Better Product

Does product lead marketing or does marketing lead product? This is the question we set out to answer on this episode with Kyle Lacy, VP of Marketing at Lessonly.

Outside of exploring this question, you’ll learn how Kyle launched the brand’s first user conference that didn’t feel like a user conference, and how they doubled down on their brand messaging while making sure the company never lost the voice of its founder - Max Yoder.

In this episode, you’ll learn why Lessonly’s do-better work position is consistent through their product brand, messaging and product experience.

You’ll also hear how this business-to-business product company refocused its brand message with an emphasis on connecting with its audience on a human level.

• Learn more about Lessonly
• Learn more about Kyle
• Connect with Kyle
• Connect with Christian
• Connect with Anna
• Learn more about Innovatemap

To register for the speaker series visit betterproduct.community/speaker-series

How do you connect the importance of brand to an early stage company?  For Emily St. Denis, Head of Platform at Female Founders Fund, this is a conversation worth having representing both a venture capital fund and startup founder.

As part of the series on Product Brand, Christian and Anna dig into why brand is an important differentiator, and how it can provide a competitive advantage. You’ll learn the perspective she has when evaluating brands to join the portfolio while also hearing her own brand journey with the Female Founders Fund. 

To engage more with the Better Product community, join our speaker series. It’s five weeks featuring five speakers with countless product insights starting October 28th. You can register by going to betterproduct.community/speaker-series. 

Additional Resources Featured: - See the article from Emily that got our attention, check out the Female Founders Fund blog.  https://blog.femalefoundersfund.com/why-brand-matters-in-vc-7c7cf2f4f380?gi=8a3862ca052c -

-If you’re looking for another podcast, check out The Two Percent by the Female Founders Fund to hear from powerful CEO’s, founders, investors and industry leaders who are changing the dynamic of VC funding, both as female founders and female funders.

Product-led growth is a rising strategy for tech companies around the world. Yet many product leaders and practitioners have many questions around how to make decisions, how teams are structured, and what other companies are doing. This episode, we are featuring Prianka Rayamajhi and Lindsay Mindler leaders on the Growth Design Team at Pinterest. Go behind the scenes getting a glimpse into how a company like Pinterest is able to use its product supporting both consumers and businesses. One thing to note is how they use a product-led growth strategy to focus on the user experience. Join us for next week’s episode in the series featuring Cem Kansu of Duolingo. In the meantime, get connected to the community to learn more about product-led growth:  https://betterproduct.community/.

To register for the speaker series visit betterproduct.community/speaker-series

Imagine a world where there is no bias in the news we consume. For founders Priyanka Vazirani and Shannon Almeida of Volv Media, this is a reality they are creating. 

As part of the series on Product Brand, Christian and Anna take a deep dive into how this Millennial news app is built while sharing the critical role brand plays in its growth. 

To engage more with the Better Product community, join the upcoming speaker series. It’s five weeks featuring five speakers with countless product insights starting October 28th. You can register by going to betterproduct.community/speaker-series. 

Adam Fry-Pierce, Director of Design Community and Curator of the Design Leadership Forum at InVision, previously shared what they consider to be the 3 P’s that guide their view of community. InVision’s VP of Partnerships and Community, Mike Davidson, joins the conversation to share how these principles look when put into action. For the team at InVision, community means creating a better product while also creating a stronger community for designers everywhere. Listen in to hear how efforts like the Design Leadership Forum and DesignBetter Co are helping InVision’s community of designers grow and evolve in unexpected and exciting ways.

To register for the speaker series visit betterproduct.community/speaker-series

What does it take to design a brand with efficiency in mind? Adam Stoddard joins the Product Brand series sharing how he leverages standards and design systems to scale brand efforts. 

Adam is the Designer at Basecamp responsible for the entire design of the Basecamp website, and the new HEY app, an innovative approach to email. In the conversation with Adam, listen as he shares the types of things to look for when designing with efficiency in mind.

To engage more with the Better Product community, join the upcoming speaker series. It’s five weeks featuring five speakers with countless product insights starting October 28th. You can register by going to betterproduct.community/speaker-series.

To hear more from Adam or Basecamp, check out their Rework Podcast.

How do you infuse brand into a product when often those teams responsible work separately? For our guest, it starts by finding ways to bring the two practices together.

Currently, Jonathan (Jon) Howell is the Brand Experience Design Lead at Robinhood. During this episode, Jon was the Brand Experience Designer for Lyft. Before Lyft, he was with other notable brands such as Twitch and SurveyMonkey.  

No matter his role, throughout his career, he has worked to connect product and brand. In this episode, you’ll hear how he achieved this at Lyft while sharing what it takes to create brand experiences that are both emotional moments and memorable throughout the product. To engage more with the Better Product community, join the upcoming speaker series. It’s  five weeks featuring five speakers with countless product insights starting October 28th. You can register by going to  betterproduct.community/speaker-series.

In this episode of Better Product LAUNCH, Christian and Anna sit down with the Co-founder of Podchaser, Cole Raven. Podchaser is a user-generated online database for podcasts with features for discovery, ratings, reviews, creator credits, playlists, and more. 

Cole’s journey with Podchaser is unique because the platform didn’t start as a business idea. He and his co-founders saw a need for data in the podcast industry and began building what has become the IMDB of the podcast world. As Cole shares his story, you’ll hear how he’s tackled the challenges of a pre-revenue product and explored new ways to leverage Podchaser’s unique position in the industry.

What do you think users think about your product? Their opinion may have more to do with its look and feel than its functionality. 

As we kick off our new series on product brand, Andy Kennedy, Principal Brand Partner at Innovatemap, joins the show helping to define product brand and discussing its influences on the perception of your product.

To learn more and connect with other product professionals you can join the conversation at betterproduct.community.

In this episode of Better Product LAUNCH, Christian and Anna sit down with the Co-founder of LEON, Bryan Smith. Leon is a corporate wellness platform that focuses on creating a world where work empowers a healthier life.

On the surface, LEON is about employee engagement, but, unlike other engagement companies, Bryan and his team take a preventative approach to wellness in the workplace. As Bryan shares his story, you’ll hear how they bring a human-oriented perspective to a very data-driven field.