Chris Butler is a seasoned technology leader with a proven ability to lead teams, drive innovation, and deliver results in a fast-paced and dynamic industry. He is a highly accomplished executive with over 20 years of experience in the industry. Prior to his current role at Google, Chris held several leadership positions at companies like Microsoft, Facebook Reality Labs, Kayak, and Waze, where he gained extensive experience in the areas of product management, engineering, and business development. In this episode of Unlearn Podcast, Chris joins Barry O’Reilly to discuss his career journey. He emphasizes the importance of challenging mental models and learning from user research and data analysis to shift perspectives toward new technologies.

Where Novelty Leads

Chris talks about his passion for novelty and his interest in exploring new things since his youth. He mentions his early interest in technology, having created "red boxes" to make payphone calls. Chris credits his father, who was an art director, for introducing him to the transition from traditional typesetting to digital typesetting using programs like QuarkXPress, Adobe Illustrator, and hand-coded HTML.

User Research and Industry Shifts

You need to be adaptable and open to change in the technology industry, Chris and Barry agree. With new innovations emerging all the time, you need to be willing to question assumptions and try new approaches. By doing so, you can stay ahead of the curve and continue to make a positive impact in your organization. Chris and Barry discuss the challenges of transitioning from desktop web experiences to mobile ones. Chris recounts how difficult it was to convince executives to invest in mobile, even though it was clear that more people were using their mobile devices to browse for travel options. He had to help them understand that mobile was not just another channel, but rather a new type of omnichannel experience that required a different approach. Barry shares his own experiences with this kind of shift, recalling how customers' behaviors were starting to change, but the technology was not yet there to support it. He asks Chris how he was able to identify these changes in behavior and help executives understand the need to invest in new technologies. “I had a bit of natural distrust in my leaders,” he replies. Chris often questioned the dominant logic theory that most leaders operated on, which involved using past successes as a mental model for future circumstances. He emphasizes the importance of personal user research and asking the right questions of customers. Chris cites his experience with Complete Seating, a restaurant tech startup, where they were able to “steal” high-value accounts from Open Table by focusing on usage segmentation rather than channel segmentation.

Looking Ahead

Chris mentions how he uses speculative futures to situate the future in a way that is tangible and more interesting than traditional company missions and visions. “Everything we do when building software is a speculative future because it aims to impact the future and make the world a better place,” he explains. He emphasizes the importance of looking forward when making decisions in product management and aligning the spine of product between strategy, roadmap and tasks. Chris believes that this approach to product management can be powerful and inspiring.

For full show notes, please visit BarryO'Reilly.com

Resources

Chris Butler on the Web | LinkedIn | Twitter