LaunchPod | Product Management Podcast - Episodes Tagged with “Digital Experience”

How AI Helped Me Ship 9 Months of Product in 5 Days | Sriram Iyer, SVP of Product (ex-Salesforce)

LogRocket — Tue, 12 May 2026 08:00:00 -0400

A program manager told Sriram Iyer it would take 6 to 9 months to ship the first slice of their new product. Sriram challenged the team to do it in just five days.

At first, they laughed. Then he rolled his sleeves up, dug in with the team, and they did it. 5 days, from Monday to Friday.

Sriram has spent his career walking into companies like Salesforce, Adobe, and Freshworks, and pulling timelines apart. He calls himself the simplifier in chief, and the secret isn't the AI tooling. It's everything underneath the AI tooling that most leaders won't actually do. That's what make teams trust, and follow, him.

In this episode, Sriram breaks down exactly how that five-day sprint worked, including:

The "thinnest slice of pizza" principle that kills scope creep before it starts
Why AI made it possible — but isn't really the point
How to find the team members in any org who are actually ready to just make stuff happen — and why mindset matters more than tooling
And why none of this works without trust, prioritization, taste, and an executive willing to get in the weeds and take personal responsibility for the outcome

Links

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sriramviyer/

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What does LogRocket do?

LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com. Special Guest: Sriram Iyer.

AI Agents Fail for 2 Reasons. Crowdsourcing Solved Both. | Julia Dalton, SVP Product (Capacity)

LogRocket — Tue, 05 May 2026 08:00:00 -0400

Long before “AI Agent” was the buzzword in every product discussion, Julia Dalton was already deep into solving the problems of coordinating thousands of worker agents, creating clear instruction prompts, and evaluating output quality.

Julia is SVP of Product at the AI-support automation platform, Capacity. Previously, she helped scale workflow orchestration at OneSpace, formerly known as Crowdsource, where thousands of freelancers executed microtasks for major retailers. As it turns out, managing humans at scale and managing AI agents have a lot more in common than most people realize.

In this episode, Julia shares:

The two failure modes that kill every AI agent before the model ever runs
Why running a crowdsourced work platform gave her incredible insights into building effective agentic AI products
How Julia and her team built an AI system to triage and prioritize product feedback, automating low-complexity builds and helping make better decisions on high-stakes tradeoffs

Links

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliadalton/
Capacity: https://capacity.com/

Chapters

00:00 Intro
00:52 Julia's startup roots at OneSpace
02:00 Transitioning from the human API to AI agents
02:47 Microtasking workflow chains
06:54 Routing rules and AI orchestration
11:55 Validating prompts with simulations
15:08 Recursive prompting in practice
17:46 Data and knowledge orchestration
20:57 PRP triage app for product requests
26:56 Conclusion

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April Dunford’s 1 Killer Question to Expose Weak AI Product Positioning [Repeat]

LogRocket — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 08:00:00 -0400

In this week's repeat episode, we’re joined by the undisputed queen of B2B positioning: April Dunford.

April is the best-selling author of the seminal book "Obviously Awesome" and the new hit "Sales Pitch." She has spent 25 years as a startup executive and consultant, helping companies stop guessing and start winning. If you have ever struggled to explain exactly why customers should pick you over the other guy, this episode is a masterclass.

In this episode, April talks about:

Why Positioning is a Product Problem: How undefined positioning leads to wasted roadmaps, "not good enough" feedback from Sales, and engineering teams burning out on features that don't win deals.
The "AI Washing" Trap: Why saying "We have AI" is no longer a strategy—and how to articulate the specific value your tech unlocks that the competition can’t.
Why she loves when competitors lie: How to ethically trap competitors who over-promise features (and the one question sales should tell your prospects to ask them).
And finally, Vision vs. Reality: How to sell the "glorious future" without losing the deal you need to close today.

Links

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aprildunford/
April's website: https://www.aprildunford.com/
April's books: https://www.aprildunford.com/books

Resources

(Ethically) cheat your way to $250M+ | Mikal Lewis, Product Exec. (Whole Foods, Nordstrom): https://youtu.be/5txeT2U_YQo

Chapters

00:00: Introduction
01:45: April's journey from engineering to marketing to product positioning expert
05:00: The shifting lansscape: Position from COVID to the AI era
10:45: Moving beyond "AI washing" to find differentiated value
15:30: Defining your true competitive landscape
20:30: How to be worth your customers' migration risk
23:45: Why April likes when competitors "lie" about their capabilities and features
32:00: Why positioning is critical for product and engineering alignment
35:00: April's new book details

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AI Isn't Breaking PM Teams. Overload is. Explained by Stanford PhD & CPO Jen Wang (Framework)

LogRocket — Wed, 15 Apr 2026 08:00:00 -0400

Our guest today, Jen Wang, holds a PhD from Stanford in behavior sciences, judgment, and decision-making. She built her product career at ThredUp, and now serves as Chief Product Officer and go-to-market lead at Framework.

That combination — behavioral scientist plus operating CPO — gives her a rare lens into the most urgent question in product leadership right now: how do you lead and build when the ground is shifting faster than anyone can follow?

In this episode, we talk about:

The decision-making behind why Framework scrapped their roadmap
Why iteration, not technical proficiency, has been the most important skill to drive AI adoption in teams
There’s actually a scientific reason why everyone’s so overwhelmed, and it’s called the “Zone of Absorption”

Links

Jen's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wangjennifer/
Framework: https://frame.work/

Resources

ThredUp: https://www.thredup.com/
Anthropic: https://www.anthropic.com/
Leadership Without Easy Answers by Ronald A. Heifetz: https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674518582
The engineer's ring: https://www.nspe.org/career-growth/pe-magazine/july-2009/called-order

Chapters

00:00 Introduction
03:50: Why everyone thinks they’re behind on AI
06:29: “The zone of absorption”: The science behind AI overwhelm
10:10: Why Framework scrapped their 2026 roadmap in February
12:31: Choosing your AI toolset: When to experiment vs. When to commit
14:25: Rethinking engineering resourcing to make room for “process debt”
15:43: The A/B testing parallel: Is AI history repeating itself?
18:27: AI prototyping: Productive or underbaked ideas?
25:08: The learning possibilities that AI opens up
26:56: Should product leaders take a Hippocratic oath?
28:21: Conclusion

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The Analytics Gap Most eCom Teams Don’t Know They Have | Raul Parquet, Dir. eCom (Princess Cruises)

LogRocket — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 09:15:00 -0400

Raul Parquet is the Director of Ecommerce at Princess Cruises, where he’s helping to lead them into a more digital future where visa requirements, multi-destination itineraries, and endless customization options are something customers can actually complete online.

In this episode, Raul shares:

The unglamorous but vital elements of a complete eCommerce analytics stack, and the table-stakes things teams often skip
Why an Analytics team embedded inside product is a requirement, and the deployment discipline that brings with it
And how Princess Cruises is using AI behind the scenes to help their team work smarter — and why, when it comes to customers, simplicity will always matter more than technology

Links

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/raul-parquet/
Princess Cruises: https://www.princess.com/

Chapters

00:00 Introduction
02:00 Why cruises are one of the hardest ecommerce problems to solve
6:00 Embedding analytics teams into product
8:00 The analytics stack: What "table stakes" actually looks like
13:30 How AI is already helping analytics teams work smarter
15:00 The gaps most teams don't know they have
19:00 Simplifying complex bookings: The Tesla analogy
21:00 100% of Princess Cruisers have been on the website
25:00 Where AI actually fits in the customer journey
29:00 Outro

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How to Avoid AI FOMO like Patagonia | Angela Clark, VP Digital

LogRocket — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 08:00:00 -0400

I keep meeting teams across the country that are facing intense pressure to shoehorn AI into every feature, often without a coherent thesis on the problem it’ll solve. But what if the smartest move in the AI gold rush is to actually slow down?

Angela Clark, VP of Digital at Patagonia, is doing exactly that. At a brand known for its fierce commitment to the planet, Angela is applying that same intentionality to their digital experience. Instead of blowing budgets on every new AI tool, she’s taking a thoughtful approach to building a personalized customer journey across an audience that spans both elite pro athletes and weekend warriors.

In this episode, Angela shares:

How her team is designing a customer journey that caters to the buyer on a 1:1 level, including Product Detail Pages that can speak effortlessly to either extreme of their customer base
Her playbook for managing AI-related “shiny object syndrome" and keeping your roadmap focused on the customer.
And why Patagonia flipped the definition of “customer lifetime value” to align with their conservation-driven mission — even happily downselling you to a refurbished item instead of a newer, more expensive version.

Links

Angela's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/angclrk/
Patagonia: https://www.patagonia.com/home/

Chapters

00:00 Introduction
01:43 Angela's career journey
03:30: The PDP problem: Serving elite athletes & urban buyers on the same page
07:00: Building personalization through behavioral signals
09:30: Personalization: it's not a tech problem, it's a customer journey problem
00:15:30 How Angela built the foundation of digital at Patagonia
20:30: How to navigate slow-moving organizations
23:00: Redefining customer lifetime value around Patagonia's mission
26:30: AI FOMO — and why you're not actually falling behind
31:30: Conclusion

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The Anti-Headcount Billion-Dollar eCom Playbook | David Cost, CDO (Rainbow Shops)

LogRocket — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 08:00:00 -0400

How many engineers does it take to run the ecommerce site for a retail company that does over a billion dollars in revenue per year?

Well, if you’re Rainbow Shops, the answer is just 2.

Most ecommerce teams assume scale requires more engineers, more tools, more complexity. Chief Digital Officer David Cost has built something many people in ecommerce would say isn't possible — a lean, fast-moving digital operation that runs on vendor partnerships instead of a massive internal team. Two engineers, hundreds of programmers' worth of output, and none of the overhead that comes with scaling the traditional way.

In this episode, David shares:

A detailed, under-the-hood look at the specific vendors they use to stay so lean
His playbook for using strategic partnerships with vendors as an external dev team
How being a testbed for new tech gives them a competitive edge
And why their choice of ecommerce platform was vital in enabling Rainbow’s digital strategy

Links

David's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidcost/
Rainbow Shops: https://www.linkedin.com/company/rainbow-apparel-co/

Chapters

00:00 Introduction
00:42 David’s product journey
02:36 How Rainbow runs with only two engineers
03:07 Rainbow's decision to migrate from Salesforce Commerce Cloud to Shopify
07:14 How Rainbow uses AI to support a lean team
11:34 Rainbow's partnership with Lica for AI-generated product images
17:25 The future of personalization in ecommerce
23:01 Shop Pay and Rainbow's checkout features
26:15 Conclusion

Resoures

Lica: https://lica.world/
Fuego: https://fuego.io/

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The World’s Safest Driver Isn’t Human. Can Waymo Stop Traffic Deaths? | Chinmay Jain, Dir. Product

LogRocket — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 08:00:00 -0400

40,000 people a year die from traffic accidents in the US. Our guest today is Chinmay Jain, Director of Product Management on Waymo's Driving Behavior team, who is working to make that number 90% smaller.

In this episode, Chinmay shares:

How he thought through leaving YouTube at its peak to join a moonshot company that could have civilization-level impact
Waymo’s actual AI eval process, using massive simulations based on millions of real-world driving miles to maximize edge cases, ultimately turning trust into their real product
And the misleading, but common, metrics Chinmay and his team learned to spot that could have seriously derailed Waymo’s progress

Links

Chinmay's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chinmayjain/
Waymo: https://waymo.com/

Chapters

00:00 Introduction
01:40 Chinmay’s decision to leave YouTube for Waymo
04:12 How does Waymo test its AI in the physical world?
06:09 Waymo’s layered evaluation system
09:53 Simulations and ML gains at Waymo
16:48 Waymo’s metrics for safety
21:33 What driving choices make training AI drivers the hardest?
24:00 Conclusion

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The Cortisol UI: How We Fix FinServ’s Empathy Problem | Melissa Douros, CPO (Green Dot)

LogRocket — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 08:00:00 -0500

Most financial products are optimized for transactions, not human emotion. For many people, this transforms an already fraught topic into pure anxiety.

Our guest today is building banking for what she calls the Cortisol UI.

Melissa Douros has spent over 26 years in financial services, starting in debt collection and now serving as the Chief Product Officer at Green Dot. Early on, she learned firsthand that shame is a terrible retention mechanism. That lesson now shapes how she builds financial products for millions of users — for whom the time spent simply navigating their finances can be the most stressful of the day.

In this episode, Melissa shares:

How finserv companies can design for the “Cortisol UI“ by building trust and experiences that reduce anxiety before the transaction
An experiment she ran for Discover’s 5% cashback program where test users collapsed under decision paralysis — proving that more choice can actually increase financial stress
How she flipped Great Wolf Lodge’s booking model from 70% call center to 90% digital while enhancing the human experience
And how Green Dot is navigating AI and agentic commerce without breaking the one thing banks can’t afford to lose: trust

Links

Melissa's: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissadouros/
Green Dot Corporation: https://www.greendot.com/

Resources

LaunchPod - Nan Yu: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27rGB-6XQJg
LaunchPod - Ben McAllister: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-6Cs3RJeZw

Chapters

00:00 Introduction
01:00 Melissa's finserv background and how she landed in product
05:10 How Green Dot builds trust as a financial services product
07:29 Building for the "Cortisol UI" to lessen user stress, especially in finance
9:55 Quietly fixing customer issues while not inundanting them with feature releases
14:35 Green Dot moving compliance from the backend to a key part of the product team
16:20 Launching AI features in a high-risk industry
18:36 Decision paralysis and Discover's failed attempt at a 5% cashback reward program
24:57 How Melissa digitized Great Wolf Lodge's customer experience
30:51 Conclusion

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The $500M Lesson from Amazon’s Homepage Redesign | Rahul Chaudhari (ex-Amazon, Kohl’s)

LogRocket — Tue, 24 Feb 2026 08:00:00 -0500

How do you redesign the most visited e-commerce webpage in the world? Rahul Chaudhari helped reshape the Amazon homepage during his years as a product leader there, before becoming VP of Product and Technology at Kohl's.

