In this episode, we chat with Jose Moreno, former lead engineer at both Netflix and Microsoft, about the key differences in company culture between the two tech giants and what they’re doing right to foster high-performing teams. From Netflix’s bold “keeper test” to Microsoft’s evolving leadership styles under Steve Ballmer and Satya Nadella, Jose offers an insider’s view on how these companies build and sustain success through intentional culture. He also explains how the Netflix culture deck—a key factor in his decision to join the company—helped shape the business, even amid concerns about its Glassdoor reviews.

Jose discusses how he’s applying lessons learned from these top companies to his own startup, Neulight, including building a culture of autonomy, accountability, and employee empowerment. We also touch on Netflix’s controversial decision to crack down on password sharing, which Jose helped lead, and how that move was carefully designed to protect the user experience while driving business growth.

Unlock the full potential of your product team with Integral's player coaches, experts in lean, human-centered design. Visit integral.io/convergence for a free Product Success Lab workshop to gain clarity and confidence in tackling any product design or engineering challenge.

Inside the episode...

• The culture contrasts between Netflix and Microsoft: what top tech companies are doing right
• How the Netflix culture deck influenced Jose’s decision to join the company
• What is the “keeper test” and how does it help retain top talent?
• The role of leadership in shaping company culture at Microsoft under Ballmer and Nadella
• How Jose is integrating these lessons into his new startup, Neulight
• Behind the scenes of Netflix's decision to end password sharing

Mentioned in this episode:

• The Netflix culture deck is now a webpage here https://jobs.netflix.com/culture. For those curious, here's a previous iteration of the actual "deck" - https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/culture-1798664/1798664

If you've worked closely with a product team, chances are that secret management has been a topic that you've had to wrangle with at some point. Either because your development or deployment teams don't have access to the right secrets, and that slows down how quickly you can get your code to production or worse because your secrets were exposed to the public and put your data and your customer's data at risk through a data breach.

In this episode of the Convergence Podcast, Ashok welcomes Brian Vallelunga, CEO of Doppler, to discuss the too-often overlooked topic of secret management in software development. 

Before founding Doppler in 2018, Brian was a lead engineer at Uber, where he worked on special projects for the C-suite. Doppler is a secret office platform backed by industry heavy hitting venture capitalists like CRV, Google Ventures, Sequoia, Greylock, Kleiner Perkins and they're also a Y Combinator company.

Brian shares insights on why development teams frequently struggle with managing secrets like API keys and database credentials, and he explains the far-reaching consequences of poor product security—ranging from data breaches to production slowdowns. Brian also discusses the importance of proactively training teams and developing secure workflows, providing real-life examples of high-profile data breaches at companies like Twitter and Toyota.

Brian outlines 4 essential questions executives and senior engineers should ask to safeguard their systems. From developing playbooks for responding to breaches to ensuring secret rotation, this episode is packed with actionable advice for both technical and non-technical leaders.

Unlock the full potential of your product team with Integral's player coaches, experts in lean, human-centered design. Visit integral.io/convergence for a free Product Success Lab workshop to gain clarity and confidence in tackling any product design or engineering challenge.

Inside the episode...

• What secrets are and why they are critical in software development
• The challenges of secret management for both small startups and large companies
• High-profile data breaches at Twitter and Toyota and how they happened
• Key questions every executive and engineer should ask about secret management
• Proactive steps to train your team and secure your codebase
• How to clean up exposed secrets and prevent future mistakes
• Best practices for rotating secrets and monitoring security

Mentioned in this episode

• Doppler (Secret management platform)
• AWS Secrets Manager
• Google Cloud Platform (GCP) Secrets Manager
• HashiCorp Vault
• Toyota and Twitter data breaches

Subscribe to the Convergence podcast wherever you get podcasts including video episodes on YouTube at youtube.com/@convergencefmpodcast.

Learn something? Give us a 5-star review and like the podcast on YouTube. It's how we grow!

In this episode, Ashok sits down with Josh Seiden, author and product management expert, to explore key insights from Josh's latest book, "Who Does What by How Much." The conversation centers around using OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) to align teams and improve organizational outcomes. They examine the challenges many teams face when implementing frameworks like OKRs or Agile and emphasize the importance of understanding the "why" behind these systems. Josh also reflects on his early work, such as developing the Kensington Turbo Mouse and collaborating with Alan Cooper, widely known as the "Father of Visual Basic."

Unlock the full potential of your product team with Integral's player coaches, experts in lean, human-centered design. Visit integral.io/convergence for a free Product Success Lab workshop to gain clarity and confidence in tackling any product design or engineering challenge.

Get key strategies for fostering a customer-centric culture, building effective product teams, and aligning leadership with team goals. Whether you’re new to OKRs or looking to refine your process, this episode provides actionable advice for team leaders, product managers, and executives alike.

