It's my pleasure to invite Lauren Treasure, a Co-Founder of Higa to speak today and give her perspective on leading the product in start-up or scale-up vs leading product in your own venture. Lauren has a wealth of experience in B2C space and shared some amazing learnings around: 1. The differences in founding a company vs. leading a product team, 2. Building a product zero to one at an existing company vs. building a company zero to one, 3. How it takes a smaller team than it ever has to start a company Product people who are eyeing the path of the Co-Founder (which I am seeing an increase in!), this episode is a must listen for you! Check out Higa and connect with Lauren on Linkedin!

Francis Brero is the Founder and Product leader in MadKudu, a data heavy product allowing companies to manipulate and use first party data to customise the buying experience for b2b buyers. Our question of the day: how do we improve customer centricity as your product scales? Francis shares that 1 big change was to introduce Gong, a call recording tool, to bring the voice of customer into the front of the decision making. Francis uses snippets of the recordings through the process of adjustment and improvement of the product on ongoing basis. "You get an amazing pulse from the customer and the way they are reacting". Team also includes relevant snippets with feedback on product roadmap and product experience on board memos. This tool alone allowed MadKudu team to implement multiple improvements in the product, such as better match the customer journey and deepen partnership strategy, and significantly reduce bias in collecting feedback. Connect with Francis: https://www.linkedin.com/in/francisbrero/ Check out MadKudu: https://www.madkudu.com/

Love interviewing first time founders and CPOs on the podcast. Why? Because they both help us all go back to the essence of product management and recap on some of the bias we are all prone to. If you are a first time or repeat product lead, scale up product person or a founder working out the solution - these learnings are for you. Few weeks ago I sat down for a chat with Matheus Beltrami, Co-Founder and CPO of deX Labs to talk about his journey to product from functional field of data and analytics. deX Labs⁠ is a vertically focused state of the art platform designed to seamlessly integrate every aspect of data handling. Matheus talks about 3 main learning areas along building deX Labs⁠: - developing a deep understanding of the problem you are tackling by keeping focus on your user group and problem you are solving for them. He outlines the need to separate yourself from your perception of the problem (and your opinion) and what customers are saying and experiencing. This is easier said than done! - collecting and prompting information. Digging (really) deep into the problems. Being attentive and allowing ample time to truly understand the day to day of your user in order to gain a better insight into the problem. These days product leads are inundated with many meetings causing them to get lost in details sometimes and put the big picture questions on the back burner. Create "thinking" time pockets to counteract that. This point was also brought up by Millie Zah from DAZN on ProductCon few weeks back and is a talking pain point for product leaders I am talking to. - accept that you'll have to compromise. Group and cluster ideas, put those into backlog and prioritise. Rigourously. Best of luck to Matheus Beltrami⁠ and the deX Labs⁠ team on growing the product further!

Dig into the story of development of WeDu, a community of endurance athletes united around the belief that the true path forward is forged by breakthroughs of body and mind. WeDu naturally grew with its community and expanded horizontally to become a platform, brining together creators, brands, and fans, scaling operations with the help of AI, offering highly curated experience for their niche customer base. Dylan Casey also talks about the "flow of the dollar", tackling the cost implications of scaling the b2c business, and keeping the focus narrow and being one thing to a specific group of people.

Love when product people build the product for product people! Focused on assisting large and complex product teams to improve on collaboration, communication and results, airfocus recently successfully closed a $7.5M fundraising round, led by Newion with the participation of XAnge, Nauta, Riverside Acceleration Capital, and Picea Capital. In this session we break down the components of building successful products and double click on one of them - building empowered and self guided product teams. Tune in to hear key learnings from the Co-Founder, CEO and CPO of airfocus, Malte Scholz!

As a talent professional and in my conversations with the founders and CEOs, stage appropriate hiring comes up 100% of the time. That is why I am so glad that we are covering this very topic as the first episode of the new 10 minute series. We had been running longer here, as the subject in question is so vast that myself and Natalie can hold a 2 day conference on this. Natalie had been working as an early stage PeopleOps leader for over a decade and had been shaping the organisations of many startups across Boldstart VC portfolio and outside of it. Her straightforward approach, clear focus on her niche and experience make her one of the top people seed and Series A ventures need to have onboard. Join me as we summarise this massive theme into a 22 minute discussion on who to hire and, most importantly, when. Connect with Natalie Ledbetter over Linkedin, follow her latest talks, and don't forget to check out her article for Fast Company.

Making the new "10 minute podcast" series available for everyone to enjoy. Each episode in these series is focused on 1 prominent question for the tech community today. I'll be interviewing Founders, CEOs and Product & Engineering leaders, sharing their latest learnings.

