forever plan makes it possible for anyone to use Hotjar without ever paying a cent.

Roadmunk’s Eleni Deacon spoke to Marc to found out why they decided to build a free forever plan, how it impacts product decisions and how it contributed to their rapid revenue growth.

You can subscribe to Product to Product on iTunes, Google Play or Spotify, or get the latest episodes delivered to your inbox by subscribing here.

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How a PM career preps you to be an early-stage startup founder – Ellen Chisa @ A new startup Dec 07, 2017

This is the latest episode of Product to Product—a product management podcast for / by product people.

We’re joined by Ellen Chisa. You may know her as the VP of Product at Lola, a former product manager at Kickstarter, or as a previous PM at Microsoft. Most recently, Ellen left Lola to launch her own startup that will make it possible to build a complete scalable app in an afternoon. She’s essentially creating a brand new programming language that aims to bring the ability to write software to a billion people. While her startup is still in very early stages, Ellen is completely in founder mode.

Our CEO, Latif Nanji, has first-hand experience with the PM-to-startup founder journey. So we thought, who better to chat with Ellen about how a role in product can prepare you to be an early-stage startup founder? With an increasing number of PMs starting their own companies, the two entrepreneurial PMs discuss how you can apply your PM experience as an early-stage founder. Plus: they determine whether product is actually the right field to be in when starting your own company.

You can subscribe to Product to Product on iTunes, Google Play or Spotify, or get the latest episodes delivered to your inbox by subscribing here.

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What is "PM culture?" – Aman Manik @ Square Nov 23, 2017

This episode features Aman Manik, a product manager at Square. He’s been a part of Square’s product team since 2015 when Fastbite, the company he co-founded, was acquired.

As Aman was getting ramped up at Square, he noticed that the PMs he was working with all came from different backgrounds and had varying perspectives on what the role of a PM should be within an organization. So, he decided to get them all together to come up with a singular definition of what it means to be part of their product team. And they created what Aman calls a PM culture guide.

Aman spoke to Nick, our own product manager at Roadmunk, about the guide (the process of making it, how it’s used, the feedback it received, and how other teams can benefit from the same exercise.)

You can subscribe to Product to Product on iTunes, Google Play or Spotify, or get the latest episodes delivered to your inbox by subscribing here.

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Why PMs need to be great writers – Evan Michner @ Atlassian Nov 09, 2017

Welcome to our third episode of Product to Product—a podcast for / by product people.

In this episode we have Evan Michner, Principal Product Manager at Atlassian—specifically for their chat tools, Stride and HipChat. Evan is one of those product managers who, as he describes it, stumbled into product. He went to school for creative writing and started his career in ad copywriting. After a few years of feeling meh about copywriting, he got invited to do “product-y stuff” for a new startup. Despite not fully understanding what that meant, he said, “Sure, why not?” and his career as a PM launched from there.

My colleague Eleni, who’s also a former-writer, was curious about Evan’s transition from writing flashy headlines to working in product at a massive tech company. But more specifically, how he applies his creative background and writing skills in his day-to-day at Atlassian.

With such a need for product managers to be ‘world-class communicators,’ Eleni and Evan’s chat makes the case for why writing isn’t just a nice-to-have soft skill for PMs, but a necessary tool for them. Plus: Evan’s experiences offer some concrete ways for PMs to keep scratching any creative itches they may experience.

You can subscribe to Product to Product on iTunes, Google Play or Spotify, or get the latest episodes delivered to your inbox by subscribing here.

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Burndown framework: An alternative to scrum – Matt Bilotti @ Drift Oct 26, 2017

Welcome to the second episode of Product to Product, a podcast for / by product people.

This episode features Matt Bilotti, product manager at Drift. Matt recently co-authored an ebook with Drift’s CEO, David Cancel, called “Burndown: A better way to build products.” The ebook explores the Burndown framework that Drift’s product team has adopted for product development.

But what is Burndown? Think of Burndown as a more iterative and flexible version of agile that’s heavily influenced by user feedback. Comprising of smaller releases and shorter sprints (i.e. micro-sprints), Burndown helps product teams make better decisions driven by user feedback because, unlike your traditional scrum and agile sprints, micro-sprints can change practically anytime based on incoming data and feedback the team receives.

According to Drift’s ebook, not only has the company perfected Burndown, but switching over to the framework has resulted in a 5x increase in revenue. So our CEO Latif picked Matt’s brain on how the framework compares to agile, some common pain points and challenges, and how Burndown feeds into Drift’s customer-first approach to products.

You can subscribe to Product to Product on iTunes, Google Play or Spotify, or get the latest episodes delivered to your inbox by subscribing here.

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Making smarter decisions with machine learning – Inga Chen @ Squarespace Oct 11, 2017

Welcome to the very first episode of Product to Product, Roadmunk’s brand new podcast! 🎉

For context: As a company that builds roadmapping software for product people, we’re immersed in the product community. We’ve seen how helpful product people are when it comes to helping their peers. They’re open to sharing their own experiences of working in product (both the good and the bad) in very honest ways—and they’re very generous with advice.

The candid conversations that are happening in product communities online make for excellent podcast material. So, we decided to start one. Product to Productwill feature two product people talking about one product-specific topic—like applying machine learning to the right problems and building a healthy PM culture (and what “PM culture” is). We have really cool episodes coming up with product managers, designers, marketers and engineers.

This episode features Inga Chen, a product manager at Squarespace. Inga manages the team responsible for Squarespace’s analytics platform—which their clients rely on to get data-driven insights about their websites and e-commerce stores.

Machine learning is a passion of Inga’s—and she’s specifically interested in helping other product teams build machine learning models that solve real problems for end users. Inga spoke to my colleague Eleni Deacon about how product teams can properly prepare for machine learning, gathering user feedback and what to do when a model fails.

You can subscribe to Product to Product on iTunes, Google Play or Spotify, or get the latest episodes delivered to your inbox by subscribing here.

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Product to Product: A sneak peek Oct 05, 2017

At Roadmunk, we build a product for product people; and as part of the product community, we’ve seen how open product people are to helping their peers. They share their own experiences of working in product, both the good and the bad, in very honest ways. We decided to take the candid conversations that are happening in product communities on Reddit and Slack and Medium – and turn them into a podcast.

Product to Product episodes will be released every other Thursday, and we have really cool interviews coming up with product managers, designers, marketers and the odd engineer, too.

You can subscribe to Product to Product on iTunes, Google Play or Spotify, or get the latest episodes delivered to your inbox by subscribing here.

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