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In this episode, Andy and Janelle recap season six of the Human Insight Podcast.

Thank you to all the listeners of the podcast, wherever you may be. And thank you to all the guests for making time for us and sharing their stories.

We’re currently planning Season 7. If you have an insight you want us to investigate, or a guest you recommend, please email us at [email protected]. 

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In this episode, we curated 13 clips from past episodes of the Human Insight Podcast to give you insights on being a better product leader. 

You will hear from C. Todd Lombardo, author of several books including Product Roadmaps Relaunched; Silicon Valley Product Group’s Christian Idiodi; Product School’s Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia, Harvard Business School’s Julia B. Austin, Radhika Dutt, author of Radical Product Thinking; Teresa Torres, author of Continuous Discover Habits, Ignition’s Karthik Suresh, and IDEO’s Iain Roberts.

1. How the role of product management evolving
2. How the product leader’s role has changed
3. Key skills product managers need to be successful
4. 3 fundamental characteristics that makes a great product manager
5. What makes a great product team
6. Three pillars of radical product thinking
7. What is continuous discovery
8. Why customer feedback is critically important to your success
9. Key elements for a successful product launch
10. How do you include execs in a design sprint
11. How do you know when you have good product market fit
12. The seven diseases of  of product strategy & development
13. The future of product

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What is Human Insight? What can you do with human insight? And how do you get started gathering human insight? 

Those are the big three questions the Center for Human Insight, presented by UserTesting, hopes to answer. 

“People tend to think of user tests as being something just tied to usability when in fact it's a way to get broad feedback on anything that you need to get reactions to or input on in real time,” said Michael Mace, VP of the Center for Human Insight. “And the range of things you can do with it, the range of things you can learn are just amazing. We want to bring that to life for everybody so that they see what you can do.”

Mace along with Michael Domanic, Head of Solutions Partners at UserTesting; and Sean Treiser, Insights Strategist at UserTesting, were guests on this week’s episode of the Human Insight Podcast. 

In their conversation, they also discussed: 

• What is the Center for Human Insight
• Who is the center’s target audience
• How does someone submit an article or tip for gathering feedback to the center

Links from the show

Center for Human Insight

Emailing the center: [email protected]

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Customer onboarding is critical to the success of a business not just in activation, but in the long-term retention of those users.

Typically, we think of the example of when we sign up a new customer and then onboard them on our product or service. 

But onboarding is more than that. You’ll need to re-onboard a once-every-few-months user every time they log on. And you’ll need to successfully onboard a customer every time you release a new product feature. 

“If you don't,” says Pulkit Agrawal, cofounder and CEO of Chameleon, “that feature won't get adoption activation, retention, and won’t be part of the reason why customers stick around.”

Chameleon helps companies build better onboarding experiences. Agrawal was this week’s guest on the Human Insights Podcast, joining co-hosts Andy MacMillan and Janelle Estes. 

“User onboarding, while it's typically considered at the start of the product journey, really applies across the product lifecycle as you build functionality,” Agrawal said. “And in the world of product-led today, where really the companies that have the best products and the most usage in engagement are the ones that win, it's really vital that companies have a method, a process, a system and tooling to continue to onboard users onto features and continue to drive engagement adoption.”

Listen to the episode and learn more about: 

• Why companies should focus on the why and not just the how with onboarding
• The importance of onboarding, especially in a usage-based pricing model
• How a friction log can help improve your customers’ onboarding experiences

Episode links: 

• Chameleon
• Pulkit Agrawal on LinkedIn
• Chameleon funding round
• Gerrard: My Autobiography by Steven Gerrard
• Nudge: The Final Edition by Richard H. Thaler
• Jonathan Livingston Seagull: The Complete Edition by Richard Bach

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Welcome to our second annual roundup of book recommendations from guests on the Human Insight Podcast. 

It is a good mix of books, covering creativity, money, innovation and product development. There is even a children’s book recommendation, as well as one for a newsletter. 

And don’t forget, our own Janelle Estes and Andy MacMillan also wrote User Tested, which was published earlier this year. 

