Product Bakery – The Product Management, UX & Design Podcast

Access Granted! No, it's not about that kind of accessibility. We talk about what most product & design teams call edge cases or "we can ship that later."  We believe people with disabilities and restrictions need to be fully included in the product planning and development process, especially for products that are already live and are being used by customers.  Tune in to hear ou...

You can't help others if you can't help yourself. You can't manage others if you can't manage yourself.  We've touched on those quotes a couple of times in previous episodes. In this conversation, we dive into a leader's role and what a leader should expect from their employees. Clarity about the role of a leader is the key to defining their employees' role.  ✩ Follow The Product Bakery...

Many people update their LinkedIn profiles and add new positions in Web 3.0 startups. That raised the question for Alex whether he should quit his job to work on a Web 3.0 startup. We took a deeper look into that and discussed what Web 3.0 actually is and if it's a hype or trend you shouldn't miss. ✩ Follow The Product Bakery Podcast ✩    👨‍💻 Linkedin: Product Bakery    📸 Instagram: @pr...

There is one big question many people asking themselves currently: Should I work full-time or as a freelancer? In this conversation, we talk about why we're doing what we're doing. It's not about what is better! It's about what motivates us to work full-time or as a freelancer.  Tune in to get a different perspective on the two sides. ✩ Follow The Product Bakery Podcast ✩    👨...

The world goes crazy... corona, war, inflation, and many more things are happening right now. The impact on the economy is huge. Due to the financial situation, many companies need to save budget and start firing people to save costs. At the same time, many business models and strategic plans start to break too.  In this episode, we talk about how you as an employee and a company can make the best...

There is so much to say and write about our opinion on boot camps. However, the best way is to tune in ;)  Enjoy and let us know what you think about boot camps! ✩ Follow The Product Bakery Podcast ✩    👨‍💻 Linkedin: Product Bakery    📸 Instagram: @productbakery    🐦 Twitter: @productbakery20    🌍 Website: https://www.product-ba...

We've talked about how important it is to take of yourself if you're a leader in this episode. How do you want to help people if you can't help yourself? What should you expect from your employees? What are your primary responsibilities as a leader? Tune in for a deep dive into the (product) leadership role and self care. ✩ Follow The Product Bakery Podcast ✩    👨‍💻 Linkedin: Prod...

It has been a while since our last episode. We both were very busy with our jobs, side projects, and vacation recently. Nevertheless, we decided to regroup and continue with new episodes about great topics. Tune in to get the latest update and what's coming up next. Best, Alex & Christian <3  ✩ Follow The Product Bakery Podcast ✩    👨‍💻 Linkedin: Product Bakery  &...

It's not always about data. Sometimes, you need to listen to your gut! This week the Product Bakers interviewed Projjal Ghatak talking about how to solve customers' problems and how to bring in the right people into a company.  Table of content:  00:30 - Episode Intro 02:00 - Intro Projjal Ghatak 04:20 - Starting a company based on a problem 06:55 - Dealing with intuition vs. data 12:30...

In this episode, Alex and Christian discussed the danger of falling in love with your first idea or solution. Table of content: 00:30 - The importance of quality 03:30 - The of too much MVP thinking 06:30 - Not enough vs. too much data 09:00 -  8 sketches, 8 minutes 11:20 - Timeboxing research & prototyping ✩ Follow The Product Bakery Podcast ✩    👨‍💻 Linkedin: Produ...

Doing product management isn't easy. Even though, with gazillions of books that people have read, they can sometimes not execute the knowledge. In this episode, Christian and Alex took a deeper look at why that's the case.  Table of content: 00:30 - Why is product management so hard? 02:40 - Chicken & egg problem 03:30 - Collaboration & soft skills are essential 06:50 - Regular remind...

Asking great questions is a real-life superpower! Sometimes though, it's important to take a step back and ask (powerful) stupid questions, especially when you are new in a role as a product person.  In this episode, the Product Bakers talked to Paul about coaching CEOs to develop a product mindset. Despite that, they've talked about what product people can do to establish more product thinki...

Public roadmaps became a hot topic in the past. Christian & Alex decided to speak about the benefits of sharing your roadmap with your customers and how to define it in a way that they will understand your future plans. Table of content: 00:30 - Intro & chit chat 02:35 - Transparency is key 03:20 - The idea of "open startup" 05:50 - Customers love knowing your plans 07:15 - Using good term...