In this episode, Rahul shares:

Amazon’s “customer backwards” approach - and how he used it to unlock half a billion dollars of value on the Amazon homepage
The secret to product adoption: leverage existing customer habits to unlock new opportunities
And how Amazon and Google raised the bar for digital experiences so high that now every other product pays the price

Links

Rahul's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rahul-chaudhari/

Chapters

00:00 Intro: Rahul's journey from marketing to product
03:08 Why “mid” digital experiences no longer work
07:35 Rebuilding the Amazon homepage “hero” to be customer-backwards
12:48 Experimentation + adoption metrics: measuring what actually matters
14:20 Adoption > clicks: Defining the right success metrics
18:41 AI and the future of retail: Rethink the business model, not the tools
21:50 Agentic shopping: What happens when ChatGPT becomes the homepage?
23:30 From keyword search to intent-based shopping
25:57 AI needs containers, not just models
30:29 Will AI level the playing field for small retailers?
33:16 Conclusion

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Smarter AI Models Won't Fix Your Deployment | Maryam Ashoori, VP PM/Eng (IBM, Watsonx)

LogRocket — Tue, 17 Feb 2026 08:00:00 -0500

In this episode, we’re joined by Maryam Ashoori, VP of Product and Engineering at IBM’s Watsonx platform. With a background that includes 2 master's degrees in AI, a PhD in Systems Design Engineering, and named on over 30 patents at IBM, she’s been on the bleeding edge for over a decade. Currently leading the charge on Agentic AI and AI Governance at IBM, Maryam is a bridge between the theoretical frontier of AI and the messy reality of enterprise deployment.

In this episode, Maryam:

Tells why AI has been stuck in pilot purgatory for longer than expected, and what you need to do today for a successful enterprise deployment
Calls shenanigans on the “biggest, best model” crowd, and why often a smaller, more focused tool is the right choice
Explains how to build an agnostic architecture that can handle the realities of an AI world where models advance faster than anybody can keep up

Links

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mashoori/
IBM: https://www.ibm.com/us-en

Resources

Reinventing SaaS: Zuora's AI Transformation | Karthik Chakkarapani and Shakir Karim (Zuora): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHVxnLikMpQ
Linear’s Secret to Building Powerful AI Products | Nan Yu, Head of Product (Linear): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27rGB-6XQJg

Chapters

00:00 Intro
02:18 From ChatGPT hype to enterprise reality: use cases, ROI, and the rise of agents
06:11 Security, accountability & governance: who’s responsible when agents go wrong?
10:37 Risk-based rollout: use-case scoping, Risk Atlas, and guardrails like PII detection
17:10 Observability for agentic workflows
18:21 Why compute optimization matters
22:58 Designing for model agility: abstraction layers, routing, and picking the right model
27:23 Conclusion

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Using AI to Preserve 140 Years of History at the LA Times | Deepika Manglani, VP Product (LA Times)

LogRocket — Wed, 04 Feb 2026 11:00:00 -0500

In this episode, we’re joined by Deepika Manglani, VP of Product and Program Management at the LA Times. Deepika’s career in media spans over 15 years, culminating in her current role, where she’s bringing the 140-year-old institution into the future.

In this episode, Deepika shares:

How her team is using AI to preserve a unique trove of historical data, over 12 million pages of news archives from as far back as the 1800s
What this digital archive and maturation of AI enables for future storytelling, media innovation, and news personalization
Why combining product and program management was critical to navigating massive transformation at the LA Times through a period of heavy M&A activity

Links

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deepikamanglani/
LA Times: https://www.latimes.com/

Chapters

00:00 Intro
00:15 Deepika's career journey in media and product leadership
01:25 Building from scratch at LA Times
05:06 Digitizing historical archives
08:40 Challenges and innovations in AI and OCR
19:54 Future prospects and personalization in news
24:33 Conclusion

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Designing for Attention: How CrossFit Builds Product for Community-Led Growth | Ben McAllister, CPTO

LogRocket — Tue, 27 Jan 2026 08:00:00 -0500

In this episode, we’re joined by Ben McAllister, the Chief Product and Technology Officer at CrossFit, and one of the most thoughtful product leaders I’ve had the pleasure of speaking with.

Ben’s path is anything but linear: with a degree in physics, a short stint in consulting, and time spent as a creative director at a design agency before moving into senior product roles at Under Armour. Now he’s shaping one of the world’s most iconic fitness ecosystems.

In this episode, Ben shares:

Why attention is the ultimate currency in product design, and how to design for the “spotlight” versus the periphery.
The “Infovore” Advantage: Why the best product leaders borrow ideas from outside the tech world; and
How to build a cohesive product strategy for a complex, decentralized network like CrossFit’s global community of affiliates and athletes.

Links

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mcallister/
X: https://x.com/benmcallister?lang=en
CrossFit: https://www.crossfit.com/

Resources

The Age of the Infovore: Succeeding in the Information Economy (https://tylercowen.com/dd-product/the-age-of-the-infovore-succeeding-in-the-information-economy/)
On the Origin of Stories (https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674057111)

Chapters

00:00: Introduction
00:41: Ben's non-linear career path: From physicist to product leader
03:23: The "infovore" mindset in product management
06:00: Storytelling, juxtaposition, and the science of learning
08:48: Designing product for attention
12:00: Why product leaders shouldn't ignore marketing
15:10: CrossFit's origins as an internet-native brand
19:44: What is the CrossFit Open?
24:37: Conclusion

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How AI Can Eliminate the “Chaos Tax” in Enterprise Software | Karthik Viswanathan (TalAiro)

LogRocket — Tue, 20 Jan 2026 08:00:00 -0500

In this episode, we’re joined by Karthik Viswanathan. Formerly a product leader at AT&T, Macy’s, and Optum, he’s now the founder of TalAiro, an HR tech startup that is rethinking the operating system for recruiting.

Karthik argues that the hidden failure of the modern tech stack is forcing the user to serve as a “manual integration layer. He explains how the push to "unbundle" features results in a “Chaos Tax”— consuming 40-60% of the workday with fighting disconnected tools rather than doing their jobs.

Beyond that, Karthik also discusses:

How AI can make work more human: Why the true value isn't in replacing jobs, but automating the "devil's cut" of administrative work.
The journey from enterprise leader to founder: What building TalAiro from scratch taught Karthik about prioritization after years of leading enterprise product orgs, such as focusing on the 20% of workflows that drive 80% of the value

Links

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karthikvish/
TalAiro: https://www.talairo.ai/

Chapters

00:00: Introduction
00:54: Karthik's product background
02:58: The "chaos tax" and how tool sprawl negatively impacts product efficiency
04:25: Challenges in HR tech
09:26: Working backwards from customer problems to build your digital solution
11:53: How TalAiro differentiates itself as an HR tool
15:03: The role of AI in enhancing human potential
20:59: Karthik's transition from enterprise to startup leader
27:14: Conclusion

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April Dunford’s 1 Killer Question to Expose Weak AI Product Positioning

LogRocket — Tue, 13 Jan 2026 08:00:00 -0500

This week, we’re joined by the undisputed queen of B2B positioning, April Dunford.

April is the best-selling author of the seminal book "Obviously Awesome" and the new hit "Sales Pitch." She has spent 25 years as a startup executive and consultant helping companies stop guessing and start winning. If you have ever struggled to explain exactly why customers should pick you over the other guy, this episode is a masterclass.

In this episode, April talks about:

Why Positioning is a Product Problem: How undefined positioning leads to wasted roadmaps, "not good enough" feedback from Sales, and engineering teams burning out on features that don't win deals.
The "AI Washing" Trap: Why saying "We have AI" is no longer a strategy—and how to articulate the specific value your tech unlocks that the competition can’t.
Why she loves when competitors lie: How to ethically trap competitors who over-promise features (and the one question sales should tell your prospects to ask them).
And finally, Vision vs. Reality: How to sell the "glorious future" without losing the deal you need to close today.

Links

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aprildunford/
April's website: https://www.aprildunford.com/
April's books: https://www.aprildunford.com/books

Chapters

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Is Dashboarding Dead? How AI Is Changing Analytics UX | Robert Henkhaus, VP of Product (Enverus)

LogRocket — Tue, 06 Jan 2026 08:00:00 -0500

From U.S. Army sniper to VP of Product, Robert Henkhaus knows a thing or two about high-stakes decision-making. Today, he’s a product leader at Enverus, the software platform guiding billions of dollars in global energy capital.

Fresh off Enverus’ acquisition by Blackstone, Robert joins us to discuss how to innovate when the pressure is on.

In this episode, we cover:

Why "Black Box" AI Fails: How Enverus builds trust with investment stakeholders by forcing AI to "show its work" on multi-million dollar recommendations.
The Death of the Dashboard: Robert’s hot take on why AI will soon make traditional charts obsolete.
Surviving Acquisition: The "60-Day Horizon" strategy Robert uses to keep team velocity high amidst Private Equity uncertainty.

Links

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-henkhaus/
Enverus: https://www.enverus.com/

Chapters

00:00 Intro
03:39: Product innovations at Enverus
4:03: AI in the energy sector: How Enverus is implementing AI in oil and gas operations
6:47: Progressive disclosure and using AI to improve the user experience
9:56: Product engagement scores: How Enverus tracks success metrics
15:39: How internal teams are engaging with AI at Enverus
17:53: Are dashboards dead? How AI is transforming analytics
19:36: Enverus' recent acquisition by Blackstone
28:00: Conclusion

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Why AI Agents Are the Future of ERP | Bret Tushaus, VP Product (DelTek) - Repeat

LogRocket — Tue, 30 Dec 2025 08:00:00 -0500

In this repeat episode of LaunchPod, originally published on Aug 12, 2025, we’re talking with Bret Tushaus, VP of Product at Deltek.

In this episode, we discuss:

How Deltek built Dela — an AI agent framework powering everything from smart summaries to autonomous accounting
Why AI is rewriting the role of Product Management, and what leaders need to know now
How Bret’s team leveled up their AI skills fast — with short, high-impact sprints focused on real tools and real problems

Links

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bret-tushaus-b959b56/
Deltek: https://www.deltek.com/en

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to AI in Product Management
01:06 Building AI-Powered Solutions at DelteK
03:05 Smart Summaries and Predictive Analytics
08:24 Intelligent Exploration and Conversational Interfaces
17:39 The Future of AI Agents
22:14 Getting Started with AI in Your Team
26:52 Final Thoughts

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Lessons from the Launch that Became a Silicon Valley Punchline | Berni Fisher, VP Product (Appcues)

LogRocket — Tue, 23 Dec 2025 08:00:00 -0500

This week, we sat down with Berni Fisher, VP of Product at Appcues and a self-described "first principles goddess." Berni goes deep on what it was really like behind the scenes during the notorious 2012 Apple Maps launch, the triple threat problem at ButcherBox where they exist at the intersection of grocery, eCommerce, AND SaaS, and more.

In our conversation, Berni discusses:

Surviving the "2012 Apple Maps Debacle" and the intense backlash post-launch, as well as how the team used a "triage mindset" to prioritize fixes based on customer usage and risk.
Her Black Friday Gamble: Why she pushed for a risky site overhaul at ButcherBox right before their busiest season, resulting in double-digit conversion gains
And Customer-Led AI Innovation: how Appcues used their own product to poll users on AI trust, leading to a roadmap driven by actual customer needs rather than industry hype.

Links

Berni's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernadettefisher/
Accues: https://www.appcues.com/

Chapters

00:00 Introduction
01:43 Berni Fisher's product journey
04:44 Challenges and Lessons from Apple Maps
15:26 Transition to ButcherBox
17:27 Innovations and Customer Focus at ButcherBox
24:35 AI Innovations at Appcues
27:34 Conclusion

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Why Top-of-Funnel Traffic is Dead (& How TED is Replacing It ) | Tricia Maia, Head of Product (TED)

LogRocket — Wed, 17 Dec 2025 08:00:00 -0500

Today, we’re joined by Tricia Maia, Head of Product at TED. We all know TED Talks — but behind the scenes, TED is undergoing a massive product transformation to adapt to a post-AI media landscape. In this episode, Tricia Maia, Head of Product at TED, pulls back the curtain on how they’re solving the “discovery” crisis facing digital media today.

Tricia shares:

Why “views” are dead: Explaining why TED is abandoning top-of-funnel traffic as their North Star metric and shifting focus to “depth,” completion rates, and account signups to combat volatile search algorithms
AI that actually scales: How TED is using advanced AI auto-dubbing — not just subtitles — to clone speakers’ voices into other languages, driving 2-3x better performance
The “gap” strategy: The challenge of connecting a decentralized ecosystem of free users and volunteers at TEDx with an ultra-premium live experience that can cost up to $12,500 per ticket

Links

Tricia's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/triciamaia/
TED.com: https://www.ted.com/

Chapters

00:00: Introduction
01:51: TED's Media Landscape in an AI World
02:17: What does "Product" mean at TED?
04:24: How TED is Dealing with Challenges and Strategies in Media Discovery
14:59: Evolving Metrics and Goals Beyond Vanity Metrics Like Views
24:24: How TED is Connecting Digital and Event Audiences
32:22: TED's New AI Auto-Dubbing Initiative
37:14: Conclusion

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Make the C-Suite Think Like a Startup (Without Getting Fired) | West Stringfellow, VP Product (ex-Target, Blackhawk)

LogRocket — Tue, 09 Dec 2025 08:00:00 -0500

Today, we’re joined by West Stringfellow, currently VP of Product at Blackhawk Network and former VP of Innovation at Target.

