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Roadmunk
At Roadmunk, we build a product management platform for product people (beautiful + collaborative roadmapping software); and as part of the product management community, we’ve seen how open product people are to helping their peers. They share their own experiences of working in product, both the good and the bad, in very honest ways. We decided to take the candid conversations that are happening in product communities on Reddit and Slack and Medium – and turn them into an interview podcast. We have really cool interviews coming up with product managers, designers, marketers and the odd engineer, too.
Premiering on September 4th, season 3 tackles a brand new theme: product buzzwords. We’re breaking down the product terms you love to hate & hate to love.
Each episode a member of our team will discuss one product buzzword with a product person from a really cool company.
To name drop a little, we’ve got product people from Buzzfeed, Uber, NBC, Dropbox and more lined up for the season.
When Gustavo Melo joined Amazon’s wedding registry product team, he noticed that the technical side wanted to develop cool features and the non-tech side wanted to deliver business value. Seeing a major gap, Gustavo set on a mission to reverse this tense culture.
We’ve reached our season finale of Product to Product’s second season! ????
In our final episode of the season, we explore the human side of product one last time. And making it even more special, it’s our first live podcast recording. We’re joined by Gustavo Melo, Senior Product Manager at Amazon. (Fun fact: Our CEO Latif Nanji and Gustavo used to work together, so it makes this convo even more exciting.)
When Gustavo (or Gus for short) joined Amazon’s wedding registry product team, he sensed some tension. The technical side of his team wanted to develop cool features, while the non-technical side wanted to deliver business value. Seeing this major gap, Gustavo took it upon himself to reverse this tense team culture around.
Latif sat down with Gustavo to understand how he managed to do a 180 with his team’s tense working relationships. Gustavo offers practical steps other product people can take when trying to bridge the gap between the technical and non-tech sides of their team.
Tune in one last time this season, as after this episode we’re taking a short break. We’ll be back before you know it with a brand new season and theme. ??
You can subscribe to Product to Product on iTunes (here) and Google Play (here), or get the latest episodes delivered to your inbox by subscribing here.
As a product team lead, you’re not managing the product per se. You’re managing other product managers with their own opinions on how the product should work—which means things can get messy. As Venmo’s head of product, Ben Mills has picked up a few insights for overcoming this messiness.
It’s the second last episode of Product to Product’s second season!
As we reach our final stretch of exploring the human side of product, we’re joined by Ben Mills, Head of Product at Venmo, this episode.
Overseeing a team of 11 product managers, Ben is a step removed from managing the actual product at Venmo. Instead, he’s managing the PMs responsible for different slivers of their product. The thing is, managing other PMs can get messy since PMs will undoubtedly have their own opinions on how the product should work.
Our CEO Latif Nanji sits down with Ben to discuss how he navigates the messiness of managing all these PMs. How does he provide guidance versus micromanaging? How does he balance being process-oriented and progress-oriented? And how does a product team lead handle hard decisions? It’s a conversation that’s beneficial not only to product team leads, but also any PMs looking to understand their leads more.
Subscribe to Product to Product on iTunes (here) and Google Play (here), or get the latest episodes delivered to your inbox by subscribing here.
The data says one thing, but your gut says otherwise. What’s a PM to do? Can you trust your intuition to make the right decision for your users? Luckily, Brian Donohue and Michelle Fitzpatrick have first-hand experience with building “product conviction.”
And the podcast for / by product people is on a roll, with episode four of Product to Product‘s second season!
As we continue to explore the human side of product this season, we have not one, but two awesome product people on this episode sharing their real-world stories of navigating the human-related aspects of the product space. This episodes features two members of Intercom‘s product team: Director of Product Management, Brian Donohue, and Senior Product Manager, Michelle Fitzpatrick.
Having both joined Intercom back when it was ~30 employees, Brian and Michelle both have plenty of experience making tough, yet successful, product decisions for their users. However, they know that sometimes the data says one thing, while your gut says something else.
