Product Chats

How do product leaders launch new products?

That’s a big question, but fortunately we have a product leader with over 20 years of experience to help us answer it. Sara Rossio, Chief Product Officer at G2, has built and managed software for companies including Here, Gogo, and PowerReviews during her career. In this episode of Product Chats, Sara shares what she's learned about launching new products. Be sure to check it out.

Time Stamped Show Notes

Becoming a chief product officer [01:13]

How to be a good mentor to aspiring product managers [02:47]

How data can help you say no to ideas [05:24]

Staying focused on problem solving [07:22]

The different character archetypes of product [08:06] - [09:50]

Hiring the right archetype for your product needs [09:50]

Launching a new line of business [13:31]

Flawless execution is just table stakes [14:51]

Using discovery to get data to start building new product lines [16:23]

Longitudinal Interviews [17:02]

The Value of Observing Users Using Your Product [17:42]

Product Chats is brought to you by Canny. Over 1,000 teams trust Canny to help them build better products. Capture, organize, and analyze product feedback in one place to inform your product decisions.

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This episode of Product Chats explores how you can succeed as a company’s first product hire. We chat with Francisco Alberini of Monte Carlo who shares his experience taking over product from his company’s founders. It’s a great discussion with actionable insights, so be sure to check it out.

Time Stamped Show Notes

Engineering bootcamps + getting into product [01:34]

Being a company’s first product hire [02:40]

Understanding customer problems vs feature building [04:55]

Balancing customer problems by impact [06:31]

Getting to “why” [09:00]

Aligning with the C-suite [10:56]

Building a culture of customer obsessions[14:15]

Leveraging data to drive your product strategy [17:52]

Understanding when data can’t answer your question [21:13]

Product Chats is brought to you by Canny. Over 1,000 teams trust Canny to help them build better products. Capture, organize, and analyze product feedback in one place to inform your product decisions.

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On this episode of Product Chats we dive into building AI-driven products with Gagan Gulati, Chief Product Officer at Behavox. He’s built a wealth of product knowledge during his decades-long career that features product leadership roles at Microsoft, BEA Systems, and Oracle. Gagan shares his deep knowledge of AI-driven and AI-infused products in this episode, so be sure to check it out.

Time Stamped Show Notes

The importance of storytelling in your career [02:33]

Advice for transitioning from engineering to product management [04:15]

Ensuring you understand users’ challenges [05:49]

Avoiding “what” and focusing on “why [06:41]

Building AI-driven products [09:00]

AI-Driven products vs AI-infused products [10:54]

Researching to build an AI-driven product [13:55]

Difference being a PM in a large vs small company [15:15]

How wide a span PMs at startups have [19:36]

Importance of aligning with company goals [22:21]

Product Chats is brought to you by Canny. Over 1,000 teams trust Canny to help them build better products. Capture, organize, and analyze product feedback in one place to inform your product decisions.

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With a career featuring time leading product at Sears, Walmart eCommerce, and Sephora, Sneha Narahalli knows how to effectively lead product teams. Check out this episode of Product Chats to hear Sneha’s advice for effectively leading your team in a way that builds trust, celebrates progress, and leverages members’ strengths.

Time Stamped Show Notes

The fundamental nature of product management [03:40]

Avoiding boxing yourself into solution-based thinking [05:14]

Building trust through communication [07:45]

Ensuring your work is measurable [09:13]

Celebrating progress and not success [10:48]*

Introvertism and leadership [13:12]

Identifying your teams’ individual strengths [17:20]

Taking time to understand who you’re speaking to [21:03]

Focusing on your strengths [22:07]

Understanding yourself before you understand your customers [23:45]

Product Chats is brought to you by Canny. Over 1,000 teams trust Canny to help them build better products. Capture, organize, and analyze product feedback in one place to inform your product decisions.

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Product management needs to be aligned with its organization to succeed. But, sometimes that's a challenge. In this episode of Product Chats, Jonathan Cordeau of Peek explains how to tackle that challenge. We chat about product's role, building alignment between teams, earning permission to lead other teams, and more.

Time Stamped Show Notes
 

Taking your product to international markets [03:18]

Building relationships in new markets [05:06]

Hiring with internationalization in mind [06:57]

Outcome-driven innovation  [09:53]

Finding unmet needs in a market [10:55] 

The importance of understanding “why” [13:47]

Avoiding the feature delivery treadmill [14:26]

Aligning customer feedback with company goals [15:06]

Working collaboratively with sales teams [18:48]

Product management’s role in organizations [20:59]

Getting alignment between teams [22:23]

Earning permission to lead other teams [24:12]

Product Chats is brought to you by Canny. Over 1,000 teams trust Canny to help them build better products. Capture, organize, and analyze product feedback in one place to inform your product decisions.