In this episode, West shares:

How he went from stealth startups to leading innovation at a company with over $77 billion in annual sales
The methods he uses to manage up and influence leadership in order to achieve the outcomes necessary to create successful organizations time and time again
The bold move that accelerated his Target career, which included hand-delivering over 300 copies of his innovation proposal to every executive at their Minneapolis HQ, even catching the attention of Target’s CEO
An inside look at how Blackhawk is thinking about AI and digital transformation by cultivating “culture carriers” to champion AI

Links

West’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/weststringfellow/
Blackhawk Network: https://blackhawknetwork.com/
HowDo: https://howdo.com/about/

Chapters

00:00: Introduction
01:17: West's career journey
02:08: Project Goldfish and West's startup background
05:43: Making product and strategy decisions at Target
06:25: West building a Techstars Startup Accelerator
08:39: How West's work at Target inspired his startup, HowDo
09:44: How did West "manage up" at Target?
17:05: An introduction to Blackhawk
21:02: Digital transformation with gift cards
23:44: How Blackhawk is using AI
30:29: Big AI wins
33:09: Conclusion

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Why PMs are Leveling up into AI Product Engineers | Sarah Jacob Singh, CPTO (Medbridge)

LogRocket — Tue, 02 Dec 2025 08:00:00 -0500

Today, we’re joined by Sarah Jacob Singh, CPTO at Medbridge, a digital healthcare platform.

In this episode, Sarah shares:

Why AI means all companies have to act like startups again, with product more tightly integrated from engineering all the way to go-to-market
How many Product Managers are evolving into Product Engineers - building prototypes, shipping code, and helping developer teams innovate faster
The ways Medbridge is leveraging AI-enabled Product Engineers to ship big bets weekly instead of quarterly

Links

Sarah’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahjacobsingh/
Medbridge: https://www.medbridge.com/

Chapters

00:00: Introduction
01:53: Sarah’s career journey
03:56: The expanding role of product management
08:22: The impact of AI on product and engineering
11:35: Prototyping and feedback loops
17:20: AI adoption in healthcare
19:04: What is the “product engineer”?
22:47: In-house vs. Purchased solutions
29:13: Medbridge’s upcoming hackathon
30:54: Conclusion

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A Serial Founder’s Guide to Pivots, Exits, and AI | Raj Singh, VP of Product (Mozilla)

LogRocket — Tue, 25 Nov 2025 08:00:00 -0500

Today, we’re joined by serial entrepreneur Raj Singh. His multiple exits have landed him in product leadership roles at companies like Salesforce.com, and, most currently, as a VP of Product at Mozilla, where he’s leading the team creating new AI products for SMBs.

In this episode, Raj shares:

How his companies navigated multiple pivots, with innovations from ChatGPT and Zoom leading most recently to an acquisition by Mozilla
What makes “agentic browsers” the next major interface for the web, and how they could change everything from ad models to API access
And why Mozilla’s stewardship of Gecko, one of only three major browser engines, is essential to keeping the internet open in the age of AI

Links

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rajansingh/
Mozilla: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/

Chapters

00:00: Introduction
01:50: Raj’s entrepreneurial journey
03:52: The evolution of meeting summarization tools
07:51: Raj’s product pivot
08:26: Adapting to video communication during the pandemic
16:05: Pulse’s viral growth and Mozilla acquisition
20:25: AI and browser integration
27:10: Mozilla’s role in browser innovation
30:58: Conclusion

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When CPO Becomes CMO: The Expanding Role of Product Leaders | Karen Chao (Flowspace)

LogRocket — Tue, 18 Nov 2025 08:00:00 -0500

Today, we’re joined by Karen Chao, Chief Product Officer at Flowspace, an ecommerce logistics platform, where she’s also taken on a role as head of marketing. Previously, Karen held product leadership roles at Apple, Replicon, Innit, and more.

In this episode, Karen shares:

How she ended up running Marketing on top of Product, and how bringing these two functions under one leader has improved go-to-market for Flowspace
The biggest surprises she’s uncovered running marketing as a product leader, from chaotic tool stacks to the next wave of AI-powered go-to-market automation
And how Flowspace’s product team uses AI tools like Cursor and Claude to accelerate discovery and prototyping, and even ship small bug fixes straight to production without Engineers involved

Links

Karen's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karen1chao/
Flowspace: https://flow.space/

Resources

(Ethically) cheat your way to $250M+ | Mikal Lewis, Product Exec. (Whole Foods, Nordstrom): https://youtu.be/5txeT2U_YQo

Chapters

00:00: Intro
02:06: Karen's career highlights
03:59: How Karen and Flowspace are using AI in their team workflows
15:11: The intersection of product and marketing
22:13: What's surprised Karen most about transitioning from product to marketing
29:12: Conclusion

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When AI Makes Engineering Too Fast for Product Teams | Oji Udezue (ex-Typeform & Calendly)

LogRocket — Thu, 13 Nov 2025 08:00:00 -0500

On today’s episode of LaunchPod, we’ve got something special for you. Normally, you’d have to join us in person at one of the dinners we host for product leaders to hear this talk from Oji Udezue. But the response has been so great, we had to bring him onto the show again.

Oji has previously held product leadership roles at Typeform, Twitter, Calendly, and Atlassian. Today, he’s joining us to share a major problem in product delivery that he’s seeing as AI adoption increases across teams.

In this episode, we discuss:

The “three-speed problem,” as Oji calls it – how AI will bring about a 10x increase in engineering velocity. But where does that leave product management and go-to-market teams if they can’t keep up?
Why AI is a BS term, as it’s really five new AND distinct capabilities – and how to use those as a framework for smarter product strategy
And how his “shipyard model” for product teams will ensure you keep up and thrive, even as AI reshapes how we build software

Links

Oji’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ojiudezue/
ProductMind: https://www.productmind.co/
Building Rocketships: Product Management for High-Growth Companies: https://www.productmind.co/building-rocketships-book

Resources

Oji’s past LaunchPod episode: https://www.productmind.co/building-rocketships-book
Claude: https://claude.ai/
Cursor: https://cursor.com/
Windsurf: https://windsurf.com/

Chapters

00:00 Introduction
1:21 Building Rocket Ships by Oji and Ezinne Udezue
1:55 What is the shipyard model in product?
5:20 The evolution of technology: Why AI is just a new technology level
7:50 The 5 flavors of AI
13:23 The limiting function of development is no longer the speed of engineering – but what is it now?
17:05 Solving the three-speed problem
21:32 Conclusion

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Product Lessons from a $3B Bootstrapped eCom Platform | Trevin Chow, CPO (Big Cartel)

LogRocket — Tue, 04 Nov 2025 08:00:00 -0500

Today, we’re joined by Trevin Chow, Chief Product Officer at Big Cartel, an ecommerce platform for independent creators to turn their art into income. Previously, Trevin held product leadership roles at Nike, Microsoft, Axon, and more.

In this episode, Trevin shares:

How they thread the needle between brand history and innovation — respecting a 20+ year legacy while still driving towards the future
His process for creating “simple magic” by making features so simple, they delight users — even if that trades less customization for better ease of use
How AI is transforming product and design workflows by drastically cutting down the time between idea and innovation
And what product leaders can learn from rethinking simple as a benefit rather than a constraint

Links

LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/trevin/
Navan: https://www.bigcartel.com/

Resources

Lovable: https://lovable.dev/
Unblocked: https://getunblocked.com/

Chapters

00:00: Intro
03:22: The product journey that led Trevin to Big Cartel
05:55: Big Cartel's 20+ year legacy and how they look at innovation
12:28: Why simplicity can trump complexity in software
13:26: Products and features that delight ft. an example from Alaska Airlines
18:03: Why Big Cartel launched a "pause subscription" button, and the value it drove
21:09: What makes features appear "magical" in today's product landscape
23:06: The overlap between product management and product design
23:40: Trevin's guide to hiring for curiosity and grit
33:17: Conclusion

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How Tinder Swiped Right on Customer Experience | Curtis Stevens (ex-Tinder)

LogRocket — Tue, 28 Oct 2025 08:00:00 -0400

Today, we’re talking with Curtis Stevens, who, until recently, was Tinder’s Director of Product Consumer Insights, and prior to that held product leadership roles at Qualtrics, Amazon, and more.

In this episode, Curtis shares:

How AI can actually be a tool for human connection
His process behind Tinder’s transformation into customer-centricity, with real, measurable results
How to balance short-term user joy with long-term product innovation and future features
And how AI is driving customer experience changes faster than research can follow, and what you can do to keep up

Links

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/curtis-b-stevens/

Chapters

00:00: Intro
03:03: Curtis Stevens' product journey
7:40: Challenges and strategies in customer experience
14:54: Curtis' journey workshops
20:41: AI's role in customer research
27:41: Conclusion

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The Hidden AI Revolution in Construction | Rajitha Chaparala (Procore)

LogRocket — Thu, 23 Oct 2025 08:00:00 -0400

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.

In this episode, we discuss:

How Rajitha and her team are using LLMs to streamline complex processes like requests for information (RFIs), project revisions, and construction site walkthroughs
Why building trust and showing real, immediate value were key to getting AI buy-in from construction professionals, historically hesitant to adopt new tech
Why Rajitha believes this is construction’s moment for AI, and how the shift from skepticism to curiosity happened almost overnight

Links

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rajithachaparala/
Procore: www.procore.com

Chapters

00:00 Introduction
00:48: The complexity of construction and technology adoption
02:00: AI streamlining Requests for Information (RFIs) in construction
04:00: Why LLMs are ideal for construction's unstructured data
06:00: Building trust for AI adoption
08:00: The future of construction thanks to AI adoption

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Linear’s Secret to Building Powerful AI Products | Nan Yu, VP of Product (Linear)

LogRocket — Thu, 16 Oct 2025 08:00:00 -0400

Today, we’re joined again by Nan Yu, Head of Product at Linear.

In this episode, Nan shares:

Why you’re wrong to think of AI as a way to reduce costs -- and why the real value is in enabling new work that was previously impossible
The 3 must-haves he’s deduced from across the most successful AI products to produce consistently great outcomes for users
The behind-the-scenes details of Linear’s new Agent Interaction Guidelines

Links

Nan's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thenanyu/
Nan's X: https://x.com/thenanyu?lang=en
Linear: https://linear.app/
Linear's previous episode of LaunchPod: https://youtu.be/7ISWLoQtNOc?si=dNKmSdQ98eqis_JW

Resources

Linear's Agent Interaction Guidelines: https://linear.app/developers/aig
Granola.ai: https://www.granola.ai/
Cursor: https://cursor.com/

Chapters

00:00: Intro
03:24: Using AI as a harness, the systems and context layers that make AI tools repeatable and useful at scale
07:54: Scaling AI tools to ensure consistency and quality
14:14: Analyzing user interaction, tweak time, and feedback
18:29: Linear's new Agent Interaction Guidelines
22:14: How AI is changing the role of engineers
27:42: AI's impact on junior roles
30:10: Conclusion

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Reinventing SaaS: Zuora's AI Transformation | Karthik Chakkarapani and Shakir Karim (Zuora)

LogRocket — Thu, 09 Oct 2025 08:00:00 -0400

Today, we’re joined by Shakir Karim (Senior VP of Product) and Karthik Chakkarapani (CIO & Senior VP of Corporate Operations) from Zuora.

In this episode, Shakir and Karthik discuss:

Why they believe AI is a bigger inflection point than web, mobile, or cloud
Their internal AI agent workflow that automatically resolves thousands of service requests instantly, freeing teams to focus on strategy
How they cut a major feature deployment step from 14 days to 10 minutes using Claude Code
Why prompt-a-thons and hackathons have been vital for driving not just AI adoption but AI literacy

Links

Shakir's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shakir-karim/
Karthik's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chakraj/
Zuora: https://www.zuora.com/

Resources

Trupeer: https://www.trupeer.ai/
Gemini Storybook: https://gemini.google/overview/storybook/
NotebookLM: https://notebooklm.google/

Chapters

00:00: Intro
02:15: Zuora's 10x initiative
07:00: Zuora's internal AI agent
10:00: Accelerating content creation using Trupeer
12:00: Cutting video content creation down from 4 weeks to 5 hours
17:00: AI in practical workflow
22:00: Scaling AI innovation and literacy internally
28:32: AI prompathons and hackathons
29:54: Conclusion

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The Secrets Behind a 30x AI Product Team | Zac Hays, CPO (Luxury Presence)

LogRocket — Tue, 07 Oct 2025 08:00:00 -0400

Today, we’re joined by Zac Hays, CPO at Luxury Presence, a fast-growing real estate tech platform that made a huge bet on AI adoption across the company..

In this episode, we discuss:

Luxury Presence's 30x Value Principle and how they rethought goals and projects to have exponential-level impact
The AI design sprint process that allowed the company to 20x product velocity
How their mandatory AI bug triage policy has cut resolution time by 80%

Links

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zacthepm/
Zac's AI-Powered Design Print Playbook: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/ai-powered-design-sprint-playbook-v01-zac-hays-iu1dc/
Luxury Presence: https://www.luxurypresence.com/
AirOps: https://www.airops.com/
Userbrain: https://www.userbrain.com/en/

Chapters

00:00: Intro
03:31: How Luxury Presence started tinkering with AI
08:15: Automating bug fixes (the 80% reduction)
10:50: Zac's "AI Design Sprint" process
14:00: Using AI to tackle tech debt and codebase rewrites
19:04: Building an "autonomous" AI marketing team
22:22: Conclusion

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Zapier’s AI Transformation Playbook with Phil Lakin (Zapier)

LogRocket — Tue, 30 Sep 2025 08:00:00 -0400

Today, we’re joined by Phil Lakin, Head of Enterprise Innovation at Zapier.

In this episode, we discuss:

How Phil built No-Code Ops into a thriving community and SaaS product - and what led to its acquisition by Zapier
Why Phil ended up leading the initiative on Zapier’s first solution-based product, and the decision process behind making it Lead Router
How Zapier is driving AI transformation across both their org and others with hands-on bootcamps, agent workflows, and a 97% AI literacy rate among employees

Links

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philip-lakin/
Zapier: https://zapier.com/
NoCodeOps: https://www.nocodeops.com/

Chapters

00:00: Intro
01:30: How Phil built the No-Code Ops community and why Zapier acquired it
05:45: Building Lead Router and how it shaped Zapier's roadmap
10:20: Building with Zapier Primitives
15:10: How Zapier achieved 97% AI literacy
20:25: AI agents and workflow automation
26:40: Tactics for bringing employees on board with new AI tools
32:55: What other companies can learn from Zapier’s AI transformation
39:15: Where Phil sees AI, no-code, and automation heading next.
44:00: Conclusion

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Copilot, Claude, & OptiGPT: The AI Stack Driving Optimizely

LogRocket — Thu, 25 Sep 2025 08:00:00 -0400

How is Optimizely reshaping experimentation with AI? Cory Liebgott, VP of Product at Optimizely, joins LaunchPod to share how her team is using AI into both customer-facing solutions and their own product workflows.