So our CEO Latif Nanji interviews the two product veterans about what to do in these ambiguous situations. Can you trust your gut that much to make the right decision for your user? Brian and Michelle explain how a PM can “build their own gut“—or what they refer to as product conviction—so that they can make confident gut-based decisions in unclear scenarios.
Subscribe to Product to Product on iTunes (here) and Google Play (here), or get the latest episodes delivered to your inbox by subscribing here.
When Sanette Tanaka Sloan joined Vox Media’s first-ever R&D team, she was tasked with designing an AI bot for the Amazon Echo. The goal? Change the way audiences were finding and consuming their news. Little did she know, this project would teach her a lot about how product design can disrupt typical user behaviours.
And we’re at episode three of Product to Product‘s second season, a podcast for / by product people!
As we continue to study the human side of product, this episode shares a unique spin on the real-world stories of navigating the human-related aspects of the product space. Our featured guest is Sanette Tanaka Sloan, Senior Product Designer at Vox Media. (Our first product designer on the podcast! ????)
In 2016, Sanette joined Vox Media as the design lead for their first ever innovation team. One of the first big projects she was tasked with was designing a voice bot for the Amazon Echo. The project’s mandate: change the way Vox Media’s audience was finding and consuming their news stories.
Stepping into this “innovator” design role, Sanette picked up a whole lot while designing an “invisible” AI interface. She experienced first-hand how thoughtful AI product design can ultimately have an impact on “human” behaviours. So, Sanette gets real with our colleague Eleni about how to use product design to ultimately influence audience actions.
Subscribe to Product to Product on iTunes (here) and Google Play (here), or get the latest episodes delivered to your inbox by subscribing here.
User personas and jobs to be done have long been go-to frameworks for product people wanting to click with their users. Mike Belsito and Michael Sacca recently did a deep-dive into these two concepts on Rocketship.FM. So on this bonus episode, they explain how to apply these frameworks and why jobs to be done has become the popular tool on the block.
Surprise! It’s a bonus episode of Product to Product‘s second season, a podcast for / by product people!
As we continue to explore the human side of product this season, we’ve paired up with Mike Belsitoand Michael Sacca (same first name!), the hosts of Rocketship.FM, for this episode.
Rocketship is a podcast that dives into everything from product to growth, design to management and everything in between. This past season on Rocketship, the entire season was devoted to product and growth. And one of the topics Mike and Michael did a deep-dive into were the tools product people apply to understand their users better—specifically user personas and jobs to be done.
Since Mike and Michael did so much research on the topics, and interviewed a bunch of people using these frameworks, they shared their insights into what they learned from the episodes. Our colleague, Eleni, picked their brains on what differentiates these two frameworks, how to apply these concepts, and why jobs to be done has become the popular tool on the block.
Subscribe to Product to Product on iTunes (here) and Google Play (here), or get the latest episodes delivered to your inbox by subscribing here.
As a product management consultant and founder of a product school, Melissa Perri’s mission is clear-cut: teach people how to effectively think like a product manager. So we investigate what fuels product thinking, and how aspiring / existing PMs can learn this abstract skillset.
It’s episode two of Product to Product‘s second season, a podcast for / by product people!
This season we continue to explore the human side of product. Up next to share her real-world, practical stories of navigating the human-related aspects of the product space is Melissa Perri, CEO and founder of Product Institute and Produx Labs.
As a product consultant and founder of a product school, Melissa has trained over 2,000 PMs across her career. And her mission has always been clear-cut: teach people how to effectively think like a product manager.
Seeing as product thinking is a unique skill in itself, our CEO, Latif Nanji, sits down with Melissa to investigate what it means to think (and not think) like a PM, what fuels product thinking and how aspiring / existing PMs can learn this abstract skillset.
Subscribe to Product to Product on iTunes (here) and Google Play (here), or get the latest episodes delivered to your inbox by subscribing here.
