Product Mastery Now for Product Managers, Leaders, and Innovators

A product manager at Moleaer on science-driven product innovation Watch on YouTube TLDR In this episode of Product Mastery Now, I’m interviewing Christian Ference, Global Product Manager at Moleaer, about the company’s groundbreaking work with nanobubble technology. Moleaer’s innovative approach earned them the PDMA Outstanding Corporate Innovator Award, and Christian Ference shares ho...

Recap of key insights for product managers Watch on YouTube Introduction It is the first episode of 2026 and the beginning of the 12th year of the Product Mastery Now podcast, the longest running podcast for product managers. I’m recapping some stand-out episodes from 2025 and a couple from the previous years. I’m joined by my daughter and podcast producer, Kaitlin, who has written the...

Reinvented innovation sprints for lasting culture change on product management teams Watch on YouTube TLDR This episode of Product Mastery Now features a conversation with Sarah Stabelfeldt, VP of Innovation, and Melissa Pierson, Innovation Programs Manager at Schreiber Foods, about building high-impact innovation processes within large organizations. The discussion centers on Schreiber Foods’ jou...

Accelerate, expand, and simplify your product management workflow Watch on YouTube TLDR Product managers struggle with using AI effectively despite the hype around its potential. Valerio Zanini, author of AI for Product Managers , shares practical frameworks for leveraging AI tools in customer discovery, hypothesis validation, and feature selection. Key insights include using AI as a discovery ass...

How top industry leaders are breaking down barriers in product management and innovation Watch on YouTube TLDR Three innovation consultants—Matt Phillips, Mike Hyzy, and Will Evans—share insights from facilitating the executive innovation track at PDMA’s Ignite Innovation Conference. The session brought together 25 senior directors and VPs from Fortune 100 companies to discuss their most pre...

How Pella revolutionized the window industry by solving installers’ overlooked pain points Watch on YouTube TLDR This episode explores how Pella Corporation transformed window installation by shifting their innovation focus from buyers to installers—the often-overlooked specialists whose work makes or breaks the customer experience. Director of Innovation, Design, and Brand Experience Jenn T...

Tools, data, and process for product ops – lessons for product managers from Pendo Watch on YouTube TLDR This episode dives into the increasingly impactful world of product operations, with insights from Robert Marten, Senior Manager of Product Operations at Pendo. We discuss what product operations is, how it streamlines efficiency for product teams, its key pillars (tools, data, process),...

Transforming customer insight with AI – for product managers Watch on YouTube TLDR In this episode, I sit down with Dr. David Robertson, senior lecturer at MIT Sloan and co-founder of ProtoBoost AI, to explore the transformative impact of AI on the innovation process. Drawing on decades of experience in product management and innovation, David Robertson discusses how product managers can lev...

How product managers can leverage AI to analyze and act on customer feedback Watch on YouTube TLDR In this episode, I’m interviewing John Mitchell, President of Applied Marketing Science (AMS), on the evolving role of AI in Voice of the Customer (VOC) research. We discuss how AI is transforming the way companies capture customer needs, the importance of thoughtful customer research design, c...

How product managers use AI to boost productivity and innovation success Watch on YouTube TLDR In this episode of Product Mastery Now, Katie Trauth Taylor, PhD, CEO and co-founder of Narratize AI, joins me to discuss how AI is transforming product innovation processes. She shares insights from working with Fortune 500 companies like NASA, Boeing, and Comcast, and dives into research showing that p...

What product managers should know about patents, trade secrets, and copyright Watch on YouTube TLDR In this episode, I’m joined by David Carstens, a seasoned IP attorney and founding partner at Carstens, Allen & Gourley, who brings over 30 years of legal and technical experience in intellectual property (IP) strategy. Our conversation dives into the importance of IP management for produc...

A leadership framework that gives product managers influence Watch on YouTube TLDR In this episode, Uma Subramanian shares her insights and proven framework for transitioning from individual contributor to effective leader in tech and product management roles. Drawing from her extensive experience at Microsoft and Turing, Uma explains the identity shift required for leadership, introduces her SOAR...

