The Product Edge

In this latest episode of The Product Edge, Jade Bennett interviewed Shibu Mathew, VP of Product Management at Immutable at the time of recording, a leading web3 company. Shibu is a seasoned product leader with over 20 years of experience in consumer internet, mobile gaming and e-commerce. Previously at Electronic Arts, Shibu launched and scaled the E-sports platform for some of the most popular gaming franchises, including FIFA, Madden and Apex, to name a few. Together, they explored the essential tips and insights to help you navigate into Product Management. In this episode, you’ll discover: Connect with Shibu Mathew: LinkedIn Connect with Jade Bennett: LINKEDIN I FACEBOOK I TWITTER Get social with The Product Edge: Follow on: LINKEDIN I FACEBOOK I TWITTER I INSTAGRAM To join The Product Edge mailing list: https://theproductedge.com.au/

In this latest episode of The Product Edge, Jade Bennett interviewed Jen Leibhart, Co-Founder of Product Anonymous – a Melbourne-based community for learning and sharing product management knowledge with others. Jen is also an organiser for Product Camp Melbourne and believes in bringing people together to create, share and achieve while having fun. Advocating for research to understand customers' motivation and behaviours has been a long-time passion for Jen. Together, they explored the key strategies and insights to help you excel in your next product management interview. In this episode, you’ll discover: Connect with Jen Leibhart: LinkedIn Connect with Jade Bennett: LINKEDIN I FACEBOOK I TWITTER Get social with The Product Edge: Follow on: LINKEDIN I FACEBOOK I TWITTER I INSTAGRAM To join The Product Edge mailing list: https://theproductedge.com.au/

In this latest episode of The Product Edge, Jade Bennett interviewed Teresa Huang, Product Director at Redbubble, with over a decade’s experience working in diverse industries and organisations of all shapes and sizes, including e-commerce, fintech, aviation, health insurance and financial institutions. Teresa’s passion is to never stop learning and sharing her experiences and to inspire and motivate the next generation of ambitious Product Managers and Leaders. Together they delve into Product careers and what product folk can do to level up. In this episode, you’ll discover: Connect with Teresa Huang: LINKEDIN Connect with Jade Bennett: LINKEDIN I FACEBOOK I TWITTER Get social with The Product Edge: Follow on: LINKEDIN I FACEBOOK I TWITTER I INSTAGRAM To join The Product Edge mailing list: https://theproductedge.com.au/

In this latest episode of The Product Edge, Jade Bennett interviewed Aubrey Blanche-Sarellano. As a Senior Director of People Operations & Strategic Programs at Culture Amp, Aubrey has expertise in everything from designing, implementing and communicating equitable talent programs solutions to sustainability and philanthropy. Through her work, Aubrey seeks to question and reimagine systems to ensure that all people can access equitable opportunity. Together Jade and Aubrey delve into equity, diversity, and inclusion (DE&I) and the importance of an equitable approach to DE&I initiatives. In this episode, you’ll discover: Connect with Aubrey Blanche-Sarellano: LINKEDIN Connect with Jade Bennett: LINKEDIN I FACEBOOK I TWITTER Get social with The Product Edge: LINKEDIN I FACEBOOK I TWITTER I INSTAGRAM To join The Product Edge mailing list: https://theproductedge.com.au/

In the latest episode of The Product Edge, Jade Bennett interviewed Nicole Brolan, Chief Product Officer. Nicole has lead product teams for businesses such as Redbubble and Xero. Before that, she spent 15 years at cnet.com.au, where she progressed her career from Associate Product Manager to Chief Product Officer. And during this time, as she navigated her career, she found the time to complete a business degree and have a baby boy, Benji. Nicole believes that product folk should remember the product basics when the landscape is evolving rapidly. Use your core product skills and focus on the problem you are trying to solve, keeping the customer in mind. Jade and Nicole discussed how to ensure that product teams focus on driving tangible business value. In this episode, you’ll discover: Connect with Nicole Brolan: LINKEDIN Connect with Jade Bennett: LINKEDIN I FACEBOOK I TWITTER Get social with The Product Edge: Follow on: LINKEDIN I FACEBOOK I TWITTER I INSTAGRAM To join The Product Edge mailing list: https://theproductedge.com.au/