As a product manager it’s easy to get so caught up in hitting KPIs that you forget to ask, “How’s my team doing?” For Lulu Cheng, her team’s “wellness” needed just as much focus as her metrics. So she prioritized her team’s well-being to ultimately improve her team’s overall performance and product strategy.
As a product manager it’s easy to get so caught up in hitting KPIs that you forget to ask, “How’s my team doing?” For Lulu Cheng, her team’s “wellness” needed just as much focus as her metrics. So she prioritized her team’s well-being to ultimately improve her team’s overall performance and product strategy.
Welcome to the first episode of season two of Product to Product, a podcast for / by product people!
For our second season we’ve decided to shake things up. This season, each episode will focus on a specific theme: the human side of product.
We’ll be having candid convos with product people who will be sharing real-world, practical stories of navigating the human-related aspects of the product space. That means we’ll discuss topics like handling tricky relationships with non-technical team members, how to effectively think like a product manger, and how to disrupt human behaviour with human-centered AI design (just to name a few topics!).
For our first episode of the season we’re joined by Lulu Cheng, product manager on the Discovery team at Pinterest. When Lulu first joined Pinterest in 2015, her primary objective was to ship quickly and hit her KPIs. But as she got more comfortable in her role—and the product space—she realized she wasn’t really asking her team, “How are you doing?”
So she made it a personal priority to focus on her team’s “wellness.” Was her team motivated? How was team morale? How are they handling the stress that comes with the role? She realized healthy team members = better team performance = a better product.
So Lulu spoke to Roadmunk's Eleni Deacon about concrete and proactive steps she takes to put her team’s well-being front and centre. Plus: what does this focus on team wellness ultimately mean for her team’s overall performance and product strategy.
Subscribe to Product to Product on iTunes (here) and Google Play (here), or get the latest episodes delivered to your inbox by subscribing here.
An integral part of Hotjar's success (fully bootstrapped to $10 million ARR) is their freemium pricing model. Many Hotjar users will never pay the company a cent. We find out how free usage has helped Hotjar grow + how it impacts product decisions.
The latest episode of Product to Product, a podcast for / by product people, is here. We spoke to Marc von Brockdorff, co-founder + engineering director of Hotjar.
Hotjar is on a mission to democratize user data and feedback by making their analytics platform accessible to everyone—no matter how small their website.
They’re a startup success story that you don’t hear too often. They’re based in Malta, a tiny island in the Mediterranean, and in 30 months, they bootstrapped their way to over 200,000 users and $10 million in annual revenue.
An integral part of their success is their freemium pricing model. Their free forever plan makes it possible for anyone to use Hotjar without ever paying a cent.
Roadmunk’s Eleni Deacon spoke to Marc to found out why they decided to build a free forever plan, how it impacts product decisions and how it contributed to their rapid revenue growth.
Subscribe to Product to Product on iTunes (here) and Google Play (here), or get the latest episodes delivered to your inbox by subscribing here.
Ellen recently made the transition from VP of Product at Lola to startup co-founder. We find out how Ellen’s career in product management is helping her tackle the challenges of an early-stage startup head on.
This is the latest episode of Product to Product—a product management podcast for / by product people.
We’re joined by Ellen Chisa. You may know her as the VP of Product at Lola, a former product manager at Kickstarter, or as a previous PM at Microsoft. Most recently, Ellen left Lola to launch her own startup that will make it possible to build a complete scalable app in an afternoon. She’s essentially creating a brand new programming language that aims to bring the ability to write software to a billion people. While her startup is still in very early stages, Ellen is completely in founder mode.
Our CEO, Latif Nanji, has first-hand experience with the PM-to-startup founder journey. So we thought, who better to chat with Ellen about how a role in product can prepare you to be an early-stage startup founder? With an increasing number of PMs starting their own companies, the two entrepreneurial PMs discuss how you can apply your PM experience as an early-stage founder. Plus: they determine whether product is actually the right field to be in when starting your own company.
Subscribe to Product to Product on iTunes (here) and Google Play (here), or get the latest episodes delivered to your inbox by subscribing here.