Rahul Abhyankar, a seasoned executive product leader in global companies and startups, sits down with senior executives to dive into their career journeys and uncover stories that shaped their perspectives about building successful products, scaled businesses and inspired teams, thereby curating relevant and practical advice to help listeners grow in their own careers.
External link for Product Leader's Journey
Product Leader's Journey reposted this
👋 I am excited to partner with Shardul Mehta, 30-year veteran product leader and master of improv, to offer a 𝗙𝗥𝗘𝗘 𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝘄𝗲𝗯𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗿 𝗼𝗻 𝗧𝗵𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗱𝗮𝘆, 𝗝𝘂𝗹𝘆 𝟮𝟱, 𝟭𝟮𝗽𝗺 𝗨𝗦 𝗘𝗧, called "What Customers Wish You Would Ask Them". We will talk about the types of questions that customers are really wanting to answer. We are two product guys passionate about #productmanagement and love sharing what we've learnt! Register for free at: https://lnkd.in/eCMx5ith
Product Leader's Journey reposted this
"YOU DIDN'T ASK?" Those words stung. After my first "customer interaction" I thought I could just drop into a hole in the ground. I was a software engineer, fresh out of college, working at one of the largest automobile manufacturers in India. Our "internal customers" were managers in the materials department and I was working on a BOM report. Those were the heady days of Unix/C, awk, grep and CONNECT BY PRIOR SQL clauses :-) The customer wanted some changes in a report. So my boss dispatched me to understand their new requirements. I had returned with the old report marked up. My boss looked at it and wondered, "Why do they want this additional column?" I replied back, matter-of-factly, "They didn't say." He looked up at me and said, "You didn't ask?" Those words stung. You. Didn't. Ask. At that moment, I might have thought, the customer knows their stuff better, and who am I, a fresh out of college guy, to ask them why. One thing became clear to me: asking "why" is just being curious to learn, not disrespectful. I look back gratefully for this early lesson on talking with customers, and many more learnt along the way. That's why I'm partnering with 30-year veteran executive product leader and master of improv, Shardul Mehta, to offer a 𝗙𝗥𝗘𝗘 𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝘄𝗲𝗯𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗿 𝗼𝗻 𝗧𝗵𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗱𝗮𝘆, 𝗝𝘂𝗹𝘆 𝟮𝟱, 𝟭𝟮𝗽𝗺 𝗨𝗦 𝗘𝗧, 𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗱 "𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗖𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗪𝗶𝘀𝗵 𝗪𝗲 𝗛𝗮𝗱 𝗔𝘀𝗸𝗲𝗱". We'll talk about the types of questions that customers are really wanting us to ask - The ones which help unlock true insights that can lead to discovering previously unthought of new market opportunities, fuel our product roadmaps to deliver business-impacting customer value, and make us look awesome as product managers. Register for free at:
Product Leader's Journey reposted this
Sudhakar Ramakrishna highlights 4 things that are important for a product manager to command accountability from a cross-functional team. Command it, not demand it. He sees it as a greater level of #productmanagement. Full conversation here: https://lnkd.in/gvkwR9F2
"Product management is more about people management. You bring together people with different experiences, expertise, biases, when no one is responsible to you, but you show accountability to them and command accountability from them. Not demand, but command it. Command it because of: 1) who you are, how you engage, 2) what you define, 3) translate that into specific actions and 4) create shared success. Nowhere in that have I used the word product." - Sudhakar Ramakrishna, CEO of SolarWinds The full conversation is at: https://lnkd.in/g9PVye2u
🥁🥁🥁 Great to be back with a new episode! Sudhakar Ramakrishna, President & CEO of SolarWinds, is my first guest in Season 3 of Product Leader's Journey. Sudhakar took over as CEO in Jan 2021 at a pivotal moment for the company, just after the cyberattack that affected not just SolarWinds but its large base of enterprise and government customers. Since then, Sudhakar and the team at SolarWinds have led a remarkable recovery. In this episode, we learn how they did that. Prior to SolarWinds, Sudhakar's journey has seen him in engineering and product leader roles and as GM, President, CEO at companies such as 3Com, Motorola Solutions, Polycom, Citrix and Pulse Secure. In this conversation, we go deep into many important topics: ➕ Gaining back trust and confidence from customers ➕ Balancing paradoxes in product management ➕ Transition from perpetual to subscription business model ➕ Concept of "Value Model" ➕ Designing "Time to Value" for customers ➕ Cascading purpose and mission into the product portfolio ➕ and a whole lot more Listen on: - Apple : https://lnkd.in/gyQPgmqN - Spotify: https://lnkd.in/gWmqWNhQ - YouTube : https://lnkd.in/gTbMPYbh - Notes: https://lnkd.in/gvkwR9F2
Product Leader's Journey reposted this
Empowering B2B SaaS & D2C Growth through Innovative Product Strategies | Chief Product Officer @ Typeform | Proven Leader with $500M+ ARR Experience
It was so great to connect with Rahul Abhyankar about navigating new roles effectively, addressing conflict at work and more. The line up in Season 2 of the Product Leader's Journey Podcast is very exciting!