Cory shares how her team:

Uses Copilot and Claude for everything from PRD writing and meeting recaps to translating technical language into accessible insights
Developed OptiGPT, an internal AI assistant that surfaces customer data, product knowledge, and HR policies in seconds
Built a customer-facing AI query tool that also became a surprise hit internally for measuring customer health and engagement
Encourages a culture of experimentation where PMs demo and share AI tools, turning emergent use cases into productivity boosts across teams

Links

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cliebgott/
Optimizely: https://www.optimizely.com/

Chapters

00:38 Exploring AI tools as a team
01:43 Real-world AI productivity wins
03:16 Inside OptiGPT: Optimizely’s AI assistant
04:08 Using AI for research and prototyping
05:10 When AI surprises: Emergent capabilities
06:22 Lessons learned: Sharing and experimenting

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How 1 CPO Uses AI to Deliver Like a Full Product Team | Michael Krafft, CPO (FoundersCard)

LogRocket — Tue, 23 Sep 2025 08:00:00 -0400

Today, we’re joined by Michael Krafft, CPO at FoundersCard, a membership community for entrepreneurs and executives offering exclusive perks and VIP treatment.

Previously, Michael worked in investment banking, led product teams at American Express, and played a key role in turning around Alight, an HR-tech firm, ahead of its IPO.

In this episode, we discuss:

How Michael uses AI to be a 1-person Product team at a profitable startup with more than 250K members
His AI-driven discovery engine that automates interviews, segments users, and turns feedback into roadmap-shaping insights
Why working as both a leader and IC lets him move from idea to prototype to product in record time with tools like V-Zero and Lovable
The simple test that boosted paid conversions by 50%—and how he runs growth experiments far beyond his team’s size

Links

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-krafft/
FoundersCard: https://founderscard.com/

Chapters

00:00 Intro
03:04 How AI Drove Down CAC and Fueled Growth
06:06 Using AI to Analyze Customer Interviews
09:10 Turning Feedback Into Roadmap Insights
12:13 AI-Powered Discovery Engine for PMs
15:17 One-Person Product Team With AI Tools
18:20 Scaling Insights Beyond Human Bandwidth
21:23 Automating PRDs With AI
24:25 From Idea to Prototype in an Afternoon
27:28 Running Growth Experiments With AI
30:31 Conversions, Retention, and AI Testing
33:33 Customer Insights That Shape the Roadmap
36:36 Paid Conversion Boosts With AI
39:37 Final Takeaways for Product Leaders

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Why Optimizely is Betting on Agentic AI | Cory Liebgott, VP of Product (Optimizely)

LogRocket — Tue, 16 Sep 2025 08:00:00 -0400

How is Optimizely reshaping experimentation with AI? Cory Liebgott, VP of Product at Optimizely, joins LaunchPod to share how her team is building agentic AI tools that put customer trust at the center.

Cory shares how her team:

Pivoted away from risky benchmarking AI to focus on agentic AI tailored to each customer’s brand and data
Launched Opal, Optimizely’s AI suite built on Google Gemini, with strict governance to keep customer data secure
Developed experimentation agents that suggest test ideas, run experiments, and summarize results
Built internal AI tools like OptiGPT to streamline workflows, from PRDs to customer research, boosting productivity across teams

Links

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cliebgott/
Optimizely: https://www.optimizely.com/

Chapters

00:00 Introduction
01:52 Implementing Agentic AI at Optimizely
04:58 The Importance of Customer Feedback
06:27 Using AI Tools Internally at Optimizely
15:30 DocuSign and the Squeaky Wheel Problem
30:36 Conclusion

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The Company Using AI to Change the Game for Sports Betting | Marty Styles, VP of Product (PFF)

LogRocket — Tue, 09 Sep 2025 08:45:00 -0400

How is AI changing the game for sports betting? Marty Styles, VP of Product at Pro Football Focus (PFF), visits LaunchPod to share how his team is bringing pro-grade football analytics, trusted by every NFL team, to everyday bettors.

Marty shares how his team:

Built Key Insights, an AI-powered feature that simplifies 200+ data points per play into actionable betting takeaways
Designed the Player Prop Tool, which combines PFF’s grades with market odds to reveal hidden betting edges
Used Play Finder and AI-driven film study to transform raw data into instant, searchable insights
Positioned PFF as the “Bloomberg Terminal of sports betting”, giving bettors the same edge NFL teams rely on

Links

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marty-styles/
PFF: https://www.pff.com/

Chapters

00:00 Introduction
01:46 The Value of PFF's Data
02:14 Transitioning from B2B to B2C
03:17 Understanding the Sports Betting Market
04:38 The Role of AI in PFF's Products
09:00 Simplifying Complex Data for Consumers
10:32 Key Insights and AI Integration
14:20 Ensuring Accuracy and Trust in AI Outputs
17:20 Introducing the Player Prop Tool
19:36 Targeting Intermediate Bettors
22:12 Product Marketing Strategy
25:53 AI and Data Analysis in Betting
29:32 Future of AI in Sports Analytics
33:23 Conclusion

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Why You Can’t Ignore AI Moving to the Edge | Joel Polanco, Senior Hardware Product Manager (Intel)

LogRocket — Thu, 28 Aug 2025 08:00:00 -0400

On today’s episode of LaunchPod AI, we’re talking with Joel Polanco, Senior Hardware Product Manager at Intel’s Edge Computing Group. He’s led dozens of enterprise AI edge deployments and knows exactly what it takes to run AI models locally at scale.

In this episode, we discuss:

Why AI at the edge will cause a whole new wave of disruption across multiple industries
Why moving AI to the edge slashes costs and levels up customer experience
And real-world examples of edge AI deployments Joel has seen - from IT assistants to agents that restock store shelves from a single photo

Links

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jpolanco/
Intel: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/homepage.html
Joel's PM articles on the LogRocket blog: https://blog.logrocket.com/author/joelpolanco/

Chapters

00:00 Introduction
03:32 Retail Applications of Edge AI
04:57 Cost and Implementation Considerations
06:18 Real-World Use Cases and Challenges
12:00 Future of AI and Edge Computing
30:42 Practical Advice for Product Executives
33:46 Conclusion

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The AI Agent Behind 4x Productivity in Collections Teams | Dave Ruda, VP Product (Billtrust)

LogRocket — Tue, 26 Aug 2025 08:00:00 -0400

How did an AI agent help 4x the productivity of collections teams? Dave Ruda, VP of Product at Billtrust, visits LaunchPod to share how his team built a collections AI that transformed drudgery work into high-impact outcomes.

Dave shares how his team:

Reduced average email handling time from 8 minutes to just 2.5 minutes
Built an AI agent that categorizes and prioritizes collector workflows to maximize efficiency
Designed a “human in the loop” system to ensure trust, personalization, and better customer outcomes
Developed a learning loop that adapts to each collector’s voice and scales across email and voice channels

Links

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/druda/
Billtrust: https://www.billtrust.com/

Chapters

00:00 Introduction
03:18 Billtrust's AI Journey
05:10 "Human in the Loop"
06:22 Billtrust's FinTech Solutions
09:54 Challenges in Collections
13:04 Agentic Email Functionality and Automating Email Processing
17:19 Building a Learning Loop To Better Understand Customers
19:05 Empowering Product Managers With AI
24:33 AI Governance and Future Prospects
27:39 Concluding Thoughts and Future Plans

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The 3 Biggest Barriers to AI Adoption Across Your Team | Derek Pharr, CPO (Sporcle)

LogRocket — Thu, 21 Aug 2025 07:00:00 -0400

Why is AI adoption so hard inside companies? Derek Pharr, CPO at Sporcle, joins LaunchPod to reveal the 3 biggest barriers to AI adoption and how he helped his team overcome them.

In this episode, you’ll learn how Sporcle:

The 3 biggest barriers to AI adoption and how Derek addressed them
How Sporcle built a “content intern” with Claude Projects to augment trivia writers and improve user engagement
How Derek prototyped, tested, and rejected a doomed product idea in under an hour

Links

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/derekpharr/
Sporcle: https://www.sporcle.com/

Resources

How Lattice’s PM team built an AI Slack “Intern” | Neha Monga, CPO (Ex-Lattice) | LaunchPod: https://stories.logrocket.com/p/how-lattices-pm-team-built-an-ai

Chapters

00:00 Intro
03:17 The 3 Biggest Barriers to AI Adoption
06:35 Building a “Content Intern” with Claude Projects
15:08 Scaling Trivia Creation Without Losing Quality
25:34 Prototyping and Killing a Doomed Idea in Under an Hour
34:15 Lessons for Product Leaders on AI Adoption

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The EdTech Graduating 150K by 2X’ing Completion Rates | Zach Heller, VP of Prod. (Penn Foster)

LogRocket — Tue, 19 Aug 2025 12:00:00 -0400

Today, we’re talking with Zach Heller, VP of Product at Penn Foster Group.

In this episode, we discuss:

How Penn Foster plans to literally “fill a stadium” with 150,000 graduates by 2029—doubling completion rates to do it
Why they shifted focus from acquisition to graduation—and how that’s now driving over 50% of enrollments through word-of-mouth
How AI-powered learning tools boosted course completions by 25% in just one year, setting a new record for outcomes

Links

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ztheller/

Resources

The Hidden Cost of 0.1% Churn | Ken Houseman, VP of Product (Zuora): https://youtu.be/-wDVkPUK104

Chapters

00:00 Doubling Completion Rates & Graduation Goals
02:04 Filling a Stadium: The 150K Graduate Vision
04:09 Fixing the Funnel: Retention Over Acquisition
06:14 Experimentation That Doubled Completion
08:17 B2B vs B2C: Why Completion Rates Drive Revenue
10:19 Word of Mouth as a Growth Engine
12:21 Fail Fast, Learn Faster: Experimentation Mindset
14:24 AI-Powered Learning: Writing Coach Breakthrough
18:00 Human + AI: Scaling Student Support
20:34 Product-Led Growth in EdTech
24:37 Economic Mobility Through Education
26:41 Looking Ahead: Scaling to 150K by 2029
36:56 Final Takeaways: Experimentation at Scale

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Agentic AI for Vertical Software | Bret Tushaus, VP Product (Deltek)

LogRocket — Tue, 12 Aug 2025 08:00:00 -0400

Today on LaunchPod, we’re talking with Bret Tushaus, VP of Product at Deltek.

In this episode, we discuss:

How Deltek built Dela—an AI agent framework powering everything from smart summaries to autonomous accounting
Why AI is rewriting the role of Product Management, and what leaders need to know now
And how Bret’s team leveled up their AI skills fast — with short, high-impact sprints focused on real tools and real problems

Links

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bret-tushaus-b959b56/
Deltek: https://www.deltek.com/en

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to AI in Product Management
01:06 Building AI-Powered Solutions at Deltek
03:05 Smart Summaries and Predictive Analytics
08:24 Intelligent Exploration and Conversational Interfaces
17:39 The Future of AI Agents
22:14 Getting Started with AI in Your Team
26:52 Final Thoughts

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AI Is Killing SaaS Pricing: Lessons From 10k+ Customers | Prittam Bagani, VP of PM (Chargebee)

LogRocket — Tue, 05 Aug 2025 08:00:00 -0400

Today, we’re talking with Prittam Bagani, VP of Product Management at Chargebee, where they have insight into how over 10,000 customers are optimizing their pricing models.

In this episode, we discuss:

How AI is forcing companies to rethink pricing - and why usage-, outcome-, and agent-based models are the future
Why OpenAI made over 100 pricing changes in a single year and what you can learn about agile pricing experimentation from it
And how to build the necessary technical and product infrastructure to test pricing models in real-time across millions of users

Links

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pbagani/
Chargebee: https://www.chargebee.com/

Chapters

00:00 Introduction
02:25 Pricing Models in the AI Age
06:28 Challenges and Best Practices in Outcome-Based Pricing
18:37 Technical Complexities and Real-Time Pricing Adjustments
22:01 The Power of Timely Upgrades
23:07 Hybrid Pricing Models: The Future
24:57 Complexities in Sales-Led Growth
28:10 Unit Economics and Usage-Based Pricing

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How Lattice’s PM team built an AI Slack “Intern” | Neha Monga, CPO (Ex-Lattice)

LogRocket — Thu, 31 Jul 2025 08:00:00 -0400

On today’s episode of LaunchPod AI, we’re talking with Neha Monga, former Head of Product at Lattice and has led product teams at Meta, Amazon, Expedia, and more

In this episode, we discuss:

The AI workflows that are table stakes for PMs now—and how to adopt them so you don’t fall behind
How Neha’s team used Figma Make + Claude to spin up high-fidelity prototypes, gather customer feedback fast, and slash validation time with design and engineering
And the PM “intern” they built inside Slack to instantly surface insights from their massive customer feedback library

Links

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nehamo/
Email: mailto:neha.mo@gmail.com/
Website: https://intro.co/NehaMonga

Tools

ChatGPT: https://chatgpt.com/
Gemini: https://gemini.google.com/
NotebookLM: https://notebooklm.google.com/
Zoom AI: https://www.zoom.com/en/products/ai-assistant/
Granola: https://www.granola.ai/
Clark: https://www.superblocks.com/clark
Cursor: https://cursor.com/en

Chapters

00:00 Intro
01:31 The Rapid Evolution of AI
02:38 Essential AI Tools for Product Managers
04:04 Choosing the Right AI Tool Stack
05:07 Challenges and Solutions in AI Integration
11:09 Prototyping and AI in Product Development
17:00 The Future of AI in Product Management
19:16 Building Custom AI Solutions
27:20 Conclusion

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How Zuora is Betting on Retention-Led Growth | Ken Houseman, VP of Product (Zuora)

LogRocket — Tue, 29 Jul 2025 08:00:00 -0400

Today on LaunchPod, we’re talking with Ken Houseman, VP of Product at Zuora.