Inside the Episode...

• The role of OKRs in driving business alignment and outcomes
• The importance of clarifying the "why" behind processes like OKRs or Agile
• Josh Seiden’s background and his early design work with the Kensington Turbo Mouse
• Strategies for using frameworks to empower teams and avoid over-focusing on the process
• How to implement OKRs successfully and avoid common pitfalls
• The evolution of design thinking in product development
• Understanding the customer’s role at every level of an organization
• Key lessons from "Who Does What by How Much" and Josh's other books

Mentioned in this Episode:

• "Who Does What by How Much" by Josh Seiden and Jeff Gothelf
• "Lean UX" by Josh Seiden and Jeff Gothelf
• "Sense and Respond" by Josh Seiden and Jeff Gothelf
• The Goal by Eliyahu M. Goldratt
• "Outcomes Over Outputs"
• The Kensington Turbo Mouse
• Alan Cooper - The father of visual basic, author of About Face
• Book that every software designer should now - About Face by Alan Cooper
• Vitsoe Shelving

Subscribe to the Convergence podcast wherever you get podcasts, including video episodes on YouTube at youtube.com/@convergencefmpodcast.

Learn something? Give us a 5-star review and like the podcast on YouTube. It's how we grow.

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Product Expert Christoph Steinlehner joins Ashok on the Convergence Podcast to explore the transformative power of visualization in product management. Christoph shares his journey from web design and development to product coaching, where he helps teams align through tools like service blueprints and his innovative "mapper method." This episode is packed with insights on using rough sketches to foster better team collaboration and elevate product success. Learn how to avoid common pitfalls in visualization and the value of simplicity when creating visual aids.

Unlock the full potential of your product team with Integral's player coaches, experts in lean, human-centered design. Visit integral.io/convergence for a free Product Success Lab workshop to gain clarity and confidence in tackling any product design or engineering challenge.

Inside the episode...

• Christoph’s career journey from design to product coaching

• Why service blueprints are a game-changer for product teams

• The "mapper method" and how it helps teams collaborate better

• The importance of rough, unfinished sketches in the feedback process

• Best practices for online collaboration using virtual whiteboards

• Tools and methods for aligning product teams around a shared vision

• How visualizations foster stronger, more productive team discussions

• The role of service blueprints in connecting customer journeys to business processes

Mentioned in this episode:

• Christoph Steinlehner's Substack Mapper Club

• Virtual whiteboards (Miro, Mural)

• Todoist app

Subscribe to the Convergence podcast wherever you get podcasts, including video episodes on YouTube at youtube.com/@convergencefmpodcast.

Learn something? Give us a 5-star review and like the podcast on YouTube. It's how we grow.

In this episode of the Convergence podcast, host Ashok Sivanand sits down with Wes Beary from Anchor.dev. Wes shares his journey, from helping shape Heroku’s engineering culture to his work today in API design and encryption as a service. Discover how Wes' experience at Heroku and his open-source contributions have shaped his views on building delightful developer experiences and empowering engineering teams. He also talks about the importance of uniformity in API design, fostering a strong engineering culture, and scaling development teams while preserving their core strengths.

Unlock the full potential of your product team with Integral's player coaches, experts in lean, human-centered design. Visit integral.io/convergence for a free Product Success Lab workshop to gain clarity and confidence in tackling any product design or engineering challenge.

Inside the episode:

• Wes Beary’s transition from game development to cloud infrastructure and open-source contributions
• The creation of Heroku’s command-line interface (CLI) and API development process
• Best practices in API design and the importance of consistency for developers
• Insights into fostering engineering culture and maintaining it as teams grow
• The role of Anchor.dev in simplifying encryption for engineering teams without dedicated security resources
• Lessons from Heroku’s rise to success and what makes a platform as a service valuable
• Balancing innovation, team culture, and enabling versus gatekeeping in engineering organizations

Mentioned in this episode:

• Anchor.dev – Get started with Anchor.dev at https://lcl.host/
• Heroku – Platform as a service, acquired by Salesforce
• Kobo Readers
• Fog – Wes Beary's open-source project for cloud API integration

Subscribe to the Convergence podcast wherever you get podcasts including video episodes to get updated on the other crucial conversations that we'll post on YouTube at youtube.com/@convergencefmpodcast

Learn something? Give us a 5 star review and like the podcast on YouTube. It's how we grow.  

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Are you optimizing your product's architecture for certainty or flexibility? Discover why this distinction matters for your team's success.

In this episode of the Convergence podcast, host Ashok Sivanand reveals the fifth critical conversation that product teams often overlook: the technology landscape. Drawing from his extensive experience in product engineering and consulting, Ashok emphasizes the importance of aligning technical and business perspectives to minimize surprises and optimize product development.