🕺👋 Season 2 of Product Leader's Journey is in the books! So grateful to these amazing leaders 👇 for giving their time and sharing insightful stories with a lot of humility and candor. Incredible conversations. Thank you all for listening and sharing forward! 🙏 You can catch these episodes here: https://lnkd.in/gf9hJjWh, and your favorite place for podcasts. A short summary below: 1️⃣ Rich Mironov - Author, The Art of Product Management Rich talks about what product leaders owe their teams, merchandizing product work, and prioritization being a political problem. If you know Rich, you also know to expect his trademark brand of dry humor and wit! https://lnkd.in/gXg-nvDw 2️⃣ Amanda Richardson - CEO, CoderPad Amanda is on a mission to fix hiring by focusing on demonstrable skills and not resumes. Her personal mantra: Put your hand up and say Yes to everything. Believe in the possible. Believe in figuring it out. https://lnkd.in/gy98byW2 3️⃣ Donald Hasson - CPO Dashlane Donald talks about the “beautiful constraints” of product development - time, scope, resources, quality and how to balance them. He shares insights on when does it make sense for a product organization to have Product Ops. https://lnkd.in/gG8G5h4K 4️⃣ Al Zollar - Board Member, IBM, Nasdaq, BNY Mellon Al looks back at his distinguished career of 34 years in IBM as President of Lotus, GM of Tivoli and IBM iSeries product lines. He breaks down in crystal clear teams how to be the true "CEO of the Product", based on his actual experience as the product manager for DB2 early in his career. https://lnkd.in/gGEG3Med 5️⃣ Chris Johnson - CEO, Artisanal Talent Chris has one important advice about your career: play career chess and not checkers. Listen to him explain what it means. He shares insights on crafting a strong narrative, talking about weak spots on the resume, and how to work with executive recruiters. https://lnkd.in/gDmnGfVm 6️⃣ Aleks Bass, M.A - CPO, Typeform Aleks has spent decades in the market/customer research space working at Qualtrics, SurveyMonkey and now at Typeform. She shares advice on how to navigate the first 30/60/90 days in a new role, addressing conflict and how to provide feedback that doesn't feel like passing judgement. https://lnkd.in/gshXfyMx 7️⃣ Himanshu Palsule - CEO, Cornerstone OnDemand Himanshu walks the talk when he speaks about the importance of being humble and vulnerable, and how to say “I don’t know”. https://lnkd.in/ga3rBMau Subscribe to the show! Season 3 in a couple of weeks!
