Better Product (Better Product Network)

In this episode of Better Product LAUNCH, Christian and Anna sit down with Alyson Watson, CEO at Modern Health, the first preventive mental health solution for employers.

As a collegiate athlete, Alyson noticed there were coaches available for everything from weight training to nutrition and other physical requirements, but none devoted to mental health. Digging deeper, she discovered a need for a proactive and preventative approach to mental wellbeing, inspiring her to launch Modern Health.  

In this conversation, you’ll hear Alyson discuss her mission to make mental healthcare tools accessible to everyone.

Design solutions happen at the intersection of business value and customer needs. If we want our teams to be able to create these solutions, we need to empower them with the information they need to understand business performance and strategy.

That’s what Etsy’s Head of Product Design, Christina Goldschmidt, joins us to discuss.

We talk through practical steps to invite designers into conversations that show them where their work fits in the big-picture user experience, product, and business strategy. Christina also shares how she’s focusing on agency and transparency with her team and why experimentation is so important to confidently building new things.

Twitter recently announced their rebrand, but don't worry the bird lives on. What can we learn from this iconic product? 

In The Minute, Christian invites Meghan Pfeifer Senior Brand Designer and Product Marketer of Innovatemap to discuss the Twitter rebranding strategy. You’ll hear how to think about product rebrands and how to apply it.

In this episode of Better Product LAUNCH, Christian and Anna sit down with the founder of Malomo, a shipment tracking platform helping e-commerce brands generate more revenue and loyalty by turning their shipment tracking experience into a marketing channel.

As our first guest on the LAUNCH series, Yaw provides a rich perspective unearthing the meaning behind the name while highlighting the importance of the overall brand experience.

To register for the speaker series visit betterproduct.community/speaker-series

Tim Salau is the self-anointed, Mr. Future of Work. We had him on awhile back to spotlight his product, Guide, a B2B learning and talent development app, helping remote teams and knowledge workers learn the skills they need to succeed on the job and in their careers. One thing we wanted to bring back to our community is his point on how the future of work is really all about the future of living. Take a listen.

Product marketing is the foundation for better product. It should play a strategic role in your business from day one. It's a product discipline to master and respect—not just a list of jobs to be done. 

But product marketers continue to struggle with recognition. Because the discipline is still new, the way product leaders think about product marketing is continuously evolving. 

That’s why Innovatemap’s Tina Hafer and Leanna Adeola are taking over the Better Product podcast for a special series on the power of product marketing. Alongside fellow industry experts, they’ll explore why digital products need product marketing to accelerate growth, how company leaders can best equip product marketers, and the potential product marketers have as the translation point between product, sales, marketing, executives, and most of all, your audience. 

We're exploring product marketing's past, present, and future with: 

• Martina Lauchengco, author of LOVED: How to Rethink Marketing for Tech Products, and partner at Costonoa Ventures
• Catherine Spence, VP of Global Marketing at Microblink
• Kim Biddings Johnson, VP of Product at BIO-key International

Follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter to see the latest in Better Product, a show part of the Better Product Community powered by Innovatemap. The community is the connection point for product leaders & practitioners to learn and share what it takes to design, build, market, and sell better products. Learn more at betterproduct.community.

You can grow a profitable company while prioritizing people. Sometimes that means killing off a product. 

At least that’s what Natalie Nagele, Co-founder and CEO of Wildbit, believes. And for the past 20 years of building products, this bet made early on remains true. Wildbit is behind popular products, like Beanstalk and Postmark. 

In this conversation, Natalie shares how they decided to kill off a profitable product, why passion is the key to success, and how above all else, culture drives innovation.

Kell Rakowski is the CEO and Founder of Lex, the lo-fi, text-centered social app that connects queer community. In this episode of Better Product LAUNCH, she sits down with Anna to discuss how she went from a photo director to a startup founder.

Kell’s fascination with personal ads and lesbian culture were the sparks inspiring her to create a social network dedicated to the queer community. As she shares her passion for creating a special product with a high-quality user experience, you’ll hear how Lex evolved from a vibrant Instagram community to a venture-backed app.

Instead of only asking the designers to understand the ins and out of the business, when do we ask the business to understand design?

In this episode, Alastair Simpson, VP of Design at Dropbox, points out that design leaders are also business leaders, noting what they need to understand about the company to secure a seat at the executive table. He also challenges the notion that it’s a one-way street, opening up the conversation to challenge businesses to understand the impact of design.  

To hear from leaders like Alastair while tapping into the power of an interconnected community of product professionals, join betterproduct.community.

Changing a company or product name in a rebrand is a big decision. That’s because renames are usually seen as a way to cement a changed identity. But what if we told you that names are only as valuable as what we build around them? We’re exploring the concept through the recent Square-to-Block rename, and what to consider when putting a name to your own product. 

Want to add your own take? Write a note or record a voice memo, and send it to erica.irish@innovatemap.com to join the conversation. 

Follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter to see the latest in Better Product, a show part of the Better Product Community powered by Innovatemap. The community is the connection point for product leaders & practitioners to learn and share what it takes to design, build, market, and sell better products. Learn more at betterproduct.community. 

Takeaways: 

• Names are significant, but what you build around them matters more. 
• It’s the burden of brand & positioning to make a name mean something. 
• Big Tech names are trending towards generic words—but does that actually limit creativity for others? 

Things To Listen For:

[1:00] How Meghan & Christian got their own names 

[2:30] A name change isn’t just about a word; it’s about an evolved identity

[2:50] What really matters to a name is the strength of your brand & positioning 

[3:00] Good names don’t have to make sense, but they should be memorable...

[4:00] …and what you do with your name usually matters more than the meaning

[5:20] Introducing the Square story through a book, The Innovation Stack 

[6:20] Why Square chose the new name Block

[9:30] An established name should influence how you think about brand & product 

[10:20] Why there’s no “one way” to name your company 

[11:00] It’s the burden of brand & positioning to make names mean something 

[11:15] Revisiting the Mailchimp & Surveymonkey rebrand 

[14:00] Names don’t always reflect the product—and that’s OK 

[15:00] Names tend to evolve with how they’ll be used 

[15:45] When it might be time for a company to consider a rename 

[17:00] Understanding how names and renames can influence growth 

[19:00] Are current trends in Big Tech names “land grabs”? 

For better and for worse, ego follows us all into our work lives. But leaders must pay special attention to what role ego plays in building a product. Sometimes, ego can be the charisma an early-stage founder needs to get attention for what they’re creating. Other times, ego is a roadblock that can lead to ignoring critical perspectives from users and the product team. Using Elon Musk’s Twitter purchase as a case study, today’s show explores what role ego plays in product, when to use it to your advantage, and when to empower others to take charge. 

Follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter to see the latest in Better Product, a show part of the Better Product Community powered by Innovatemap. The community is the connection point for product leaders & practitioners to learn and share what it takes to design, build, market, and sell better products. Learn more at betterproduct.community. 

Takeaways: 

• Ego can help people believe in your product, but it can’t guide everything. 

• Strive to create a “cabinet of rivals” to balance your product perspective. 
• How you position your product should be true AND feel true. 

Things To Listen For: 

[1:00] A new room for Erica’s new role: “product therapist”

[4:00] Our icebreaker: what company would you buy if you had the money? 

[10:00] Twitter’s new features and overall progress in the digital product space 

[14:00] Ego can have an outsized influence in spaces that are driven by people, including social networks like Twitter

[16:00] “You can’t scale human behavior the way that you scale battery factories” - and social platforms scale “the best and the worst” of humanity 

[20:00] How to think about ego in your own product career

[23:30] Strive to have a “cabinet of rivals” to keep your ego in check 

[24:00] You need ego in the early stage to rally people around your product vision

[25:30] You need a little bit of ego to sell a new or unusual idea—because if you don’t believe in it, no one else will 

[26:00] How to think about ego when creating your positioning statement

[28:00] Positioning statements about your product can be like “Tinker Bell”

[29:30] Don’t be a dictator; trust your product team to create to the vision

2021 was the year cookies died, and the year the public started paying more attention to how their data was being used online.

These movements also introduced new considerations for product leaders who rely on data to make their digital products better and informed by users. Take it from Justin Bauer, senior vice president of product for Amplitude Analytics. Amplitude went public this fall after expanding as the leading data analytics tool for product managers at GoFundMe, Intuit, and others. Justin shares more about Amplitude’s growth path and how it’s helping product managers find “insight to action” opportunities. Listen to Justin’s first appearance on Better Product from 2019. 

Follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter to see the latest in Better Product, a show part of the Better Product Community powered by Innovatemap. The community is the connection point for product leaders & practitioners to learn and share what it takes to design, build, market, and sell better products. Learn more at betterproduct.community.

One year ago, an online movement on Reddit led GameStop stock to skyrocket. The moment awakened a widespread conversation about retail investment, meme stocks, and who actually has power over the markets. Now, everyday retail investors are demanding more transparency and education in investing—and they’ve embraced community to get there. 

Urvin Finance Head of Design Sly Tanenbaum came from that community to his current role building The Terminal, a digital product that will connect investors and provide them with the in-demand resources they need to make smarter decisions. In this episode, Sly walks through the compelling link between digital communities and product, and how product leaders can be responsive to a new public desire for community-led products.

Want to add your own take? Write a note or record a voice memo, and send it to erica.irish@innovatemap.com to join the conversation.

Follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter to see the latest in Better Product, a show part of the Better Product Community powered by Innovatemap. The community is the connection point for product leaders & practitioners to learn and share what it takes to design, build, market, and sell better products. Learn more at betterproduct.community. 

