MIT engineer and Radical Product Thinking author Radhika Dutt joins me to unpack why goal-chasing, KPIs, and efficiency culture are breaking our creativity, intuition, and leadership. We talk about product vision, innovation, AI’s impact on humanity, burnout, and how curiosity and reflection create better teams, better products, and a more meaningful life.

Radhika Dutt is the author of Radical Product Thinking: The New Mindset for Innovating Smarter which has been translated into Chinese and Japanese. The methodology she introduced in her first book is now used in over 40 countries. She is an entrepreneur, speaker, and product leader who has participated in five acquisitions, two of which were companies that she founded. She is currently Advisor on Product Thinking to the Monetary Authority of Singapore (Singapore’s central bank and financial regulator), and does consulting and training for organizations ranging from high-tech startups to multinationals on building radical products that create a fundamental change. Radhika has built products in a wide range of industries including broadcast, media and entertainment, telecom, advertising technology, government, consumer apps, robotics, and even wine. She graduated from MIT with an SB and M.Eng in Electrical Engineering, and speaks nine languages.

Radhika is now working on her second book – it’s about why goals and targets backfire and what actually works.

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction to Engineering and Entrepreneurship

03:40 The Challenges of Founder Mode

06:31 The Importance of Vision Statements

09:19 Radical Product Thinking and Authenticity

11:47 Balancing Personal Vision and Survival

13:44 The Toxic Drive of Being the Best

16:22 Soul Surplus vs. Soul Debt

19:10 Curiosity in Problem Solving

28:59 Curiosity-Driven Problem Solving

33:38 The Shift from Evaluation to Development

38:35 Intuition vs. Intellect in Leadership

44:04 The Dangers of AI and Commoditization of Labor

47:12 Human Connection in a Tech-Driven World

55:08 Reflection as a Tool for Change

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