The Product Manager

What happens when a single-product company decides to build a second—or a third—without unraveling the success of the first? The leap from one product to many rarely doubles the complexity; it multiplies it. Product leaders suddenly face sharper trade-offs: when to place bold bets, how to allocate finite resources, and how to distinguish between transformational expansion and slow erosion of a har...

Finding product–market fit isn’t the finish line—it’s base camp. In this episode, Hannah Clark sits down with Amit Shah, COO of Virta Health, to unpack what really happens after you’ve “made it” and the mountain suddenly gets steeper. Virta is scaling a fully virtual metabolic health clinic in a fast-moving healthcare landscape, and Amit brings a rare perspective shaped by nearly a decade inside t...

AI has collapsed the gap between idea and execution—but standing out in a flood of generative tools requires more than just speed. Product leaders now face a different kind of challenge: evaluating opportunities with sharper questions, building for users with evolving expectations, and navigating distribution channels that look nothing like they did a year ago. Rachel Wolan, CPO at Webflow, joins...

Welcome to 2026! In this special retrospective episode, host Hannah Clark is joined by producer Becca Banyard to unpack the biggest themes, standout insights, and most listened-to moments from the past year. Together, they reflect on what made 2025 such a pivotal year in product—where AI reigned, volatility was the norm, and the role of product leadership was stretched in new directions. This epis...

AI can solve Olympic-level math problems... and still fumble basic arithmetic. So what gives? According to Dhruv Batra, the answer lies in the “jaggedness” of intelligence—how AI can excel in some areas while completely breaking down in others. Dhruv, co-founder and Chief Scientist at Yutori, joins Hannah Clark to unpack the cognitive dissonance users feel when a model dazzles one moment and disap...

There’s a lot of smoke and mirrors in product right now—especially when it comes to AI. Shiny tools and slick prototypes are masquerading as production-ready solutions, and teams are feeling the pressure to keep up. But what happens when the hype outpaces the fundamentals? Hannah sits down with Matt Graney, CPO of Celigo, to talk about bad product plays in disguise—from vibe coding and no-code ill...

Every product team faces the same monster: conversion optimization. But in 2025, the game has changed. With AI agents influencing discovery and AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) reshaping how people (and machines) interpret messaging, teams are now marketing to both human and agentic audiences. In this episode, Hannah Clark sits down with Chris Silvestri, founder of Conversion Alchemy , to unpack h...

Every product manager obsesses over leadership styles, onboarding flows, and GTM strategies—but what if the biggest differentiator of success comes down to something much simpler? Learning. In this episode, Hannah Clark sits down with Maxine Anderson, Co-Founder and CPO of Arist, a text-based learning platform that flips traditional corporate education on its head. Maxine started her career in rur...

Every product leader wrestles with the same tradeoff: move fast and risk breaking things, or move slow and risk irrelevance. But what if the real accelerator wasn’t cutting corners—it was systematizing experimentation? In this episode, Hannah Clark sits down with Jean Castanon, VP of Digital Product at American Express, to explore how his team quadrupled their testing velocity in a year, redefined...

Startups don’t get easier with age—they just get more complex. Much like teenagers, scale-ups are constantly outgrowing their structures, still figuring out their identity, and not always great at setting realistic goals. But this awkward “in-between” stage isn’t a failure—it’s a rite of passage on the path to becoming a mature company. In this episode, Hannah sits down with Matt Wensing, Head of...

The Tin Man’s silk heart in The Wizard of Oz is a perfect metaphor for AI right now—it can convincingly mimic empathy, but it’s not the real thing. In this episode, Hannah Clark sits down with Megan O’Rourke, Executive Director of Product at Metalab, to explore the delicate balance between AI-powered productivity and human-driven resonance. They dive into why empathy and storytelling are irreplace...

Product management isn’t just evolving—it’s getting completely rewritten. In this episode, Hannah sits down with Dr. Maryam Ashoori, VP of Product and Engineering at IBM Watsonx, to talk about how AI is reshaping not only the tools product managers use, but the very nature of the role itself. Maryam brings two decades of experience in AI across design, research, and engineering, and shares what sh...