Join the "Thought Leaders: An In-person Roundtable Series" to broaden your knowledge, exchange ideas, and engage with accomplished professionals and experts in their respective fields. This event in Seattle focused on the theme of "Women in Leadership Building Industry-leading products in the Age of AI" and was hosted by F5 and Productwise Talent. This recording is a recap of 2.5h of active discussions with leaders from the field.

Joining us today is Amanda Kozlowski Stanley, a fractional head of product and co-founder of Sound Products NW. She partners with founders and business leaders to build and test product ideas that are deeply rooted in customer needs. Amanda returned to the West Coast after a decade in Washington, DC and Hong Kong. She's led strategy and innovation projects for private- and public-sector organizations on five continents, including a former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, the CEO of one of Germany’s largest conglomerates, and Starbucks. Professional and experienced product mind is needed in the organization from the moment you have an idea, yet many pre-seed and seed stage startups cannot afford to hire a full time experienced resource. The market found a solution to this challenge with a Fractional Head of Product leaders who are stepping in to help the founders and first time product CEOs realise their potential, reach initial PMF and set the critical foundation for product organisation. Who doesn't love 0-1 journeys! In this episode we cover common pitfalls, learnings and, of course, the ways to identify, screen and engage a fractional product leader.

Our guest today is Roxy Stimpson, Head of Innovation, Vice President of Engineering in the Office of the CTO at F5, who leads a charter to accelerate the pace and impact of innovation at F5. Before F5, Roxy was the CTO of IoT World Labs leading global teams to create, build, and launch an innovative digital data transformation SaaS platform serving various industries, including transportation, manufacturing, and supply chain. Her mission is to inspire and empower individuals to become more effective communicators and leaders.  She advocates leveraging technology, lean-agile processes, and machine and human connections to deliver tangible positive impacts. This awesome episode is filled with golden nuggets on how to crate a culture of inclusion and support, where asking questions is welcomed. In this episode we talk about: The importance of mentorshipDiversity as a solution to building better products The ripple effect of good and bad leadership Importance of the right set up when getting higher in your careerTrain the trainer modelCreating the muscle - calling out things that are not right. The “Yes and” tacticBeing the first anchor: if you in minority - does not mean you do not belong. Means you can create the tribe.  Soak in the learnings and approach to leadership from Roxy! Lucky enough to be in Washington state? Check out Women's Leadership Academy in University of Washington

Sarah is Global Product Manager with over 20 years experience in FinTech, currently Head of Products at interop.io (prior Finsemble). She began her career as a Help Desk Manager at a FinTech startup and have held numerous roles over the years in both Engineering and Product Management. Sarah holds a BA in Mathematics from Boston College and an MS in Applied Math and Statistics from Stony Brook University. She is also on the Leadership counsel for a non-profit and was co-chair for 5 years. In this episode with Sarah we are talking about: Her trajectory from engineering into product managementKeeping up with latest tech trends and learning new ways to improve your workMentoring more junior women entering tech space  Connect with Sarah

Shruti Goli is a Co founder and CPO in Trymata, a product analytics company (previously known as TryMyUI). Shruti started working at Microsoft as a Product Manager. She went on to bootstrap a product analytics company, Stitchology.ai, and was 24 years old when she sold it last year in May 2022.  In this Ep. 16 we are going to talk about: 1) building Stitchology.ai while working at Microsoft  2) selling Stitchology.ai at 24 years old to Trymata (usability testing company)  3) merging TryMyUI + Stitchology.ai into 1 product to expand on product proposition

Lauren Treasure is a consumer product leader who loves to build and develop teams as much as products. She started her career as a researcher and then pivoted to product at Orca Health, a startup focused on building 3D software products to improve the patient experience.  She then joined Ancestry to help build the AncestryDNA product, which grew from 300k to over 10 million customers during her tenure.  In 2018, she joined Chatbooks to build a product organization and help the company scale. She is currently the Chief Product Officer, leading the product development, UX design and research teams who are helping millions of happy Chatbookers print, share and celebrate their everyday memories. In this episode we are talking about: B2C product development: specificities of the b2c product rollout and criticality of testing with examples from Ancestry and Chatbooks. Falling in love with the problem.Products with long lead times - seeing a long term perspective and keeping the motivationCreating a healthy and successful remote workplace: finding balance between the async and in-sync work. Holding more efficient meetings. Promoting flexibility, yet setting and meeting deadlines.