Takeaways: 

• Communities can lead to products “bigger than the sum of their parts.” 
• The challenge in creating community-led products comes in sifting through “signals” vs. “noise.” 

Things To Listen For: 

• [1:30] Background on Urvin Finance and what the company hopes to achieve
• [2:30] Exploring the origins of the online investor community
• [5:30] Understanding how the community talks and APEs (“all people equal”)
• [12:00] Community is appealing because “conversations are free”
• [13:30] Comparing the Urvin Finance community to what Reddit is missing 
• [15:00] The cost to building a community outside of Reddit
• [15:30] Understanding the costs and benefits of building community-led products   
• [17:00] Identifying common pain points in the online finance community
• [17:30] What Urvin means by “distributed financial analysis” 
• [18:00] How community can create something “bigger than the sum of its parts”
• [21:00] How The Terminal is trying to bring data to one place 
• [25:00] The challenge: managing a community-led product design process
• [26:30] Understanding “signal vs. noise” 
• [28:00] “You have to push into the bubble without breaking the bubble”
• [29:00] “How much do you need to know about the industry you’re designing for to be good at design?”
• [31:00] Learn from the people who represent or have influence in the community you’re building for
• [36:00] How Urvin thinks about Andrew Chen’s “cold start problem”
• [36:30] Why education will be The Terminal’s product “wild card”

We move so fast here on the show, that we often don’t have the time to look back and reflect. This big bets series reminded us of one of my favorite podcast interviews with Sahil Lavingia, Founder of Gumroad and Funder of shl.vc.

He joined the show in August of 2019, to share the story of bringing his company Gumroad back from the brink of failure, laying off 75% of the staff, and building a product hyper-focused on value, not growth. 

Since then we’ve seen Sahil take many bets -- the big one? Embracing what it means to be a  minimalist founder. Gumroad is growing, he’s written a book, and he bought out investors, check out the link below to see what all he’s been up to.

Resources Mentioned: 

• Sahil has started investing in early-stage tech startups: https://shl.vc/
• Gumroad has been killing it see growth of the creator economy: https://www.businessofbusiness.com/videos/sahil-lavingia-interview-rise-of-creator-economy/
• Sahil's book  about being a minimalist founder: https://www.minimalistentrepreneur.com/book 
• Sahil bought out investors and still has not taking investment but he raised $5M through equity crowdfunding of over 8,000 people: https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/2021/03/22/gumroad-crowdfunding-results-sahil-lavingia-investing/?sh=5a9f13bf55d7

We often have to leave part of our conversations on the cutting room floor. As we were sweeping up, we stumbled upon this clip between Christian and Christina Goldschmidt for The Minute.

While today she’s the Head of Product Design, that’s not how she started and as you’ll soon hear, her unconventional career experience has been an invaluable asset as a leader for Etsy.

What do you do when your voice isn’t recognized by the healthcare industry? From a lack of Black physicians to clinical trials not having enough Black participants, the odds are stacked against Black patients seeking care from a system that wasn’t built for them. Tiffany Whitlow co-founded the product NOWINCLUDED as a new answer to this systemic problem—one that hopes to build “generational health” for Black families everywhere. As Tiffany explores in this episode, NOWINCLUDED creates real change by serving as a digital community where individuals can share their healthcare stories with industry leaders looking to make more inclusive decisions.

Today we’re talking about love—but not in the way you think. We’re looking at the intersection of product and a timeless human experience: falling in, and out, of love. Forget couples counseling as you know it. Ours co-founders Liz Earnshaw, Jessica Holton, and Adam Putterman are using their relationship wellness platform to reduce stigma and build “software for love.” In conversation with Christian & Meghan, the Ours founders will help you cherish the couple experience (and building great products) all over again. 

For more insights on how product is shaping modern health and wellness, revisit our series on Health Tech. 

Follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter to see the latest in Better Product, a show part of the Better Product Community powered by Innovatemap. The community is the connection point for product leaders & practitioners to learn and share what it takes to design, build, market, and sell better products. Learn more at betterproduct.community.

Takeaways

• Experience-driven products keep people at the center of tech. 
• A brand plays a big role in reducing stigma around health products. 
• • Try a consumer look that will get your audience excited. 
  • Use symbolic language to show your audience the bigger picture.

Things To Listen For

• [2:00] Introductions & our fave love stories, from Jim & Pam to Bride Wars
• [8:00] How the idea for Ours was born from personal experiences in relationship counseling, from the patient and therapist POV 
• [8:30] The intention: make couples therapy something worth celebrating 
• [9:30] Why couples therapy can be like going to a spa or yoga retreat 
• [10:30] The role of technology in creating better therapy, from patient onboarding to tracking 
• [13:00] There are enough therapists in the world, but not enough ways to get connected with the patients who need them
• [13:30] The difference between proactive and reactive couples therapy 
• [15:00] What it means to create an experience-driven product
• [16:00] Ours should feel like a hot yoga class: challenging but worthwhile
• [16:30] How Ours blends live guided sessions with asynchronous “loveware” 
• [19:30] How the Ours brand breaks down barriers to relationship wellness
• [20:30] Balancing playfulness & expression in the Ours brand with sincerity 
• [24:00] Making relationship wellness normal by making it public 
• [27:30] Why Ours primarily focuses on engaged couples 
• [33:30] “Our closest relationships are the number one predictor behind health and happiness”

In this episode, Christian & Meghan review a new app called Postdates. You read that right: It's like Postmates, the food delivery app, but with the twist of gathering all the stuff you left with your ex. That's a huge difference between the products—but the brands are nearly identical.

We're calling this phenomenon of new products trailing existing brands "brand skitching," named after the skateboard maneuver made famous in Back to the Future. Listen now to hear Christian & Meghan's take on what a world of pop-up tech could look like, what happens when you take an idea too far, and how Newton's law creates interesting product opportunities.

We all know the adage, “go big or go home.” The same rings true in the product world, where it’s full of big bets. 

What bets were made? How were they decided? What turns some products into household names while others fail? That’s what our Big Bets in Product series will cover. 

You’re going to hear from product leaders from well-known brands like Hubspot, Slack, Wildbit, Abstract, and Forbes.  As you consider the series, ask yourself, what big bets are you taking -- or what big bets should you be? 

Join the series by joining our community of product leaders at betterproduct.community.

The way we work will never be the same, from where we work to how it gets done. We’re bringing you a new series, The Future of Work, exploring products that are powering the change behind the way we work, collaborate, and communicate.

Buckle up for conversations with these trailblazing leaders sharing the products they’ve built:

• Chris Byers, Formstack
• Kate Donahue, Pitch
• Alexander Embiricos, Remotion
• Dominik Zane, Around
• Paige Costello, Asana
• Tim Salau, Mr. Future of Work

In this kickoff episode, Meghan and Christian discuss the products, companies, and leaders we’ll be meeting during this series. They share their thoughts on the future of work, the questions we’re considering in this series, and why we chose to focus on these products and people.

Rarely will a person have experienced almost every role in the product life cycle, but this isn’t the case for this featured guest. 

In this episode of The Minute, Anna and Christian revisit one of their most unique conversations with entrepreneur and investor Ade Olonoh. When it comes to product, Ade has seen it all from building, overseeing, and is now investing. Hear how ideas come to fruition, and how Ade built Formstack, his first company, in just four weeks.

Heather Campbell joined Christian in our Behind the Product Series featuring Etsy. Halfway through the conversation, Christian went a bit rogue. You’ll just have to listen. 

Anna shares a big announcement with the Better Product Community while she and Christian reminisce on the experience of running the podcast for the last few years.

We’re kicking off our latest series on Health Tech by exploring the rise of Big Data, wearable tech, and what it means to be “enlightened” by a product. 

Often, enlightenment is understood in a spiritual sense; in the age of wearable health tech and personalized digital products, enlightenment is emerging by empowering users with real-time information about their health. Of course, there’s a catch. With more visibility also comes more risk, and product leaders have to consider how their products impact how a person responds to health issues.  

Christian & Meghan explore these themes and more in our Health Tech series kick-off ahead of episodes featuring the leaders behind innovative health products, including: 

• Aagya Mathur, co-founder & CEO of Aavia, a hormone health brand
• David Flinner, co-founder of the glucose monitoring app Levels
• Elizabeth Burstein, CEO & co-founder of the virtual neurology clinic Neura Health that helps users manage chronic headaches and migraines
• Frank Bach, a lead product designer at the widely popular mindfulness app Headspace

With an uptick in challenges like the Great Resignation and remote work, companies who are hiring today must understand people—their users—in order to thrive. Tim Pröhm, vice president at the KellyX Digital Innovation Lab, recognizes this opportunity and is using it to introduce agile product thinking and a significant digital transformation to the 75-year-old recruiting firm Kelly. Kelly impacts thousands of workers around the world each year and is setting the example for how to attract and retain talent at a critical moment. In this episode, Tim shares how his team encourages startup strategy in the enterprise world, and how they are bringing the people ops wave to new heights through Kelly’s reach. 

Follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter to see the latest in Better Product, a show part of the Better Product Community powered by Innovatemap. The community is the connection point for product leaders & practitioners to learn and share what it takes to design, build, market, and sell better products. Learn more at betterproduct.community. 

Takeaways: 

• People ops products only succeed if they are customized to the holistic employee experience. 
• The job of people ops is to ask, “what do the people in your organization need to be successful?”

