Productside Stories

AI Won’t Save Your Roadmap: How Product Managers Stay in Charge with Roger Snyder  AI is everywhere… including in your backlog, your boss’s OKRs, and probably your next performance review. In this episode, Rina sits down with Productside Principal Consultant and Trainer, Roger Snyder, to cut through the noise. They dig into what AI is actually good at, where it goes off the rails, and why product...

Leading Product Work in a World Where Failure Isn’t an Option  When your “product” is clean drinking water, the margin for error is… basically zero. In this episode, Portland Water Bureau Interim Director Quisha Light  takes us inside the realities of leading innovation in a space defined by public trust, mission-driven work, slow-moving systems, and life-or-death stakes. From navigating union con...

How to Find Product-Market Fit (Without Fooling Yourself)  Founders love to sprint. Markets prefer you walk, listen, and maybe ask a few humans what they actually want. In this episode, product leader and startup advisor Shweta Agrawal joins Rina to break down why so many early-stage teams skip the fundamentals  (customer discovery, focus, ICP clarity) and pay the price later. From health-tech to...

From Best Buy to Oldcastle: How Jennifer Sabetti Built a Career on Customer-Centric Leadership  Early in her career, Jennifer Sabetti learned a simple truth at Best Buy: “Have fun while being the best.” Today, as VP of Product Strategy at Oldcastle Infrastructure, that mindset shapes how she leads teams, hires talent, and mentors the next generation of PMs. In this episode of  Trailblazing Women i...

From Layoff to Launch: Building an AI Businessfrom the Ground Up with Cooper Craig When a product manager loses his job, what happens next? For Cooper Craig, it meant building his own AI automation agencyfrom scratch. In this episode, he shares how grit, community, and product thinking helped him rebuild—turning job loss into a thriving business. From building voice agents that actually sound huma...

Building an AI-First Organization the Typeform Way with Aleks Bass  What does “becoming AI-first” actually look like inside a real company? Aleks Bass, Chief Product Officer (and interim CPTO) at Typeform, joins Rina Alexin to reveal how she’s leading an AI transformation that’s as human as it is technical. From breaking down walls between product and engineering to turning procurement into a part...

The Future of AI Product Management with Digvijay Singh (YouTube Ads)  AI has been around for a while now but the PM role within it is evolving faster than ever. In this episode, Digvijay Singh, Senior Product Manager at YouTube Ads , joins Rina Alexin to unpack the three layers of AI Product Management: infrastructure, models, and applications. From writing evals to training “intern” models, Digv...

Trailblazing Women in Product Management with Pinky Panjwani In this episode, Nicole Tieche sits down with Pinky Panjwani, Director of Product Management for Striven at Miles Technologies, to talk about what it means to lead through learning. From crossing the chasm to building a team culture rooted in growth and simplicity, Pinky shares how persistence, patience, and a sharp sense for clarity hav...

Building Platform Products That Scale — Without Drowning in Stakeholders  Platform products are some of the most complex beasts in product management. They have to serve multiple teams, stay flexible, and scale across the org—all while keeping technical and business needs in sync. In this episode, Rina Alexin chats with Aindra Misra, Director of Product Management for AI, Data, and Developer Exper...

Jose Quesada on Discovery, Strategy, and the Value of Product Management  Jose Quesada, VP of Product Management at American Express, joins Rina Alexin to unpack how Amex built a globally recognized mobile app by running discovery and delivery in parallel. From killing bad ideas quickly to making strategy concrete, Jose shows how product leaders can balance long-term vision with day-to-day executi...

How Scientists and PMs Really Build: Dr. Christina Agapakis with Rina Alexin A synthetic biologist who became a creative and marketing leader? Yes, please. In this kickoff to Season 4, Dr. Christina Agapakis (Founder, Oscillator; former SVP Creative & Marketing at Ginkgo Bioworks) joins Productside CEO Rina Alexin to explore the messy, very human loop between research, product, and story. From...

Product and engineering love to blame each other—but the best teams skip the turf war and figure out how to move forward together. In this episode, Rina talks with Guy Gershoni, Head of Engineering at genesIT, about what makes that partnership work (and what breaks it). From lean experiments to shared metrics to real talk about trust, this one’s packed with hard-earned lessons from someone who’s s...

