Product Perspectives

Rishabh Bhandari is the Founder & CEO at Content Beta, a video-design-audio studio that has helped over 80 B2B software companies create engaging product marketing content to successfully drive engagement with marketing, generate more MQLs and signups, improve win rates, and get faster production adoption using product videos and retain users with technical content. Rish has built Content Beta from scratch and turned it into a 600K dollar company during the covid lockdown. He has co-authored the popular ebook ‘Customer Training Maturity Report 2021’ with the renowned customer education expert, Brian Childs. With a wide range of career accomplishments, he has learned the ins and outs of the industry, can recognize the gaps that can stall a B2B company’s growth, and has counseled over 108 product marketers and customer success managers in order to better their approach.

In this episode, we talk about his journey as a founder but obviously a lot about content and the role that product managers have in creating quality content for their customers as well as for their internal stakeholders: from sales enablement to marketing.

Andrew Forman founded Givz, the first Purpose Driven Performance marketing platform. Prior to Givz, Andrew spent six years in investment banking where he worked on mergers and acquisitions and he was also the treasurer of a nonprofit with the mission of enhancing literacy in Africa. Andrew received his MBA from Harvard Business School and his BA in mathematics and economics from Hamilton College.

In this episode, we talk about his journey from finance and non-profit to founder. What I’ve loved about this conversation is the honesty that Andrew demonstrates and his openness to recognise what has worked well and what he could have done better. We discuss whether and when to bring your UX and a dedicated product manager in-house, and what as a founder Andrew expects from those first hires. If you’re a founder or a product manager looking to join a start-up, I hope you’ll get some insights into what it’s like.

My guest today is Chet Lamba who is a seasoned digital product & tech leader serving on the executive team at Smooth Commerce with previous roles at IBM and TheAppLabb. With over a decade of experience and the launch of 80+ digital products, his specialty is creating strategy and momentum for execution on the development of software products despite legacy systems, budgets, and operational hurdles. From consumer-facing native mobile apps to large scale back-end deployments, Chet, has drawn on his impressive experience to ensure execution is always possible. 

Chet is passionate about innovation so we’ve talked about how AI, VR and Web3 will disrupt the product space. We also touched on managing a team, as well as what it takes to grow a career in product and become a product leader. Whether you’re a team manager looking to develop your team or a product manager who wants to get promoted, you’ll get some insights into what an executive like Chet expects from his team.

You can contact Chet on Linkedin.

Welcome back to Product Perspectives to hear from Zuzana, Aldair and Jakub. In this third and last episode of the series with the product trio at Mews, we discussed measuring success as a product team and what a good product looks like. If you or your company are stuck with vanity metrics, you'll get some great tips on how to start looking at what matters and get your leadership onboard. You'll also learn how Engineers are onboarded by Jakub in their first weeks and how Heap changed the life of Zuzana as a UX Designer and Aldair as a Product Manager. If you missed the first 2 episodes about becoming product-led and communicating internally, I'd strongly recommending listening to them for understanding more about the context, the company and the product, and grabbing pieces of advice you might want to apply to your own organisation.

Zuzana Hrušovská is a Senior Product Designer and has been with Mews for a little over 3 years and has worked in each of their B2B teams, sometimes even with all of them at once. She focuses on improving reservation journey for our users and their guest.

Aldair Borges is a Product Manager who moved to the Czech Republic all the way from Zimbabwe. He helps Mews build products that manage the operation and distribution of inventory for the hospitality industry.

Jakub Tkadleček is Engineering Manager and joined Mews when someone's apartment was considered 'The Office'. While his work life stirred him towards the role of technical manager, he stills considers code just a more structured offshoot of poetry.

Zuzana Hrušovská is a Senior Product Designer and has been with Mews for a little over 3 years and has worked in each of their B2B teams, sometimes even with all of them at once. She focuses on improving reservation journey for our users and their guest.

Aldair Borges is a Product Manager who moved to the Czech Republic all the way from Zimbabwe. He helps Mews build products that manage the operation and distribution of inventory for the hospitality industry.