Things To Listen For:

[1:30] Tim’s journey to product & his career intersections with the service industry

[3:30] Background on Kelly and its global influence in the staffing & talent industry 

[4:30] How technology & product thinking emerged in Kelly’s work in recent years

[5:00] “It’s not about the human interaction anymore” in a digital world 

[5:30] Innovation emerged through rapid prototyping, being responsive to users

[7:00] Lessons from Laszlo Bock’s book, “Work Rules!” on people ops vs. HR 

• HR focuses on compliance and traditional administration 
• People ops focus on “the full, real experience” in the organization

[8:00] Why you shouldn't exclude people ops leaders from strategic product decisions 

[8:30] If you can’t retain or attract talent, your org will fail; people ops can help 

[11:30] HR professionals tried to “rebrand” as people ops before, but it didn’t work 

[12:30] COVID made companies realize workforce strategy needs to be holistic

[13:30] The reality of “the overwhelmed employee” experience (hint: it’s more common than you might think)

[21:00] The importance of real-time visibility in business and people ops 

[23:00] How automation, hiring, and people ops go hand-in-hand

[25:00] The growing importance of qualitative research 

[27:00] “Digital transformation is a neverending exercise”

[30:00] Why startups and corporations need to “cross-pollinate”

Product marketing is at the intersection of many teams in a product company. The work of a product marketer supports the wider product team, sales, marketing, executive stakeholders, and most of all, buyers. It’s for this reason product marketers tend to play a quarterback role, says Kimberly Biddings, VP of Product at BIO-key International. As Kim knows from experience, they’re responsible for not just knowing a product in and out—they have to translate its selling points for others to use. Join Kim and Tina to hear more about the opportunities product marketers can bring to your growing organization.

Follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter to see the latest in Better Product, a show part of the Better Product Community powered by Innovatemap. The community is the connection point for product leaders & practitioners to learn and share what it takes to design, build, market, and sell better products. Learn more at betterproduct.community.

Takeaways:  

• Product marketing starts from the second there’s a business idea. 
• Growing a business without product marketing is like driving a car without direction: aimless and unpredictable. 
• There’s more than one way to be a product marketer. 

Things To Listen For: 

• [0:30] Icebreaker: Who is on your dream interview list (aside from the amazing guests we talked to for Unlock Product Marketing)? 

• [2:00] Why did we create this series?

• [4:00] Introducing today's guest, Kimberly Biddings of BIO-key International

• [6:00] Takeaway: there are different kinds of product marketers, not just one

• [7:00] Intro to Kimberly Biddings and her cybersecurity product marketing career

• [8:30] How Tina and Kim met with product marketing and brand work through Innovatemap

• [10:00] In the beginning, many people did product marketing in marketing roles

• [10:30] What is a regional product manager? And why teams still need PMM advocates.

• [12:00] What are the jobs to be done by product marketing?

• [14:00] Product marketers are like company quarterbacks

• [15:00] If you need product marketing from day one, why is it typically one of the last roles to be hired?

• [16:00] The seven stages of product marketing as a company scales

• [18:30] You have to market yourself as a product marketer so people understand it

• [21:00] Find bite-sized ways to inject product marketing strategy into your interactions

• [27:30] Product marketing’s first question: does anyone actually care about this?

• [29:00] Don’t start with the what, start with the why

• [31:00] Always consider “who are you talking to?” and “what are you saying?”

• [38:00] Be your product manager’s best friend

Today’s episode is a little different because instead of revisiting the past, we want to highlight something coming up that our listeners might want to know more about. 

Today, Tina Hafer of Innovatemap joins Better Product to talk about the upcoming webinar she’s hosting on January 26. The topic is a foundational aspect of product marketing: product hierarchies. Whether you’re thinking about positioning, presentation decks, or even onboarding, product hierarchies can give you a common language and framework to refer to as you figure out how to market and sell your product. 

Interested in attending? Go to innovatemap.com/events to sign up.

Messaging is the story we tell about our product. But how do we know if we’re telling the right story? To talk about your product, you need to learn from the audience you serve, while never losing sight of the bigger picture your market provides. Christian & Meghan will share their observations on product messaging best practices and red flags to avoid; plus, they’ll explain why the best messaging is often the simplest. They’ll also attempt to message their own lives, as inspired by quotes from comment section fights and the great Humphrey Bogart. 

Revisit our episode with Peep Laja of Wynter for more insights on product messaging and how to get better, faster feedback on its effectiveness. 

Follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter to see the latest in Better Product, a show part of the Better Product Community powered by Innovatemap. The community is the connection point for product leaders & practitioners to learn and share what it takes to design, build, market, and sell better products. Learn more at betterproduct.community. 

Takeaways: 

• Positioning is the north star that guides your product decisions; it’s the foundation that leads to good messaging. 
• Successful messaging allows you to share specific messages with the different personas in your audience. 
• Good messaging isn’t just clear about who you are; it says who you are not. 

Things To Listen For: 

• [1:30] Messaging our own lives with internet quotes and actor mottos
• [5:00] The power of pumping brakes, on Twitter and in real life 
• [7:30] Positioning is the most truthful description of what your product does
• [8:30] Messaging is born from positioning, organized around benefit pillars
• [9:00] Focus on messaging your top three benefits or differentiators 
• [10:00] Why positioning tends to be more challenging than messaging 
• [11:00] Positioning doesn’t have to be pretty; it just has to be true 
• [12:00] Why the exact same message won’t work for your entire audience
• [14:00] The attributes of good messaging: clarity & a distinct voice 
• [14:30] Great messaging requires more than a fun tone; not everyone can be Dollar Shave Club…
• [15:00] …but B2B companies also aren’t sentenced to being boring 
• [17:30] The paradox of claiming a niche
• [20:00] Good messaging is hard to identify; that’s what makes it good.
• [21:00] Examples of early-stage messaging from Clay and Ozone
• [25:00] Why analogies and metaphors are so powerful in messaging 
• [28:00] Red flags and common traps to avoid when messaging your product

Non-profit boards are experiencing a culture shift. For the first time, many boards are leaning into virtual formats, creating new opportunities for more people to get involved. 

Krista Martin, vice president of growth at Boardable, examines these changes every day in her work. She explains how the movement to online will make boards more accessible, and more accountable, to the communities they serve. 

Takeaways: 

• Non-profit boards are entering a period of transition. 
• Transparency on boards often comes down to making the right info available. 
• Boardable is evolving as a product to help boards rethink how they operate. 

Things To Listen For:

• [0:55] What Boardable is and why the product focuses on non-profits
• [1:54] The traditional way boards meet 
• [3:05] How going fully virtual forced boards to change 
• [4:00] How Boardable’s internal experiences with hybrid work informed the product
• [5:35] Why boards today are facing a “culture shift” 
• [6:10] Boardable product features that level the playing field for involvement 
• [7:08] Why context is everything in virtual board meetings 
• [7:40] Virtual board meetings create opportunities for community engagement 
• [8:40] Krista’s personal experience serving on a board as a young mother
• [10:00] Why non-profit boards should reflect the communities they serve
• [11:30] How to create a “board culture”
• [14:10] An exploration of Boardable’s product features 
• [17:30] The challenges to creating diversity on non-profit boards 
• [18:10] Technology can’t solve all problems, but it can introduce change faster

In this episode, Christian and Meghan ask Nick Volpe, Product Designer at Etsy, what he’s most looking forward to. We're not gonna ruin it for you, but let’s just say it has to do with something they’re launching.

Solving your own problems can be a shortcut to discovering a need in the market. Liana Herrera, Co-founder of Bottomless, recognized an opportunity to disrupt the coffee industry while working through her own frustrating experiences. She joins us to share her journey and how her team is transforming the world one cup of coffee at a time.

Liana’s learned several critical lessons that can apply to any tech company, from the importance of the customer experience in shaping your brand to keeping your vision simple.

Takeaways: 

• Solving personal problems can lead to a market opportunity 
• Your brand is more than your product – it’s the experience.
• Stay focused on your goals 

Things to Listen For:

• [02:00] The problems that inspired Bottomless
• [05:30] Differentiating from other coffee subscriptions
• [07:30] Early problems in the business
• [09:30] Opportunities to improve D2C engagement
• [10:30] Creating a frictionless experience
• [12:00] Customer experience influences your brand
• [13:00] Removing negative emotions 
• [14:00] Imagining the perfect experience
• [16:00] Experience-oriented tech
• [17:00] Staying focused on your goals
• [17:45] Building a sensor-enabled marketplace
• [19:00] Measuring success through retention
• [20:00] Experimenting to grow
• [21:30] Surprises throughout Liana’s journey
• [23:30] Trends in growth channels
• [26:00] Looking toward the future of Bottomless

What comes first the product or the audience? For Dave Gerhardt, formerly CMO of Drift, now CMO for Privy, the audience.

In The Minute, Anna and Christian are joined by Mike Reynolds, CEO of Innovatemap to talk about how to build an audience before you launch a product. With his experience, Mike provides insight on how to approach building an audience first while creating momentum.

When Elizabeth Burstein began enduring chronic migraines, she struggled to find access to quality care when she needed it most. Like the thousands of other people with serious neurological conditions, connecting with professionals who could help was a persistent challenge. So she and her partners founded Neura Health, an app that connects patients to neurological health specialists while also empowering them with the education they need to advocate for solutions. 

In this episode of Better Product, Elizabeth shares Neura’s plan to scale in communities where neurological health solutions are needed most, helping to close a critical gap in access.

Last June, we did a series on product-led growth because it’s still a pretty ambiguous and misunderstood term. While we sought to define it better, it’s still a topic on many companies' minds, specifically around how to structure your team. Blake Bartlett, Partner at OpenView, and Kyle Lacy, CMO at Lessonly, discuss the impact PLG has on an organization, and how it's impacting the way teams are structured. 

What’s an idea worth? Most likely, nothing. Yet, they run rampant in our businesses, across our networks, and in our minds. Leaving us with this question, is it a good idea? 