Noa Reikhav is vice president of product at Skai, an award-winning omnichannel marketing platform for performance media. Noa brings her unique background in psychology and communication to her role as an innovator in adtech. Responsible for the ideation and development of some of Skai’s most revolutionary AI features, her impact is felt by Skai clients throughout the world. Beginning her career as a product manager in her native Israel, Noa has since held a variety of roles at adtech companies and startups leading DSP, mobile advertising, and search teams before moving to the U.S. to lead Skai’s retail media and omnichannel efforts. Common threads throughout her 12 years in the industry are Noa’s focus on creating technology that helps marketers and her legacy building and scaling product teams that have revolutionized digital marketing. Today we are going to talk about: Tel Aviv vs NYC tech ecosystem: being “in” the marketBanking on growth and building super teams: developing personal and professional growth plans to take you and your team further in your careerProduct Management methodologies & best implementationsAddressing Life Change management

Julia is the Chief Product Officer at Flatfox, a web-based platform that digitalizes all steps of the rental cycle. Julia started her product management career five years ago as an Intrapreneur within the Swiss Mobiliar. She worked as a product manager on multiple projects within different industries. Since 2018 she focuses on the real estate industry first at the PropTech start-up aroov and currently at Flatfox. She holds a wealth of experience when it comes to understanding and representing user needs, defining a product vision and strategy, aligning stakeholders and of course how to launch and communicate a product. Today we are going to talk about: Product innovation within a corporateProduct mergersTuning your users into advocates Episode highlights: [2.40] Flatfox as a product [4.30] Merger of Flatfox and Aroov - improving user journey for renters and landlords and managing the transition [10.15] Developing the innovative products within a corporate [13.10] Starting in product leadership and launching Aroov [16.46] Scaling through brand advocates Connect with Julia Bitschnau

Flora is a CPO of CaptainContrat - the legal and administrative companion for SMB's, for any of their steps, helping them grow their business. Be it writing articles of incorporation, asking a lawyer before signing a contract under commercial law or dealing with administrative duties. Flora stepped into the CPO role 3.5 years ago from a position of the marketing executive. She previously worked in L’Oreal both as a director of marketing and a a CPO for physical products. Flora is also a teacher of yoga focusing on yin and vinyasa, and mentors and coaches in NUMA. Today we are going to talk about: Continuous testing and continuous discoveryMoving to product from marketing fieldBuilding teams in a tech hungry talent market Connect with Flora Vidal.

Geraldine Corrales is a Product Management professional with more than 15 years of experience in a wide range of industries from consumer to high-tech products. She has spent most of her career working for multinational companies in France, the US, the UK, and Mexico and speaks French, English and Spanish. In 2019, she joined CityTaps, a French startup dedicated to bringing running water into every home by supporting water utilities in emerging countries. She was recruited to drive the Product Management activities but soon extended her responsibilities to lead the entire Product Development team composed of software developers, electronics engineers and telecommunications experts. She currently resides in Mexico and works for CityTaps remotely. Today we are going to talk about: Product management as a career pathReinventing oneself through different industries, countries and products andOvercoming the imposter syndrome Episode highlights [7.30] Product management as a hub of the wheel - the valuable experience you can bring from other industries [11.30] Transferrable skills and Geraldine’s core learning [17.50] Overcoming the imposter syndrome and owning your role [28.45] Overcoming the biggest challenges in customer insight collection [38.15] Geraldine’s advice to her younger self Related Links Connect with Geraldine  https://ucesco.org/donate/ (This is a charity that Geraldine supports in Kenya. She had the opportunity to volunteer with them and she is still supporting them through donations as well as organizational advice. ) PS I’ll be taking a leaf out of Geraldine’s book - expect a New Year themed email from me!

Leonie is a Chief Product Officer in Riverlane and is responsible for building, commercialising and marketing Riverlane's product lines. Leonie is passionate about helping Riverlane's customers move quickly and easily to quantum advantage. She brings eight years’ experience in quantum technologies and business development, with a PhD in quantum chemistry from the Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz in Germany. After her PhD, she held senior editorial roles at Nature and Nature Communications where she was responsible for covering quantum computing and other topics in physics. An ardent supporter of Open Science, Leonie then joined PLOS ONE, building and leading a physical sciences and engineering division in a fast-paced environment. Leonie is a huge supporter of diversity in STEM and has previously served on NumFOCUS’s diversity and inclusion committee. Outside of work, she enjoys playing the violin and spending time with her family. Today we are going to talk about: The importance of product management in deep techQuantum computing and understanding who the users are for deep tech productGetting to “fail” fast and benefits of such approach Episode highlights [2.00] Introduction to quantum computing [5.30] Experimental applications of quantum computing to propel the innovation in selected fields [10.12 ] Customer discovery in quantum computing [14.49] Leonie’s journey into product management and her mindset of embracing failures and learning from them [20.05] Getting the timing right: closing or parking products  [27.30] DE&I: inclusion as a place to start Related Links Connect with Leonie on Linkedin and Twitter