In this latest episode of The Product Edge, Jade Bennett interviewed Mike Zarif, Product Director for Propel Ventures. Mike is an experienced product leader with a track record in developing and leading high-performing product teams focusing on user experience. He has spent the last ten years launching and scaling products in early-stage startups to large corporations locally and globally. Mike believes Product Management can be a little like being on a rocket ship where you need to be open-minded, and you can’t be too robust or stringent in your thinking. According to Mike, you need to stay humble to deliver great product management in a product-led organisation. Jade and Mike discuss what great product management looks like and how it can support a business to become Product-led. In this episode, you’ll discover: Connect with Mike Zarif: LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/mzarif Website – www.michaelzarif.com Connect with Jade Bennett: LINKEDIN I FACEBOOK I TWITTER I INSTAGRAM Get social with The Product Edge: Follow on: LINKEDIN I FACEBOOK I TWITTER I INSTAGRAM To join The Product Edge mailing list: https://theproductedge.com.au/

In this latest episode of The Product Edge, Jade Bennett sits down with Amanda Ralph, the Principal Product Manager at PaperCut Software, the global leader in print management solutions. Amanda has worked with some of Australia’s leading companies including Qantas, NAB, KPMG and AustralianSupera and co-founded Product Women which now has over 6000 members. Amanda has been recognised as one of the leading Women in Product and this year as one of 25 Global Women Product leaders to follow, by ProductBoard. Amanda believes that cultivating curiosity is essential for product folk to achieve success and shared this Walt Disney quote with us. “We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and trying new things, because we are curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.” Today, Jade and Amanda discuss what it takes to cultivate curiosity under product folk. In this episode, you’ll discover: Connect with Amanda Ralph: LINKEDIN Connect with Jade Bennett: LINKEDIN I FACEBOOK I TWITTER I INSTAGRAM Get social with The Product Edge: Follow on: LINKEDIN I FACEBOOK I TWITTER I INSTAGRAM To join The Product Edge mailing list: https://theproductedge.com.au/

In this episode of The Product Edge, Julie Starovoitova shared her insights about how psychological safety can help you build high performance teams with our wonderful podcast host, Jade Bennett. With a background in Positive Psychology one of Julie's core beliefs is that work can (and should!) be enjoyable and rewarding and that happens when you set your people up for success and create an environment where they can do amazing work. Julie is on a mission to build human-centric, high-performing, transparent, and positive organisational cultures. Over the span of her career she has been working with senior leaders across different industries including tech, retail and logistics to intentionally craft workplace environments where employees can thrive and the organisations perform at their highest level. Julie was named among one of Australia's most innovative People & Culture leaders by HRD Australia in 2023. In this episode, you’ll discover: ✓ What psychological safety is ✓ How psychological safe environments contribute to high-performing teams ✓ Practical ways in which you can build psychological safety into your teams ✓ The role personal agency and positive psychology play in individual and team success ✓ How decision-making is facilitated by clear communication and psychological safety Connect with Julie Starovoitova : LinkedIn - https://au.linkedin.com/in/juliestarovoitova Connect with Jade Bennett: LINKEDIN I FACEBOOK I TWITTER I INSTAGRAM Get social with The Product Edge: Follow on: LINKEDIN I FACEBOOK I TWITTER I INSTAGRAM To join The Product Edge mailing list: https://theproductedge.com.au/

In this episode of The Product Edge, Jade Bennett sits down with Tom Dyson Head of Product at JobAdder. Tom has over 10 years of experience building and growing B2B, SaaS solutions. Tom thinks that the best way to make a great product is to find a balance between art, science, and strategic management. He passionately claims that Product Management is the best job in the world! Today, Jade and Tom discuss what it takes to build products that customers love and ultimately become raving fans. In this episode, you’ll discover: ✓ What great product management looks like ✓ How to manage your career like your products ✓ Transitioning from founder led to customer led ✓ Curiosity, the PM’s superpower ✓ Expert career tips from Tom Connect with Tom Dyson: LinkedIn - https://linkedin.com/in/dysontom Twitter - https://twitter.com/dysontom Connect with Jade Bennett: LINKEDIN I FACEBOOK I TWITTER I INSTAGRAM Get social with The Product Edge: Follow on: LINKEDIN I FACEBOOK I TWITTER I INSTAGRAM To join The Product Edge mailing list: https://theproductedge.com.au/