The truth is: if that’s what you’re asking then you’re asking the wrong question. From the creators of Better Product comes a new original show, The Business of Product.

This show is for the CEO, the Founder, the high-growth leader looking for the hockey stick effect. In-depth conversations, with host Austin Westerfeld, cut through the product jargon of tech stacks and product features to help you do one thing: take your company to the next level. Follow along wherever you get your audio experience.

On this episode of Better Product, Christian and Anna are joined by Kat Kennedy, Chief Experience Officer at Degreed, a learning experience platform that provides a better, smarter, faster way to develop and share your team's skills.

As the conversation unfolds, Kat explains why you have to be intentional about what you’re trying to solve and how looking at numbers is never enough. Along the way, you’ll learn how you can use data to create a competitive advantage.

To connect with other product professionals and gain exclusive access to additional resources head over to betterproduct.community.

Product research is a discipline that’s transformed in recent years. The days of waterfall testing are over. Today, research is happening at every stage of a product’s life cycle, and there are more tools than ever before to help. But how do product teams stay focused on what truly matters? How do we single out real insights from an outpouring of data? Christian & Meghan unpack their lessons learned about product research and examine how the field has evolved. They’ll also explain why research isn’t actually about finding answers; it’s about limiting uncertainty. 

Follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter to see the latest in Better Product, a show part of the Better Product Community powered by Innovatemap. The community is the connection point for product leaders & practitioners to learn and share what it takes to design, build, market, and sell better products. Learn more at betterproduct.community. 

Takeaways: 

• Product research has evolved from a waterfall approach to a continuous approach; research is happening at more stages, and more often. 

• Research is about limiting uncertainty, and not finding the answer. 

• It’s best to “measure twice to cut once” in product research. 

Things To Listen For: 

• [3:00] Icebreaker: what’s your best/worst research paper from school?
• [8:30] The evolution of product research and how it continues to change 
• [9:00] Research is what makes better products possible 
• [10:00] From Christian: In the beginning, research focused on what happened after your product made it into the world 
• [10:30] Now, research is happening earlier and contributing idea
• [11:00] The difference today: research is about insights, not just data 
• [12:00] When stakeholders disagree on the importance of research 
• [13:00] Overcoming the fear of research (and the ideas it might diminish) 
• [13:30] “Once you know what the research tells you, you have to act on it” 
• [14:30] Barriers to research in startups include time, the founder’s connection to the market 
• [16:00] The shift from waterfall research to continuous research
• [16:30] Who does research and the rise of digital products for research  
• [17:30] “Measure twice to cut once” when conducting research 
• [19:30] You need both good research products and research professionals (as we explored with Amplitude’s Justin Bauer in supporting PMs with data) 
• [22:00] Let your product research be experimental 
• [23:00] Don’t over-index the voice of your customer 

Many employers are coming to a huge realization: there’s power in investing in people. But keeping teams happy, organized, and engaged at work can be easier said than done. That’s why in recent years, dozens of digital products have emerged to give rise to the challenge. So-called people operations, or people ops, products exist to give workers better processes that can help them believe in (and stay) at their companies amid challenges like the Great Resignation. In this series of Better Product, we’re exploring how people ops products are one way employers can ensure their teams are seen, heard, and respected, and why these products are growing in popularity. 

We’re talking to leaders in the people ops space, including: 

• John Wetzel, CEO & Co-Founder of Gather 
• Tim Prohm, VP at the KellyX Digital Innovation Lab 
• Julie Jeannotte, Employee Engagement Expert & Senior Researcher at Officevibe by GSoft

Our producer Erica is joining the conversation to ask the tough questions and be an advocate for you, our listeners. Want to add your own take? Write a note or record a voice memo, and send it to erica.irish@innovatemap.com to join the conversation. 

Follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter to see the latest in Better Product, a show part of the Better Product Community powered by Innovatemap. The community is the connection point for product leaders & practitioners to learn and share what it takes to design, build, market, and sell better products. Learn more at betterproduct.community.

Takeaways: 

• People ops products are multiplying, but the shift from HR isn’t new. 
• Companies that take people ops seriously keep their employees at the center and create a culture with them in mind. 
• Product leaders in people ops are trying to measure and respond to human nature with tech. 

Things To Listen For:

[3:00] Why we’re talking about people ops, vibe shifts, and the future of work

[6:30] How we define people operations vs. HR

[7:30] “People ops is about creating a better holistic experience for teams”

[8:30] Exploring our different levels of work experience 

[12:30] Tying today’s people ops products back to 2006, Laszlo Bock, and Google

[13:00] People ops products ask: how can companies fit the way they operate into people’s lives—not the other way around

[14:30] Design to design ops, security to security ops, and people to people ops 

[16:00] In the age of remote work, companies have to consider, “what else do I have to offer?”

[17:00] People ops lets companies “create the canvas for culture to emerge”

[19:30] People ops products have to be intentional about fostering interactions

[20:00] How the people ops transformation is “making the attention to people and experience more systemic”

After getting many questions from startup founders about starting with product design vs. product brand, Christian and Meghan take on the debate. Of course, they’re both important, but when you’re tight on cash and talent, which should you prioritize? 

We won’t spoil their conclusions, but here's a hint: it depends Don’t worry - Meghan and Christian explain exactly what “it depends” on.

Whichever path you choose - design or brand - don’t neglect collaboration. Your brand and product need to stay connected as you iterate.

Revisit to our conversation with Dominik Zane, CEO of Around, for more about how to stay connected:  https://betterproduct.community/better-product/a-new-wave-of-collaboration-with-dominik-zane-around/

Email Christian with design questions: christian.beck@innovatemap.com
Email Meghan with brand questions: meghan.pfiefer@innovatemap.com

When done well, content marketing connects your product to people communicating the value without sharing features. Podcasts are one channel in a strategy, and it’s one many brands are embracing. 

For Alanah Joseph of HubSpot, the opportunity to invest in content has been foundational to its success. She joins the Big Bets series to announce their newest bet with podcasting while sharing the driving factor behind their recent acquisition of The Hustle.

In a crowded space with established players, it can be hard to differentiate your product. Add in managing user expectations with your own innovative product vision, and you’ve got a real challenge on your hands.

This is the challenge Kate Donahue, Head of Product Marketing at Pitch, has tackled. She joins us to share her journey to help shape the future of work by focusing on the entire presentation creation experience.

Kate explains that her team fights inertia. They go after people who use multiple tools now and show them it’s possible to use just one. Pitch aims to be a complete presentation tool. They think about design from the start, focusing on the full user experience, from gathering assets to receiving feedback.

Kate shares how user research helps determine whether feature parity or an innovative approach will be most valuable. She also explains how, by creating a minimal UI.

In this episode of Better Product LAUNCH, Christian and Anna sit down with Ariela Safira, Founder and CEO at Real, a venture-backed mental healthcare company based in New York City. 

Mental healthcare is full of negative stigma, and people often seek solutions after a traumatic event or as a last resort. 

For Ariela and her team, the mission is to not just normalize therapy rather celebrate it. As Ariela shares her passion for improving mental healthcare, you’ll hear how Real integrates empathy, design, and progressive care to build an end-to-end mental healthcare experience.

To show—or not to show—your software is a question we hear a lot working in digital product. It’s not only a big question with many answers, but one with high stakes that ultimately depends on many intersecting parts of your product process. As inspired by a LinkedIn post from Wynter’s Peep Laja, Christian & Meghan unpack the critical decision to show your product to potential users, and all the smaller choices you’ll have to make along the way around your messaging, brand, product usability, and selling potential.     Want to add your own take? Write a note or record a voice memo, and send it to erica.irish@innovatemap.com to join the conversation. 

Follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter to see the latest in Better Product, a show part of the Better Product Community powered by Innovatemap. The community is the connection point for product leaders & practitioners to learn and share what it takes to design, build, market, and sell better products. Learn more at betterproduct.community.

Takeaways: 

• You have a choice when deciding when & how to preview your product: Will you rely on good salespeople, or a good product? 
• Focus on conveying value, not trends, when showing off your product. 
• Don’t just describe the product; describe the problem it solves. 
• Your team should do four things before showing your product: 
• • Make your messaging & brand tell a valuable story
  • Make your product easy to use 
  • Make your product easy to learn 
  • Make your product easy to buy

Things To Listen For: 

[0:00] Introducing Peep Laja’s “show me the software” LinkedIn post 

[2:00] A comparison to car commercials 

[2:50] Why there needs to be a process to “showing the software” 

[4:00] What’s different—and complicated—about previewing B2B SaaS products 

[5:30] What to know about showing your product at different stages of growth 

[6:00] Realtors, ghosts, and raccoons 

[7:50] How most preview software is counter to product-led growth 

[9:30] Messaging & brand should guide how you choose to preview a product

[12:00] How to marketize your product previews 

[13:00] Avoiding a bait and switch with the “uncanny valley” 

[14:45] “What’s the line between marketing and catfishing?” 

[15:45] Overview: The four steps to follow to preview your software well 

[16:30] What to consider about messaging & brand in software previews 

[17:40] But what about “design for design’s sake?” 

[19:00] What to do when you need to explain a complicated product 

[21:00] How to think about your product’s functionality before showing it off 

[23:00] You have to be honest with your community about where your product is

[23:30] Why absence can say a lot to your audience 

[24:30] Why you must make your product easy to learn when sharing it 

[27:30] Don’t forget to make your product easy to buy

Often we approach ideas and products without a full understanding of the users. How do we focus on the users first instead of the product? 

