Launch With Confidence

In this episode of Launch With Confidence, we sit down with Jalen McGee, a Product Manager for Microsoft Azure Arc. Jalen shares his journey from internships to product management, offering insights into the skills needed for success and the crucial role of customer feedback in product development. Together, they explore key aspects of product management:

In this episode, we’re exploring the world of product management with Maurice Leacock, a seasoned Product Director and current Product Management Consultant at Carrier HVAC. Maurice brings a wealth of experience from leading tech products to market, including robot vacuums, headphones, and fitness scales. We explore the importance of frameworks in product management, the role of passion, and the critical insights gained from beta testing.

In This Episode:

(0:00) - Intro

(1:46) - The role and impact of frameworks in product management.

(5:06) - Synergies between product management and design.

(7:37) - The influence of passion in product management across different cultures.

(10:03) - The importance of impact and influence in product roles.

(14:38) - Incremental improvement and its significance in the field.

(19:59) - The essential role of customer feedback in product development.

(23:43) - Insights on beta testing and its critical role in refining product-market fit.

(29:55) - Knowledge from Maurice’s experiences in product management across industries.

(35:29) - Lightning round, rapid fire Q&A

Dive into the world of beta program management in industrial robotics on this episode of Launch With Confidence. We're joined by Israel Nunez, Beta Program Manager at Universal Robots, who has transformed their beta testing into a crucial part of product development.

In This Episode:

(0:00) - Intro

(1:00) - The origin story of Universal Robots' beta program and its evolution.

(4:20) - The motivation behind Israel's role and the inception of the beta program.

(6:06) - Early challenges and growth pains of establishing the beta program.

(8:36) - The importance of internal marketing and convincing stakeholders of the beta program's value.

(16:16) - Tactics for showcasing the beta program's importance and ROI.

(21:45) - Rapid-fire questions revealing personal insights and professional wisdom from Israel.

Tune in for an insightful look at making beta testing a strategic asset in a tech-driven industry.

Welcome to our latest episode, where we dive into the health and fitness industry with Alexa Murray from Whoop.

Join us as we explore what's going on in women's health, the power of continuous discovery, and the art of involving your market in development. Alexa shares her insights on using OKRs, beta testing, and the balance of beachheads and blinders in tech innovation.

Get ready to be inspired by a leader who's shaping the future of wearable technology!

About This Episode

On the Delta Huddle Podcast, we've discussed two areas that really benefit from beta testing, that being support and customer success. And one other area that really really benefits from getting the voice of your customer in early is customer experience. Now, customer experience is much more than just how the customer interacts with your product. It also extends to how they interact with your entire organization, whether that's reaching out to support for help or working with sales to get more of your product.

And today's episode, we talked to Colin Flanagan, director of Customer Experience at Sayge. Now, in Colin's ten years as a leader, he's helped fight churn, create seamless experiences for customers and really strengthen the voice of the customer across organizations. Now, during our conversation, we talked about how trends are changing customer experience, how surprise and delight is suddenly out the door, why it's best to be transparent in a customer experience environment across your entire organization, and how tracking the customer's journey is essential for building a really great customer experience.

In This Episode:

About Our Guest

Colin Flanigan is the Director of Customer Experience at Sayge (http://hellosayge.com). In his 10+ years as a CX leader and consultant, he has grown and assisted churn-fighting, delight-producing customer-facing teams across industries. He delights in building and scaling excellent, seamless experiences for customers, strengthening the voice of the customer across organizations, and developing quality leaders.

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Resources and Links

Beta Test Planning Kit: https://bit.ly/sw_plan_kit

Beta Recruitment Kit: https://bit.ly/recruit_kit

Centercode Visual Theming Guide: https://bit.ly/visual_themes

Beta Agreement Kit: https://bit.ly/agreement_kit

The Beta Shipping Manual: https://bit.ly/ship_manual

The Tester Engagement Pocket Guide: https://bit.ly/tester_map

Beta Test Incentive Kit: https://bit.ly/incentives_kit

Beta Test ROI Kit: https://bit.ly/beta_roi_kit

The Definitive Guide to Delta Testing: https://bit.ly/guide_to_delta

About This Episode

One of the joys of the Delta Huddle Podcast is the fact that we talk with experts in a wide array of fields, from transportation and fitness to B2B platforms and entertainment. Today’s episode is a foray into another field, with its own set of challenges: Healthcare.

Factors like HIPAA compliance, potential test participants working 12-to-16 hour long shifts, and a wide-variety of use cases make Healthcare an incredibly unique environment for beta testing. Navigating that space can be difficult but also fantastically rewarding, especially in the light of making the care experience better for caregivers and patients alike. And joining us to discuss beta in the world of healthcare is a program manager at one of healthcare’s leading device makers.

Casey Hamar is Senior Program Manager Beta & User Testing at Stryker. Stryker produces everything from personal protection and surgical equipment to communicators and hospital beds. In her role as Senior Program Manager, Casey works closely with hospitals, doctors, and other healthcare workers to test and improve products used within the field every day.

During our conversation, Casey talked about things like building a body of context around feedback by testing with different audiences in different hospitals, how building relationships with those hospitals allowed her to expand their pay to program, and also why healthcare is such a unique field.

