Product Rebels

Vidya Dinamani recently guested on the Product Mastery Now podcast, hosted by Chad McAllister. A fellow rebel and evangelist in the world of Product Management, Chad has also authored the book Turning Ideas into Market-Winning Products.  Listen in as they sit down to discuss what makes a good product team to how to make a good product, and everything in between.

Heather Samarin and Vidya Dinamani interview Sandy Huang, VP of Product for GoodRx. Sandy's incredible journey takes center stage as she shares her transformative work at Amazon, where she led the Alexa team and introduced groundbreaking concepts.  

The conversation delves into her strategies for fostering innovation and diversity, offering valuable insights into product leadership and innovation. Sandy's knack for challenging the status quo and driving paradigm shifts is truly inspirational. 
 
Learn how she redefined Amazon's Echo Show and embraced a holistic approach to Product Management, emphasizing the importance of anticipating issues and promoting cross-team collaboration. 

Vidya Dinamani and Heather Samarin sit down with Dr. Ari Zelmanow, Head of User Experience Research & Communications at Twilio. 

With his previous experience as a former metropolitan police officer, Ari discusses how he combines his detective mindset with UX research to uncover valuable insights that drive successful product strategies. 

Vidya Dinamani and Heather Samarin welcome Ravi Mehta, Co-founder & CEO at Outpace. 

He shares his experience working with industry giants like TripAdvisor and Tinder, highlighting the universal lessons he's learned in consumer-focused industries. 

Ravi also discusses the intriguing similarities between different consumer domains and how the psychology of user-generated content, such as reviews on TripAdvisor or profiles on Tinder, plays a pivotal role in both industries. 

Finally, Ravi talks about his latest endeavor, Outpace, an AI-based coaching experience for product managers and leaders.

Heather Samarin and Vidya Dinamani sit down with seasoned product and business leader, Jason Randall. Jason takes us through his journey from product development to the role of CEO at AppFolio. 

From shifting from premise software to cloud software to radical approaches to customer success, Jason's story is a testament to unshakable customer empathy.

He also reveals how firing customers, even counterintuitively, can fuel the balance between business success and customer satisfaction.

Vidya Dinamani and Heather Samarin sit down with Finvi's inspiring Chief of Product & Technology Officer, Raj Sethuraman.

Raj shares his journey of breaking paradigms in product development, creating a culture of collaboration, and how he aligned teams by leading by example. 

He also shares his insights on focusing on business outcomes rather than individual roles and leveraging customer engagement for innovation. 

Heather Samarin and Vidya Dinamani welcome Brent Tworetzky, VP of Product at Peloton. 

Brent shares his experience in implementing best practices for product-led growth and user-centric strategies, and shares how he disrupted traditional advertising models to drive product success during his time at The Knot.

Most importantly, Brent shares his valuable insights on how to drive change within your organization, whether you're an executive or a product manager. 

Vidya Dinamani and Heather Samarin are joined by Ellen Chisa, Partner at Boldstart Ventures.

Ellen reveals her journey from being a Product Rebel at Kickstarter, challenging growth hacking, to becoming a VC investing in enterprise SaaS and developer-first companies.

Ellen shares how she evaluates startups with a rebel perspective, recognizing pain points, and fostering authentic product development.

Vidya Dinamani and Heather Samarin welcome Rachel Obstler, VP ofProduct at Heap.

Rachel shares her experiences at PagerDuty and Heap, where she identified broken markets and bridged gaps to improve customer experiences.

Today’s conversation emphasizes the need for end-to-end thinking, user feedback, and transparency in product development. Rachel's advice includes conducting primary research, embracing the Jobs To Be Done framework, and empowering teams to make decisions. 

Vidya Dinamani and Heather Samarin are joined by Phyl Terry, CEO & Founder of Collaborative Gain, to discuss the significance of customer-centricity. 

Phyl shares stories from their experience, emphasizing the need to engage leaders and decision-makers and make the customer the center of product conversations.  

They also explore the challenges of power plays within companies and the evolving nature of product management.