“You can validate bad ideas done well, but you can't really tell whether the idea itself was good without research.” Christain Beck

In the conversation with Marieke McCloskey, Lead UX Researcher at Humu, we break down the misconceptions many founders have about research while sharing ways to maximize its impact earlier in the process.

Social media is one of the most popular and well-used kinds of digital products out there—but of course, it’s not without its problems. That’s why we’re talking about a new trend in the social media world, where digital product creators are building alternatives to the Facebooks and Twitters of the world. In these “anti-social media” products, creators are paving the way for a new future and building distinct communities through tech. 

This episode is part 1 of our two-episode exploration of anti-social media. Listen to part 2 when it releases on Jan. 25. 

Follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter to see the latest in Better Product, a show part of the Better Product Community powered by Innovatemap. The community is the connection point for product leaders & practitioners to learn and share what it takes to design, build, market, and sell better products. Learn more at betterproduct.community. 

This past series we focused on telling stories of bets gone wrong and the ones that went right, while pulling out the things product leaders from Forbes, Hubspot, Wildbit wish they’d known along the way. 

While you heard from leaders across the country, we prompted listeners to ask themselves, what big bets are you taking -- or what big bets should you be? 

As we wrap the series, we’re asking that question again, this time to our newest member of the better product show: Meghan Pfeifer. Take a listen to hear her answer while getting a sneak peek at our next Better Product series. 

Struggling to help your team see that their work really matters? Is there a disconnect between your day-to-day and your big-picture vision?

Paige Costello of Asana joins our Future of Work series to share how she and her team solve these problems. We discuss the importance of clear prioritization and outcome-oriented goals to keep your team engaged and working purposefully.

Paige also shares how she builds confidence in the midst of uncertainty and defines customer-focused metrics.

Oh, and how her team achieves all this without using email.

When you think of TikTok, what comes to mind? Dancing. Lip Singing. Viral content.

Ray Cao is the Managing Director and Global Head of Product Strategy and Operations at Tik Tok. He spent six and a half years helping to build Google Shopping before helping TikTok break out in Southeast Asia.

With his robust background in advertising, Ray’s a perfect fit to help the short-form video platform take on its next bet “providing the cutting edge product to business partners” through advertisement opportunities. 

“So even though it's an advertising business model, we're still serving the purpose of generating interesting content for the user so that they don't feel that it's intrusive.” - Ray Cao

In the conversation with Christian, Ray challenges the way advertising is thought about and it may change your viewpoint too.

Since 2013, Fabletics has been doing things differently. They created a membership program for shoppers, which goes beyond a subscription model to build a relationship with shoppers. They also built their own tech solution because the market wasn’t mature enough to meet their needs.

Their custom-built tech solution allows them to blend in-store and online shopping unlike any traditional retailer and collect data that sets them up to better understand and serve their customers.

Mel Cummings, VP of Product at Fabletics, joins us to share how her team is elevating the entire shopping experience in a way that wouldn’t be possible without their unique approach to technology. 

Mel also discusses using data to uncover opportunities, enabling deeper customer connections, and the importance of knowing your “why.”

Leaning into complexity when it comes to product is often the roadmap less traveled. Yet, for Kendra Clarke Senior Vice President Data Science & Product Development at sparks & honey, it's the road she’s on.

From her lens, building a platform that supports complexity requires a different way of thinking for both the team behind it and the users it’s for. As the conversation unfolds, Christian and Anna get Kendra’s insights on the bias inherent in data. While the objective is a platform pulling in different viewpoints and perspectives, for this better product it’s about embracing the variables while enabling users to think differently.

We saw a LOT happen in product in 2021. After digital products responded to the immediate problems of 2020, this year, we saw them innovate on unexplored opportunities, build communities, and in some cases, just have fun. Today’s episode brings us Meghan & Christian’s observations from the year, and their predictions about how current trends could continue to show up in 2022. 

Want to add your own take? Write a note or record a voice memo, and send it to erica.irish@innovatemap.com to join the conversation. 

Follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter to see the latest in Better Product, a show part of the Better Product Community powered by Innovatemap. The community is the connection point for product leaders & practitioners to learn and share what it takes to design, build, market, and sell better products. Learn more at betterproduct.community.

Metabolic health is the foundation of our bodies; it’s what turns the food we eat into the energy we need to live. But despite playing a huge role in our energy levels, athletic performance, and weight loss goals, metabolism remains little explored as a health topic. That’s why David Flinner decided to co-found the glucose monitoring product Levels. With the help of a wearable armband, Levels users get real-time insights on their unique metabolic processes so they can take action. And as David & Christian explore, Levels is using the power of information to help the public see what’s at stake if metabolic health continues to be ignored.

What happens when you take your finger off the pulse of your product? Matthew Sniff launched Map My Customers as a gift for his dad, and the app quickly grew in user adoption allowing him to go all in.  

Little did he know the impact COVID would soon have on his growing startup. While he could have folded under the weight of the market shift, Matt evolved the product to meet the needs of his users, which meant stepping down as CEO to move into a product role. 

He joins our Big Bets series to share his unique origin story and what betting on the future looks like moving forward.

In this episode of Better Product LAUNCH, Christian and Anna sit down with Todd Olson, CEO and Founder at Pendo, an online tool to help companies drive software adoption.

Every product has a handful of “aha” moments–critical activities that justify the product’s existence when the customer experiences meaningful use. For Todd, the key to product-led growth is narrowing the gap between a user’s first exposure to the product and their discovery of that “aha” moment. 

In this conversation, you’ll hear Todd discuss the critical element that can make or break your customers’ experience.

Todd recently wrote a book titled, The Product-led Organization: Drive Growth By Putting Product at the Center of Your Customer Experience, now available on Amazon or wherever you get books.

Ben Clark is the Chief Technology Officer of the leading D2C mattress company Casper Sleep. As a senior tech leader of a popular D2C brand, Ben says it can be difficult to stay ahead of the curve and set trends. For him, the key to success in D2C is simple: stay curious and examine your failures. 

A lot of context switching comes with managing digital products for a physical products company. To navigate it, Ben and the Casper team embrace elegant simplicity, both in their products and strategy. 

Ben shows us that great ideas can come from anywhere. At Casper, he’s seen that true innovation involves cross-functional collaboration and open conversations.

In this episode, Anna and Christian revisit one of their first episodes with Kyle Lacy, now Chief Marketing Officer for Lessonly. At the time of this recording, he was the VP of Marketing, and he shared how Lessonly’s now pervasive brand came to be. 

In today’s The Minute episode, you’ll hear their conversation discussing the role brand played in Lessonly’s ability to differentiate from other software companies.

We’ve all felt the exhaustion of back-to-back video calls. We know studies explain some of this fatigue: seeing ourselves on camera for hours at a time, for example. But is there more to the problem?

Alexander Embiricos, Co-founder of Remotion, believes that the problem is work isn’t meant to revolve around scheduled meetings. Teams need to build relationships, collaborate, and do solo work on their own time. Taking call after call can suck the creative energy out of the best of us.

So, what can we do?

Alexander thinks we need to focus on meeting at the right times — and not at the wrong times. 

He also believes that we need to prioritize strong relationships and geographic diversity to grow sustainable teams.

Remotion helps remote teams connect better, and Alexander shares the journey he experienced with his co-founder — the problems they confronted first-hand and the solution they built to solve them.

A customer-first approach is tried and true, but sometimes we narrow in on customers so closely that we miss opportunities to innovate.

Chris Byers, CEO of Formstack, joins us on our latest series: The Future Of Work. In our conversation we discuss the topic while previewing featured products and discussing ways of innovating efficiently. 

We dive into lessons Chris has learned about remote work, inviting designers to cast a vision for your product, and balancing the future with the present.

If you want more information on this topic, check out Formstack’s podcast Ripple Effect hosted by Chris. https://www.formstack.com/podcasts

The digital product space has been permanently affected by the events of this year. In what ways?  In this episode, we’re diving deep into the changes that are likely to carry over into 2021. 

To wrap up this year, Community Manager Ellie McCandless joins this episode of Better Product ON to flip the script on hosts Christian and Anna. As Ellie asks the questions curated from the community, Christian and Anna break down the lessons they’ve learned from our guests and recap their favorite moments hosting Better Product.

Data is often a complicated topic wrapped around confusing jargon and direction on how to analyze it effectively. Our series on how to use data provides a narrative on the subject, highlighting organizations thinking differently from the implications AI has to why your gut has to guide more than just the vision. 

The wrap-up episode pulls out key takeaways from the guests featured in the series, including Kat Kennedy from Degreed, Marieke McCloskey from Humu, Dennis Mortenson with x.ai, and Kendra Clarke, sparks & honey. 

Series Takeaways: 

• Understanding data is an evolutionary process 
• Bias begins with the source, not the model 
• Why time spent defining data before development pays off 
• What data-driven start-up founders need to consider 
• User research will save on the development, reducing wasted efforts 
• What it means to have a “North Star” guiding your product 
• Start with the question, not the data

Resources Offered:

And if you’re a startup founder, we want to invite you to join our office hours. Founders are matched in one-on-one sessions with an Innovatemap team member to answer your product questions. 

Spots are limited to a first-come, first-served basis. You can secure your spot by going to https://form.typeform.com/to/D5ef8V7h

Employee engagement is at the core of what keeps people motivated, productive, and happy at work. But unlocking what keeps people engaged is easier said than done. That’s why Julie Jeannotte, senior researcher at Officevibe by GSoft, is on a journey to create a product that measures and responds to engagement. Using pulse surveys and curated conversation starters, Officevibe is measuring human nature with science and creating a space for real talk at all levels of the workplace. 

Follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter to see the latest in Better Product, a show part of the Better Product Community powered by Innovatemap. The community is the connection point for product leaders & practitioners to learn and share what it takes to design, build, market, and sell better products. Learn more at betterproduct.community. 

Clarification: At 15:02, Julie says "60%" of Officevibe's clients are enterprise companies. Officevibe actually serves 60 enterprise clients total. The vast majority of companies that use Officevibe are small or mid-size, with teams between 0 to 100 employees.  

Takeaways: 

• In people ops, asking questions is what matters most. But how you ask will determine what you uncover. 

• When employees are more engaged, they’re more productive & innovative. 

• Recognition and sense of purpose are drivers of engagement that people ops products can harness. 

Things To Listen For:

[1:30] Introducing Julie Jeannotte and her experiences in HR and people ops 

[5:00] How product thinking and agility found its way into the HR industry

[7:00] The people ops mantra: finding ways to “put employees first” 

[7:30] Considering people ops as an approach vs. a business function

[8:00] Why people ops products need to introduce more than cosmetic changes, like fun title changes (“chief happiness officer”) 

[9:00] The original people ops definition from Laszlo Bock: helping employees be “productive, healthier, and happier” 

[10:30] How Officevibe shapes employee experiences through pulse surveys 

[11:00] How Officevibe’s parent company, GSoft, embraces a “fail, adapt, learn, build, and grow” philosophy

[12:00] Why Officevibe’s product features strive to build “cultures of feedback” 

[16:00] The science behind Officevibe’s pulse surveys, illustrated by a tree  

[19:30] Without good relationships, engagement efforts in product fall apart 

[26:30] Expectations in the employee-employer contract are changing

How do you know when you have a product-market fit? Sometimes the community tells you. Sara Mauskopf, founder of Winnie, a product and community for parents. 

In The Minute, Anna and Christian reflect on the conversation and discuss the importance of focus to achieve product-market fit, the community’s role in Winnie’s growth, and how sometimes the biggest obstacle for any startup is simply patience.

Better Product has a new co-host! Meet Meghan Pfeifer, Senior Product Marketer & Brand Strategist at Innovatemap. In this newly updated Better Product, Meghan will bring her perspective of art, product marketing, messaging, and brand to the show...as well as challenge Christian every once in a while. 

Hear what else is coming to the Better Product feed in this episode of The Minute.

Some of the most popular digital products today, including the world-recognized FAANG stocks, are platforms. They are spaces that facilitate communication, connection, or a specific activity core to your lifestyle or business—and in almost every case, platforms have succeeded so much because they’ve monetized the interactions that happen on them. It’s because of this achievement that many in product strive for the platform model, in what Jonathan Knee describes as “the platform delusion.” To win in product, you actually don’t need a platform; instead, Christian & Meghan explain, you can learn from the way platform leaders think, and apply those lessons to your own product vision. 

Want to add your own take? Write a note or record a voice memo, and send it to erica.irish@innovatemap.com to join the conversation. 

Follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter to see the latest in Better Product, a show part of the Better Product Community powered by Innovatemap. The community is the connection point for product leaders & practitioners to learn and share what it takes to design, build, market, and sell better products. Learn more at betterproduct.community. 

Takeaways: 

• All platforms are products, but not every product should be a platform.
• Three core lessons from platforms to apply to your product: 
• • Platforms excel at brand & PMM; they leverage FOMO and blur the line between marketing and features. 
  • Platforms make strategic decisions about new features. 
  • Platforms use great UX design to create, then enhance, experiences. 

Things To Listen For: 

[0:30] Christian’s Startups To Watch newsletter and how it inspired this episode 

[1:00] A summary of Jonathan Knee’s book, “The Platform Delusion”

[3:00] Too many tech leaders see platforms as the “end all, be all”—without recognizing everything that it takes to build them 

[6:00] Platforms think about product differently from most products

[6:30] How we define platforms: “products that facilitate communication, connection, or some kind of activity that you make part of your lifestyle” 

[7:30] The platform types that meet our definition, from Spotify to Salesforce

[8:30] Examining consumer-oriented vs. B2B-oriented platforms, like Twilio

[12:00] How platforms approach product differently, from three perspectives: 

• Brand & PMM 
• Product Management 
• UX Design 

[15:00] Platforms tend to blur the line between features and marketing campaigns  

[18:30] “The buyer of B2B software is still a consumer” 

[19:00] A quick detour to our previous discussion on category creation

Opportunities in product today are seemingly endless. But if you’re new to the industry or looking to break in, it can be hard to know what skills you need to succeed. Many roles don’t have precise requirements, and product itself is continuously evolving. Today, Christian & Meghan will share their takes on the habits and mindsets that will serve product people at any stage of their careers. We’re talking about the impact of good taste, critical thinking, ego vs. insecurity, and how knowledge of other product disciplines can accelerate your own work. 

Follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter to see the latest in Better Product, a show part of the Better Product Community powered by Innovatemap. The community is the connection point for product leaders & practitioners to learn and share what it takes to design, build, market, and sell better products. Learn more at betterproduct.community.

Takeaways: 

• If you focus only on adhering to the process, you’ll lose sight of the why. 

• Design isn’t just art; it’s a problem solver. 
• Success in product requires us to keep ego & insecurity in check.

Things To Listen For: 

[0:00] A re-introduction to our moderator, Erica Irish, and what role she’ll serve

[3:00] Breaking the ice with an alternate universe: what would Christian & Meghan be doing with their careers if they hadn’t chosen a path in product?

[9:00] Post-retirement aspirations, a better design school, and NFT PhDs 

[11:00] How Christian & Meghan first found their careers in product 

[15:00] Knowledge of good design applies regardless of the medium 

[17:00] What we mean by good taste, stolen ideas, and an Ira Glass reference 

[22:00] The importance of critical thinking and learning from other product roles

[24:30] How ego and insecurity impact your product work—and why to never keep a tight grasp on anything you’ve created 

[26:30] Earn trust so you to make the decisions in the product area you own 

[28:00] Strive to separate yourself from the features 

[29:00] Questions you can ask about product in the face of critique 

[30:00] A multidisciplinary product perspective gets us closer to where the truth is

[35:30] “If you were the friend who made the study guides, you’d probably make a good product marketer,” and other product personas

Growth design is a powerful concept. It’s how we bring the goals of product marketing into focus and activate those goals through great design. As Christian puts it, it’s about evolving the areas of your product that grow metrics like revenue and users. But too often, growth design is reduced to a buzzword; to make the most of the practice, you have to consider the context in which you’re working. This episode explores what growth design looks like today, what it is not, and how it takes the best of two product disciplines, PMM and UX, to accelerate change. 

Oh, and we’re trying something new with the show. Today you’ll hear a new voice: our producer Erica is joining the conversation to ask the tough questions and be an advocate for you, our listeners. Want to add your own take? Write a note or record a voice memo, and send it to erica.irish@innovatemap.com to join the conversation. 

Follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter to see the latest in Better Product, a show part of the Better Product Community powered by Innovatemap. The community is the connection point for product leaders & practitioners to learn and share what it takes to design, build, market, and sell better products. Learn more at betterproduct.community. 

Takeaways: 

• Growth design is about building features that accelerate growth in your product, like increasing revenue and users. 
• At its core, growth design is the intersection of product marketing and UX. 

Things To Listen For: 

[0:30] Introducing our moderator & producer, Erica Irish 

[3:00] Why Christian & Meghan were initially skeptical about growth design  

[4:00] Growth design is a layer on top of UX design meant to help the product accelerate growth, in revenue, users, etc. 

[4:30] Hear more from Pinterest’s growth design team in our 2020 episode

[6:00] Growth design brings product marketing into focus (e.g., microcopy) 

[8:00] Growth design leads to “users supporting other users” (product-led growth)

[9:30] How web3 and decentralization could affect growth design (or not) 

[12:30] Growth design accelerates users who are beyond the “hesitancy phase”

[13:00] Products need a category foundation before they get to growth design 

[14:00] Examining NFTs, community membership…and an NFT vending machine

[16:00] A case study: Coinbase’s experimental Super Bowl commercial 

[17:30] Why “marketing is never responsible for education,” but PMM can be 

[20:00] Growth design as understood through Andrew Chen’s “cold start problem”

[20:30] The early stages of a product should be different from your later stages 

[21:00] The goal of your first stage: figure out if your product is valuable, so you have something good to grow from 

[23:30] How to define and think about “growth design features”

Everything has to start somewhere. But in product and in life, the beginning tends to be awkward. We have room to grow, and glow, up. The real question isn’t about whether we’ll glow up, but when. Christian & Meghan walk us through their answers from working in UX, product marketing, and brand to help us all find the best moment to embrace the “product glow-up” while staying true to our vision. 

Follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter to see the latest in Better Product, a show part of the Better Product Community powered by Innovatemap. The community is the connection point for product leaders & practitioners to learn and share what it takes to design, build, market, and sell better products. Learn more at betterproduct.community. 

Takeaways: 

• Don’t be afraid to get started and make a mess. 
• Before you can glow up, you have to find product-market fit. 
• Your first users are your strongest advocates; learn from them. 
• If you only make tweaks but avoid the overall experience, you fall behind. 