In Jade’s first episode of The Product Edge since returning from maternity leave, she sits down with Liz Blink, Co-Founder of Product Anonymous, a community group for product people in Melbourne to discuss the importance of investing in Product folk. Liz has been a product manager for over 15 years and says she fell in love with it because it offers the opportunity to be constantly challenged. Liz has worked across marketplaces, government transformations, platforms, and product consulting and coaching. Jade and Liz discuss the importance of product capability frameworks and the role they play in developing product folk. They also explore some of the core competencies product folk should be developing to accelerate their product career. In this episode, you’ll discover: ✓ What is a capability matrix ✓ Key product management competencies ✓ How organisation’s can better develop their product folk ✓ The role you can play in developing your skills ✓ The value of peer-to-peer feedback Access the resources mentioned in this episode and connect with us... Resources: ● Product Capability matrix: email hello@theproductedge.com.au for your copy Connect with Liz Blink: LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/lizblink Website - https://productanonymous.com Connect with Jade Bennett: LINKEDIN I FACEBOOK I TWITTER I INSTAGRAM Get social with The Product Edge: Follow on: LINKEDIN I FACEBOOK I TWITTER I INSTAGRAM To join The Product Edge mailing list: https://theproductedge.com.au/

Joining Georgia today are two incredible people from 99Designs; Evan Ravensdale, Senior Product Director & Lauren Kish, Product Operations Lead. Today we are exploring the emerging practice of product operations. Evan is a long-time product leader who is experienced in building different types of products across a variety of markets. He is passionate about building teams that are truly empowered, learn rapidly through experimentation and are connected to customers & users. Lauren recently relocated back to Melbourne after working in San Francisco where she established a career in product operations after being employee number 1 at a music discovery app at WillCall & then blurring the lines between product & operations at Ticketfly (Eventbrite). In this episode we discuss: ✓ What is product ops? ✓ What is the value behind product operations? ✓ When is the right time to build a product operations team? ✓ Who can take on a product operations role? Access the resources mentioned in this episode and connect with us... Resources: Who moved my cheese by Spencer Johnson Connect with guests: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurenkish/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/evanravensdale/ Connect with Georgia Hart: LINKEDIN Get social with The Product Edge: Follow on: LINKEDIN I FACEBOOK I TWITTER I INSTAGRAM To join The Product Edge mailing list: https://theproductedge.com.au/

Product Management can be defined in many different ways but a common way to describe it is the confluence of User Experience, Tech & Business. The general practice around execution has evolved a lot over the years but one aspect that doesn’t get discussed to the same extent is the business side and overall business strategy. Joining Georgia today is Dino Talic. Dino has been in Product Management for over 10 years, starting out his career as a Software Engineer before shifting into product management. He is now Co-Founder & CPO of hellomonday, a coaching platform with a vision to help everyone reach their full potential in a job they love. Dino is passionate about the importance of aligning business and product strategy and shares his insights and experience with us. In this episode we discuss: ✓ What makes a good business strategy ✓ What product managers need to do to support the business strategy ✓ Creating more visibility on the business strategy ✓ How can product managers think more strategically? Access the resources mentioned in this episode and connect with us... Resources: Book: Richer, Wiser, Happier by William Green www.hellomonday.co Connect with Dino: www.linkedin.com/in/dinotalic/ Connect with Georgia Hart: LINKEDIN Get social with The Product Edge: Follow on: LINKEDIN I FACEBOOK I TWITTER I INSTAGRAM To join The Product Edge mailing list: https://theproductedge.com.au/

Cheryl Gledhill and Lauren McCormack have joined Georgia today to talk about their journey at Zip Co, and the experiences they have had working in scaling businesses, which is poignant as we watch so many Australian tech businesses scaling at speed. The operations of a start-up, scale-up and established product businesses are very different. Cheryl is currently Director of Product and has been working in product for over 25 years from the early days of OzEmail, through the dot com boom and bust, after many years in the corporate world, has now found her happy place in start-up land. Lauren is currently Director of Product, Payments and has been working in product for 15 years. She has led teams to deliver great product experiences for customers and is passionate about the different types of people needed for business success, product roles and how to shape your career with this in mind. In this episode we discuss: ✓ The main challenges Product Manager’s go through in start-ups vs scale-ups ✓ The biggest learning curves working in a company going through major growth ✓ How to prepare your teams for major growth ✓ Whether to join a start-up or scale-up ✓ Start-up culture and how to maintain it Connect with our guests: Cheryl: Twitter - @cherylgledhill Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/cherylgledhill Lauren: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lmccormack/ Connect with Georgia Hart: LINKEDIN Get social with The Product Edge: Follow on: LINKEDIN I FACEBOOK I TWITTER I INSTAGRAM To join The Product Edge mailing list: https://theproductedge.com.au/

