Shelly Kalish

Sittercity

In product, it’s easy to lock in on a user-focused or customer-centric mindset. Not necessarily a bad thing, but it can be if we lose sight of the bigger picture. As product managers, we have a business to run. We have team members to grow and develop. We’re responsible for broader financial metrics. Shelly Kalish …

Dave Dame

Microsoft

“I have Cerebral Palsy,” says Dave Dame, Senior Director of Product Accessibility for Windows at Microsoft®. “But my money doesn’t. So if you want my money, you better build a product or a service I can use, or I’m going to spend my disposable income somewhere else.” Imagine hearing that from the estimated 2 billion …

Quincy Olatunde

Peacock

What’s the point of building a product if it doesn’t actually help to solve a user problem? And how do you grow and scale your product without understanding consumers’ behavior with it?  Quincy Olatunde, Peacock’s VP of Products, Direct-to-Consumer explores these questions through the lens of data – what he calls the third leg of …

Jay Brewer & Zhuldyz Alimbek

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

It hurts to admit, but product designers and teams don’t always know what our users need. We need to seek out user feedback and create ways for them to tell us spontaneously, often in the heat of the moment. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s Jay Brewer and Zhuldyz Alimbek – fresh from the stage at Pendomonium 2023 …

Yochai Konig

Ada

Yochai Konig, Vice President, Machine Learning & AI at Ada, has worked in product and specialized in AI-enabled capabilities for more than 2 decades. All of a sudden, it seems, the rest of the world is catching on. Yet despite the recent buzz, many remain confused about how AI truly works. There was a lot …

Todd Olson & Trisha Price

Pendo

If you believe all you read about AI, it’s easy to come away feeling that it’s the cure for all ills. But in many ways, it’s a solution in search of a problem. In this episode with Pendo CEO Todd Olson and CPO Trisha Price, we move past the hype to remind ourselves, as Todd …

Christine Itwaru

Pendo

In this episode, Christine Itwaru, Principal Strategist at Pendo, describes her journey from a product management role to product ops to strategy, tackling big-picture issues and leaves kernels of wisdom for us to use in our own product roles. Among them, how to strengthen the human connection between product teams and their users. Key takeaways …

Michael Sacca & Chloe Oddleifson

Gigantic

Working in a startup brings the concept “CEO of the product” to a whole new level. Suddenly, as Gigantic CEO Michael Sacca and COO Chloe Oddleifson know well, you’re responsible for every aspect of your product’s development, launch, promotion, sales – and everything in between. Fun fact: there’s plenty to take away from the startup …

Marsha Acker

TeamCatapult

When we’re afraid to have difficult conversations, we hold ourselves back and create more frustration and work in the long run, says Marsha Acker, founder and CEO of Team Catapult. “We spend a lot of time trying to avoid conflict and the things that make us feel uncomfortable. And yet in our attempts to avoid …

Alla Weinberg

SPOKE & WHEEL

Alla Weinberg, CEO of SPOKE & WHEEL, says that the key to designing relationships that resolve (even avoid) workplace tensions is to have different conversations than the ones we’re currently having. Our relentless focus on the work, she explains, distracts us from focusing on the people and making sure that we have created an organization …