Things To Listen For: 

• [3:00] Icebreaker: what’s something that gives you a sense of nostalgia? 
• [6:00] When nostalgia gets complicated and the “worst decade for style” 
• [7:00] Our apologies to Dave Grohl, if you’re listening out there 
• [8:00] Introducing the product glow-up 
• [10:00] The big question: when is the right time for a product glow-up?
• [11:00] The awkward phase is when you’re trying to find product-market fit 
• [11:30] Why not to glow up your product or brand too early 
• [12:30] You shouldn’t invest everything in creating a great brand until you know what your product is 
• [13:00] In the beginning, you need to be focused on what people will buy 
• [14:30] Lessons from tech boom companies that invested in brand upfront 
• [15:30] How product glow ups are like an episode of What Not To Wear 
• [17:30] Early adopters don’t buy because you have a good brand or UX; they buy because they connect with your vision 
• [20:00] If you’re going to be trendy, make sure your choices are intentional 
• [23:00] The influence of tech debt on when you need a glow-up 
• [24:00] Signals (and red alarms) for when it’s glow-up time 🚨
• [28:00] A quick case study: Peloton and products in COVID

It’s the series finale of Power to the People Ops, and today, we’ve got a real treat. We’re speaking with Mel Skochdopole, co-founder of Parkday—a.k.a. “the Tinder of food.” Using the power of data, Parkday curates personalized workplace meals that are tailored to everyone’s food preferences. As a result, Parkday is saving people ops leaders valuable time and protecting them from the awkward (and potentially damaging) mistake of ordering food someone on their team can’t eat. Meghan and Mel explore how food is a small but powerful way to affect work culture and how people ops products can get personalized perks right.

Follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter to see the latest in Better Product, a show part of the Better Product Community powered by Innovatemap. The community is the connection point for product leaders & practitioners to learn and share what it takes to design, build, market, and sell better products. Learn more at betterproduct.community. 

Takeaways

• Don’t just add workplace perks—personalize them with product. 

• Food quality can directly affect team productivity and health. 

Things To Listen For

[1:30] Introducing Mel & Parkday’s mission of building data-driven food programs

[2:00] How Parkday personalizes meals, as inspired by the founders’ own food preference journeys 

[4:00] As companies return to the office, food is something that will always be impactful; it unifies teams across departments 

[5:00] The issue for people ops leaders: food is important, but it takes a lot of time and effort to curate the best meals for every person in a company 

[7:00] Good food is a matter of team productivity and health 

[9:30] 85% of people are looking to eat healthier or follow a specific diet today, and that preference is even stronger among young workers  

[12:00] Why Parkday is “the Tinder of food” and how to use it to find your food type (anyone else out there a spicy vegetarian? 🌶)

[15:00] How Parkday found its way by supporting the people ops space 

[18:00] The perfect storm affecting the transition from HR to people ops 

[19:00] What we mean by total compensation and the impact of workplace perks

The future of remote work is playful. Introducing play into a work environment doesn't make you less productive. It opens the space to be creative and it leads to better output.

It’s exactly why Dominik Zane built Around.

He joins our Future of Work series to share how his team identified problems with remote work and how they built a solution to fit the new wave of collaboration. It means allowing for playful, frictionless teamwork that keeps all participants engaged.

Dominik explains how Around solves the pain he and many remote teams experience. His story of innovation will leave you looking for opportunities to develop solutions for new use cases.

Aagya Mathur started her career with the goal of helping people. In high school, she designed artificial arteries for patients; now, she leads the hormone health company Aavia as co-founder & CEO. 

Today Aagya is on a mission to demystify hormone health and birth control. She talks about how Aavia’s brand is working to show that “hormones don’t discriminate.” Like metabolism, hormones affect everyone differently, so they present a unique challenge when creating a product that’s meant to help users maintain balance.

There’s an invisible balancing act happening in a two-sided marketplace. As a designer or product manager, how do you balance both a buyer’s and seller’s priorities? And how do you innovate on one side without disrupting the other?

Nick Volpe joins us to share how he balances these two experiences as a product designer at Etsy. 

Nick gives us the inside scoop on the importance of listening to users, incorporating features that are fun and not just functional, and how Etsy experiments to constantly evolve into a better product for their users.

You’ve probably seen consumer brands drop a new line of footwear or clothing, but have you considered using the same approach  with your product?

We’re exploring the impact ‘product drops’ can have on your business   in this episode of Better Product. When it comes to fashion brands, these product drops generate excitement and create exclusivity helping brands break through the noise. . 

Meghan and Christian explain the phenomenon while sharing examples of how brands  can apply it for themselves.

Resources

• Product ‘Drops’ Aren’t Just for Sneaker Brands: https://builtin.com/marketing/product-drops-digital

Blake Bartlett from OpenView Venture Partners has been on the frontlines of this term helping define product-led growth and advocating for product companies to lean into the methodology. 

In the conversation with Blake, you can expect to understand the term in more detail while breaking down the barriers for implementation. When it comes to the term product-led growth there are many misconceptions holding product professional back from embracing the approach. 

Find out for yourself over the next few episodes as we hone in on what it really means to have product-led growth. 

• Connect with Christian: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christianmbeck/
• Connect with Anna: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anna-eaglin/
• Join the Better Product Community: https://betterproduct.community/
• Connect with Blake: https://www.linkedin.com/in/blakebartlett/

To register for the speaker series visit betterproduct.community/speaker-series

What if Masterclass and TikTok had a B2B baby? The result would be Guide, a video-based learning platform focused on bite-sized video content. 

In this episode of Better Product LAUNCH, Christian sits down with Tim Salau, CEO and Co-Founder of Guide, for a conversation about why work matters, and the importance of exercising more control over our career.

Tim and his team founded Guide as a life-skills training platform for highschool students. Then COVID happened. As the conversation unfolds, you’ll hear how Guide pivoted into an enterprise-focused B2B learning and talent development app.

Prianka Rayamajhi of Pinterest joins The Minute to challenge one key message: growth design is for short-term gains. Listen in as she shares how to strategize for long-term goals while building in opportunities for experimentation.

One of the fundamental strategies product marketers must lead is positioning. It’s what determines how you’ll talk about your product, your company, and your brand as you scale. So why do so many people get it wrong? Catherine Spence, VP of Global Marketing at Microblink, joins Leanna to share her best lessons on brand and product positioning, from leading marketing at an international company to her own startup, Pomello. If you’re looking to stay in your comfort zone, this isn’t the episode for you. Catherine shows us why we need to use our positioning to pick a fight and take a stand, especially in B2B SaaS. 

Follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter to see the latest in Better Product, a show part of the Better Product Community powered by Innovatemap. The community is the connection point for product leaders & practitioners to learn and share what it takes to design, build, market, and sell better products. Learn more at betterproduct.community. 

Takeaways: 

• Positioning gives you focus. You can’t be everything to everyone. 
• Product positioning should make you think. 
• Brand positioning should make you feel. 
• Don’t prioritize brand positioning until you have product-market fit. 

Things To Listen For: 

• [2:00] Icebreaker: If you had to write an autobiography and name it after one of your guilty pleasures, what would you call it? 
• [3:00] What’s the difference between brand positioning and product positioning? How do marketers and PMMs work together to define it? 
• [7:00] Introducing Catherine Spence and her role at Microblink 

• [9:00] PMM is the intersection of product, marketing, and sales
• [11:00] The ask of product marketing is simple. But it’s difficult to do well. 
• [12:00] How Microblink thinks about brand positioning vs. product positioning when marketing AI when the world isn’t familiar with it yet
• [13:00] The deceiving similarities between product positioning and brand positioning, and what unites them at the core 
• [14:00] Brand positioning should be internal and external 
• [15:00] How do brand positioning and product positioning work together?
• [16:00] All positioning should reflect your vision and who you want to be in the world. When are you willing to walk away? 
• [19:00] Why B2B product marketers and marketers need to position products that “pick a fight and take a stand” for their products
• [22:30] Clear positioning doesn’t just make sense. It makes dollars. 
• [23:00] When is the best time to focus on brand positioning?
• [26:00] Use your vision statement to anchor your brand positioning 
• [28:00] The role of employer brand in positioning 
• [36:00] The future of PMM: how do we find great product marketers?

What we’ve set out to discuss in our newest series is the real power of data. The issue in today’s world isn’t access to data - rather -  it’s this feeling of “more is more.” Yet, the power of data doesn’t come from more. It comes from being able to tell a story with it. 

The reality of data is that most people collect it but don’t know what to do with it. What you’ll learn in this series has little to do with collecting data, instead, it’s taking a look at maximizing it and being able to act on it as a result. 

Interviews will highlight organizations and people who are doing industry-leading work with data and using it not just to build databases, but to build valuable products.

Joining the series is Kat Kennedy from Degreed, Marieke McCloskey from Humu, Dennis Mortenson with x.ai, and Kendra Clarke, Sparks and Honey. 

To never miss an episode and gain exclusive access to additional resources head over to betterproduct.community.

Brand is not just a logo, website, or color palette. It’s how your end-user experiences everything related to your company.

On this episode, Christian and Anna revisit the highlights from the Product Brand series recapping the most important lessons learned.

To engage more with the Better Product community, join our speaker series featuring experts from previous episodes. You can register by going to betterproduct.community/speakerseries 

What’s worse than ordering food for delivery and it showing up cold and soggy? For ClusterTruck it’s a problem they set out to solve as America's first vertically integrated, delivery-only kitchen.  

On this Better Product Launch, Brian Howenstein, VP of product at ClusterTruck, shares how they’ve revolutionized food delivery by removing the middleman of third-party delivery apps. 

While ClusterTruck is a restaurant, it’s also a software company enabling its competitive advantage. Brian shares how they’ve handled product growth based on geographical location while highlighting what the future for their tech looks like. 

Takeaways: 

• Setting boundaries to stay true to your core principles
• Competition is more than just other offerings in your category 
• The importance of keeping your brand voice intentional 
• Keep things as simple as possible for the user

The most likely outcome when launching a startup is failure. How do you know when to try anyway? For Dennis Mortensen, CEO and Founder of x.ai, it’s not the data. It’s not the idea. It’s the pain you’re solving for that will allow you to propel forward,  even when the statistics are stacked against you.