Namrata is the Chief Product Officer at INTO University Partnerships - a Higher Education company that works with top Universities in the UK, US, and Australia, and a student community from all across the world. Previously, she was the CPO at iPlato Healthcare where she led an expansive portfolio of digital products and worked closely with NHS Primary Care. She has worked in product leadership roles at ViacomCBS, Babylon Health and a number of other exciting global companies. Namrata is a strong supporter of Diversity & Inclusion in the workplace, and is a popular voice in the Women in Product & Tech community. She sits on the board of The Open University Business School, and is an Advisor at Antler - an early stage VC firm. Namrata is an alumni of Manchester Business School and is trained in global leadership from Harvard Business School. Today we are going to talk about: Building scalable high performing product teamsClimbing the career ladder in product managementAnd diversity and inclusion in the field Episode highlights [1.49] Nam’s start of the career in product management as a product owner [9.12] Her experience of being a CPO and going through the acquisition of a Healthtech venture [13.37] Differences in approaches to the market and metrics of b2b and b2c products [16.54] Positive disruption in traditional sector: helping to define future for today’s students both on academic and non-academic side [27.00] Nam’s take on diversity and inclusion in the workplace [34.00] Nam’s advice to a younger self Disrupting the traditional sector Nam shares her experience in the role of a product lead in the healthtech space where the product served a sector disruptor. She found the journey extremely rewarding and the transformation necessary for the field. Nam shares that every day she learnt so much, and the impact in fields of education and healthcare is massive as these products form the pillar for the everyday consumer and form a fundament for actually changing all of our lives and the way we live each day. Nam shares that for a product person challenges is what keeps you awake and energised and both these sectors offer these types of challenges. When disrupting the traditional sector, a transformation related opportunity is a dream and being a change agent is a gift in itself. Going through acquisition in healthtech In this experience Nam shared how a lot of structural and process related changes needed to happen, most centric to it is product mindset. Moving to become a product led organization and focusing on user problems - embedding the different mindset, also, s a result, corresponded with different structure of the organization. As iPlato had b2b and b2c products, she learnt the full scope of product journey from consumer to enterprise and the differences in approaching the market. Nam outlines the difference in experience when working in company of 20, a scale up and the corporate - the learnings, challenges, and journeys are very different. Nam’s take on diversity and inclusion in technical field Nam shares that D&I and product goals go hand in hand. People who build the product and people who use the product need to be in sync. Individuals with different points of view, experience and sectors help build superb products. Multi-sector knowledge is very powerful. She also reflects that now there are thankfully more women in product and engineering than 5-6 years ago and its more motivating for junior PMs and engineers to see the way forward when you see someone who resonates with your values, background, and identity. Nam on Linkedin

Alexandra is a Product leader and a current CPO @ uptime.ac with over 14 years of diverse global ecosystem, working in start-ups, scale-ups, consultancy and enterprise. Alongside founders and exec teams, she builds a vision and an inspiring story, and breaks these down into actionable steps for the product and design teams she manage. She is a big fan of Lean, different forms of Agile and User Centred Design when it comes to solving user problems and delivering business outcomes. She uses a mix of quantitative & qualitative insights in order to de-risk product direction fast and create a learning organisations that drive product led growth. As a people manager, Alexandra believes coaching, mentorship and constructive feedback are key aspects of good management today. Today we are going to talk about: Building and growing products teams at different stages of the organisation growthThe importance of post talent acquisition work for new hires, specifically onboarding and mentorshipAnd empowering your team to create the best products out there  Episode Highlights [2.30] Coming into the role of a CPO from engineering background [7.48] Cross industry product management skillset transfer [11.30] Learnings from different stages of product maturity [15.20] Keeping everyone aligned on the same vision when in high growth mode [18.40] Successful onboarding in the remote environment [23.00] Mentorship of Junior PMs [27.50] Alexandra’s 3 core learnings Cross industry transfer of product management skillset Product mindset and being strategic are two competencies that remain to be central in working with any product organization, irrespective of product maturity and focus of the product itself. Every product ad product organization will face different challenges, even if within the same industry, making your journey as a CPO/Product lead unique every time. And your product organization grows and matures, CPOs need to keep the clear direction of the product and communicate the vision and next in line priorities for the team. That affects the product organization structure and hiring plan, allowing you to focus on the skillset in the incoming PMs that will allow you to get to that next stage of the product growth. Alexandra took time to define the global strategy and define the roles in detail. Alignment of product teams in period of growth As a product leader, Alexandra shares, that you need to keep a high level vision in sight at all times, the North Star should always be visible. What is more tricky is managing the “in-between” moments of team growth, keeping in mind the onboarding time for new hires and managing the transitions. Alexandra shares the importance of the onboarding process. Some things she saw working well are : Managing expectations from the role from Day 1Mandatory attendance of client meetings/demosUser research and discovery to help understand the user base better Connect with Alexandra on LinkedIn and on her site