Product Ops Podcast

Blake Samic, Alexandra Lapinsky Wilson and Daniel Barber from the product ops team at Stripe discuss a number of key topics, including:

Karen Gutierrez and Reema Joshi from the Product Ops team at Wise unpack a number of key topics, including:

The Product Ops team from Pendo.io, Christine Itwaru, Rick Kadlac and Adam Siegel explore key talking points, including:

Anita Asiedu and Yande Nomvete from the Product Ops team at Chipper Cash explore key topics, including:

Kam Dadfar, Virginia Chiarentin, and Charlotte Hayward from the Product Ops team at Onfido explore key topics, including:

Tina Stewart and Shradha K from the Product Ops team at Twilio explore a number of key talking points, including:

Vincent Poulain and Jessica Orellana from the Product Ops team at Shopify dive into a number of key topics, including:

Michael Akkerman, the Chief Product and Strategy Officer at Cardlytics, joins me for the final episode of Season 1 of POP to share his views on Product Ops and why he thinks it's a key role in a scaling product organization. Prior to his current role, Michael served as the Global Head of Partnerships at Pinterest. We talk about how important internal stakeholder management and collaboration is in building and launching products (and how Product Ops can help strengthen this process!). Listen in to find out how Michael sees this function delivering value and what he will do as a CPO to set it up for success. This is a great episode to get a different perspective on Product Ops from a CPO championing the role and looking to hire for it!

Anabela Cesário, the Director of Product Ops at OutSystems, joins me on POP this week to talk about how she focused on tackling impactful work with her product ops team which allowed her to scale the function from 3 to 9 people over a year. She’s worked at OutSystems for over 5 years in various positions including the Director of Product Management. Her ability to understand and empathize with product managers definitely serves her well in this position. Listen in to find out more about the operating model she uses to evaluate the impact of work, as well as to find out what a scaled-up version of Product Ops looks like. (They're doing a lot!) Anabela provides some great advice for Product Ops leaders looking to scale this function!

Yash Singri, a Product Ops Manager at Talkspace, joins me on POP this week to talk about how he's using product analytics in ProdOps to help drive data-driven decision making. He previously worked as a consultant at Bain & Company before landing a strategy "externship" and moving into the digital health space. Listen in to find out how Yash works with the data science team in order to bring a holistic view of quantitative and qualitative analysis to product teams. He provides practical examples of how he has leveraged SQL skills and data analysis for 1) sizing and prioritizing of tickets and requests and 2) experimentation and product decision making. This is a great episode for anyone looking to embed data analysis and insights into the ProdOps function.

Mayara Barros, the Product Ops Manager at QuintoAndar, joins me on POP this week to talk about her passion for community building and how she's using it to improve the efficiency and alignment of 60+ product teams! May previously worked as a corporate lawyer and used to organise tech events such as TechStars Startup Weekend and SiliconDrinkAbout. Listen in to find out how she is helping teams work better together by cultivating strong connections and building trust. May shares some practical examples of work she's doing in this space, from tailored onboarding programmes for new PMs to purposeful team rituals. This is an insightful episode that delves into the importance of addressing the people side of product through Product Ops!

Wole Atunbi, Product Ops at Mono (YC W21), joins me on POP this week to talk about what it's like working in Product Ops at a seed-stage startup (with less than 20 people!). Wole previously worked as a product manager at various startups in Nigeria and has now found a role that combines his experience in product with his background in business and interest in strategy. Listen in to find out more about what a typical day in product ops looks like for him and how he juggles wearing many hats! This episode provides a unique perspective on Product Ops and shows how each company will define the role differently according to specific needs.

Sloan Saunders, the Product Ops Manager at Evidation Health, joins me on POP this week to talk about lessons she's learned from over 5 years of working in Product Ops! Listen in to find out more about Sloan's journey with Product Ops from starting off as a product ops analyst to being a product program manager and now hiring for her own team that she manages. Many feel that this function is quite new (myself included!), so this is a great episode with lots of wisdom shared on how the role has evolved over the years and why Sloan still enjoys working in this space.

Hugo Froes, the Product Ops Lead at Farfetch, joins me on POP on this episode to talk about how he transitioned from a background in UX Design to Product Ops! Listen in to find out what design principles Hugo finds valuable in his current role and how this has shaped his focus in Product Ops. From conducting user research to pattern matching and using Wardley Maps - Hugo has a wealth of knowledge, experience, and advice to share on navigating Product Ops. He also hosts informal chats about Product Ops on Clubhouse. Give him a follow on Twitter (or LinkedIn) to join in the next conversation!

Kaitlyn Melo, the Product Ops Lead at Faire, joins me on POP this week to talk about how she leveraged her background in customer experience to bring customer centricity directly to product teams! Listen in to find out how Kaitlyn developed a Voice of Customer (VOC) programme for Faire against the backdrop of rapid scaling and the need for instant knowledge transfer. A good episode with lots of practical advice for anyone in product or product ops currently facing a similar challenge.

Sharmin Abdo is the Product Ops Lead at Dext (formerly Receipt Bank) and is currently hiring for her team. She has been at Dext for over 5 years in previous roles such as Marketing Ops and Customer Success. She also spoke at the PLA Product Ops Summit on Defining Product Ops. In this episode we chat about some of the key traits in hiring for Product Ops and her decision to create a competency framework for the role. I think Sharmin's approach of: 1) starting before you're ready, 2) iterating as you learn and 3) moving in the right direction even if it's not perfect, will resonate with a lot of Product Ops leaders!

Marielle Velander is the Product Ops Lead @ Dashlane. She leveraged her background in user research and anthropology to develop a product operations function and has written about this for Mind the Product here. In this episode we explore how she is going about improving the quarterly product planning and OKR setting process at Dashlane. We talk about some of the tools and resources she has found helpful, the importance of product roadmaps and how she partners with product on initiatives. Marielle provides useful ways of thinking about product ops and practical advice throughout the episode including: conducting quarterly product ops reviews, mapping out the product development cycle and identifying the level of product maturity of the product org. This is guaranteed to give you food for thought!

Kevin Sakamoto is currently the Director of Digital Product Ops @ Dollar Shave Club. Prior to this role, Kevin spent over a decade working in product management leadership roles at companies such as Zappos, Target and lululemon. In this episode, we explore a question that is often asked in this space: "How does Product Ops compare to Product Management?". From common skills to key differences as well as how the two functions work together - Kevin provides invaluable firsthand insight and experience! This is a great episode for anyone interested in moving from product management to product ops or vice versa.

Gwera Kiwana, a Senior Ops Analyst @ 11:FS is currently setting up a Product Ops function. On this episode, we chat about how she identified the need for Product Ops, the relevance of her ops background from Monzo, the importance of manager support and how she's navigating the challenges of getting Product Ops off the ground as a one-woman team!