Behind The Product

Cloud expert Surya Oruganti joins the show to share about Argonaut , a DevOps platform that simplifies cloud infrastructure and app deployments. In this conversation, Surya discusses the challenges teams face with their cloud infrastructure and explains how Argonaut empowers organizations to scale. To wrap up the show, Surya shares a couple of his hot takes related to cloud infrastructure tools. W...

Roads are a critical piece of modern infrastructure, but the technology we rely on to maintain and build them is nearly two centuries old. Enter Luna Lu , Founder and CEO of Wavelogix and Acting Head of Civil Engineering at Purdue University. In this conversation, she shares how her team is using IoT and AI to disrupt and advance the concrete industry. She explains how her "smart concrete" solutio...

Digital transformations can be a distraction from serving your customers well. Brendan Wovchko , CTO at Ramsey Solutions , joins us to share how he leads with simplicity while leveraging tools like Opportunity Solution Trees to optimize customer outcomes. He shares common problems he sees in product discovery, how his team has matured their product development practice, and how he empowers product...

Do you have a great idea but no clue how to turn it into a reality? In this conversation, Andy Chen and Chris Shinkle share how to: Develop a product-centric approach Overcome organizational constraints Create alignment and facilitate better decision making Move from rigid plan to organizational agility We share how to use the North Star framework to accomplish these goals and create alignment in...

In today's volatile labor market, it feels like we're constantly flip-flopping from "everything's great," to "everybody panic." At least, that's how our guest Mike Seidle , Co-Founder at PivotCX , summarized the situation. Wes Winham , CEO and Founder at Woven , and Raman Ohri , CEO and President at SEP , also join us for this conversation about trends in recruiting. We discuss the challenges recr...

Christian Idiodi , Partner at Silicon Valley Product Group , has worked on 205 products throughout his career and has learned a thing or two about modern product management. He joins us to share how he equips product leaders and gives them a framework for leading within their organizations. Christian emphasizes the importance of understanding the why, not just the what, behind ideas and problems t...

We're doing something a little different for this episode - giving you a peek behind the scenes at SEP. We asked three of our peers at SEP (SEPeers, if you will) to share their perspectives on how we approach sales at SEP. Spoiler alert: we're a little non-traditional! Mike Mumau , VP of Customer Experience Raman Ohri , President & CEO Maddie Beadle , Business Operations Analyst

Transitioning from a decades-old manual processes to a modern, digital process is no small feat, but that's the job Tracey Kantrud and Katelyn Renner , Product Managers at FBS , are tackling. In this conversation, Tracey and Katelyn explain the way they gradually introduce product changes to customers to minimize disruption to users while continuing to evolve the product. They share how they align...

Ego is a product-killer. It's what keeps us from empathizing with users and building the right thing. It doesn't always start from a place of selfish intentions, but if we don't keep ourselves in check, we can quickly slip away from creating products that benefit users. Tony Poon , Chief Product Officer at R-Zero , joins the show to share how he battles his own ego in product leadership. We discus...

Innovation is a skill you can learn, according to author, speaker, and thought leader Bob Moesta . Bob joins the show to share some of the tools, philosophies, and practices he's developed by working on 3,500 products throughout his career. He emphasizes the impact of his many mentors, the multiple hats we need to wear as product developers, and the danger of relying on luck. Through it all, he ex...

We recently attended the Agile2022 conference put on by the Agile Alliance and wanted to share our conversations with a few of the speakers and attendees. This episode is a conversation with Josh Kerviesky , a long-time Agile practitioner and speaker, and Chris Shinkle , SEP’s Director of Innovation. We sat down with Josh prior to his keynote at the conference to talk about his journey in the Agil...

We recently attended the Agile2022 conference put on by the Agile Alliance and wanted to share our conversations with a few of the speakers and attendees. This episode is a conversation with Dan Vacanti , an author and speaker in the product development world, and Chris Shinkle , SEP’s Director of Innovation. We asked Dan some follow-up questions to expand on his talk from earlier in the conferenc...