Plus! Ashok answers a listener question about applying these conversations to established products. 

Ashok explores key aspects of the technology landscape, including integrations and dependencies, architecture considerations, performance expectations, and testing principles. He discusses how to balance innovation with practicality, and how to make informed decisions about scalability, reliability, and security based on your product's specific needs and market position.

Download the 9 Critical Conversations for Healthy Product Teams E-Book: https://integral.io/conversations

Check out the episode with a summary of all 9 conversations here: https://youtu.be/Y3NpwoFFfOs?si=enhI_mGZyDTABg6Z

In this episode:

• The importance of discussing integrations and dependencies early in the development process
• Architecting for certainty vs. uncertainty in product development
• Balancing performance expectations with pragmatic development approaches
• Considerations for tool sets, languages, and frameworks in team composition
• Navigating legacy code bases and their impact on development timelines
• Defining target devices and compatibility for mobile applications
• Establishing appropriate testing principles based on product maturity

Unlock the full potential of your product team with Integral's player coaches, experts in lean, human-centered design. Visit integral.io/convergence for a free Product Success Lab workshop to gain clarity and confidence in tackling any product design or engineering challenge.

Subscribe to the Convergence podcast wherever you get podcasts including video episodes to get updated on the other crucial conversations that we'll post on YouTube at youtube.com/@convergencefmpodcast

Learn something? Give us a 5 star review and like the podcast on YouTube. It's how we grow.  

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Is it even possible anymore for established companies to innovate like startups while leveraging their existing strengths? Today's guest certainly thinks so and he has the product story to back it up.

Ben Brown, CTO of Canopy, shares his journey of spinning out a hardware+software startup from Ford Motor Company and launching an innovative truck security product in just 18 months. Canopy helps secure precious cargo in pickup truck beds - a huge problem for tradespeople who carry expensive tools and equipment as they commute between jobs. Ben discusses balancing startup agility with automotive industry rigor, rapidly iterating on hardware prototypes, and using customer research to drive product decisions.

We explore how Canopy went from idea to launch in 18 months - particularly impressive for a product combining hardware, software, and AI/ML models, while complying with stringent automotive and FCC requirements.

In this episode:

• Canopy's journey from Ford spinout to standalone startup
• Challenges of hardware development timelines and component sourcing
• Importance of customer research and beta testing
• Organizing cross-functional teams across hardware, software, and AI
• Using AI and generative models to accelerate development
• Balancing startup speed with automotive industry standards
• Lessons from rapidly prototyping and iterating on hardware
• Leveraging Ford's resources while maintaining startup flexibility

Unlock the full potential of your product team with Integral's player coaches, experts in lean, human-centered design. Visit integral.io/convergence for a free Product Success Lab workshop to gain clarity and confidence in tackling any product design or engineering challenge.

Products and Services mentioned in this episode:

• Whoop fitness tracker
• Canopy Pickup Cam
• Home Assistant
• Sense home energy monitor
• Husqvarna robotic lawn mower
• Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick

Subscribe to the Convergence podcast wherever you get podcasts including video episodes to get updated on the other crucial conversations that we'll post on YouTube at youtube.com/@convergencefmpodcast

Learn something? Give us a 5 star review and like the podcast on YouTube. It's how we grow.

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Samar Abbas, co-founder and CTO of Temporal, shares his journey from working on developer tools at tech giants like Microsoft, Amazon, and Uber to co-founding a startup that raised $220 million. Abbas discusses how Temporal, born from the open-source project Cadence at Uber, solves critical reliability challenges for developers building distributed applications.

This episode explores the evolution from an internal tool to a thriving open-source project, and finally to a successful commercial product. Abbas offers valuable insights on finding the right co-founder, the benefits of open-source for infrastructure projects, and how to navigate the transition from engineering to entrepreneurship.

Unlock the full potential of your product team with Integral's player coaches, experts in lean, human-centered design. Visit integral.io/convergence for a free Product Success Lab workshop to gain clarity and confidence in tackling any product design or engineering challenge.

Inside the episode: • The origins of Temporal and its predecessor, Cadence, at Uber • How Temporal enables durable execution of code and solves reliability challenges • The journey from open source project to founding a company • Insights on finding a complementary co-founder • Evolving roles between co-founders as the company scales • The benefits and considerations of open source for infrastructure projects • Temporal's product roadmap and vision for the future • The importance of iteration and solving real problems in product development

Mentioned in the episode:

• Temporal: The company co-founded by Samar Abbas, offering a platform for building durable applications
• Replay conference: Temporal's annual user conference
• Cadence: The open-source predecessor to Temporal, developed at Uber
• Simple Workflow Service: An AWS product that was an early attempt at solving durable execution challenges
• Durable Task Framework: An open-source library developed by Abbas at Microsoft Azure
• Event Hubs: An Azure service for large-scale data ingestion, similar to Apache Kafka
• Kafka: A distributed event streaming platform mentioned in comparison to Event Hubs
• Gong: A conversation intelligence platform that impressed Abbas with its AI integration

Learn something? Give us a 5 star review and like the podcast on YouTube. It's how we grow.  

