Convergence.fm

In this episode of the Convergence podcast, host Ashok Sivanand talks with Janice Fraser, a strategic advisor and veteran in Lean Product Management and a facilitator of innovation in large organizations. Janice shares her journey from starting six companies to working at Pivotal and eventually moving towards helping large organizations, such as Procter & Gamble and Nike, embrace lean and agile pr...

In this episode, we continue our series with special guest Bailey O'Shea, exploring the critical conversations often overlooked by product teams. Bailey shares her insights on establishing team norms and fostering effective collaboration. She emphasizes the importance of aligning on values, practices, and expectations to ensure everyone is working cohesively towards common goals. Bailey also discu...

Over the past 15 years, as smartphones became ubiquitous, gamification evolved from a tool for habit formation into a mechanism used by tech giants to create psychological dependencies, similar to slot machines, with features like pull-to-refresh and infinite scroll. I've always found it interesting that we refer to people as "users" both in the context of software and substance addiction. My gues...

In this episode of the Convergence Podcast, Ashok Sivanand sits down with J arrett Quan-Hin, Co-Founder and Product Lead at Mantle. Jarrett shares his fascinating journey from the video game industry to leading a startup focused on revolutionizing cap table management for venture-backed businesses. He discusses the unique challenges startups face with cap tables and how Mantle brings order and ins...

In this episode, Ashok sits down with Earl Newsome, a distinguished CIO of Cummins Inc. and a technology leader, to explore his remarkable journey from a college football player to a top executive in the tech industry. Earl shares personal anecdotes and insights, highlighting the pivotal moments and influences that shaped his career, including the profound impact of his grandfather and his transfo...

In this episode, Ashok Sivanand sits down with Aakash Gupta, a former VP of Product at Apollo.io and now the author of the popular newsletter, Product Growth. Aakash shares his journey from being a computer science enthusiast to working at Apollo.io and eventually venturing out on his own. His insights on pricing strategies and the problems facing startups in our current economy are invaluable. Aa...

In this episode, Ashok Sivanand sits down with Kenneth Auchenberg to explore the intricacies of creating exceptional developer experiences. Kenneth shares his extensive knowledge on designing and delivering tools that developers love, drawing from his work at industry giants like Microsoft and Stripe. They dive into the distinctions between infrastructure and platform companies, and the roles of d...

In this episode, Ashok Sivanand talks with Kenneth Auchenberg whose history with Microsoft and Stripe taught him a lot about building exceptional developer experiences. Kenneth shares his journey discusses the core principles that drive successful developer-centric products. He emphasizes the importance of understanding the differences between infrastructure and platform companies, highlighting th...

Erica Sands, the Senior Director of Product Management at Sagent, joins us to discuss her nearly two-decade journey in the mortgage industry and her transition into fintech. Erica shares how her extensive experience and education in business administration and finance have equipped her to lead Sagent in developing the industry's first cloud-based mortgage servicing system. We delve into her passio...

In this episode of the Convergence Podcast, host Ashok Sivanand engages in a fascinating discussion with Deepika Yerragunta, the Head of eCommerce Platform Products at PepsiCo. Deepika brings her extensive experience from leading product teams at tech giants like Amazon and Intel to her current role at PepsiCo, where she drives innovation and product strategy. Ashok and Deepika talk about how a cu...

Ashok is on the ground at one of the most forward thinking product development conferences in the entire country, Agile and Beyond in Detroit, Michigan. He speaks with a range of presenters and experts on topics from OKRs and product measurement to the importance of object-oriented UX in building balanced product teams. The conversations delve into how these principles can help teams communicate b...

In this episode of the Convergence Podcast, we continue our series on the 9 critical conversations every product team needs to have but often forget. Joining Ashok once again is Bailey O'Shea, the head of product at Integral. Bailey brings her extensive experience in human-centered design and lean product management to delve deeper into these pivotal discussions. Together, they explore how to ensu...

In this episode of The Convergence Podcast, host Ashok Sivanand is joined once again by Ben Foster, Co-Founder of Prodify and co-author of "Build What Matters." This is the second part of their two-part conversation, focusing on the intricacies of product management and innovation, particularly in hardware. They delve into Ben's experience at Whoop, a fitness wearable company where he served as Ch...

In this compelling episode of the Convergence podcast, we're talking product strategy with Ben, a seasoned expert creating product roadmaps that lead to customer delight. Ben's journey in the product domain is as diverse as it is fascinating, having started in the early 2000s at eBay under the mentorship of Marty Kagan. He's also a co-founder of Prodify , a company that helps companies become prod...

Discover the pivotal role of strategic conversations in shaping successful product teams in our latest episode of the Convergence podcast, featuring Integral's Director of Product Management Bailey O'Shea. In part one of our series "9 Conversations You Forget to Have With Your Product Team," we explore the crucial discussion of the "why" behind your product initiatives. This episode unpacks how a...

Learning about our customers, and developing products based on their needs is simple to understand, but difficult to execute when you balance your customer desires against what's best for your shareholders, and what your team can build, deliver and operate. Host Ashok Sivanand and Jim Simpson, CEO of Blumira, discuss his journey in product management, from early coding adventures with a Commodore...

Strong teams and transformed product practices drive growth. In order to drive outcomes using software and build great product teams, you need to drive speed to value and adapt quickly. The problem is, technology teams and business teams are often disjointed and lack clarity around each other's "why." In this first part of a continuing series on the Convergence podcast, Ashok Sivanand and Bailey O...

In this episode of the Convergence Podcast, host Ashok Sivanand welcomes Farhan Thawar, the Vice President of Engineering at Shopify. Farhan's journey to Shopify came through the acquisition of Helpful, a company he co-founded. With a rich background in leadership roles at Microsoft, Trilogy, and as Vice President of Engineering at both Extreme Labs and Pivotal Labs—where Ashok had the pleasure of...

Welcome to the Convergence podcast! I'm Ashok Sivanand and I've created the Convergence podcast to help you build the most engaged product teams who can ship the most successful products. My passion for products and timing stems from a combination of my working in Japanese manufacturing, building IoT software products for lean manufacturers, and working at industry powerhouses in product like Pivo...