Jakub Tkadleček is Engineering Manager and joined Mews when someone's apartment was considered 'The Office'. While his work life stirred him towards the role of technical manager, he stills considers code just a more structured offshoot of poetry.

In this second episode, we talk about communication within a product trio, with the rest of the product team but also the larger organisation. From how to position technical debt to focusing outcomes, this product trio reminds us that PMs aren't the boss and that they should listen to and involve their team.

Zuzana Hrušovská is a Senior Product Designer and has been with Mews for a little over 3 years and has worked in each of their B2B teams, sometimes even with all of them at once. She focuses on improving reservation journey for our users and their guest.

Aldair Borges is a Product Manager who moved to the Czech Republic all the way from Zimbabwe. He helps Mews build products that manage the operation and distribution of inventory for the hospitality industry.

Jakub Tkadleček is Engineering Manager and joined Mews when someone's apartment was considered 'The Office'. While his work life stirred him towards the role of technical manager, he stills considers code just a more structured offshoot of poetry.

In the first episode, we talk about how Mews realised they were sales and engineering driven and how this product trio overturned the situation to become a successful product-led team. If you recognise yourself or your company in the situation they describe, there’s hope and I wish that you’re going to gather key take-aways from this episode.

My guest today is a UX designer I’ve known for years and who has inspired me to get into product management. Philippe Clairet has been working in what we know today as "digital products" for 15 years. He’s worked across multiple domains such as finance, travel, online marketplaces, online planning, supply chain and web3. His roles have also varied a little along the way, including managing a UX team, but he’s a UX designer at heart. Heart is actually a good work to describe this interview, as Phil talks about kindness and shares personal stories of people who have supported him in his journey. We also touch on the role of UX and UX researchers, and how giving feedback to coworkers can still be difficult in a product world in which feedback from customers is so valued.

This is a bonus episode with Brenden Kumarasamy who is the founder of MasterTalk. He coaches ambitious executives and entrepreneurs to become top 1% communicators in their industry. He also has a popular YouTube channel called MasterTalk, with the goal of providing free access to communication tools for everyone in the world. In this podcast, Brenden talks about his journey and the challenges he’s faced along the way, but also gives product managers some practical tips on how to improve their networking and public speaking skills. This is one of the episodes that gets you thinking about your career and how to go to the next level, and what you might want to practice during your shower. If you want to understand the joke, listen to this episode!

Reach out to Brenden on Linkedin: Brenden 🎤 Kumarasamy | LinkedIn or watch his Youtube channel.

My guest today is Faris Aranki, Founder and Chief Effectiveness Officer at Shiageto Consulting. Faris has spent over 20 years delivering strategic change for the corporate and non-corporate worlds, including 12 years working as a strategy consultant, 4 years working in the strategy team of Centrica (the UK’s largest utility firm), 4 years working in education and development, Non-exec director and trustee of several charities. He came to realise that often what hinders institutions from achieving their goals goes beyond the quality of their strategy; it is their ability to engage effectively with others at all levels and remove barriers in their way. This has led to his passion for improving strategic effectiveness within all businesses and individuals and the foundation of Shiageto Consulting. On top of leading our business, Faris is now an accomplished speaker and contributor for a variety of outlets. 

In this episode, we talk about Emotional Intelligence and Focus, to design strategies that actually work. These skills are critical for product managers and I hope you’ll get the tips you’re looking for to develop your career.

You can contact Faris via Linkedin and his website.

My guest today is Jareer Ali. Jareer is looking after the Product Marketing of AssetSonar, which is an IT Asset Management Solution. Before joining this team, Jareer got an MBA in one of the Top Business schools in Asia. Jareer is a truly international professional; not only he's working in a diverse and multicultural team - but he also did a exchange in France and works with an American company). I’ve found him to be passionate about Tech & Strategy and how to make a positive impact on the world. In his current role, he interacts with the product manager on a daily basis - and that's the reason we have invited him to our podcast. We talked about product marketing of course, including sales enablement and content creation like running campaigns and webinars. He shares his view on MBAs and what makes a product stand out from competition. I had a lot of fun talking to Jareed and I’ve been delighted by his responses, they surprised me and I hope they’ll surprise you too.