In this episode, we discuss:

Why even a 0.1% increase in churn can cause huge losses, and how to turn retention into a growth engine
How Zuora made payments so valuable that customers want to pay more - boosting revenue, margins, and customer retention
And how Ken used AI to slash prototyping time and unlock faster, smarter product development

Links

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ken-houseman/
Zuora: https://www.zuora.com/

Resources

Subscribed: Why the Subscription Model Will Be Your Company's Future - and What to Do About It, by Tien Tzuo: https://www.amazon.com/Subscribed-Subscription-Model-Companys-Future/dp/0525536469

Chapters

00:00 Introduction
01:14 Ken Houseman's Experience
02:45 The Role of Retention in Growth
06:38 Zuora's Approach to Subscription Billing and Payments
10:28 Enhancing Payment Processing with AI
30:57 The Future of AI in Product Management
38:03 Outro

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Inside Apartment List’s AI-Powered Product Team | Sierra Hahn-Ventrell, Dir. of PM (Apartment List)

LogRocket — Thu, 24 Jul 2025 08:00:00 -0400

Today on LaunchPod AI, we’re talking with Sierra Hahn-Ventrell, Director of Product Management at Apartment List. In this episode, we discuss how they:

Analyze customer interviews with ChatGPT, even uncovering a missed insight that led to a full product strategy reset
Built an AI Slack bot to flag issues in a new customer-facing tool before they become big problems
And transformed sales enablement and automated documentation using NotebookLM and Claude

Links

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shahnventrell/
Apartment List: https://www.apartmentlist.com/

Tools

ChatGPT: https://chatgpt.com/

Gemini: https://gemini.google.com/

Claude: https://claude.ai/

NotebookLM: https://notebooklm.google.com/
Storylane: https://www.storylane.io/

Chapters

00:00 Introduction

02:47 AI Slack Bot for Property Management
03:59 Hackathon Project and Implementation
07:20 Challenges and Solutions in AI Integration
10:19 NotebookLM for Sales Enablement
13:10 AI in Product Strategy and Market Fit
16:52 Pushing AI to Its Limits 17:44 Using ChatGPT for Product Strategy
18:36 Guiding AI for Accurate Market Analysis
20:53 Leveraging Gong and AI for Sales Insights
24:40 Automating Documentation with AI
26:41 Balancing Innovation and Control in AI Adoption
31:36 Outro

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Growing to 42 Million Users: Audiomack's Growth Playbook | Charlie Kaplan, VP of Product (Audiomack)

LogRocket — Tue, 22 Jul 2025 08:00:00 -0400

Today, we’re talking with Charlie Kaplan, VP of Product at Audiomack about Product Market Fit and how to tell if you’ve got it or not

In this episode, we discuss:

How he drove 50x user growth at Cymbal, and why that still didn’t matter because they lacked strong fit
The story of how he launched Audiomack’s product org and scaled to 42M MAUs, on the back of strong product market fit
How he transformed failed features into new revenue streams—helping Audiomack grow into a platform big enough to host Taylor Swift, Kendrick Lamar, and more

Links

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charliekaplan/
Audiomack: https://audiomack.com/

Resources

The Lean Startup, by Eric Rise: https://theleanstartup.com/

Chapters

00:00 Introduction
05:23 The Rise and Fall of Cymbal
13:12 Lessons Learned and the Birth of Audio Mac
16:54 Finding Product Market Fit at Audio Mac
28:40 Innovative Growth Strategies and Experiments
35:11 Outro

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The 4 Essentials of Killer Product Storytelling | Lanie Schenkelberg, VP of Product Marketing (Inovalon) | LaunchPod

LogRocket — Tue, 15 Jul 2025 08:00:00 -0400

Today, we’re talking with Lanie Schenkelberg, former product manager and current VP of Product Marketing at Inovalon.

In this episode, we discuss:

The 4 essential elements of compelling product storytelling
How to spot weak messaging - and what strong positioning really looks like
How Lanie’s team led a storytelling overhaul that contributed to Inovalon’s growth

Links

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laineschenkelberg/
Inovalon: https://www.inovalon.com/

Resources

Make it Punchy, By Emma Stratton: https://punchy.co/make-it-punchy-book/
Obviously Awesome Positioning, April Dunford: https://www.amazon.com/Obviously-Awesome-Product-Positioning-Customers/dp/1999023005

Chapters

00:00 Intro
01:48 The Importance of Messaging and Storytelling in Product
03:01 How to go from Product Management to Marketing
06:10 Understanding the Customer's Big Win
12:45 The Hero Story Format
15:12 The Role of Positioning and Differentiation in Product Marketing
21:23 How Lanie Scaled Positioning at Inovalon
31:29 Outro

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Designing AI for the ICP That Doesn’t Trust New Tech | Deepti Mehtani, VP, AI (NextGen) | LaunchPod| Deepti Mehtani, VP, Clinical & AI Solutions (NextGen) | LaunchPod

LogRocket — Tue, 08 Jul 2025 08:00:00 -0400

Today, we’re talking with Dr. Deepti Mehtani, VP of Clinical and AI Solutions at NextGen Healthcare.

In this episode, we discuss:

How Dr. Mehtani’s team proved AI can be trusted with sensitive medical data - So why are you avoiding it in your own product?
The key lessons behind NextGen’s AI that turns doctor-patient conversations into medical-grade, accurate, structured data
And how Deepti and her team won over skeptical doctors and turned them into AI champions - saving them hours per day in the process

Links

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drdeeptimehtani/
NextGen Healthcare: https://www.nextgen.com/

Resources

Spotlight Interview: https://blog.logrocket.com/product-management/leader-spotlight-deepti-mehtani/
How To Say "Not Yet" To Enterprise | Deepti Mendiratta, VP Of Products (HungerRush) | LaunchPod: https://youtu.be/WHapWGbuS0Q

Chapters

00:00 Intro
01:04 From Medicine to Tech
03:41 NextGen Healthcare Overview
04:54 AI Solutions for Clinicians
09:17 Patient Summaries and Ambient Assist
18:46 Building Trust in AI
21:12 Data Privacy and Security
27:51 Improving Patient Access
33:10 Cross-Industry Insights
34:56 Conclusion

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

LogRocket — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 08:00:00 -0400

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.

Links

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gotothepark/

Resources

Spotlight Interview: https://blog.logrocket.com/product-management/leader-spotlight-michael-park/

Chapters

00:00 Introduction
02:58 The Burden of Digital Inventory and Tech Debt
06:17 The Importance of Focus and Time Management in Product Development
06:48 Challenges and Realities of Product Management Practices
07:37 Michael Park's Sabbatical and Reflections on Product Leadership
13:37 The Value of Consistency and Fundamentals in Product Management
18:25 Hiring for Cultural Fit and Communicating Company Goals
20:47 Transitioning from Founder to Product Leader
27:22 The Role of a Product Leader in Scaling a Business
28:43 The Importance of Founder Involvement
30:45 Balancing Founder Mode and Professional Management
36:19 The Parent-Child Analogy in Business Leadership
41:53 The Debate on Roadmaps: Rigid vs. Squishy
46:32 Product Evangelism and Cross-Functional Collaboration
50:18 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

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

LogRocket — Tue, 24 Jun 2025 08:00:00 -0400

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

Links

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/romangun/
Zeta Global: https://zetaglobal.com/

Resources

Real-world AI products with Roman Gun, VP of Product: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7syxCetzHU
Leader Spotlight: Right-sizing processes, with Roman Gun: https://blog.logrocket.com/product-management/leader-spotlight-roman-gun/
Inside Gemini 2.5 | Logan Kilpatrick | PodRocket: https://youtu.be/2LGKwf2xH7g

Tools

OpenAI: https://openai.com/
Gemini: https://gemini.google.com/
Claude: https://claude.ai/
Figma: https://www.figma.com/
Coda: https://coda.io/
Notebook LM Discorder: https://support.google.com/notebooklm/answer/16268096?hl=en&co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop
Cursor: https://www.cursor.com/
Windsurf: https://windsurf.com/
Loveable: https://lovable.dev/
ChatGPT: https://chatgpt.com/

Chapters

00:25 AI in Action
01:27 Real-World AI Applications
02:41 Community and AI Learning
06:12 Automating PRDs with AI
11:51 Training AI for Better Outputs
14:48 Prototyping with AI Tools
16:03 Generating Baseline Code with AI Tools
16:17 The Power of Prototyping and User Feedback
16:36 Accelerating the Creative Process
18:18 Magic: The Gathering and AI Deck Building
19:28 Challenges and Innovations in AI Deck Building
21:35 Learning and Applying AI in Real Life
25:30 The Future of Junior Roles in Tech
30:21 Final Thoughts and Encouragement

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

LogRocket — Tue, 17 Jun 2025 08:00:00 -0400

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

In this episode, we discuss:

How CorelDraw was modernized from a legacy desktop tool into an AI-enabled, collaborative SaaS product, including:
- The user research approach that balanced less mature users with the needs of long-time power users
- And How they utilized AI to power entire workflows, helping all users behave like pros
We also discuss Kamal’s navigation of a major roadmap misalignment with senior leadership, including:
- The real negotiation tactics he used to diffuse the initial conflict
- And his “squiggly line” framework for balancing near-term revenue with long-term product vision

Links

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kamalsrinivasan/

Resources

Tell Your CEO They're Wrong (And KEEP Your Career) | Steve Nash, Dir. Product (GumGum) | LaunchPod: https://youtu.be/oeEBy8mJfB0?feature=shared

Chapters

00:00 Intro
01:56 From PhD to Product Management
02:47 The Value of a PhD in Product Management
05:26 Challenges in Modernizing Legacy Products
06:11 Understanding Vector Graphics Design
09:47 Democratizing Design Tools
16:23 User Feedback and Product Development
19:49 Incorporating AI in Design Software
21:43 Integrating AI into Design Workflows
22:51 Enhancing Productivity with AI
24:15 Proactive Issue Detection with AI
27:21 Understanding Parallels Virtualization
29:50 Challenges and Strategies in Product Development
38:20 Effective Communication and Leadership
41:52 Conclusion and Future Plans

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

LogRocket — Tue, 10 Jun 2025 08:00:00 -0400

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

Links

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maheshguruswamy/
Website: https://www.maheshguruswamy.com/
Substack: https://maheshguruswamy.substack.com/

Resources

How to Deliver Bad News and Get Away with It: A Manager's Guide, By Mahesh Guruswamy: https://www.amazon.com/How-Deliver-Bad-News-Away/dp/B0D7FHTTNN
Tell Your CEO They're Wrong (And KEEP Your Career) | Steve Nash, Dir. Product (GumGum): https://youtu.be/oeEBy8mJfB0

Chapters

00:00 Intro
01:09 Mahesh's Background and Kickstarter Connection
02:08 The Power of Writing and Self-Reflection
04:28 Publishing a Book: How to Deliver Bad News
05:53 Effective Communication and Feedback
06:46 Navigating Tough Conversations
11:03 Kickstarter's Evolution and Challenges
14:16 Listening to Customers and Adapting
19:36 Navigating Market Shifts and Growth
20:34 Prioritizing Customer Feedback
25:59 Building and Engaging the Community
29:54 Competitive Strategies and Organizational Culture
34:05 Leadership and Legacy
37:03 Conclusion and Future Prospects

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

LogRocket — Tue, 03 Jun 2025 08:00:00 -0400

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 product-led growth (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

Links

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurenschuman/

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Lauren Schumann
03:09 Transition to E-commerce and PLG
07:15 Joining MailChimp and Early Challenges
09:50 Implementing PLG at MailChimp
13:43 Navigating Organizational Politics
19:03 Improving User Experience at MailChimp
19:26 Defining Key Customer Journey Metrics
20:30 Challenges and Solutions in Email Activation
21:40 Balancing Core Competencies and Expansion
22:59 The Role of AI in Product Management
24:50 Human Touch in the Age of Automation
27:48 Future of AI and Personalization
34:50 Outro

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

LogRocket — Tue, 27 May 2025 08:00:00 -0400

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

Links

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chazin/

Chapters

00:00 Intro
03:05 Reviving Apple: The University Consortium
07:04 The iMac and Think Different Campaign
07:37 Lessons from Steve Jobs
11:35 Competing with Apple: The Avid Story
19:05 Current Role at Alarm.com
21:41 The Future of AI in Home Security
27:15 Advice for Aspiring Technologists
29:49 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

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

LogRocket — Tue, 20 May 2025 08:00:00 -0400

On today’s episode, we’re talking with Jeremy Pollock, VP of Product at WP Engine.

In this episode, we discuss:

Why speed is the new moat — Jeremy is pushing PMs to use AI, ship code, and move fast, because in the AI era, slow teams fall behind for good
How WP Engine is enabling product teams to use AI — through access, training, and best practices that turn weeks of work into hours
And, How big, aspirational product goals create momentum — giving teams the motivation to “eat their vegetables” and tackle the foundational work required for long-term success

Links

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dane-molter-6b937231/
Navan: https://navan.com/

Resources

(Ethically) cheat your way to $250M+ | Mikal Lewis, Product Exec. (Whole Foods, Nordstrom): https://youtu.be/5txeT2U_YQo

Chapters

00:00 Intro
01:06 Dane Molter’s Journey From Amex to Grubhub
01:44 The Grubhub Experience: Embracing Imperfection
04:08 The Push for Hypergrowth in Product
05:19 Lessons in Product Risk and Innovation
06:59 The Bigger Picture: Product Beyond Technology
09:30 Focusing on Bravery in Product Innovation
12:12 Applying Product Lessons at Navan
17:50 Enterprise Travel Challenges and AI Solutions
19:53 Business Outcomes and Accountability
20:13 Learning Business Mechanics at Amex
26:15 The Importance of Small Tests in Product Testing
34:27 Navigating AI and Emerging Technologies
37:45 Outro

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

LogRocket — Tue, 13 May 2025 08:00:00 -0400

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.

