Product Thinking

Successful product management isn’t just about training the product managers who work side by side with developers everyday to build better products. It’s about taking a step back, approaching the systems within organizations as a whole, and leveling up product leadership to improve these systems. This is the Product Thinking Podcast, where Melissa Perri will connect with industry leading experts in the product management space, AND answer your most pressing questions about everything product. Join us each week to level up your skillset and invest in yourself as a product leader.

Business
Careers
Management
1
Designing for Impact: How User Research Can Tra...
41 min
2
Answering Questions About SAFe 6.0, Improving A...
In this Dear Melissa segment, Melissa Perri answers subscribers’ questions about changes and new features in SAFe 6.0, how to improve alignment and transparency between project managers on the same team while meeting the needs of the different stakeholders, and what it takes to implement business OKRs successfully.
20 min
3
Emotional Intelligence in Product Management: W...
In this episode of Product Thinking, Melissa Perri talks with Christian Idiodi, Partner at Silicon Valley Product Group.
39 min
4
Answering Questions About Slow Product Developm...
In this Dear Melissa segment, Melissa Perri answers subscribers’ questions about how to respond when people say product development doesn't go fast enough, getting the business to understand that subject matter experts are not the same as PMS, and how to work with a customer success team.
19 min
5
Breaking Down Today’s Machine Learning Technolo...
Melissa Perri is joined by Christina Pawlikowski, a teaching fellow at Harvard and co-founder of Causal, to help demystify machine learning and AI on this episode of Product Thinking.
35 min
6
Answering Questions About Product Strategy Audi...
In this Dear Melissa segment, Melissa Perri answers subscribers’ questions about how to do a product strategy audit, offering professional services to one-off clients, and how to choose whether to stay on at the company in a new capacity.
17 min
7
Navigating Healthcare and Fintech with Colin An...
Melissa Perri speaks with Colin Anawaty about his journey to co-founding First Dollar and the challenges of navigating a highly regulated industry.
32 min
8
Answering Questions About Working with Product ...
In this Dear Melissa segment, Melissa Perri answers subscribers’ questions about how product managers and product owners should work together, product management trend predictions and what the future of product might look like, and what to do when your CEO is misdirecting blame towards product management.
21 min
9
Spotlighting UX Strategy with Jared Spool
Jared Spool and Melissa Perri talk about how user experience as a discipline has grown over the years, the challenges that come with it, and how to improve UX for both product leaders and customers.
46 min
10
Answering Questions About Navigating Your Produ...
In this Dear Melissa segment, Melissa answers subscribers’ questions about how to pivot from product management to a career as an independent product consultant, how to handle coaching roadblocks when working with new product owners, and the ins and outs of book publishing.
25 min
11
Demystifying Pricing Strategy with Patrick Camp...
Patrick Campbell of Profitwell talks about the biggest mistakes businesses make when pricing, when and how often you should be raising your prices, how to align your price changes with your value metrics and communicate those changes to customers, and more.
50 min
12
Answering Questions About Tech Vs Business, Lev...
In this Dear Melissa segment, Melissa answers subscribers’ questions about whether or not adding a business owner into a product team is the right call, how much detail product managers should provide to their engineering teams, and if there’s a right time to join a startup as a product manager.
23 min
13
Zooming in On OKRs with Christina Wodtke
In this week’s episode, Melissa Perri and Christina Wodtke, author of Radical Focus, get into all things OKRs.
42 min
14
Positioning Your Product with April Dunford
In this week’s episode, Melissa Perri invites April Dunford, author of the best-selling book Obviously Awesome, How to Nail Product Positioning so Customers Get It, Buy It, Love It on the podcast.
47 min
15
Answering Your Most Asked Questions of 2022
We’ve made it to our 100th episode of the podcast! Melissa celebrates by tying up the year with a full review of your most frequently asked questions.
18 min
16
Examining Product-Led Growth with Ezinne Udezue
Melissa Perri welcomes Ezinne Udezue, CPO of WP Engine, to discuss how product-led growth applies to B2B and Enterprise products, core PLG tactics, what PMs need to understand about marketing, and how product collaborates with marketing and sales in a PLG company.
35 min
17
Dear Melissa: Answering Questions About Product...
In this Dear Melissa segment, Melissa answers subscribers’ questions about overlap between roles, pitfalls companies fall into while scaling, and to what extent a company should be product-led.
23 min
18
Mapping Out Now, Next, and Later with Janna Bastow
42 min
19
Dear Melissa: Answering Questions About Advocat...
In this Dear Melissa segment, Melissa answers subscribers’ questions about advocating for resources in a non-leadership role, whether or not a bottoms-up transformation can really work if leadership isn’t immediately on board, and how to effectively communicate with teams outside of product in order to set realistic expectations and get them on your side.
23 min
20
Leading with Vision and Purpose with Ken Norton
Ken Norton joins Melissa to discuss the evolution of product management, the stark difference between empowered and unempowered product teams, his biggest piece of advice to early career PMs, what great leadership looks like, his 14 years of experience working at Google and on products like Google Maps and Google Calendar, and why ultimately, product is all about people.
49 min
21
Dear Melissa: Answering Questions About Platfor...
In this Dear Melissa segment, Melissa addresses a recent Twitter topic worth further discussing: how important it is for PMs to carve out the time for creative thinking and processing outside of scheduled meetings and tasks.
25 min
22
Sharpening Your Financial Skill Set with Giff C...
Giff Constable talks to Melissa about why it’s key that product executives understand the nuances of financials and the most important relationships for a product executive to cultivate.
54 min
23
Dear Melissa: Answering Questions About Definin...
In this Dear Melissa segment, Melissa answers subscribers’ questions about whether or not having clearly defined terms and a common language within an organization matters, how to convince founders to hand over the product reins and hire an interim CPO, and how to convince your team and leadership that you belong in your new role as Director of Product.
23 min
24
Investing in Internal Tools with John Athayde
John Athayde and Melissa Perri discuss how he shifted focus to the importance of internal tools at Living Social, how he got buy-in from leadership to prioritize internal tools, the process of creating a design system for a scaling organization, the benefits of design systems, design systems vs. style guides, and the tools and org structure he recommends to get set up for success.
43 min
25
Dear Melissa: Answering Questions About Program...
In this Dear Melissa segment, Melissa answers subscribers’ questions about relationships between program and product managers, the right questions to ask during the interview process so you end up in a company with strong product values, and how to experiment when iterating on complex hardware.
17 min