Practical strategies for building influence and confidence from a Product VP coach Watch on YouTube TLDR In this episode, I talk with Rebecca Arora, founder of Access Alignment, executive coach, and author of Somatic Intelligence , about making the transition from successful product manager or director to VP of Product and beyond. Rebecca shares practical strategies for this professional transitio...

How product managers can build emotional connections that drive retention, revenue, and referrals Watch on YouTube TLDR Product delight goes beyond functionality to create emotional connections with users. Dr. Nesrine Changuel, former product leader at Google, Spotify, and Microsoft, presents a four-step framework for systematically building delight into products. The approach involves identifying...

Top challenges product leaders face and how to overcome them Watch on YouTube TLDR Product leadership expert Rich Mironov discusses three core challenges CPOs and product VPs face: effectively communicating value in business terms rather than process terminology, building trust through merchandising wins before gaining decision-making authority, and reducing product waste by making better decision...

Lessons from Saturday Night Live for improving product team culture Watch on YouTube TLDR John Krewson, who began his career in sketch comedy before moving to software product development, explains what product teams can learn from sketch comedy. Like comedy writers, product teams must be able to be vulnerable, throw away unsuccessful ideas, and prioritize delivering valuable products over perfect...

Winning product portfolios in physical product development Watch on YouTube TLDR In this episode, Matt Carr, VP of Design at Umbra, joins us to discuss the intersection of design leadership, product strategy, and innovation in physical product development. Matt shares practical frameworks Umbra uses to balance creative vision and business reality, offers insights into managing a global product por...

Focused product strategy and teams Watch on YouTube TLDR In this episode, Blair LaCorte—seasoned leader, investor, former CEO of AEye, and coach to 50+ CEOs— breaks down the keys to building product teams that win. Blair shares insights on aligning product strategy with company goals, the importance of saying no and making trade-offs, and why team culture and people patterns matter more than anyth...

Product management lessons from Amazon’s $4 billion acquisition of One Medical Watch on YouTube TLDR Dr. Joseph Michelli—speaker, consultant, and bestselling author—joins me to explore how product innovation and exceptional customer experiences can transform industries, with a deep dive into One Medical, the patient-centered healthcare startup recently acquired by Amazon for $4 billion. The conver...

The biggest challenges when moving from individual contributor to product VP Watch on YouTube TLDR In this episode, I welcome Piers Fallowfield Cooper—executive coach and author of Are You Still the Future? —to explore one of the most critical career transitions in product management: moving from individual contributor to product leader. We discuss why success as a product manager doesn’t guarante...

How product managers can make their own futures Watch on YouTube TLDR In this episode of Product Mastery Now, we’re joined by Robin Champ, VP of Strategic Foresight at LBL Strategies and Harvard Extension School instructor. Robin shares practical approaches for product managers and leaders to anticipate, rather than merely react to, disruptions in the market and competitive landscape. Throug...

How product managers can build customer-centric AI products Watch on YouTube TLDR Juanjo Duran, Chief Product Officer & Chief Marketing Officer at Exoticca, joins Product Mastery Now to share how to create AI-powered product features customers actually love, not just features that sound impressive. Drawing on 25+ years in diverse leadership roles, Juanjo discusses leveraging customer obsession...

The 2025 PDMA Ignite Innovation Summit Watch on YouTube TLDR Today I’m sitting down with Bill Reed and Spike Ross-Corbett, PDMA board members and co-chairs of the 2025 Ignite Innovation Conference planning committee. We reflect on top takeaways from past PDMA conferences, including invaluable lessons on customer research, adaptive product development, building cultures of innovation, and lev...

Why product managers need a systematic framework to de-risk innovation Watch on YouTube TLDR This episode dives deep into the new ISO 56001 standard for innovation management with Dr. Magnus Karlsson, a global leader in the field and a key contributor to the standard. Learn why systematic innovation matters, how ISO 56001 can help organizations move beyond ad hoc creativity to reliable business re...

How product managers can master go-to-market strategies Watch on YouTube TLDR Most product launches fail not because the product is flawed, but because the launch strategy misses the mark. In this episode, product marketing expert Rebecca Shaddix shares a blueprint for go-to-market strategies that drive real impact. Discover why product and marketing must build launch plans together, how to create...