In this episode, we discuss:

How Rajitha and Procore got hesitant construction executives hungry for AI by showing real, immediate value in processing unstructured data, improving efficiency, and taking friction out of core workflows
Rajitha’s critical processes to ensure data quality, consistency, and collection in service of AI solutions deliver on their promise
How you can leverage 3rd party data to unlock the promises of AI

Links

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rajithachaparala/
Procore: www.procore.com

Resources

Do THIS to Build a $1M+ Product Team (ex Google, Bitly PM) | Product Growth Podcast with Aakash Gupta: https://www.news.aakashg.com/p/matt-lemay-podcast

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to LLMs and Data Structuring
01:39 The Importance of Data in Product Management
04:53 Impact-Driven Product Management
08:28 Challenges and Solutions in Data Utilization
13:00 Energy Efficiency and Data Insights
16:33 The Role of AI in Data Normalization
19:56 AI's Role in Construction Efficiency
20:34 Automated Area Takeoff
21:18 Leveraging LLMs in Construction
22:33 Challenges and Adoption in the Construction Industry
25:05 Streamlining Information Dissemination
25:27 Request for Information (RFI) Process
31:26 AI Integration in Procore's Tools
33:57 Future of AI in Construction
39:01 Outro

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What does LogRocket do?

LogRocket combines frontend monitoring, product analytics, and session replay to help software teams deliver the ideal product experience. Try LogRocket for free today.

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

LogRocket — Tue, 06 May 2025 08:00:00 -0400

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

Links

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacobhookom/
Perforce: https://www.perforce.com/

Resources

Play Bigger: How Pirates, Dreamers, and Innovators Create and Dominate Markets by Al Ramadan, Dave Peterson, Christopher Lochhead, Kevin Maney: https://www.harperacademic.com/book/9780062407610/play-bigger/

Chapters

00:00 Intro
01:17 Joining 451 During COVID
02:24 First 90 Days Strategy
04:21 Defining a New Category
08:07 Focusing on B2B Market
10:16 Product as a Spectrum
15:59 Importance of Compliance
19:37 Success and Acquisition
20:17 Joining the Java Champions Community
21:22 The Acquisition by Sitecore
22:29 Focusing on B2B Product Sales
24:16 Building a Practitioner Community at Sitecore
25:40 Leveraging Community Feedback
30:00 The Role of Product in Solving Problems
33:52 Engaging and Growing the Community
39:27 Outro

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We have a new YouTube page! Watch full episodes of our interviews with PM leaders and subscribe!

What does LogRocket do?

LogRocket combines frontend monitoring, product analytics, and session replay to help software teams deliver the ideal product experience. Try LogRocket for free today. Special Guest: Jake Hookom.

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

LogRocket — Tue, 29 Apr 2025 08:00:00 -0400

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

Links

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/smcleary/
Intapp: https://www.intapp.com/

Resources

How To Say "Not Yet" To Enterprise | Deepti Mendiratta, VP Of Products (HungerRush) | LaunchPod: https://youtu.be/WHapWGbuS0Q
How to A/B test your product to millions in ARR | Eric Metelka, Head of Product (Eppo) | LaunchPod: https://youtu.be/3u5vovkAtXc

Chapters

00:00 Intro
01:23 Challenges in Bridging Physical and Digital Retail
03:13 Macy's Digital Transformation
06:44 User Research and Implementation
12:30 Impact and Results of Macy's Integration
15:04 Introduction to DocuSign's Evolution
20:42 Challenges in Highly Regulated Industries
21:51 User Research and Common Themes
22:11 DocuSign's Feature-Rich Product
23:40 Sender and Signer Dynamics
28:16 Trust Layer and Proof of Insurance
32:28 AI and Data Ownership
35:42 The Future of AI in Everyday Life
40:37 Outro

Follow LaunchPod on YouTube

We have a new YouTube page! Watch full episodes of our interviews with PM leaders and subscribe!

What does LogRocket do?

LogRocket combines frontend monitoring, product analytics, and session replay to help software teams deliver the ideal product experience. Try LogRocket for free today. Special Guest: Sean McLeary.

Build Product Like Typeform | Aleks Bass, CPO (TypeForm) | LaunchPod (Pt.2)

LogRocket — Tue, 22 Apr 2025 08:00:00 -0400

Today, we’re getting into Part 2 of our masterclass on user research and product strategy from Aleks Bass, CPO at Typeform.

In part two of this episode, Aleks talks about:

How she successfully launched Typeform for Growth in only six months, which quickly became Typeform's fastest-growing product ever
How she restructured the entire Typeform product development lifecycle, adding continuous usability testing as a crucial part of that process
And how you can cultivate strong partnerships between R&D and GTM to drive similar success

Links

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dane-molter-6b937231/
Navan: https://navan.com/

Resources

(Ethically) cheat your way to $250M+ | Mikal Lewis, Product Exec. (Whole Foods, Nordstrom): https://youtu.be/5txeT2U_YQo

Chapters

00:00 Intro
00:47 Understanding User Personas
02:09 Launching Typeform for Growth
05:05 Product Development Lifecycle
07:49 Usability Testing and User Feedback
13:34 Competitive Analysis and Market Positioning
19:34 Go-to-Market Strategy
26:28 Company Ceremonies and Collaboration
31:04 Outro

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We have a new YouTube page! Watch full episodes of our interviews with PM leaders and subscribe!

What does LogRocket do?

LogRocket combines frontend monitoring, product analytics, and session replay to help software teams deliver the ideal product experience. Try LogRocket for free today. Special Guest: Aleks Bass.

Build Product Like Typeform | Aleks Bass, CPO (TypeForm) | LaunchPod (Pt.1)

LogRocket — Tue, 15 Apr 2025 08:00:00 -0400

Today, we’re talking with Aleks Bass, CPO at Typeform.

In part one of this two-part episode, Aleks talks about:

The exact methodologies for user research that she used to develop a complete product strategy in just 45 days
Their discovery of “feature constellations” - sets of features that are worth 10x more when combined than just the sum of the parts
How to break the rules of user research for even faster results

Links

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aleksbass/

Resources

How To Say "Not Yet" To Enterprise | Deepti Mendiratta, VP Of Products (HungerRush) | LaunchPod: https://youtu.be/WHapWGbuS0Q

Chapters

00:00 Intro
00:54 Aleks Bass’ Unique Career Path
02:07 Challenges at Typeform
06:49 Research-Driven Product Development
11:35 Understanding Customer Needs
33:07 Feature Constellations and Their Impact
40:05 Outro

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We have a new YouTube page! Watch full episodes of our interviews with PM leaders and subscribe!

What does LogRocket do?

LogRocket combines frontend monitoring, product analytics, and session replay to help software teams deliver the ideal product experience. Try LogRocket for free today. Special Guest: Aleks Bass.

How To Say "Not Yet" To Enterprise | Deepti Mendiratta, VP Of Products (HungerRush) | LaunchPod

LogRocket — Tue, 08 Apr 2025 08:00:00 -0400

Today, we’re talking with Deepti Mendiratta, VP of Product at HungerRush, an all-in-one POS system for restaurants.

In this episode, Deepti talks about:

Why you have to just “make the pizza” - meaning experience the day-to-day of your users, not just your buyers, to build software that solves key issues for the business
getting her biggest UX wins from fixing the paper cuts that users run into all the time, not just the sporadic gaping wounds
And, how to say “not yet” to the allure of going upmarket to Enterprise too soon...because, as she says, once you catch that elephant, you have to feed it

Links

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deeptim13/

Resources

Build product like Linear | Nan Yu, Head of Product (Linear, Everlane, BOA) | LaunchPod: https://youtu.be/7ISWLoQtNOc
How to A/B test your product to millions in ARR | Eric Metelka, Head of Product (Eppo) | LaunchPod: https://youtu.be/3u5vovkAtXc
Grow $50 million in revenue in one year | Vaarrun Bimbhat, Head of Product (Jiffy.com) | LaunchPod: https://youtu.be/SNZWHt0Zu-I

Chapters

00:00 Intro
02:07 Understanding the Customer Experience
05:35 Challenges and Insights from the Product Field
14:31 Balancing Enterprise and SMB Markets
26:07 Innovations in Hospitality
32:37 The Future of AI in Service Industries
36:40 Outro
25:48 Building a Pricing Experimentation Platform
27:20 Challenges and Successes in India
36:30 Insights on Prioritization and Growth
38:40 Outro

Follow LaunchPod on YouTube

We have a new YouTube page! Watch full episodes of our interviews with PM leaders and subscribe!

What does LogRocket do?

LogRocket combines frontend monitoring, product analytics, and session replay to help software teams deliver the ideal product experience. Try LogRocket for free today.

How to unlock $50 million in revenue in one year | Vaarrun Bimbhat, Head of Product (Jiffy.com) | LaunchPod

LogRocket — Tue, 01 Apr 2025 08:00:00 -0400

Today, we’re talking with Vaarrun Bimbhat, Head of Product at Jiffy.com, an online retailer of customizable clothing.

In this episode, Vaarrun talks about:

Humanizing the sale of high-commit items, like furniture, at Wayfair - which led to $50m in additional sales
How he built a repeatable process to expand into new countries at Shopify - adding almost 100k new merchants and $50m in additional revenue in India in the first year alone
And why developing a billing experimentation platform drove over $26m in gross profit annually at Shopify

Links

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vbimbhat/

Resources

(Ethically) cheat your way to $250M+ | Mikal Lewis, Product Exec. (Whole Foods, Nordstrom): https://youtu.be/5txeT2U_YQo

Chapters

00:00 Intro
01:25 Challenges of Selling Furniture Online
02:07 Implementing Product Solutions at Wayfair
06:58 Leveraging AI and User Research
15:45 Exploring Wayfair's B2B Segment
20:10 Managing Product at Shopify
21:02 Scaling Shopify's FinTech Arm
23:12 Expanding Shopify Globally
25:48 Building a Pricing Experimentation Platform
27:20 Challenges and Successes in India
36:30 Insights on Prioritization and Growth
38:40 Outro

Follow LaunchPod on YouTube

We have a new YouTube page! Watch full episodes of our interviews with PM leaders and subscribe!

What does LogRocket do?

LogRocket combines frontend monitoring, product analytics, and session replay to help software teams deliver the ideal product experience. Try LogRocket for free today. Special Guest: Vaarrun Bimbhat.

Vertical shift: How to navigate new product markets | Dan McCarthy, VP of Product (Cyvl) | LaunchPod

LogRocket — Tue, 25 Mar 2025 08:00:00 -0400

Today, we’re talking with Dan McCarthy, VP of Product at Cyvl, an AI-powered mapping tool for transportation infrastructure.

In this episode, Dan talks about:

Using lessons from building digital products to improve the physical world around us
Dan’s repeatable playbook for launching into new industries—and the pitfalls to avoid.
How a drop in data ingestion costs allowed Cyvl to open up a new, digitally enhanced way of looking at the world
Why nailing the entire go-to-market strategy is just as critical as the product itself

Links

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-mccarthy-24543436/
Cyvl: https://cyvl.com/

Resources

Unlock revenue with the zone of benefit | Oji Udezue, CPO (Typeform, Twitter, Calendly): https://youtu.be/2WuAGcRwdv0
Build product like Linear | Nan Yu, Head of Product (Linear, Everlane, BOA): https://youtu.be/7ISWLoQtNOc

Chapters

00:00 Intro
01:49 Understanding Digital Twin Architecture
02:40 Challenges and Opportunities in Infrastructure Management
04:27 The Role of AI and Machine Learning in Cyvl
08:24 Future Vision for Cyvl and Infrastructure Management
12:26 Navigating Vertical Markets and Go-to-Market Strategies
19:34 Learning from Industry Transitions
32:18 Outro

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We have a new YouTube page! Watch full episodes of our interviews with PM leaders and subscribe!

What does LogRocket do?

LogRocket combines frontend monitoring, product analytics, and session replay to help software teams deliver the ideal product experience. Try LogRocket for free today. Special Guest: Dan McCarthy.

A PM’s guide to mergers and acquisitions | Sowmya Sundararagavan, Sr. Dir. Product (Freshworks)

LogRocket — Tue, 18 Mar 2025 08:00:00 -0400

Today, we’re talking with Sowmya Sundararagavan, Senior Director of Product at Freshworks, an AI customer service, IT, and CRM software platform.

This episode with Sowmya was a master class in product leadership after an acquisition. She explains:

The worst thing you can do as a product leader post-acquisition
Her process to successfully integrate separate product visions
How to bridge the gap between old and new teams during M&As

Links

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sowmya-s-ragavan/
Freshworks: https://www.freshworks.com/

Resources

The FinOps Foundation: https://www.finops.org/
How to A/B test your product to millions in ARR | Eric Metelka, Head of Product (Eppo): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3u5vovkAtXc

Chapters

00:00 Intro
01:08 Career Journey: From Banking to Tech
01:56 Navigating Post-Acquisition Challenges
04:47 Balancing Legacy and Innovation
07:44 Customer-Centric Focus in M&A
20:49 Evaluating M&A Opportunities
26:29 The Role of FinOps in Cloud Cost Management
33:26 AI in IT Operations and Asset Management
39:14 Outro

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We have a new YouTube page! Watch full episodes of our interviews with PM leaders and subscribe!

What does LogRocket do?

LogRocket combines frontend monitoring, product analytics, and session replay to help software teams deliver the ideal product experience. Try LogRocket for free today.

How to tell your CEO they’re wrong about product centricity | Steve Nash, Dir. of Product (GumGum) | LaunchPod

LogRocket — Tue, 11 Mar 2025 08:00:00 -0400

Today, we’re talking with Steve Nash, Director of Product for GumGum, an ad-tech platform that matches brands and consumers through AI-powered data and media solutions.

