Every career path comes with its own set of challenges—you just have to choose your hard. Leading product at a startup, finding product-market fit, and scaling a company is tough, but so is staying stuck in a feature factory. In this episode, host Hannah Clark sits down with Benjamin Berry, CPO of EvolutionIQ, to discuss how he navigated these challenges to help grow his company to a $730 million valuation.

Benjamin shares the leadership strategies that enabled sustainable scaling, drove 350% growth in two years, and helped EvolutionIQ thrive in the competitive AI market—all without an insurance background. Tune in to learn how to prioritize market opportunities and make the tough calls that lead to success.

Resources from this episode:

• Subscribe to The Product Manager newsletter
• Connect with Benjamin on LinkedIn
• Check out EvolutionIQ

The product industry is constantly evolving, and navigating silos—both across departments and between leadership levels—can make career growth feel like a challenge. Without alignment, collaboration suffers, progress stalls, and figuring out how to advance becomes even harder.

In this special panel episode, host Hannah Clark is joined by Melika Hope (Director of Product Management at Spotify) and Ken Romano (VP of Product at Stacker) to discuss what product leaders truly value in 2025. They dive into the skills, strategies, and mindset shifts that can help you make a real impact on your product, team, and career this year.

Resources from this episode:

• Subscribe to The Product Manager newsletter
• Connect with Melika and Ken on LinkedIn
• Check out Spotify and Stacker

Starting a new job is tough—but stepping into an executive role is a whole different challenge. With high stakes, unrealistic expectations, and all eyes on you, how do you navigate this transition successfully?

In this episode, Hannah talks with Yue Zhao, executive coach and founder of The Uncommon Executive, about the realities of executive life, adapting to new dynamics, and essential steps beyond the typical 90-day plan.

Resources from this episode:

• Subscribe to The Product Manager newsletter
• Connect with Yue on LinkedIn
• Check out The Uncommon Executive

The times are changing, and AI is driving a major shift in how we approach product and leadership. It’s exciting, unpredictable, and inevitable—but how do we navigate this change?

Hannah Clark sits down with Greg Petroff, a design thought leader and seasoned executive, to discuss the tools, organizational shifts, and strategies that leaders need to adopt in this fast-paced era. Tune in to hear Greg’s insights on adapting to change and staying ahead in the AI-driven world.

Resources from this episode:

• Subscribe to The Product Manager newsletter
• Connect with Greg on LinkedIn
• Check out Greg’s Substack: Improbable Futures

Not to get all "check your privileges" on you, but if your organization has an in-house research team, or works with a research firm, or even has just one UXR on staff, you gotta count yourself lucky. According to the 2024 State of Research Report by User Interviews, for every one dedicated researcher, there are five PWDRs—that stands for 'people who do research'. So by my math, that means that there's a 1 in 6 chance that one of those PWDRs is you. 

So if you do identify as a PWDR, you're likely in a situation where you're doing the absolute best job you can doing UXR off the side of your desk, while painfully aware that you don't know what you don't know about doing it better.

And since 1 in 6 of us are in this exact position, we held a phenomenal panel event with three renowned user research experts who really get it and want to help. In this recording, you'll learn what good, decent, and great user research looks like, the traits that distinguish good, decent, and great UX design, and useful strategies to connect UX insights to your product's unique selling proposition.

Resources from this episode:

• Subscribe to The Product Manager newsletter
• Connect with Laura, Steve, and Thomas on LinkedIn
• Check out Users Know, Portigal Consulting, and Drill Bit Labs

Whether you prefer the term data-driven, or data-informed, or data-dazzled, it doesn't matter—today's tech cannot survive without high quality data sets AND the tools to use them effectively. But we also can't afford to think about data as the responsibility of just one or two departments in the organization—instead, we need to be going into 2025 with a mindset of data democratization. In other words, our business is our customers, so what our customers are saying should be everyone's business. 

My guest today is Mario Ciabarra, Founder and CEO of Quantum Metric. Quantum is a Gen-AI powered analytics platform that allows companies to interpret data into useful insights for different stakeholders so that everyone—from the first day product designer to the company founder—can bake empathy for customers into every decision. We discussed how this works in practice, considerations around data hygiene, and some predictions on how Gen-AI will drive the evolution of analytics this year and beyond.

Resources from this episode:

• Subscribe to The Product Manager newsletter
• Connect with Mario on LinkedIn
• Check out Quantum Metric

In the age of remote work, product teams can take a lot of forms, and are no longer limited to the talent pool of a specific geographic area. That means many of us are working closely every day with colleagues in completely different time zones, while also building products for customers around the world. And while the ability to connect, collaborate, and sell internationally offers a wealth of opportunities, it also comes with a whole world of intricacies and challenges.

My guest today is Craig Guarraci, who has spent the past 30 years working for Big Tech companies like Amazon and Microsoft, and is now putting his experience to work as a Career Coach. Given his background and current focus, Craig is MORE than familiar with some of the more delicate challenges of building and launching products internationally. We discussed the considerations PMs, executives, and entrepreneurs need to be thinking about when working across borders, and how to make sure your best efforts don’t get lost in translation.

Resources from this episode:

• Subscribe to The Product Manager newsletter
• Connect with Craig on LinkedIn
• Check out Tech PM Career Path

Accessibility often sits uncomfortably on the fringes of roadmap discussions. Many organizations prioritize features with the biggest impact, sidelining those that benefit a smaller percentage of users. Yet, the dialogue on accessibility is not just about inclusion but also intersects with business ethics and market expansion.

In this episode, Hannah Clark is joined by Prerna Ramachandra—Principal Product Manager at Yahoo—to delve into the business case for accessibility and effective strategies to integrate it seamlessly into product development.

Burning out isn't a matter of 'if' as much as a matter of 'when'. According to Mind the Product, over 80 percent of product managers report experiencing burnout during their careers — and I reckon that number is pretty conservative. As high achievers, we're prone to pushing our limits beyond the breaking point when it comes to our careers. But even though just about everyone goes through it, burnout can still feel horribly isolating. It can trick us into thinking we're not trying hard enough, or just not good enough at all. 

My guest today is Evie Brockwell, a product expert, consultant, and coach. After learning just how bad burnout was affecting her clients and colleagues, Evie dug in with loads of independent research to understand the problem and how PMs can avoid it, or at the very least, recover from it. Toward the end, we also cover proactive strategies for leaders to protect their teams from feeling the burn.

Resources from this episode:

• Subscribe to The Product Manager newsletter
• Connect with Evie on LinkedIn
• Check out Evie’s website

As we wrap up an extraordinary year, join us in reflecting on the highlights of The Product Manager Podcast in 2024. This milestone year included engaging conversations, insightful guests, and a growing audience that recently hit 100,000 downloads.

In this special year-end edition, host Hannah Clark and producer Becca Banyard share behind-the-scenes stories of the podcast's success. With gratitude, they revisit episodes that shaped the show's journey and impacted its listeners.

Resources from this episode:

• Subscribe to The Product Manager newsletter