When AI was just a sci-fi footnote and “product transformation” sounded like a buzzword, Michael Luchen was already in the trenches. In this episode, Hannah sits down with the original host of The Product Manager Podcast to unpack three years of change—from his early missteps to building scalable systems and navigating the AI tidal wave with nuance and strategy. Michael, now a self-described &quot...

If you’ve heard the buzz about Vibe Coding but aren’t quite sure what’s real and what’s hype, this episode is your shortcut to clarity. Recorded live at our hands-on Vibe Coding Workshop, this 30-minute seminar with Drew Falkman (Principal at Moves The Needle) unpacks what Vibe Coding actually is, where it fits in the product lifecycle, and how non-technical folks are already using it to ship tool...

ADHD might be the product trait nobody’s putting on their resume—but maybe they should. In this episode, Hannah sits down with executive coach Frankie Berkoben to unpack the complex intersection of ADHD, executive function, and product leadership. Together, they explore how ADHD traits like systems thinking, emotional intelligence, and comfort with ambiguity make product people exceptional—and why...

Product-market fit isn’t enough anymore. In an age where AI is making it easier for anyone to ship a half-decent product, the real battleground is distribution. Margaret-Ann Seger (Head of Product at Statsig) joins Hannah Clark to talk about how AI is reshaping go-to-market strategy, why speed and feedback loops are becoming product differentiators, and how her team at Statsig is baking collaborat...

What if instead of racing to solve problems, you paused to map the entire system first? In this episode, Hannah sits down with Sheryl Cababa—author of Closing the Loop: Systems Thinking for Designers and founder of Optimistic Design—to talk about what it really means to design for complexity. From AI adoption to organizational policy changes, Sheryl brings a systems lens to the decisions leaders m...

The “AI is coming for your job” headlines have been exhausting—especially if you're a software engineer. But as Cortex.io founder Anish Dhar explains, engineering isn’t dying; it's evolving. In this episode, Hannah sits down with Anish to unpack what engineering excellence actually means in 2025, why measuring developer productivity is still wildly misunderstood, and where AI coding tool...

What does passion really look like on a product team? In this episode, Hannah sits down with Norma Løvhaugen, VP Strategy at Neat, to unpack how passion fuels team collaboration, customer empathy, and a culture of innovation. They explore the difference between building products with passion versus simply shipping features—and why that distinction matters more than ever in an age of generative AI....

Expanding internationally is more complex than ever, with economic uncertainty, shifting regulations, and unpredictable tariffs creating constant challenges. While overseas opportunities can be tempting, businesses must navigate a landscape full of blind spots and evolving risks that demand careful planning and adaptability. Simone Tamussin, SVP of Product Management at Mastercard Gateway, shares...

Two seasoned executive coaches, Carolyn Dolezal and Kate Leto, share candid insights on the realities of executive leadership and how to truly earn the trust and confidence of your team and stakeholders. They debunk common myths and explore how personal agendas can undermine leadership effectiveness, while offering practical advice for building influence even when the odds aren’t in your favor. Th...

Becoming a parent profoundly changes how you approach product leadership, blending personal and professional challenges in unexpected ways. Anuj Jhunjhunwala, Director of Product at Merge, shares how parenting teaches lessons in influence without authority, clear communication, and time management that directly apply to leading products. Anuj offers candid insights on how managing toddlers paralle...

As we navigate the AI revolution, we’re collectively creating a new reality that’s far from utopian, and both leaders and individual contributors are struggling to find their way through the uncertainty. Questions around workplace ethics, output quality, and long-term impacts are top of mind for many, but this presents an opportunity to learn from each other’s breakthroughs and shape the future we...

What's holding you back from reaching your next level? For many, the biggest obstacle is often a mental one, not a physical one. By shifting your perspective and zooming out, you can find pathways around the challenges that seem insurmountable. Uma Subramanian, founder of Limitless Leaders and former Microsoft leader, shares her journey of achieving extraordinary success by adopting a limitle...

Research has often suffered from shortcuts, assumptions, and poorly conducted user interviews, long before AI entered the picture. While there are concerns about AI exacerbating these issues, today we’re exploring how AI can actually improve research practices by standardizing and democratizing good research at scale. Cori Widen, User Research Lead at Photoroom, joins us to share how AI is being l...