In this episode, Steve talks about:

How to tell your CEO that they’re wrong — and not lose your career
The story behind Playground’s transition to a product-centric culture, and the pace of innovation it unlocked for the team
Why unifying behind Playground’s mission of being “the attention company” led to their successful exit and acquisition by GumGum

Links

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevenash/
GumGum: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gumgum/

Resources

Navigating a digital reckoning in art | Elizabeth Van Bergen, Product Experience Lead (Phillips): https://youtu.be/Rf-7r3PMVuo
Unlock revenue with the zone of benefit | Oji Udezue, CPO (Typeform, Twitter, Calendly): https://youtu.be/2WuAGcRwdv0

Chapters

00:00 Intro
02:04 Product challenges and shifts at Playground XYZ
04:38 How to implement product centricity
05:18 How to navigate conversations with CEOs
09:23 How to empower product teams and drive innovation
11:05 Adapting during COVID-19
20:08 Attention tracking and creative Insights
27:33 The role of design and raste in product development
33:01 Outro

Follow LaunchPod on YouTube

We have a new YouTube page! Watch full episodes of our interviews with PM leaders and subscribe!

What does LogRocket do?

LogRocket combines frontend monitoring, product analytics, and session replay to help software teams deliver the ideal product experience. Try LogRocket for free today. Special Guest: Steve Nash.

How to build for customers— not stakeholders | Jonathan Sussman, CPO (Jebbit) | LaunchPod

LogRocket — Tue, 04 Mar 2025 08:00:00 -0500

Today, we’re talking with Jonathan Sussman, CPO for over 5 years at Jebbit, an enterprise experience platform for first-party data capture, which was recently acquired by BlueConic.

In this episode, Jonathan talks about:

Why Product Management is one of the hardest functions to master
How to use professional services - usually a cost center - as a source of product innovation that drives longterm growth
And, the time when they built to solve internal problems, not customer value, nearly caused an early key launch to fail

Links

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-sussman-0a84462/
Jebbit: https://www.jebbit.com/
BlueConic https://www.blueconic.com/

Resources

Building iconic customer experiences with Susan Stavitski, Principal PM: https://youtu.be/TyA7d30ckNE?feature=shared
The end of MVPs and prioritizing accountability with Jason Penkethman, CPO: https://youtu.be/-vanNudmXMM?feature=shared

Chapters

00:00 Startups and ROI Challenges
00:24 Introduction
01:00 Building Product From Yahoo to Jebit
02:08 The Evolution of Programmatic Advertising
10:02 Transition to AT&T and Product Management Insights
13:55 Joining Jebit: Early Challenges and Learnings
21:46 Innovative Product Approaches and Managed Services
28:31 Balancing Tech Debt and Customer Needs
31:39 Outro

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What does LogRocket do?

How to fail fast to unlock hypergrowth | Dane Molter, VP of Product (Navan)

LogRocket — Tue, 25 Feb 2025 08:00:00 -0500

When it comes to challenging the status quo in SaaS and product strategy, you can’t fundamentally disrupt an industry without failing fast and pushing boundaries.

On today’s episode of LaunchPod, we’re talking with Dane Molter, VP of Product and Strategy at Navan, an all-in-one travel and expense app for corporate travelers.

In this episode, Dane talks about:

His framework for driving product teams to “be brave,” ship faster, and attain huge goals
Why perfect is actually the enemy of progress, and when good enough is actually good enough
How to exceed the perceived boundaries of any solution, and deliver product that really disrupts the world

Links

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dane-molter-6b937231/
Navan: https://navan.com/

Resources

(Ethically) cheat your way to $250M+ | Mikal Lewis, Product Exec. (Whole Foods, Nordstrom): https://youtu.be/5txeT2U_YQo

Chapters

Follow LaunchPod on YouTube

We have a new YouTube page! Watch full episodes of our interviews with PM leaders and subscribe!

What does LogRocket do?

LogRocket combines frontend monitoring, product analytics, and session replay to help software teams deliver the ideal product experience. Try LogRocket for free today. Special Guest: Dane Molter.

How to A/B test your product to millions in ARR | Eric Metelka, Head of Product (Eppo)

LogRocket — Tue, 18 Feb 2025 08:00:00 -0500

Today, we’re talking with Eric Metelka, Head of Product at Eppo, a next-gen A/B experimentation platform for product teams. With a background in A/B testing and data science, Eric has worked in building product at companies like Cameo, SpotHero, and G2.

In this episode, Eric talks about:

The process he used to cold start G2’s review product and turn it into a self-sustaining flywheel
His secrets to running great A/B tests that can really prove your impact on product growth
How he recovered from Cameo’s Engineering Director telling his entire exec team that all Eric’s test data was incorrect and what he learned from that

Links

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericmetelka/
Twitter/X: https://x.com/eric3000
BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/eric3000.bsky.social
Eppo: https://www.geteppo.com/
Build Product like Linear | Nan Yu, Head of Product (Linear, Everlane, BOA): https://youtu.be/7ISWLoQtNOc

Chapters

00:00 Intro
03:01 Strategies for Gathering Reviews
05:19 Automating the Review Process
07:54 Scaling and Growth at G2
16:38 Transition to Power Reviews
20:48 Challenges in Competing with Shopify
22:51 Product Lessons from Implementation Processes
24:03 Importance of Institutional Knowledge
25:05 Navigating Leadership and Learning
26:04 Understanding Revenue Recognition
27:56 Effective A/B Testing Strategies with Data Science
28:39 Product Experimentation Pitfalls at Cameo
38:33 Improving Digital User Experience at Cameo
41:52 Outro

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We have a new YouTube page! Watch full episodes of our interviews with PM leaders and subscribe!

What does LogRocket do?

LogRocket combines frontend monitoring, product analytics, and session replay to help software teams deliver the ideal product experience. Try LogRocket for free today. Special Guest: Eric Metelka.

(Ethically) cheat your way to $250M+ | Mikal Lewis, Product Exec. (Whole Foods, Nordstrom)

LogRocket — Tue, 11 Feb 2025 08:00:00 -0500

Today, we’re talking with Mikal Lewis, a Digital Product Executive at Whole Foods who drove hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue over the course of his career.

In this episode, Mikal talks about:

Why you should absolutely (ethically) cheat to get outsized results for your product
His framework that drove a quarter of a billion dollars in additional revenue for Nordstrom’s online store
How to use four types of luck to optimize for opportunity
And, how to build a quiet portfolio so that you can choose your own career moves

Links

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikalfm/
How Google Works by Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosenberg: https://www.amazon.com/How-Google-Works-Eric-Schmidt/dp/1455582328
The Law of Shitty Clickthroughs by Andrew Chen: https://andrewchen.com/the-law-of-shitty-clickthroughs/
Pretentiousness: Why it Matters by Dan Fox: https://www.amazon.com/Pretentiousness-Why-Matters-Dan-Fox/dp/156689428X

Chapters

00:00 Intro
01:02 Learning Product from Windows to Whole Foods
03:53 The Four Types of Luck by Eric Schmidt
07:30 Applying Type Four Luck to Product
16:53 Breaking into Product Management at Microsoft
22:58 Transforming Nordstrom's Digital Product Experience
34:23 Professional vs. Non-Professional Product Management
37:06 Outro

Follow LaunchPod on YouTube

We have a new YouTube page! Watch full episodes of our interviews with PM leaders and subscribe!

What does LogRocket do?

LogRocket combines frontend monitoring, product analytics, and session replay to help software teams deliver the ideal product experience. Try LogRocket for free today. Special Guest: Mikal Lewis.

How to launch your ugly MVP in high-velocity markets | Kevin Wang, CPO (Braze)

LogRocket — Tue, 04 Feb 2025 08:00:00 -0500

Today, we’re talking with Kevin Wang, Chief Product Officer at Braze, a platform that enables businesses to build meaningful, personalized relationships with their customers across multiple channels.

In this episode, Kevin talks about:

How you can pair high-velocity market innovation with a long-term, consistent vision to beat competition year after year
Why you should build durable teams, over agile org structures, to drive long-term success
And, a process to partner with early adopters to get the best market insights for your product

Links

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-wang-96131916/

Chapters

00:00 Intro
00:56 Kevin Wang’s Career at Braze
03:11 Understanding Selling to Marketers in SaaS
03:37 Braze's Customer Engagement Platform
08:03 The Evolution of Marketing Teams’ Product Needs
13:25 Braze's Future-Forward Product Vision and Strategy
37:04 The Role of Durable Teams in Startups
39:07 AI and the Future of Customer Engagement
44:12 Outro

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We have a new YouTube page! Watch full episodes of our interviews with PM leaders and subscribe!

What does LogRocket do?

LogRocket combines frontend monitoring, product analytics, and session replay to help software teams deliver the ideal product experience. Try LogRocket for free today.

How to build a $1M ARR startup (x3) | Adam Schoenfeld (Keyplay)

LogRocket — Tue, 28 Jan 2025 08:00:00 -0500

Today, we’re talking with Adam Schoenfeld, CEO at Keyplay, a SaaS solution to help B2B marketers make GTM more efficient.

In this episode, Adam talks about:

How he built 3 startups to over $1m ARR
His process that’s allowed him to reliably reach Product Market Fit again and again
And the critical mistakes founders always make...and how you can avoid them

Links

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamschoenfeld/

Chapters

00:00 Intro
01:19 Adam Schoenfeld's Journey to Keyplay
01:59 How to Build A Startup
02:33 Building a Product Audience and Discovering Problems
02:50 From PeerSignal to Keyplay
03:17 Monetizing the Discovery Process
04:05 Finding Product Market Fit
07:11 The Role of Design Partners
13:36 Early Product Traction and Validation
17:49 Challenges in Scaling
19:12 Challenges of Founding a SaaS Company
21:34 Adapting Sales Processes and Proving Value
23:29 Understanding Market Changes and Effective Marketing
28:59 Lessons from Past Ventures and Scaling Challenges
34:19 Insights on Product Market Fit and Distribution
36:57 Navigating Acquisitions and Future Outlook

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Anti-silver bullets: Pioneering PLG at IBM | Andy Boyd, CPO (Appfire, IBM)

LogRocket — Tue, 21 Jan 2025 08:00:00 -0500

Today, we’re talking with Andy Boyd, CPO of Appfire, which provides a portfolio of over 100 collaboration solutions.

In this episode, Andy details:

His no-fail growth formula from driving product-led growth (PLG) at IBM Watson
- Learn from Andy's product-lead growth examples from his book, Enterprise Growth Playbook
The ways he uses data to drive experimentation velocity and avoid decision paralysis
How he’s slingshotted his career by focusing on working with great people, rather than chasing titles or compensation - and why you should too!

Links

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andyfboyd/
Website: https://andyfboyd.com/
Appfire: https://appfire.com/
Enterprise Growth Playbook: https://andyfboyd.com/enterprise-growth-playbook/

Chapters

00:00 The Data Dilemma: Product Decision-Making
00:15 Intro
01:16 The Introduction of Product-Led Growth at IBM Watson
02:19 Driving Monthly Active Users: Strategies and Successes
03:16 Understanding Growth: Product vs. Marketing
04:01 The Early Days of PLG at IBM
05:20 From Developer to Product Manager
08:13 Launching Growth Teams Across IBM
11:39 Key Learnings from Developer-Focused Projects
14:51 The Power of Simplicity in Growth Strategies
16:46 Writing the Enterprise Growth Playbook
20:21 The Silver Bullet Myth in Growth Strategies
21:22 The Magic of Compounding Growth
22:31 Data-Driven Decision Making
26:29 Transitioning to Appfire
28:23 Scaling and Hypergrowth at Appfire
31:42 Effective Customer Feedback Mechanisms
35:31 Career Advice: From IBM to Appfire
40:23 Outro

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We have a new YouTube page! Watch full episodes of our interviews with PM leaders and subscribe!

What does LogRocket do?

LogRocket combines frontend monitoring, product analytics, and session replay to help software teams deliver the ideal product experience. Try LogRocket for free today. Special Guest: Andy Boyd.

Managing product ahead of its time | Sean Lorenz, Senior Director of Product (Altoida, LogMeIn, Neurala)

LogRocket — Tue, 14 Jan 2025 09:00:00 -0500

On today’s episode of LaunchPod, Jeff Wharton talks to Sean Lorenz, Senior Director of Product at Altoida, using augmented reality and AI to radically improve neurologic diagnostics

In this episode, we talked about:

How to adapt product to find viable markets
The importance of matching product capabilities with market timing and realistic go-to-market strategies
How to deal with a product that is ahead of market readiness

Links

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thenanyu/
Twitter: https://x.com/thenanyu?lang=en

Chapters

00:00 Intro
02:09 Essential Tools for Product Managers
03:19 Career Highlights and Organizational Design
03:49 The Heirloom Tomato Analogy
04:18 Conway's Law and Communication Structures
06:11 Focus and Prioritization in Startups
06:53 Lessons from Everlane
13:23 Challenges in Organizational Design
24:02 The Dangers of Learned Helplessness in Engineering Teams
25:19 High Output Management: Key Principles
27:32 Team Structure and Soft Boundaries
31:07 The Aladdin Principle: Breaking Social Boundaries
31:49 Balancing Core Business and Checkbox Requirements
34:45 Linear's Unique Approach to Project Management
43:42 The Concept of Work Trials at Linear
47:00 Outro

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We have a new YouTube page! Watch full episodes of our interviews with PM leaders and subscribe!

What does LogRocket do?

LogRocket combines frontend monitoring, product analytics, and session replay to help software teams deliver the ideal product experience. Try LogRocket for free today.

Navigating a digital reckoning in the art industry | Elizabeth Van Bergen, Product Experience Lead (Phillips)

LogRocket — Tue, 07 Jan 2025 08:00:00 -0500

Today, LogRocket’s VP of Marketing, Jeff Wharton, talks to Elizabeth Van Bergen, who leads product experience at Phillips, a global high-end auction house.