Herry Wiputa joins Georgia on The Product Edge to discuss the foundations you need to scale a business and how that benefits the product, the customer and the business goals. He is an experienced Chief Product and Technology Officer who has scaled products and teams for Campaign Monitor, REA and currently, hipages. He is passionate about creating systems of work to empower people and teams to perform at their best. Australia has one of the fastest-growing markets in terms of producing tech ‘unicorn’ businesses. We’ve seen companies like Canva, AfterPay and Linktree grow from 50 people to over 500+ people in a matter of a few years. So, how do they handle scaling a business so fast? In this episode we discuss: ✓ What a good cross-functional team should look like ✓ The different ways of scaling products ✓ The foundations you need to scale quickly ✓ Ways to avoid hierarchy and big company bureaucracy Access the resources mentioned in this episode and connect with us... Resources: Book: Turn the ship around by David Marquet davidmarquet.com/turn-the-ship-around-book Connect with Herry: https://twitter.com/hwiputra https://www.linkedin.com/in/herrywiputra Connect with Georgia Hart: LINKEDIN Get social with The Product Edge: Follow on: LINKEDIN I FACEBOOK I TWITTER I INSTAGRAM To join The Product Edge mailing list: https://theproductedge.com.au/

Kent Weathers talks to Georgia today about the most common challenges organisations are facing and what they can do to change that and how it all starts by implementing best practices and global standards. Product Management has been an evolving industry for 20+ years and in the last 5 years alone, companies are hiring more and more Product Managers. But a lot of them leave their jobs after only 6 months. So why is that? Kent and The Association of Product Management are on a mission to build global industry best practices in order to power people to do better product work. They represent the people and work tirelessly to advance the profession of product management. In this episode we discuss: ✓ The importance of establishing best practices ✓ Why organisations are facing the same product challenges ✓ How organisations can empower product managers to do good work ✓ The future of product management Access the resources mentioned in this episode and connect with us... Resources: https://productprofessionals.com/ Connect with Kent: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kentweathers/ Connect with Georgia Hart: LINKEDIN Get social with The Product Edge: LINKEDIN I FACEBOOK I TWITTER I INSTAGRAM To join The Product Edge mailing list: https://theproductedge.com.au/

Brad Dunn is a Product Management executive with over 20 years of experience. He caught up with Georgia to talk to her about how he is on a journey to reinvent product prioritisation. Brad is the former CPO of Whispir and CEO of both OHNO.ai and Nazori. He is now the founder of GrowShow, a new SaaS product designed to help content creators. As a Product Manager, it’s your job to make sure the business is working on the most important things first. The reality is though, that you can never get everything done all at once. But luckily there are some popular prioritisation frameworks in the market to help evaluate the importance of various initiatives and eliminate waste whilst ensuring we're delivering customer value and this is what Bradd is passionate about. In this episode we discuss: ✓ Brad’s productisation ideology ✓ Where the idea came from ✓ His opinion on roadmaps, popular agile frameworks & blind auditions Access the resources mentioned in this episode and connect with us... Resources: https://jesterhoax.medium.com/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fS7QJZN6zY&t=1360s Connect with Brad: https://au.linkedin.com/in/brad-dunn-71417a28 https://twitter.com/jesterhoax https://jesterhoax.medium.com/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fS7QJZN6zY&t=1360s Connect with Georgia Hart: LINKEDIN Get social with The Product Edge: LINKEDIN I FACEBOOK I TWITTER I INSTAGRAM To join The Product Edge mailing list: https://theproductedge.com.au/