About Our Guest

Casey Hamar is Senior Program Manager Beta & User Testing at Stryker. Casey began her career at a talent lifecycle and change management consulting firm, which worked with 95% of the Fortune 500. While there, she had the opportunity to partner with many healthcare organizations and grew passionate about improving the experience of caregivers and patients. She then joined a healthcare system, outside of Seattle, as Director of Engagement and PX, where she led strategy development and execution based on understanding consumers' viewpoints. Starting in 2016, Casey served as a Sr. Client Service manager in the PX division of Vocera where she continued to focus on research and experience. In 2021, she transitioned to the newly created role of Sr. Program Manager of Beta and User Testing at Stryker concentrating on an excellent end-user experience and continually improving systems that help drive a GA version of a product that results in rapid market adoption.

(0:00) - Intro

(2:14) - Casey’s program at Stryker and the products they support

(5:29) - What does beta testing look like in a medical environment?

(8:05) - Casey's success metrics for her beta program

(9:50) - Stryker's mission and how their values align with their beta program

(14:21) - Tailoring projects and trying to find the right audience

(18:52) - Working internally and networking externally to build strong relationships

(28:06) - Empowering caregivers and improving the patient experience through testing

(31:52) - How context powers feedback and testing with unique audiences

(36:35) - Finding creative ways to motivate audiences to submit feedback

(42:31) - How Stryker collects and breaks down data during a test

(45:58) - Seeing what others don't and keeping an open mind

(51:10) - Being inclusive to help reduce friction and increase buy-in

(58:07) - What advice would Casey give to her past self?

Zero-Cost Resources and Blogs

Beta Test Planning Kit: https://bit.ly/sw_plan_kit

Beta Recruitment Kit: https://bit.ly/recruit_kit

Centercode Visual Theming Guide: https://bit.ly/visual_themes

Beta Agreement Kit: https://bit.ly/agreement_kit

The Beta Shipping Manual: https://bit.ly/ship_manual

The Tester Engagement Pocket Guide: https://bit.ly/tester_map

Beta Test Incentive Kit: https://bit.ly/incentives_kit

Beta Test ROI Kit: https://bit.ly/beta_roi_kit

The Definitive Guide to Delta Testing: https://bit.ly/guide_to_delta

About This Episode

Often on the Delta Huddle Podcast, we feature guests who have spent five, ten, and sometimes 30 years in the beta testing space. But this episode is a refreshing new perspective - that of a brand new beta manager leading a beta program forward.Elizabeth Hall is Senior Beta Program Manager at Appian, a low-code B2B platform for automating business processes. Coming from the worlds of product management and user research, Elizabeth is new in her role compared to some of our previous guests, but she’s already spearheading an incredible transformation of Appian’s beta program.

In this episode, we explored why it’s important to set the tone for your beta tests, the difference between qualitative and quantitative data, and why mentorship was key for Elizabeth’s start in beta testing. We can’t wait to see how Elizabeth leads her beta program forward, and I hope you enjoy our conversation.

About This Episode

Passionate, engaged communities are at the heart of every successful beta program. It's been a theme that we've had in a lot of our episodes, and today's episode is absolutely exemplary of that. Jake Francis has built beta programs with the help of these engaged communities. In his current role as GPU Software Dev Engineer and Game On Driver PM at Intel, he connects with passionate, engaged communities to help lead their beta program when it comes to graphics cards.

In this episode, Jake breaks down how he built his programs at AMD and Intel, starting with Discord as a basis before leveling up through the use of Centercode. We talked about how Centercode’s integrations allowed him to scale quickly, why it’s important to build strong communities through trust and transparency, and how Intel sees deep value in a continuous beta program.

About Our Guest

Jake Francis is a SW GPU Dev Engineer and Game On Driver PM at Intel. He has been in the discrete graphics industry for 14 years, primarily focused on gaming graphics software engineering in roles such as software product management, gaming social media, digital marketing, software quality strategy & execution, and program management.

This breadth of unique experiences enables him to effectively communicate end user needs through to internal teams to drive meaningful change from critical feedback.

Jake has launched two successful delta/beta programs with Centercode as the foundation for each, taking advantage of Centercode’s API integrations for true input/output workflows.

Timestamps

(0:00) - Intro

(2:02) - How did Jake get started in beta testing?

(5:41) - Intel, testing with varied audiences, and communicating effectively

(12:45) - Recruiting from passionate communities, scaling programs, and dogfooding

(19:08) - Wearing multiple hats and resolving issues in a timely manner

(25:22) - Advice for new beta program managers

(27:40) - Leveling up a beta program from Discord to Centercode

(34:55) - Building strong communities via trust and transparency

(40:41) - How Jake leverages Centercode’s integrations to easily scale his program

(48:35) - Why AMD and Intel see incredible value in beta programs

(56:32) - How Jake tackles a new beta project

(59:36) - Transparency at Intel

(1:04:59) - How has beta positively impacted AMD and Intel, and how Centercode helped

Zero Cost Resources and Guides

Beta Test Planning Kit: https://bit.ly/sw_plan_kit

Beta Recruitment Kit: https://bit.ly/recruit_kit

Centercode Visual Theming Guide: https://bit.ly/visual_themes

Beta Agreement Kit: https://bit.ly/agreement_kit

The Beta Shipping Manual: https://bit.ly/ship_manual

The Tester Engagement Pocket Guide: https://bit.ly/tester_map

Beta Test Incentive Kit: https://bit.ly/incentives_kit

Beta Test ROI Kit: https://bit.ly/beta_roi_kit

The Definitive Guide to Delta Testing: https://bit.ly/guide_to_delta