LaunchPod | Product Management Podcast

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.linkedi...

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...

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...

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 conve...

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...

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...

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 e...

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...

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,...

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 fric...

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 pr...

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’...

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 usabili...

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 e...

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...

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 rev...

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, dig...

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 bet...

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 u...

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...

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 team...

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 t...

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...

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 ag...

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...