Joining Georgia today is Ally Akbarzadeh. Ally has spent over two decades bringing great digital products to life, and has been fortunate enough to develop industry-leading B2C and B2B products. He has extensive experience in marketing products and is going to share his thoughts, opinions, and ideas on the importance of having a strong go-to-market strategy and how that ties into product strategies. Ally talks about how building and launching brilliant products requires understanding and harmonizing an internal focus (the build) with an external focus (the launch). The go-to-market strategy captures how you will bring a specific new experience or series of new experiences to market. In this episode we discuss: ✓ Aligning the product strategy with the marketing strategy ✓ Financial literacy ✓ If Product Managers need to be across P/L statements ✓ Who is responsible for paying for the problems that arise ✓ Advice for Product Managers entering a new market Access the resources mentioned in this episode and connect with us... Resources: Harvard Innovation Lab GTM framework for startups https://vimeo.com/6085892[2] 29 HubSpot Go To Market guide https://blog.hubspot.com/sales/gtm-strategy Product Marketing Alliance (https://www.productmarketingalliance.com/go-to-market/) The Strategyzer collection makes the dark art of business strategy and value proposition design and makes them accessible. The Visual Display of Quantitative Information Connect with Ally: https://linkedin.com/in/allyak Connect with Georgia Hart: LINKEDIN Get social with The Product Edge: LINKEDIN I FACEBOOK I TWITTER I INSTAGRAM To join The Product Edge mailing list: https://theproductedge.com.au/

One of the reasons we know people love working for start-ups, is the dynamic nature of the role. It offers an opportunity to get exposure to not just product challenges, but business challenges too. So, as a Founder, how and when do you decide is the right time to hire a Product Manager? In this episode, Georgia talks to Ben Wirtz, a product leader with over 10 years of experience working with both famous enterprise companies such as Atlassian and Google as well as founding his own start-ups. Over the years, Ben has hired numerous product folk and is here today to share his experiences and how to avoid expensive hiring mistakes. Ben is passionate about empowering people, promoting positive energy, and helping people to discover their potential. He is proud to have had the opportunity to help people grow from individual contributors to senior leaders. In this episode we discuss: ✓ Figuring out the right time to hire a Product Manager ✓ How to define the Product Manager role ✓ Hiring a Product Manager vs. a Product Leader ✓ The right interviewing techniques and setting your Product Manager up for success ✓ The soft skills to look for in a Product Manager Access the resources mentioned in this episode and connect with us... Resources: Website - Productrise.com/blog Connect with guest: linkedin.com/in/benfwirtz Connect with Georgia Hart: https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgiahartrec/ Get social with The Product Edge: LINKEDIN I FACEBOOK I TWITTER I INSTAGRAM Get social with The Product Edge: LINKEDIN I FACEBOOK I TWITTER I INSTAGRAM To join The Product Edge mailing list: https://theproductedge.com.au

Joining Georgia on The Product Edge is Amanda Ralph, a successful product strategist and leader who has a passion for creating and developing market-leading commercial and customer value through building and designing products and services that customers love. Amanda has worked with some of Australia’s leading public and private companies including Qantas, NAB, KPMG, and Medibank. She is currently the Principal Product Manager of Retirement Products for Australia’s largest profit-for-member superannuation fund, AustralianSuper. Not only that, but she is an active member of the Australian and global product community, including six years as a Leading the Product ambassador and co-founding Product Women Australia which now has over 6000 members both nationally and internationally. In this episode we discuss: ✓ The positive power of OKRs ✓ What not to do when setting OKRs ✓ How OKRs shouldn’t be used ✓ OKRs in start-up vs. enterprise organisations Connect with Amanda: https://au.linkedin.com/in/ralphamanda https://twitter.com/thatproductchic?lang=en https://www.meetup.com/en-AU/Women-in-Product-Melbourne/ Connect with Georgia Hart: https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgiahartrec To join The Product Edge mailing list: https://theproductedge.com.au

Barry is a big advocate for calm, sustainable, and distributed teamwork. In this podcast, he shares his knowledge and experience on how to align product and technology teams to make that happen. With an extensive career working with technology and product teams as a Developer, Consultant, and Leader, Barry provides solutions on how to get teams to communicate and collaborate in a more structured way. In this episode we discuss: ✓ Promoting clarity and better communication ✓ Getting all teams involved in making a product idea a reality ✓ How to overcome challenges when working in a distributed team ✓ How agile has evolved and continues to evolve ✓ How to make agile processes work for you and your team Access the resources mentioned in this episode and connect with us... Resources: Turn the Ship Around! By David Marquet Connect with guest: @bazscott – Twitter https://www.linkedin.com/in/bazscott/ Connect with Georgia Hart: https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgiahartrec To join The Product Edge mailing list: https://theproductedge.com.au/