How to scale $0 to $25M ARR | Michael Park, VP of PM (Buffini & Co) | LaunchPod (Repeat)

July 1st, 2025  |  Season 1  |  43 mins 53 secs

business, digital experience, product management, technology

Today, our guest is Michael Park, VP of Product and Project Management at Buffini and Company.

In this episode, Jeff talks to Michael about:

• His six lessons from scaling product from zero to $25M ARR
• The nuance that comes with the “founder mode” discussion
• And what a self-imposed sabbatical taught Michael about product leadership.

Automating PRDs and Beyond with AI | Roman Gun, VP of Prod. (Zeta Global) | LaunchPod AI

June 24th, 2025  |  Season 1  |  29 mins 45 secs

business, digital experience, product management, technology

We're excited to kick off a new show focusing on the real-world AI applications that product teams are using to become faster, more efficient, and smarter.

Jeff has been traveling across the country meeting product leaders, and he keeps having the same conversation: every product person wants to know how their peers are using AI in their teams and their workflows.

So we’re bringing you those conversations about how your peers are using AI in their day-to-day to move faster and more efficiently than ever before.

In our first episode, we’re welcoming back Roman Gun, VP of Product at Zeta Global. In this episode, we talk about:

• The prompting and workflow orchestrations Roman created to automate writing PRDs, one of the most disliked tasks of product managers, and how he has made them into living, breathing documents that initiate collaboration
• The AI communities and platforms he uses, including Reddit and Discord, to stay ahead, learn new tricks, and gain early access to the best new tools
• And Magic...not actual magic, but we have a little fun with Roman’s side-project centered around Magic: The Gathering, and how he built tools to prototype new decks and beat players with far more experience

How To Modernize Million-User Products | Kamal Srinivasan, SVP of Product (Alludo) | LaunchPod

June 17th, 2025  |  Season 1  |  40 mins 49 secs

business, digital experience, product management, technology

Today on the pod, we’re talking with Kamal Srinivasan, SVP of Product Development at Alludo.

Kickstarter's Comeback | Mahesh Guruswamy, CPTO (Kickstarter)

June 10th, 2025  |  Season 1  |  35 mins 16 secs

business, digital experience, product management, technology

Today, we’re talking with Mahesh Guruswamy, CPTO at Kickstarter.

In this episode, we discuss:

• How daily reflection on hard moments helped him grow as a leader—and led to his widely praised book How to Deliver Bad News and Get Away with It.
• How Kickstarter went from “printing money” and experiencing “insane” PMF to plateauing - and how they created urgency and competition to quickly turn it around
• The actual process Kickstarter used to activate its creator and backer communities to shape a better UX, build real loyalty, and re-ignite growth

Inside MailChimp's PLG Engine | Lauren Schuman, VP of Prod. Growth (Bitly) | LaunchPod

June 3rd, 2025  |  Season 1  |  35 mins 3 secs

business, digital experience, product management, technology

On today’s episode, our guest is Lauren Schuman, VP of Product Growth at Bitly & former Sr. Dir. of Product Growth at MailChimp.

In this episode, we discuss:

• How Lauren created PLG as a discipline at MailChimp and turned it into a systematic growth engine
• The turnaround story behind a failed product launch, and how it led to a 183% spike in adoption overnight
• Why lagging engagement pushed her to lead a ground-up rebuild of MailChimp’s core email editor to improve growth

How to compete with Apple — and win | Steve Chazin, CEO & Founder (Skytech.io) | LaunchPod (Repeat)

May 27th, 2025  |  Season 1  |  30 mins 30 secs

business, digital experience, product management, technology

On today’s repeat episode, our guest is Steve Chazin, CEO & Founder of Skytech.io and formerly VP of Products at Alarm.com.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Steve’s experience working at Apple, competing with Final Cut Pro, and his current role at alarm.com
• The time he said no to Steve Jobs — and how that pushed his career forward
• The importance of user-centered product design and the impact of AI in home security

The AI Velocity Engine for Product | Jeremy Pollock VP of Product (WP Engine) | LaunchPod

May 20th, 2025  |  Season 1  |  41 mins 20 secs

business, digital experience, product management, technology

Build product impact with LLMs and data normalization | Rajitha Chaparala VP of Product (Procore) | LaunchPod

May 13th, 2025  |  Season 1  |  38 mins 22 secs

business, digital experience, product management, technology

On today’s episode, we’re talking with Rajitha Chaparala, VP of Product at Procore, a construction management solution and one of the most successful examples of vertical SaaS out there today.

How to category carve in B2B commerce | Jake Hookom, EVP of Product (Perforce) | LaunchPod

May 6th, 2025  |  Season 1  |  38 mins 32 secs

business, digital experience, product management, technology

Today, we’re talking with Jake Hookom, EVP of Product at Perforce.

In this episode, we’ll explore:

• How Jake’s focus on "category carving" at Four51 helped them soar above the sea of headless commerce tools and into a successful exit
• Why most PMs are wrong to measure success on features shipped - it’s about solving user problems throughout the entire customer journey
• And, how Sitecore’s enormous practitioner community provided market awareness and a means to drive product adoption beyond anything they could do alone disrupts the world

Building Consumer Trust for Mainstream Adoption | Sean McLeary, VP, Prod. Exp. (InTapp) | LaunchPod

April 29th, 2025  |  Season 1  |  38 mins 53 secs

business, digital experience, product management, technology

Today, we’re talking with Sean McLeary, VP of Product Experience at Intapp.

In this episode, we’ll explore:

• How Sean turned Macys.com and Macy’s brick-and-mortar into one cohesive experience, increasing revenue across both sources
• How the team at DocuSign improved the UX to go from tech darling to mainstream product
• The current landscape of AI adoption, addressing "empty box syndrome," and how AI’s parallels to the early stages of the internet help us understand how user behavior might evolve