Product transformations don’t fail because of bad tools—they fail because of ignored people. In this episode, transformation expert Joeri Devisch joins Productside CEO Rina Alexin to break down what real change leadership looks like. They talk through the difference between change and transformation, why words matter more than you think, and how to avoid top-down change that fizzles out.  Key Topi...

What do you do when you inherit a product that’s already failed—twice? If you’re Orly Stern, you take full ownership, break down what went wrong, and rebuild it the right way.  In this episode of Trailblazing Women in Product, Orly—now General Manager of Business Applications at Payoneer—shares how she turned a struggling product into a success, navigated leadership at a global scale, and made bol...

Scaling a product isn’t just about selling more—it’s about refining product-market fit, unlocking the right growth levers, and making sure your go-to-market strategy actually aligns with what your customers need. In this episode of Productside Stories, Rachel Owens, product executive and growth expert, shares how she’s helped SaaS products scale from $1M to $10M in a year. Learn how to avoid commo...

What’s the difference between being a product manager at an agency vs. in-house?  In this episode of Productside Stories, host Rina Alexin sits down with Anne Veit, Head of Product Strategy at Razorfish, to dive deep into how agency product management works, how to navigate rapid innovation, and why problem-solving skills matter more than industry expertise.  If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like...

Stepping into product leadership means balancing strategic vision, customer focus, and emerging tech. In this episode of Productside Stories, Neha Bansal, Head of Product at Meta Ads Manager Reporting, joins Nicole Tieche to discuss her career, the high-speed role of AI in advertising, and how PMs can stay ahead of industry shifts.  Key Topics Discussed in This Episode  Key topic #1  From Consulti...

In this episode, Rina Alexin chats with Brian Fugere, a product veteran who’s led M&A strategies at symplr and beyond. They dive into the good, bad, and downright shocking sides of acquisitions—covering why some deals fail, how to avoid due diligence pitfalls, and tips for making cultural integration actually work. Whether you’ve been through M&A chaos or are bracing for your first, this e...

Meet Ravi Ramsaran, Chief Product Officer at Nextria, who’s built a reputation for turning bold ideas into tangible products. In this episode, he and host Rina Alexin explore uniting teams around a product vision, leveraging deep customer insights, and staying resilient through market shifts. Hear how Ravi fosters a culture of curiosity to deliver winning outcomes time and again.  Key Topics Discu...

In this episode of Productside Stories, Sahara Muradi, VP of Product Management at Office Space Software, shares her journey from consulting to leading product teams across major industries like hospitality, sports, and workplace planning.    She discusses the biggest challenges product managers face today, including prioritization, stakeholder alignment, and balancing business outcomes with user...

What does it take to build a product from nothing?  Scott Jones, VP of Product at Realeyes, shares his journey from analyst to product leader, the mindset shifts required to navigate ambiguity, and how to validate ideas in real time. If you’ve ever struggled with imposter syndrome in a leadership role or wanted a seat at the table for big product decisions, this episode is packed with insights you...

In this episode of Productside Stories, Rina Alexin sitsdown with Elena Leonova, CPO at Spryker, to dive into the challenges of managing platform products. Elena shares her journey from business analyst to product leader, breaks down the complexities of platform management, and reveals how to make strategic decisions that move the needle. If you’re tackling platform products or scaling B2B solutio...

Pricing is a strategy. In this episode, Rina Alexin sits down with Peter Moot, Co-founder of Promi and former Lead PM at Uber, to uncover how product managers can use pricing to deliver more value and drive long-term success. Learn about personalized pricing, AI-driven strategies, and how to avoid the biggest pricing mistakes that product leaders make. Key Topics Discussed in This Episode  Key top...

This week on Productside Stories, host Rina Alexin sits down with Abner Rosales, Senior Director of Product Management Analytics at Experian. With a career spanning global teams and platforms generating millions in revenue, Abner shares his expertise on team-building, decision-making, and driving innovation in the fast-paced world of product management.  For product managers aiming to lead teams o...

In this episode of Productside Stories, host Rina Alexin sits down with Cynthia Petti, Chief Operating Officer of Productside, to discuss the critical role of professional development and certification in a product manager’s career.  Cynthia shares her inspiring journey back to Productside during a challenging personal time and how a supportive company culture fueled her growth into the COO role....