Better Product

It’s week three of our How to Learn Product series. This episode features Cameron Curry and Yonas Dinkneh, Product Managers at Parlor.io, a feedback app that serves the missing link between product and customer teams. 

In our conversation, they share their perspective on what makes a successful PM, mistakes that can be avoided, and how a passion for this role translates into a long term career. Listen in to hear how they both got started.If you’re looking to connect with other product managers or product professionals in all stages, join the community at betterproduct.community: http://betterproduct.community/.

In week two of our How To Learn Product series, we’re connecting you with Paige Conrad, a Senior Product Manager at Honey. Before Honey, Paige got her start in product management at Twitter and then served as Director of Product Management at Acorns. This episode spans a breadth of product knowledge from her experiences. 

In our conversation with Paige, she shares her strategy for breaking into a career in product management. Listen as she shares her four most significant tips for getting started.

If you’re looking to connect with other product managers or product professionals in all stages, join the community at betterproduct.community: http://betterproduct.community/.

It seems natural to have Carlos González de Villaumbrosia, CEO of Product School, join the first episode of our How to Learn Product series. Carlos is a pioneer in the product space launching the first online school teaching how to become a product manager along with developing a curriculum around the discipline.

In our conversation with Carlos, he shares what the most important skills are for product managers. Having a career in product management is in high demand yet there is no roadmap for becoming a Product Manager. After today’s episode, you’ll learn the basics of this desired role while honing your abilities. 

If you’re looking to connect with other product managers or product professionals in all stages, join the community at betterproduct.community: http://betterproduct.community/.

Product is not a degree you can get in school and is typically learned best by “doing.” It is a hard area to break into, though, because you have to have product experience to get a role, however, you can’t get product experience before your role. And it can get lonelier the higher up you go — knowing what is best for running product teams is always a challenge. 

This is why our next series is focused on ‘how to learn product.’  We heard your questions and we want answers just like you. This series you can expect to go back to school (kind of). We will cover topics ranging from what makes a good product manager to how to actually break into the space. 

If you have specific questions you want to make sure we address on this series or another upcoming one, join our growing community at betterproduct.community.

The product-led growth series was created to help our community understand this strategy in more depth from the term to practical application. This episode wraps up the series by focusing on key takeaways learned from our guests about product-led growth. If you missed any episode from the series, this will give you the opportunity to catch-up while gaining deeper insight. 

Our main three takeaways highlighted in the episode: 

1. Focuses on what product-led growth is as the term itself is often misunderstood. 
2. Product-led growth can work for all different types of businesses. Yet, it's imperative to have the foundational elements in place. 
3. Understand the importance of data and experimentation in a product-led organization. 

Check out the full episode to hear the takeaways broken down by our expert guests.

In the final episode of our product-led growth series, we are featuring Ryan Chan of UpKeep. Often when we hear people talk about product-led growth they talk about it using examples focused primarily on the B2B tech space. Ryan offers a different perspective. 

Upkeep’s mission is to empower maintenance workers to be more productive through the adoption of cloud-based technology. Instead of letting others’ notions around product-led growth drive his decisions, Ryan debunks the myths surrounding it sharing why it has been the right strategy for UpKeep. 

Join us next week as we kick off a new series: How to Learn Product. It’s a topic going unaddressed as there are no roadmaps or degrees for creating, designing, or building a better product. As always, we invite you to join our growing product community to access exclusive resources:  https://betterproduct.community/. 

Typically when we talk about product-led growth it is usually within the context of business to business. To provide a full perspective on this go-to-market strategy is Cem Kansu, Director of Product at Duolingo, a language learning app. 

As you listen to the episode pay attention to a few key takeaways utilizing a/b testing and building product-led growth teams. Regardless of whether your product serves B2C or B2B, understanding this strategy can help you achieve your goals.  Tune in next week to hear from Ryan Chan as he shares his approach to product-led growth for a specialized industry. In the meantime, we invite you to join our growing product community to get more resources on product-led growth and more. https://betterproduct.community/.

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/.

Laura Borghesi refreshes out the Product Led Growth series providing our community with insights on how to lead an organization using two go to market strategies. When she joined MongoDB as the Senior Director of Growth Marketing she brought with her new principles around growth. A big takeaway for listeners is creating alignment across departments by focusing on the same goal. In listening to this episode, be sure to note how MongoDB structures its organization. Laura reports to the Chief Product Officer, which speaks to a common question many of the tech companies here in the Midwest have around the product department’s structure. Next week we’ll be featuring Pinterest to discuss growth teams. In the meantime, if you’re looking for more opportunities to connect with and learn from product leaders join our growing product community:  https://betterproduct.community/. 

We built this podcast as a platform for leaders in the tech community, and we take that responsibility seriously. As a way to use our privilege for change, we added a special episode with Kelli Jones, co-founder of Be Nimble Foundation & Black Hatch Fund, to hear her perspectives on diversity in the tech space.

As an Indianapolis tech connector working to bridge the gap between the Black community and the tech community, Kelli sheds light on what’s creating this gap, what her organization has been doing to address it, and specific actions you can take towards creating long-term change.  Learn more about Be Nimble Co: http://benimbleco.com/Learn more about Black Hatch Fund: https://blackhatchfund.com/If you’re looking for help on affecting change please reach out directly to cohost Christian Beck at [email protected]