Productly Speaking: Real Stories for Product Managers

What does it really take to say no to a huge deal and mean it? In this episode, Karl sits down with Adam Strong for a candid, thoughtful conversation about the messy reality of product work and careers that rarely follow a straight line. Adam shares his journey from technical support and people management into product leadership, and eventually out the other side into solutions architecture, with...

What if your product problems are not really product problems at all, but expectation problems? In this episode, Karl and Danielle talk with Amy Taylor Mitchell and Trevor Mishler about what actually happens to young companies once the first customers say yes. Drawing from careers spent deep in customer conversations, Amy and Trevor share stories from early stage startups where excitement, pressur...

What if being ten times better still is not enough? In this episode, Karl and Danielle talk with Bob Handlin about the hard lessons that only show up once a product meets the real world. Bob shares a story from his time working on a storage product that was undeniably fast, jaw‑dropping fast, the kind of performance that should have won the market on the spot. And yet, deal after deal fell apart w...

What if the most important thing you can do with customer feedback is slow down and really listen? In this episode, Karl and Danielle are joined by Jennifer Scalf, someone who has spent nearly two decades living in the space between products and customers. Jennifer shares what it is actually like to walk into high‑stakes conversations where something is not working, tensions are high, and everyone...

What can ice hockey teach you about being a better product manager? In this episode, Karl and Danielle explore the idea of the product manager as a coach, drawing inspiration from the fast, physical, and surprisingly strategic world of ice hockey. Karl shares a moment of realization while watching a game, noticing how coaches constantly adjust lines, manage energy, and respond in real time to what...

What if you are working incredibly hard to sell something that nobody actually needs? In this episode, Karl and Danielle unpack the now infamous Zizzer‑Zoof Seeds, borrowed from a Dr. Seuss poem and uncomfortably familiar to anyone who has ever poured energy into a product that just will not land. Through humor and honesty, they explore what it feels like to go home with sore feet after another lo...

What happens when you join a team full of smart, capable people… and you grab for the jar they’ve already tried everything to open? In this episode, Karl and Danielle talk candidly about the realities of being a product manager at different stages of a product’s life, and why impact can feel wildly different depending on where you sit. They share the story behind the “pickle jar effect,” that unco...

What if the best way into product management is never planned at all? In this inaugural episode of Productly Speaking, Karl and Danielle start where most product careers actually begin: by accident. They share the very human stories of how each of them “tripped and fell” into product management, not through a carefully mapped career plan, but through moments where something simply clicked. A conve...

What happens when two people from opposite sides of the Atlantic realize they’ve been asking the same product questions all along? This short trailer introduces Productly Speaking, a podcast hosted by Karl Abbott and Danielle Kirkwood, two product managers who both found their way into the role from somewhere else. Karl came up through support at Red Hat. Danielle moved from design into product wh...