In this episode we talked about:

Creating a product experience for both tech novices and early adopters
- “One of our big things is always creating parity between experiences. We always want to create the journey for the client, we want to show people what they can do, not force them. We've really been able to also bring that online and offer them the digital space from a product standpoint.
- Some people just always prefer that personal high touch. But the idea for us is to be able to create an experience where for 80% of the clients it’s not necessary. So the 20% of the market that we're looking towards, the ultra-high net worth individuals, we will always be able to service them.
- But by being able to solve for the 80%, it gives our team the bandwidth and ability to focus on the ultra-high net worth individuals, whereas our tools help those early adopters."
- How the traditional auction industry went digital overnight
  - “[The pandemic] was a reckoning for the whole world, but I think for an industry that is so rooted in tradition, like the auction world, it was the catalyst that drove everyone to really be interested in the change. It wasn't that people didn't know that it needed to happen, that we didn't need to change our digital offerings; it just wasn't the core of what we were doing.
  - Changing something within the auction world can sometimes be like trying to move a mountain. You're trying to explain something that is maybe very foreign to what our specialists are used to doing; this is how we've done it for 20, 30 years. So the pandemic was great because it changed everybody's minds and it rerouted how people were thinking about things like 'What can I do for this client or what can I offer them digitally?'”
- And why the digital experience is as important as the functionality itself
  - “Relationships within our industry are key. So you want people to keep coming back because, whether someone is a consigner or a buyer, both are clients. Either way, the company is making money and it's important to service both of those clients.
  - So you always want people to be coming back. If you have a happy buyer, they come back, let's say maybe five, 10 years later and they sell, you have a happy consigner. So you also develop a brand loyalty and that trust is really key.
  - So even though some of what we do is still, and will always be, in person, that digital aspect of it, if someone's trying to WhatsApp someone after a meeting and now all of a sudden that share option isn't providing the correct metadata that's supposed to be there, that can be really frustrating, and can also not always look as nice, and sometimes it just needs to look nice too."

Links

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabethvanbergen/

Chapters

00:00 Intro
00:54 Elizabeth Van Bergen's Background and Career Journey
02:15 The Art of Productizing Taste
03:22 Digital Transformation in the Auction Industry
05:17 Creating Seamless Digital Experiences
12:10 Navigating the Pandemic and Embracing Change
16:29 Leveraging Social Media and Data
21:36 Balancing Functionality and Experience
28:27 Collaborative Efforts and Future Directions
32:09 Outro

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What does LogRocket do?

Build product like Linear | Nan Yu, Head of Product (Linear, Everlane, BOA)

LogRocket — Tue, 31 Dec 2024 08:00:00 -0500

Today, our guest is Nan Yu, Head of Product at Linear, a purpose-built tool for planning and building products. Prior to working at Linear, Nan worked at Mode, Abstract, Everlane, and Bank of America.

On today’s episode, Nan talks to LogRocket’s VP of Marketing, Jeff Wharton, about:

Why the only thing that matters is the next category launch — even if it’s held together with duct tape
- "You can have everything held together with duct tape and it's okay. And I think that's an uncomfortable sort of mindset for people to adopt really.
- At Everlane, the only thing that was important was the next category launch launch. You can sacrifice everything else. If the next category launch goes well, numbers go up, we raise more money, we get more customers. That's the only thing that matters."
Why it’s important to have conviction in making decisions — even if the market slaps you in the face
- "But at the end of the day, you know, as a leader, you own the decisions that they're making. As a leader saying, 'Here's where we're going to be great and really differentiate and rise above the market.' And I could be wrong, right? I could be aggressively, tragically wrong, and that's fine.
- That's actually probably better, right? You want to know for sure that you're wrong and that you can switch directions; failing fast is a thing that we want to do. It's not like, 'Oh, well, we're gonna wait and see.' No, have some conviction around something, focus on it, and let the market slap you in the face if it's not correct."
Why engineering teams can sometimes suffer from learned helplessness, and why it’s detrimental to product innovation
- "You see teams where there's a product manager per five or six engineers. And engineers will tend to check out a little bit from understanding how the product actually works, understanding the customer, because, well, we got this PM senior right here. It's not out of laziness necessarily, it's more like, well, this is someone's job description, so it wouldn't feel right for me to do that. And then you start having this learned helplessness.
- So I think that dynamic is probably way more dangerous than a product manager being overworked. If you end up in a state where your engineering team is like disengaged and they have learned helplessness, good luck trying to unwind that. That is a cultural change that you're not going to observe until it's too late, and it's very difficult to to reverse and it takes a long time."

Links

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thenanyu/
Twitter: https://x.com/thenanyu?lang=en

Chapters

Follow LaunchPod on YouTube

We have a new YouTube page! Watch full episodes of our interviews with PM leaders and subscribe!

What does LogRocket do?

LogRocket combines frontend monitoring, product analytics, and session replay to help software teams deliver the ideal product experience. Try LogRocket for free today. Special Guest: Nan Yu.

How to build product at Linear with Nan Yu (Repeat)

LogRocket — Tue, 05 Nov 2024 08:00:00 -0500

Today, we're re-running one of our favorite episodes with Nan Yu, Head of Product at Linear, a purpose-built tool for planning and building products. Prior to working at Linear, Nan worked at Mode, Abstract, Everlane, and Bank of America.

On today’s episode, Nan talks to LogRocket’s VP of Marketing, Jeff Wharton, about being intentional with organizational design, prioritizing tasks that make product special while minimizing unnecessary complexity, and what is so important about heirloom tomatoes.

Links and references

https://www.linkedin.com/in/thenanyu/
https://x.com/thenanyu

Chapters

00:00 Intro
01:25 Essential tools for product managers
02:07 Career highlights and organizational design
05:27 Everlane's growth strategy
08:03 Focus and prioritization in startups
11:10 Challenges in organizational setup
15:23 Team dynamics and management
20:30 The importance of hiring based on need
20:52 High output management principles
22:46 Team structure and communication
26:31 Balancing core and non-core tasks
29:13 The Linear approach to project management
33:48 Challenges with legacy project management tools
35:45 The philosophy behind Linear's design
37:40 Work trials at Linear
40:44 Outro

What does LogRocket do?

LogRocket provides AI-first session replay and analytics that surfaces UX and technical issues impacting user experiences. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it free at LogRocket.com. Special Guest: Nan Yu.

How to build product like Linear with Nan Yu, Head of Product

LogRocket — Tue, 27 Aug 2024 08:00:00 -0400

Links and references

https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-anovick-a837053/
Product Operations: How successful companies build better products at scale by Melissa Perri

Chapters

What does LogRocket do?

Product success through community engagement with Michael Liss, VP

LogRocket — Tue, 09 Apr 2024 08:00:00 -0400

Today our guest is Michael Liss, Vice President of Product at the New York Post.

Michael has been at the Post for the last 10 years, and has worked in several sectors of media throughout his career, including book publishing, digital marketing, journalism, and media production. In his current position, Michael plays a leading role in all digital initiatives for New York Post, Page Six, and Decider.

On today's episode, LogRocket's VP of Marketing, Jeff Wharton, talks to Michael about product management in media, the importance of the user and editorial experiences, and how bolstering community engagement was successful for the Post.

Links

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mliss/
Michael Liss' New York Post archive
Leader Spotlight: Shaping the evolution of digital media, with Michael Liss

What does LogRocket do?

LogRocket combines frontend monitoring, product analytics, and session replay to help software teams deliver the ideal product experience. Try LogRocket for free today. Special Guest: Michael Liss.

Product vision and alignment with Sandy Huang

LogRocket — Tue, 02 Apr 2024 08:00:00 -0400

Today, our guest is Sandy Huang, Vice President of Product Management at GoodRx.

Sandy has worked in tech for most of her career, beginning at small startups such as MusicNow, which was later acquired by AOL, as well as WeddingChannel, which was acquired by The Knot. She then moved on to companies including Shutterfly, Minted, Jive Software, and Flipboard.

Before joining GoodRX, Sandy worked at Amazon as Head of Product, where she led the global visual search and discovery team for Amazon Shopping, and led the Alexa team developing experiences and content.

In this episode, LogRocket's CEO and Head of Product, Matt Arbesfeld, talks to Sandy about the importance of alignment in product management, ways to collaborate with stakeholders, and insights from her experiences at Amazon working on projects like Alexa and Global Search and Discovery.

Links

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandyhuangproduct/
https://twitter.com/SandyHuangPM
Leader Spotlight: Finding your superpower, with Sandy Huang

What does LogRocket do?

LogRocket combines frontend monitoring, product analytics, and session replay to help software teams deliver the ideal product experience. Try LogRocket for free today. Special Guest: Sandy Huang.

Outcomes over outputs with Karla Fiske, VP

LogRocket — Tue, 26 Mar 2024 08:00:00 -0400

Today, our guest is Karla Fiske, Vice President of Product Management at Tebra.

Having previously led customer-centric product orgs at Experian, Arbonne, and Chipotle, Karla stepped in as the first VP of Product for Tebra’s Patient Experience division in June 2022 and quickly garnered cross-functional support for a unified product roadmap designed to mesh two merging companies into an end-to-end SaaS healthcare solution for SMBs.

On today's episode, LogRocket's VP of Marketing, Jeff Wharton, talks to Karla about her experience with mergers, particularly her role in integrating platforms at Tebra; the significance of communication, objective setting, and focusing on outcomes over outputs; and the 'product placemat' strategy to prioritize and communicate projects effectively across departments to minimize escalations and align organizational objectives.

Links

https://www.linkedin.com/in/karlafiske/
Leader Spotlight: Flattening the learning curve, with Karla Fiske

References

“The First 90 Days: Proven Strategies for Getting Up to Speed Faster and Smarter” by Michael D. Watkins

What does LogRocket do?

LogRocket combines frontend monitoring, product analytics, and session replay to help software teams deliver the ideal product experience. Try LogRocket for free today. Special Guest: Karla Fiske.

Revolutionizing small business banking with Herman Man, CPO

LogRocket — Tue, 19 Mar 2024 08:00:00 -0400

Today, our guest is Herman Man, Chief Product Officer at Bluevine, where he’s building the next-generation digital banking platform for small businesses.

Originally a computer scientist and engineer by trade, Herman quickly earned a reputation as “one of the few developers with a personality,” throwing himself headfirst into solving complex technical problems for business users who crave simplicity in their fintech solutions. In addition to leading the product function at Bluevine, he also oversees design, which he says ensures a seamless experience for customers and empowers the wider organization to approach problem solving from a user-centered perspective.

On today's episode, LogRocket's CEO and Head of Product, Matt Arbesfeld, talks to Herman about how he used his background in engineering to build his career in product, what it's like building a product for the banking industry and the challenges that come with that industry, and how startups can use feedback to disrupt bigger competitors.

Links

https://www.linkedin.com/in/hermanjman/
https://twitter.com/herman_man
Leader Spotlight: Sweating the details, with Herman Man

What does LogRocket do?

LogRocket combines frontend monitoring, product analytics, and session replay to help software teams deliver the ideal product experience. Try LogRocket for free today. Special Guest: Herman Man.

Navigating regulations with customer-centricity with Sai Vishnubhatla, CFA

LogRocket — Tue, 12 Mar 2024 08:00:00 -0400

Today, our guest is Sai Vishnubhatla, Head of P&C Innovation at USAA, and, at the time of recording, previously VP of Product at Hippo Insurance, where he led the product management teams responsible for launching products across acquisition, growth, and activation, as well as for building best-in-class pre- and post-purchase customer experiences

On today's episode, LogRocket's VP of Marketing Jeff Wharton, talks with Sai about how Sai decided to pursue his CFA and how it impacted how he looks at product, what it's like working in a highly regulated industry, and how to simultaneously and effectively serve customers and the business at large.

Before joining Hippo, Sai built and scaled product, engineering, marketing, and operations teams at various successful enterprises, including Yahoo, Microsoft, and Prudential.

Links

Leader Spotlight: Exceeding customer expectations with Sai Vishnubhatla
https://www.linkedin.com/in/saivishnubhatla

What does LogRocket do?

Real-world AI products with Roman Gun, VP of Product

LogRocket — Mon, 04 Mar 2024 09:00:00 -0500

Today, our guest is Roman Gun, vice president of product at Zeta Global, a cloud-based marketing technology company that focuses on multi-channel marketing tools.

On today's episode, LogRocket's VP of Marketing Jeff Wharton talks with Roman about addressing real customer problems with AI, utilizing a workback plan focused on a design north star, how Rick Rubin influenced Roman's own first-principles thinking, and how to create products that can be elegant enough to solve everyday problems, but flexible enough to also solve the advanced problems.

Before Zeta, Roman's eclectic background includes chief innovation officer at Fevo, senior product manager at Submersive Media, founder and head of product for GivingBell, and so much more.

Links

https://www.linkedin.com/in/romangun/
https://blog.logrocket.com/product-management/leader-spotlight-roman-gun/

What does LogRocket do?

LogRocket combines frontend monitoring, product analytics, and session replay to help software teams deliver the ideal product experience. Try LogRocket for free today. Special Guest: Roman Gun.

Accelerated product innovation with Ryan Johnson, CPO

LogRocket — Mon, 04 Mar 2024 08:00:00 -0500

Today, our guest is Ryan Johnson, Chief Product Officer at CallRail, where he focuses on developing best-in-class technology solutions to solve real-world problems.

On today's episode, LogRocket's VP of Marketing Jeff Wharton talks with Ryan about how to continue listening to customers even when scaling quickly, how to manage and apply customer data, and how to balance accelerated innovation with quality.

Ryan previously held leadership positions at Banjo (now MiiM), a movement intelligence company, and Vitrue, a social marketing and engagement platform that was acquired by Oracle during his tenure. He has experience in a variety of sectors, including online marketing, education, legal, financial services, and retail.

Links

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryandjohnson
https://twitter.com/rydavidjohnson?lang=en
https://blog.logrocket.com/product-management/leader-spotlight-ryan-johnson/

What does LogRocket do?

LogRocket combines frontend monitoring, product analytics, and session replay to help software teams deliver the ideal product experience. Try LogRocket for free today. Special Guest: Ryan Johnson.