• Brave New Work by Aaron Dignan
• Gerrard: My Autobiography by Steven Gerrard
• Nudge: The Final Edition by Richard H. Thaler
• Jonathan Livingston Seagull: The Complete Edition by Richard Bach
• Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making by Tony Fadell
• The Gruffalo in Scots by Julia Donaldson
• The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World by Dalai Lama
• The Marginalian by Maria Popova
• Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts. by Brené Brown
• The Psychology of Money: Timeless lessons on wealth, greed, and happiness by Morgan Housel
• Birdgirl By Mya-Rose Craig
• End of Bias: A Beginning by Jessica Nordell
• Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez
• How Democracies Die by Steven Levitsky
• Permanent Record by Edward Snowden
• The Mom Test: How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you by Rob Fitzpatrick
• Orbiting the Giant Hairball: A Corporate Fool's Guide to Surviving with Grace by Gordon MacKenzie
• The Intelligent Investor: The Definitive Book on Value Investing by Benjamin Graham
• Lean Enterprise: How High Performance Organizations Innovate at Scale by Jez Humble
• Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life: Life-Changing Tools for Healthy Relationships by Marshall Rosenberg

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Julia Austin is a strong advocate for feedback never stopping, whether she is pushing her students to get out and talk with customers or talking with business leaders. 

“I'll get this question, especially from founders early on, of ‘when do I stop talking to my customers and getting feedback and start building my product?,’” said Austin, Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School’s Rock Center for Entrepreneurship where she currently teaches Startup Operations. “And I'm like, ‘Never ... You need to be talking to them all the time.”

In this episode of the Human Insight Podcast, Austin joins UserTesting’s CEO Andy MacMillan and Chief Insights Officer Janelle Estes to discuss the importance of customer feedback, as well as: 

• What makes a great product manager?
• How do you know when you have product market fit?
• Her advice to legacy companies making the digital transition and developing new products or reinventing how their current products are offered in the marketplace?

Links in the show: 

• Julia on LinkedIn
• Julia on Twitter
• Julia's page at the Harvard Business School
• Course description for her class, StartupOperations
• Good for Her

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You have to understand how people work, and why, says Kaj van de Loo, UserTesting’s Chief Technology Officer, on this week’s episode of the Human Insight Podcast. 

“What do they actually want to do or need to do to reach their goals, vs. what are they doing as weird workarounds or because they are being told to do,” he said. “Look at the former, and support it. In our case, every product manager, designer, and engineer wants to understand our customers and users and they all want to hear about how our product is being used, what people think of it, and how we can make it better. We lean into that.” 

In their conversation with Kaj, co-hosts Andy and Janelle ask him about business workflows and how the pandemic and digital acceleration changed the way we think about processes and workflows. 

The also discuss how understanding how people work, and how they leverage tools and technology, as well as customer insights, to launch products successfully. 

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Producer’s note: This week’s episode is a conversation Janelle had with futurist and author Brian Solis at The Human Insight Summit held last week in New Orleans. We hope you enjoy the conversation. 

Do you know how your customers experience your brand today? Do you know how they really feel? Do you know what they say when you're not around? You think you know your customers, but you really have no idea–until you talk to them!

Brian Solis, author of X: The Experience When Business Meets Design, joined Janelle Estes, UserTesting’s Chief Insights Officer and co-author of User Tested, met onstage in a fireside conversation at The Human Insights Summit last week in New Orleans to discuss the importance of customer understanding and empathy in an always-on world, and why today customer experience is your brand.

Solis is a world-renowned digital anthropologist, futurist, 8x best-selling author, and international keynote speaker. He serves as VP, Global Innovation at Salesforce and has consistently been recognized as one of the world's leading voices in innovation, business transformation, and leadership for over two decades.

Leveraging insights from each of their books and professional experiences, Brian and Janelle spoke about the parallels in their books and beliefs on powering customer-centric experiences.

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Amanda Renteria, the CEO of Code for America, joined the Human Insight Podcast to talk about using technology AND regularly talking with your audience to reimagine government to better serve communities. 

Amanda has worked in the financial sector, been a teacher in her hometown, and spent most of her career in the public sector, from serving as Chief of Operations at the California Department of Justice to being national political director for Hilary Clinton’s 2016 US presidential campaign. And, oh yeah, she ran for the U.S. Congress and for California’s state governor.

Among the topics discussed include: 

• Simplifying tax filing
• Code for America’s Safety Net Innovation Lab
• What is human-centered government
• Amanda’s thoughts on Hispanic Heritage Month following her recent appointment by President Biden to his Commission on Advancing Educational Equity, Excellence, and Economic Opportunity for Hispanics

Links in the show: 

• Amanda Renteria on Twitter
• Code for America 
• Safety Net Innovation Lab
• Simplified tax filing

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