The Product Bakery podcast was started on the 10th of September 2020. After one year of podcasting and many interviews, Christian and Alex sat down to take a couple of looks back... ✩ Follow The Product Bakery Podcast ✩    👨‍💻 Linkedin: Product Bakery    📸 Instagram: @productbakery    🐦 Twitter: @productbakery20    🌍 Website: https:/...

The whole insurance space is very slow. At least it used to be! Konrad Heipmel's mission @Getsafe is to disrupt the insurance market. As VP of Data & Product, he shared with the Product Bakers how they focus on data to build a product that fits the market needs and solves the customer pain points. Table of content: 00:30 - Episode Intro 02:20 - Intro of Konrad & the insurance space 07:00 -...

Many companies and teams want to become faster and speed up projects. That's a topic Christian & Alex are regularly faced with. This time they spoke about the concept of project-specific teams (task forces) and how to form them as well as their pros & cons. Table of content: 00:30 - Example: Redesigning an app 02:45 - The concept of a task force 05:10 - How to form a task force 08:00...

Alex and Christian did manage for a long time to meet and record in person again. Therefore, they picked up the topic of working remove vs. being onsite. How can and should teams decide what's best in terms of tooling and location? Tune in to learn more! Table of content: 00:30 - Meeting in person 05:05 - What's best to be creative? 08:40 - 1:1s vs team meetings 12:25 - Industry and professions ar...

Communication can be the hardest work sometimes. Due to the fact that a lot of companies moved to remote work, it's not getting easier. This time Christian and Alex picked up the whole topic of stakeholder management and what product people can do to bond and keep up alignment.  Table of content: 00:30 - Is communicating getting harder? 02:45 - Different people with different agendas 06:35 - Stake...

Alex is close to going on vacation. Therefore, he and Christian caught up on the whole topic of work-life balance and discussed what it needs to maintain a healthy balance.   Table of content: 00:30 - Alex going on vacation 02:50 - The importance of work-life balance 05:25 - Working on vacation 07:00 - Taking care of your employees   ✩ Follow The Product Bakery Podcast ✩    👨‍💻 Linkedin: Product...

Sometimes, the products we use seem to become more complex than easier. The product bakers discussed why that happens and the reasons.   Table of content: 00:30 - iOS 15 and the safari URL bar 07:20 - Strategy & big picture vs. UX 09:30 - Designing against the customer 13:00 - The danger of copying trends   ✩ Follow The Product Bakery Podcast ✩    👨‍💻 Linkedin: Produ...

This time, Christian and Alex talked about the development of artificial intelligence (AI) and its advantages and potential downsides.   Table of Content: 00:30 - Turn off your notification 01:55 - What AIs do already these days 04:50 - Strong vs. weak AI 08:00 - Losing human interactions 11:50 - Good data & diverse teams   Book recommendation: Competing in the Age of AI   ✩ Follow The Product...

In this episode, Christian and Alex talked about how they organize their time and todos.   Table of content: 00:30 - Episode Intro 02:30 - Using spare time to be productive 04:10 - Color coding the calendar 05:10 - Blocking time in the calendar 07:45 - Declining meetings 09:45 - Manage the stakeholders 12:10 - Documentation & tooling    Christian's Meeting Course: https://www.ch...

Christian Idiodi is a partner at the Silicon Valley Product Group. With his experience, he helps product and leadership teams across the globe to solve their customer problems. In this episode, he shares the biggest challenges that product teams have and how especially leaders can help and empower product people to solve those.    Table of content: 00:30 - Episode Intro 02:10 - Intro Chr...

This time Alex and Christian focused on a topic that they haven't talked about at all. Ethics! Both discuss how current products tempt to become more unethical and what to do about it.  Table of content:   00:30 - Episode intro 02:10 - Dominated by white people 06:40 - Ignoring minorities  08:55 - Balancing ethics in your organization 09:50 - Are product principles a solution? 11:30...

Christian recently read the book "The One Thing" which reminded him how important it is to focus only on one thing. Together with Alex, they've discussed the key learning of the book and how to apply it to your day-to-day product life.   Table of content: 00:30 - Intro 01:15 - Multi-tasking & context switching 05:50 - Identifying your own one thing 08:05 - Focusing on only one thing 09:30...