Build with Maggie Crowley

Marty Cagan is often referred to as the most influential person in the product space. He got his start building products for eBay, AOL and Netscape Communications, and Hewlett-Packard. Now he's a partner at Silicon Valley Product Group where he helps companies create winning product strategies and grow their product organization. Oh, and it just so happens that Marty has been a longtime role model for Build’s host, Maggie Crowley.

So in this episode, Maggie and Marty sit down for an epic discussion of all things product management. Some of the topics they cover are: how to really build cross-functional teams, why companies don’t actually operate like their role models, and the real difference between discovery and delivery. And that barely scratches the surface. Want to hear the one piece of advice Marty gives to product managers? Listen to the full episode.

On this episode of Build, Maggie and special guest Alexa Nguyen from the Drift product team talk about what happens after you write a one pager. At Drift, 'story time' is the next step in the product development cycle. It's where product managers, engineers, and designers get together in one room to outline the problem they're solving and identify any open questions. So the goal of the meeting isn't about coming up with a solution to the problem – it's about empathizing with the user and then creating a list of questions you want to answer afterwards. Want to know Maggie and Alexa's three steps to a successful story time? Listen to the full episode.

On this episode of Build, Maggie sits down with Brittany Davis and Bryan Landers from Backstage Capital. Maggie's been in product for a while, and one thing she hears over and over from her peers is that they want to start their own project. So she decided to bring in Brittany and Bryan – two VC pros who are actually out there evaluating and funding startups – to see what their advice is on what makes for a good startup.

On this episode of Build, Maggie sits down with Tomer London – the co-founder and head of product at Gusto. Maggie and Tomer talk about how to build products that delight customers and how to track and measure delight in a world where metrics reign supreme. Tomer also shares the four pillars of product development that guide his team’s work at Gusto. This one is a must-listen for product managers who want to reduce friction and create more delightful moments for customers.

On this episode of Build, Maggie and special guest Daphne Funston from the Drift product team tackle the number one question from listeners: what's a one pager and how can I use it to build better products? Maggie and Daphne talk about how one pagers are deceptively simple, yet when done well, they can be a powerful tool for PMs to frame, scope, and communicate a customer problem to engineering and leadership teams. Tune into learn about the six sections that make up a one pager and how Maggie and Daphne use the one pager in their roles at Drift.

Today on Build, Maggie sits down with Ellen Chisa, CEO and co-founder of Dark, which is making it possible to build an app in a single afternoon. Maggie and Ellen talk through her journey from PM to product leader to founder & CEO. Plus her years of experience at Microsoft, Kickstarter, Lola.com and now her latest venture, Dark. Also on Build, learn how to set up a product team and listen to what Ellen’s reading now, from fiction to the best reads for product leaders.

Today on Build, Maggie sits down with Justin Dilley, Head of Product at FullStory, a customer experience data platform. Before he joined FullStory, Justin jumped into the world of product management after business school first at Amazon where he worked on their payments and Kindle teams. Then it was back to the east coast where he joined Home Depot’s mobile team before making the move to FullStory.

Together Maggie and Justin discuss the “why” behind what we build as product people and how to organize your product team for success. Tune in to the full episode.

Today on Build, host Maggie Crowley chats live in the Seeking Wisdom studio with Acquia’s SVP Products, Matt Kaplan. Matt was previously CPO and GM, Emerging Products at LogMeIn. Now at Acquia, he heads up product strategy, management and design across their digital experience platform. And, fun fact, he was on MIT’s gymnastic team back in the day.

Together Maggie and Matt chat through how great products are like great stories. Specifically, what makes a great story, untangling the relationship between stories and products and how to help your team get better at storytelling.

On this episode of Build, host Maggie Crowley chats with Rahul Vohra, founder & CEO of Superhuman. Rahul is also the founder of beloved Gmail plugin Rapportive. Shortly after its founding, the company was acquired by LinkedIn where Rahul ran email integrations. During those years, he developed an intimate perspective of the email space – and its many problems.

Enter Superhuman, Rahul's current company, built to be the fastest email experience ever made.

Together they discuss how to measure product market fit, the problem with email today and much more. Be sure to tune in to hear from Maggie and Rahul.

On this episode of Build, host Maggie Crowley dives deep into conversation design with Google's Head of Conversation Design Outreach, Cathy Pearl.

So what is conversation design exactly? Think teaching computers to communicate like humans (not robots) across voice interfaces and via typing, swiping and tapping. Cathy shares why now is the time to invest in conversation design and where and how to get started. Tune in for more from Maggie and Cathy.

Before you go leave a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review and share the pod with your friends! Be sure to check out more insights on the Drift blog at drift.com/blog and find us on Twitter @maggiecrowley, @drift, @seekingwisdomio and @cpearl42.

You can get more details on this episode at drift.com/blog/conversation-design/