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In this episode of the Convergence Podcast, host Ashok Sivanand and guest Bailey O'Shea dive deep into the critical role of timelines in product development. They explore how understanding the "why" behind timelines can lead to better stakeholder alignment, feature prioritization, and overall product success.

Bailey O'Shea, drawing from her experience as a former Head of Product at Integral, shares valuable insights on balancing specificity in timelines with transparent communication about uncertainties and risks. The conversation covers strategies for effective timeline management, stakeholder trust-building, and adapting to various organizational contexts.

Unlock the full potential of your product team with Integral's player coaches, experts in lean, human-centered design. Visit integral.io/convergence for a free Product Success Lab workshop to gain clarity and confidence in tackling any product design or engineering challenge.

Inside the episode...

• The importance of understanding the "why" behind timelines
• Strategies for managing stakeholder expectations and building trust
• Using timelines to prioritize features and identify early adopters
• Balancing specific dates with communicating uncertainties
• Tailoring risk communication based on audience
• Adapting timeline approaches for hardware/software products
• Considering investor/funding needs in prioritization
• The role of roadmaps in aligning teams and stakeholders
• Sharing risks and mitigation strategies to invite collaboration

Mentioned in the episode...

• Melissa Perri's Product Thinking podcast
• Brené Brown's work on vulnerability in leadership
• Swagger (API documentation tool)
• Gantt charts
• Waterfall project management

In this episode of the Convergence podcast, host Ashok Sivanand talks with Janice Fraser, a strategic advisor and veteran in Lean Product Management and a facilitator of innovation in large organizations. Janice shares her journey from starting six companies to working at Pivotal and eventually moving towards helping large organizations, such as Procter & Gamble and Nike, embrace lean and agile processes to foster disruptive innovation. She discusses the complexities of driving that innovation in established industries, particularly in relation to sustainability efforts, like Procter & Gamble’s development of a waterless, plastic-free detergent. Janice emphasizes the importance of understanding human behavior and collaboration in creating effective and innovative products.

Janice and Ashok explore the nuances of product management and leadership, focusing on the importance of outcomes over outputs. Janice introduces her book, “Farther, Faster and Far Less Drama,” co-authored with her husband Jason, which outlines four leadership motions to drive successful product outcomes: orienting honestly, valuing outcomes, leveraging team intelligence, and making durable decisions. These principles are essential for navigating the dynamic challenges of modern business environments. The episode is full of insights on how to create collaborative, outcome-driven teams that can adapt to the ever-changing landscape of innovation and business strategy.

Inside this episode...

• Importance of Lean and Agile methodologies in large organizations.
• Janice’s contributions to developing collaborative and customer-centric product management techniques.
• Challenges and strategies for driving innovation in traditional industries
• Forces of Friction in Innovation: identifying and navigating internal and external forces that impede or promote innovation.
• Differentiating between productive and unproductive friction.
• Importance of focusing on outcomes rather than just outputs in product management.
• Four Leadership Motions from Janice’s Book:
  • “Orient Honestly” - Understanding current realities and complications.
  • “Value Outcomes” - Focusing on results rather than specific actions.
  • “Leverage the Brains” - Engaging cross-functional teams to solve problems.
  • “Make Durable Decisions” - Creating decisions that are resilient and effective.

Mentioned in this episode...

• Janice’s book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61494019-farther-faster-and-far-less-drama

• Tide evo: https://tide.com/en-us/our-commitment/tide-evo

• SXSW announcement: https://schedule.sxsw.com/2024/events/OE44886

• Hannah Jones: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannah_Jones_(business)

• Barbara Minto’s SCQA framework: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Minto

• Bain decision making model: https://www.bain.com/insights/rapid-decision-making/ 

• OODA Loop: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OODA_loop

Unlock the full potential of your product team with Integral's player coaches, experts in lean, human-centered design. Visit integral.io/convergence for a free Product Success Lab workshop to gain clarity and confidence in tackling any product design or engineering challenge.

Subscribe to the Convergence podcast wherever you get podcasts including video episodes to get updated on the other crucial conversations that we'll post on YouTube at youtube.com/@convergencefmpodcast

Learn something? Give us a 5 star review and like the podcast on YouTube. It's how we grow.  

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