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With over 10 years of experience delivering enterprise SaaS products with organizations including Siemens, IBM, Intuit, Capital One, and now at ParkHub, Geoffrey Byers knows what it takes to get products built. In this episode of Product Chats, Geoffrey explores how he employs storytelling in product management to get organizational buy-in and create emotional responses with all stakeholders.

Time Stamped Show Notes

Differences in managing products at Fortune 100 companies and startups [02:33]

Encouraging product teams to fail quickly [03:58]

Experimental frameworks [05:56]

Opportunity overload [10:14]

Honing in on opportunity value [11:37]

Creating magical user experiences [14:03]

Storytelling in product [15:25]

Tailoring stories for different audiences [17:42]

The emotional vector or product [18:19]

Getting buy-in from different teams [20:37]

Advice for aspiring product managers [22:03]

Product Chats is brought to you by Canny. Over 1,000 teams trust Canny to help them build better products. Capture, organize, and analyze product feedback in one place to inform your product decisions.

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As the Chief Experience Officer at Help Scout, Mariah Hay is very focused on delivering amazing product experiences. In this episode of Product Chats, Mariah dives into how to leverage human-centric design to better serve your users. We also explore how to foster cross-functional team collaboration, build product teams, and practice tech ethics.
 

Time Stamped Show Notes

Important skills that help you succeed in product [02:14]

Building product teams [04:38]

How cross-functional teams support human-centric design [06:36]

Human-centric design [08:03]

Fostering cross-functional team collaboration [10:47]

All about tech ethics [13:24]

Advice on practicing tech ethics [16:10]

Tips for aspiring product managers [20:26]

Product Chats is brought to you by Canny. Over 1,000 teams trust Canny to help them build better products. Capture, organize, and analyze product feedback in one place to inform your product decisions.

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In this episode of Product Chats we explore how Kelsey Ruger, Vice President of Product at Hello Alice, builds tiny products. Using this approach, Kelsey is able to quickly test ideas to see which are worth pursuing. We also discuss finding your product soulmate, building minimum lovable products, and building products for specific personas.

Time Stamped Show Notes

Listening to your customers and not making assumptions [02:18]

Building tiny products [04:47]

How tiny products can lead buyers to buying bigger products [06:29]

Kelsey’s framework for building tiny products [07:37]

Identifying what tiny product to build [09:33]

Validating that your tiny products are relevant [10:08]

Tools for tracking tiny products’ performance [11:17]

Finding your product soulmate [12:59]

Minimum lovable products [14:02]

Do people really buy on need? [15:36]

Designing products desirable to your personas [18:20]

Creating positive emotions for users [19:36]

The importance of trust in product management [20:56]

Building products for specific personas [21:30]

Product Chats is brought to you by Canny. Over 1,000 teams trust Canny to help them build better products. Capture, organize, and analyze product feedback in one place to inform your product decisions.

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In this episode of Product Chats we chat with Megan Berry, VP of Product at Octane AI. Megan has been working in product remotely for many years and has some great insights that can help product teams boost their remote work performance. We also dive into how remote work can actually challenge work-life balance and how you can overcome that.

Time Stamped Show Notes

Importance of customer success and product teams having an amazing relationship [03:14]

Communicating about tough product decisions [04:59]

Remote work tips for product managers [9:16]

Avoiding being a jerk in written communication [10:57]

Best practices for onboarding remote team members [13:34]

Maintaining work-life balance as a product manager [16:11]

Parental leave [19:14]

The importance of empathy [21:30]
 

Product Chats is brought to you by Canny. Over 1,000 teams trust Canny to help them build better products. Capture, organize, and analyze product feedback in one place to inform your product decisions.

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Check out this episode of Product Chats where we chat with Anu Kirk of Osso VR about his Lazy Product Manager Approach. Anu explains how this approach helps you ensure you’re focused on building the most important and valuable features. We also chat about the differences between building hardware and software products, effectively listening to your customers, and punk rock user testing.

Anu’s been working in product management since the 1990s at companies including Osso VR, Sony, MOG, Rhapsody, and RealNetworks. He shares some great insight and perspective on product management in this episode so be sure the give it a listen.

Time Stamped Show Notes

How making a music album can be product managed [1:57]

Evolution of product management tools [04:35]

How Anu got into product in the 1990s [06:20]

Differences between building hardware and software products [09:33]

The lazy product manager concept [11:41]

How adding new features makes products more difficult to use [13:54]

Understanding the total iceberg of work [14:54]

Focusing on killer ideas [15:26]

Ensuring your team brings valuable ideas forward [16:34]

Asking the right questions to know if a feature is valuable [18:25]

How to effectively listen to your customers [19:44]

Punk rock user testing [20:34]

Traits of the best product managers [22:41]

Tips for aspiring product managers [25:57]

Product Chats is brought to you by Canny. Over 1,000 teams trust Canny to help them build better products. Capture, organize, and analyze product feedback in one place to inform your product decisions.

Get your free Canny account today.

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