Fail Faster

Emmett Wilson is a Senior Product Manager at American Express. Emmett has seen many different sides of AMEX's innovation and R&D world. He takes us to the frontlines of how an influential bank tackles huge problems such as allowing customers to break up big credit card purchases on a payment plan and acquires customers. Emmett shares tips on how to set innovation teams up for success and to ensure they continue being funded. We discuss the importance of different teams working together - legal, compliance, marketing and product to ensure project success and the ways that the divide between product and marketing continues to shrink.

Diana Alvarado is the Global SUV Product Planner at Infiniti Motor Co. where she's working to evolve the vehicle of tomorrow - actually 5 years from tomorrow because that's how far ahead car manufacturers work to launch new vehicles. In this episode, Diana shares how she gained trust in a male-dominated industry and her tips for validating what customers truly want.

Brant Cooper is the NYT best-selling author of The Lean Entrepreneur and CEO of Moves the Needle. In this episode, Brant shares tales of startup crash and burn, and smashes the myth of the born visionary by detailing what it actually takes to be a leader in today's culture of uncertainty, creativity, innovation, and lean methodologies.

Pratik Dhebri is the Head of Digital Products & User Experience, at CBRE the World's largest commercial real estate services and investment firm. He shares how the right information can be a game changer in the dynamic real estate market. He is constantly working to make the user experience more engaging and meaningful for the brokers, CBRE employees, Investors and occupants of the CBRE facilities. His vision is a unified platform that is real time and a single source of truth and trust for the thousands of users who make CBRE the brand it is today.

Mel Reyes is a 30 year veteran of the tech space who most recently served as the VP, IT Enterprise Program Manager for Synchrony financial services. He's been the "cleanup guy" sorting out problems for years and in this episode, he shares his framework for bringing the right mindset to solve the people and the tech side of innovation challenges.

My guest Scott Yelton is the senior director of product management at Windstream enterprise. A fast growing organization providing telecommunication, Network and security managed services to businesses and rural areas across the US. Scott shares about how he drives high user adaptation for the products his team develops. Given no budget constraints he would love to engage his developers to make products that are more immersive, user friendly, easier to navigate and great quality for their consumers.

Rodrigo Silveira is a Director of Engineering at Flexport where he and his team are reimagining and transforming the world of freight forwarding. He shares how he went from building operating systems for machines to creating operating systems for organizations and the challenges that come with that because machines are predictable but people are ever-changing.

Ravi Evani is the Vice President, Engineering & Technology at Sapient which is the digital business transformation hub of Publicis Groupe. He kicked off my 2021 with a lot of great insights, Ravi shares how he sees failures and successes. How to watch out for and handle the common but invisible pitfalls that most orgs face as they prioritize their Digital transformation initiatives. From failures to a vision of a radically easily digitally accelerated future for orgs, there's a lot packed in this episode that you will find valuable.

My guest Priyanka Angadi is a Data Science Manager at PWC cybersecurity team. She shares her passion for Data Science and her exciting journey of 8 years working with diverse data in diverse industries from Pharma to BioTech to Media-tech and now she is ready to get her hands into Cyber security. Curiosity has been her friend throughout her growth, she has gone beyond her role to explore and volunteered to contribute in projects across the org which infused more cross functional knowledge into her job. There is a lot to pick up in this wisdom packed episode.

Pavan Pidugu is the Chief Technology Officer of FMCSA within the Department of Transportation. Pavan recently transitioned to the public sector after a long career in technology innovation within retail. You'll hear his inspirational story of helping grow people around him and many of his approaches to impactful technology. Pavan shares how he is working to bring an Outcome based methodology to the Department of Transportation and what impact working in the public sector has had on his approaches to technology and innovation!