Catch up with episodes and subscribe before Season 3 airs in July: 🔹 Apple: https://lnkd.in/gDbC8QqB 🔹 Spotify: https://lnkd.in/gwX8gr5A 🔹 YouTube: https://lnkd.in/gV3AfU2V
🕺👋 Season 2 of Product Leader's Journey is in the books! So grateful to these amazing leaders 👇 for giving their time and sharing insightful stories with a lot of humility and candor. Incredible conversations. Thank you all for listening and sharing forward! 🙏 You can catch these episodes here: https://lnkd.in/gf9hJjWh, and your favorite place for podcasts. A short summary below: 1️⃣ Rich Mironov - Author, The Art of Product Management Rich talks about what product leaders owe their teams, merchandizing product work, and prioritization being a political problem. If you know Rich, you also know to expect his trademark brand of dry humor and wit! https://lnkd.in/gXg-nvDw 2️⃣ Amanda Richardson - CEO, CoderPad Amanda is on a mission to fix hiring by focusing on demonstrable skills and not resumes. Her personal mantra: Put your hand up and say Yes to everything. Believe in the possible. Believe in figuring it out. https://lnkd.in/gy98byW2 3️⃣ Donald Hasson - CPO Dashlane Donald talks about the “beautiful constraints” of product development - time, scope, resources, quality and how to balance them. He shares insights on when does it make sense for a product organization to have Product Ops. https://lnkd.in/gG8G5h4K 4️⃣ Al Zollar - Board Member, IBM, Nasdaq, BNY Mellon Al looks back at his distinguished career of 34 years in IBM as President of Lotus, GM of Tivoli and IBM iSeries product lines. He breaks down in crystal clear teams how to be the true "CEO of the Product", based on his actual experience as the product manager for DB2 early in his career. https://lnkd.in/gGEG3Med 5️⃣ Chris Johnson - CEO, Artisanal Talent Chris has one important advice about your career: play career chess and not checkers. Listen to him explain what it means. He shares insights on crafting a strong narrative, talking about weak spots on the resume, and how to work with executive recruiters. https://lnkd.in/gDmnGfVm 6️⃣ Aleks Bass, M.A - CPO, Typeform Aleks has spent decades in the market/customer research space working at Qualtrics, SurveyMonkey and now at Typeform. She shares advice on how to navigate the first 30/60/90 days in a new role, addressing conflict and how to provide feedback that doesn't feel like passing judgement. https://lnkd.in/gshXfyMx 7️⃣ Himanshu Palsule - CEO, Cornerstone OnDemand Himanshu walks the talk when he speaks about the importance of being humble and vulnerable, and how to say “I don’t know”. https://lnkd.in/ga3rBMau Subscribe to the show! Season 3 in a couple of weeks!
The fear of appearing uninformed is daunting. It is very easy to feel pressured to have all the answers. However, admitting we don't is not a sign of weakness. Saying "I Don't Know" is a sign of honesty, humility and integrity. What happens after we say "I Don't Know" is even more important. Himanshu Palsule, CEO of Cornerstone OnDemand, shares a valuable insight in this short clip. Check it out.
Product Leader's Journey reposted this
👋 Hey all! Himanshu Palsule, CEO of Cornerstone OnDemand, is my latest guest on Product Leader's Journey. Cornerstone provides a workforce agility platform to identify skills gaps and development opportunities in organizations. Himanshu has more than 35 years of diverse experience leading global organizations. Prior to joining Cornerstone, he was President of Epicor where he was responsible for managing vertical businesses and overseeing product operations. He was previously CTO and Head of Strategy at Sage Software. Himanshu touches upon a number of important topics in this episode that will make you reflect and think deeply, and he does it through stories! 🔸 Learning to live in your own skin and recalibrating yourself 🔸 Concentric circles of ideas - Control, Influence, Interest 🔸 Key trait when you have a seat at the table: Humility 🔸 What is important when you have to say “I don’t know” 🔸 Going beyond the cliche to make customer obsession real 🔸 What does it really mean to have a flat organization 🔸 What does a future-ready Product Manager look like and much more! 👉 Catch this episode on: YouTube: https://lnkd.in/gM-Vs595 Apple: https://lnkd.in/gPiGgRC2 Spotify: https://lnkd.in/g3k7eB2p
Feedback feels final, feels like a judgement, an evaluation of you, your team, your process. It shouldn't.
Why do people not feel comfortable providing feedback? Aleks Bass, M.A, Chief Product Officer of Typeform, lists what's ineffective about the feedback culture in companies. I love how Aleks sees feedback as a temperature check! Check it out👇 and also the full conversation on Product Leader's Journey at: https://lnkd.in/gshXfyMx
🤔 Product Managers, do you know why GTM side of the house (sales, customer success, marketing) can get frustrated with you? How do you earn their trust when it comes to talking with customers? Listen to this short take from Aleks Bass, M.A, CPO at Typeform. As a Product Leader, Aleks doesn't believe in high level mandates that every product manager MUST talk with customers, especially not without learning how to facilitate conversations and having some guardrails negotiated with GTM teams. Links to the full episode in the comment. #productmanagement #gotomarket #customerdiscovery