It's no secret that recruiting, especially in today's market, is tough. But Mike Seidle , Co-Founder and CTO of Indianapolis-based company PivotCX , believes that only 10% of recruiting is about finding people, and the other 90% is about screening. In this episode, Mike shares how his team combines tech and human touch to dramatically reduce time to hire and onboard new employees. He sheds light o...

The tension we feel between generations is much deeper than Millennials versus Gen Z or Gen X versus Boomers. The difference between us actually boils down to developmental psychology. Speaker, trainer, and coach Lindsay Boccardo joins the show to shed light on the causes of generational divides and shares how we can navigate them well as individuals and organizations. She explains the influence o...

With multiple successful startups under his belt, Abhishek Nayak has learned a lot about finding product/market fit, defining a niche, and, most importantly, simplicity. He is the Co-Founder and CEO of Appsmith , an open source project that helps organizations build and maintain custom internal tools. The heartbeat of this product? Ease of use. On this episode, Abhishek shares the challenges he's...

We've got Dawn x2 on this episode! Dawn Lively , CEO of FullStack PEO , joins the show as our guest and Dawn Bunting , Director of HR at SEP, joins us as a co-host. Both Dawns share their perspectives on the challenges employees are facing today, how to best care for them, and how companies are responding to the current labor market. We also discuss the need to provide flexibility, the pros and co...

We're giving you a sampling of several of our favorite snippets from our last 20+ shows. Think of it like a flight of drinks, giving you a taste of several flavors, but in podcast form. Host Zac Darnell and Guest Host David Mathew share four excerpts from the podcast so far. If any of the clips piqued your interest, you can find the full episodes here: Ryan Larcom - Avoiding Innovation Theatre Rik...

We all know what a product is. We buy and use them all the time. But, what does it mean where you work? Why is there so much resistance to creating great products where you work? Jeff's talk focuses on how to recognize the mindset that gets in the way of effective product design and development. He shares how to know when you, your leadership and the processes you use have slipped into anti-produc...

Marty Draper , COO of Vibenomics , joins us to dive into the concept of being human first at work. Marty has been a leader in technology at different companies and has great insights on how things have changed over time, hopefully for the better. No one is perfect, but Marty has found that if you have good intentions, you can build a thriving organization that cares deeply. You can find more infor...

We're doing something a little different for this episode - giving you a peek behind the scenes at SEP. We asked three of our peers at SEP (SEPeers, if you will) to share their perspectives on how we work: Jon Fuller, Director of Software Engineering Giuliana Taylor, Senior Software Engineer Chris Atkinson, Vice President of Engineering We aren't perfect by any stretch, but we want to share what w...

Tim Lancaster of Indigo BioAutomation and Mark Perkins of The Binding Site join us to share how they're bringing artificial intelligence and mass spectrometry together to make significant improvements in the world of multiple myeloma. Mark's team saw a massive opportunity to improve multiple myeloma diagnostics, but they knew they needed a software partner. Tim's team at Indigo Bioautomation prove...

UX is critical to creating usable, enjoyable products, but not everyone is aware of it or convinced of UX's value. Rik Sansone , User Experience & Designer - CW at Delta Faucet , joins us to share how he's been a UX evangelist throughout his career. We discuss how to handle conflicts of interest between the business and UX by sharing information to align user and business goals. Rik compares U...

Whether you're a crime show binger or more of an inspirational pep talk listener, you've probably listened to your fair share of podcasts. While the medium started primarily in the entertainment and education space, it's made its way into the B2B world - and it's thriving. Adam Patarino, Co-Founder and CPO at Casted, joins us to discuss how his team is developing podcasting to help companies reach...

Anyone who's built a product or company knows that growth requires making hard decisions. Chris Keaney of Vibenomics joins us to share how his team has navigated tough choices as they evolve. While the specifics are context-dependent, Chris is sure about his overarching strategy: you have to stay laser-focused on your mission and make decisions that will clearly move it forward. Not only is Vibeno...

Some people fall into product management, but other people have to work their way into it. Diana Nolting , VP of Product at SkuVault , joins us for this episode to share what she's learned from fighting her way into product management. Diana began her career in journalism, giving her a unique perspective on the world of product. Throughout our conversation, she emphasizes the importance of asking...