As the How to Use Data series continues, he provides the Better Product community with a word of caution to anyone building a data-driven startup. 

Meghan continues our The Minute conversations around how to start with design. Kate Donahue, Head of Product Marketing at Pitch, talks about how they were rigorous about the design decisions before they even had a product in the market.

Product marketing is an evolving field with much left to define about what product marketers can actually measure and support. Peep Laja founded his company, Wynter, on the belief that product marketers do better work with swift, real-time feedback on their product messaging. In today’s conversation, he explains why taking weeks (or even months) to do critical testing and validation puts your product in a losing position. He’ll also describe how Wynter is helping B2B product marketers get impactful insights on their product’s messaging & positioning, without wasting time on KPIs that keep you looking in the rearview mirror. 

Want to get even better at B2B product marketing? Follow along with Peep’s How to Win podcast and the Wynter newsletter. 

Follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter to see the latest in Better Product, a show part of the Better Product Community powered by Innovatemap. The community is the connection point for product leaders & practitioners to learn and share what it takes to design, build, market, and sell better products. Learn more at betterproduct.community. 

Takeaways: 

• If you wait to test and validate your product marketing, you lose.
• Product marketers should prioritize the speed of feedback. 
• When marketing your product, prioritize function over form. 

• The best differentiation is to actually be different. 

Things To Listen For: 

[1:30] An introduction to Peep (and a callback to an episode he inspired)

[2:00] Better copy leads to conversion. But how do you know if your copy is good? 

[3:00] How Wynter can give you direct feedback from your target customer 

[6:00] Product marketing is ultimately about finding common ground between opinions—from your marketers, your sales team, your CEO,  and your customers

[7:30] Wynter’s goal is to speed up feedback loops; no more waiting for insights

[9:00] Wynter democratizes user research, even if you’re not a research expert 

[9:30] Product marketing is troublesome because it’s a new & evolving role

[10:00] Don’t let your product marketers be “deck monkeys” 

[13:00] Revenue as a metric is like looking through the rearview mirror

[14:30] Peep’s 5 buckets for understanding product messaging: 

• Clarity - does your audience “get it”? Do they want it?
• Relevance - are you speaking about things that are a high priority?
• Desirability - is your product’s value understood? Do people want it?
• Differentiation - have you made clear how your product stands out?
• Brand - are you creating the right perception for your product? 

[17:00] “Messaging and copy are the manifestations of your positioning”

[21:00] Clarity in messaging is key: “if they don’t get it, they’re not going to buy it”

[23:30] Don’t treat your website homepage like Netflix 

[24:30] What it looks like to sell a category vs. sell a narrative 

[30:00] Differentiation also comes down to how you see yourself

Conversion is what keeps businesses alive, but to get there we have to back up to the customer outcomes and milestones that lead to conversion.

Heather Campbell joins us to share her perspective on the customer journey as a Product Manager at Etsy. 

We discuss creativity in product management, how to create long-term buyers, and the steps that lead to conversion. And Heather shares Product Managers’ pivotal role in making this possible by fostering collaboration.

Founders need to deliver elevated design to stay in touch with users, and it can be done on a shoestring budget.

On The Minute, Madelin Woods, CEO and Founder of Walden, breaks down the purpose of the MVP and how to maximize it for evolving your product. 

You’ve probably heard of, or even used, the widely popular mindfulness app Headspace. And even if you haven’t used the product to meditate, it’s likely you’ve encountered the brand elsewhere—through its Netflix series, perhaps, or through partnerships with other health products. Frank Bach, lead product designer at Headspace, has been part of the company’s growth for the last five years. He reflects on how the Headspace brand made mindfulness mainstream, and looks to the horizon for how Headspace will provide users with more support & guidance around mental health.

In today’s world, building a great product isn’t enough. You have to master your go-to-market strategy by telling a story that will leave a lasting impression on your audience. Product marketing gets you there, according to long-time product marketer and Costanoa Ventures partner Martina Lauchengco. 

Martina is the author of the latest book from the esteemed Silicon Valley Product Group, LOVED: How to Rethink Marketing for Tech Products. Alongside Tina and Leanna, she explores how her career start as a product manager equipped her with the product curiosity and technical competence needed to thrive when marketing digital products. She shows us today how to think about product marketing as the discipline it is and how companies should be leveraging it if they want their product to be recognized and adopted. 

Follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter to see the latest in Better Product, a show part of the Better Product Community powered by Innovatemap. The community is the connection point for product leaders & practitioners to learn and share what it takes to design, build, market, and sell better products. Learn more at betterproduct.community.

Takeaways

• Product marketing tells the world why your product matters and why it’s distinct from something similar. 
• Product marketers must be genuinely interested in what products do and why the product exists to make it meaningful for the market.

Things To Listen For

• [0:30] Introducing our guest hosts, Innovatemap’s Tina Hafer and Leanna Adeola
• [2:00] Why did we create the Unlock Product Marketing series?
• [3:00] Icebreaker: If you had the time to write a book, what would it be about?
• [4:00] Previewing our conversation with Martina Lauchengco
• [10:30] An introduction to Martina Lauchengco, starting her career in product management at Microsoft, and the evolution of product marketing
• [15:00] Why Martina wrote LOVED: companies need a template for PMM
• [15:30] Product marketing’s evolution: it’s now a discipline central to organizations
• [16:30] Introducing Martina’s four fundamental roles of product marketing:
  • Ambassador — product marketers connect customer and market insights 
  • Strategist — product marketers direct a product’s go-to-market 
  • Storyteller — product marketers shape perceptions of product
  • Evangelist — product marketers empower others in your company to represent and share the product 
• [17:30] “You do not need the title ‘product marketer’ to be driving forward the most important product marketing”
• [18:30] In early-stage companies, founders tend to lead product marketing
• [19:00] Growth requires using product marketing to shape markets
• [20:00] The importance of product curiosity and technical competence
• [25:30] Why good product marketers share many qualities with good product managers
• [29:00] Data is essential to finding your product marketing focus, especially as you enter your growth stage as a company
• [30:00] There’s never just one obstacle to growth, and PMMs give us the high-level perspective we need to see where problems intersect

From Mailchimp’s humble monkey beginnings to a huge acquisition and SurveyMonkey’s recent rebrand, we’re talking about brand glow-ups & grow-ups in this episode. Consider it a “what not to wear” for brands. 

Meghan and Christian explain how MailChimp and SurveyMonkey have used their brands to connect with customers. The takeaway? Brand leaders should go all-in on any decision.

Email Christian with design questions: christian.beck@innovatemap.com

Email Meghan with brand questions: meghan.pfeifer@innovatemap.com

If you’re in the product world, the name Marty Cagan is most likely one you’re familiar with. He’s a pioneer, a leader, and author of INSPIRED. We had him on the show in 2019 and he had a lot to say about product culture, which left Anna and Christian with a lot to talk about right after his interview. 

In this Minute episode you’ll hear their conversation discussing what it means to be a real product manager, what it looks like to have a product culture in your organization and how all that translates to impact your company, no matter its size.

When you think of Forbes do you think of a digital product? Probably not. Nina Foroutan of Product Development joins the Big Bets in Product series to share how the print form magazine has evolved to build a community using technology and data. 

More pointedly, what does a Director of Media of a product look like at a 102-year-old media company, and how do they transform from traditional journalism to digital?

“We fill the gap between traditional departments at companies. And I think it's really important because you need someone in the room that’s thinking and protecting your end-user and building opportunities for them to engage with your brand.”  - Nina Foroutan

Listen in as Christian explores what it’s like to create a product at a non-product company. And how Forbes is responding to the needs of its readers. 

Our last series may have been about the future of work, but another theme emerged: how to start with design. Dominik Zane, CEO & Founder of Around, shares they are a design-focused team putting an emphasis on the seemingly insignificant details. But those are the details that add up to create the delightful experience they’re known for.

We can all agree on one thing: 2020 shook everything up. As a result, we see people and companies making big bets across the board, both professionally and personally.

Kelly Watkins bet on leaving her role as the VP of Marketing at Slack to take on the role of CEO at Abstract. In her new role, she’s taking another bet moving from design outputs to outcomes with the launch of Abstract Notebooks.  

Why make these bets? Hear her conversation with Christian Beck. 

Organizations around the world are figuring out what work will look like now and in the future. No one has the answer, but everyone is trying to crack the code to create the ideal work environment. 

We’re wrapping up our Future of Work series, where we explored products that transform  the way we work, collaborate, and communicate. 

In this final episode of the series, we look back on our conversations with these trailblazing leaders:

• Chris Byers, CEO of Formstack
• Kate Donahue, Head of Product Marketing at Pitch
• Alexander Embiricos, CEO and Co-Founder of Remotion
• Dominik Zane, CEO and Founder of Around
• Paige Costello, Product Lead at Asana

We reflect on what we’ve learned and share some of the themes that stood out across conversations.

In today’s digital product landscape, the possibilities seem endless. We’re watching new products emerge to serve completely new categories—many of which, like web3 and the decentralized internet, have yet to be totally defined. Finding the answers and taking charge of a new product category, Christian and Meghan share in this episode, is up to you as the product leader. And any good journey in category creation starts with thinking about how the product you’re building can set the standard. When done well, your product becomes “the proof” new categories need to survive and thrive. 

Want to add your own take? Write a note or record a voice memo, and send it to erica.irish@innovatemap.com to join the conversation. 

Follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter to see the latest in Better Product, a show part of the Better Product Community powered by Innovatemap. The community is the connection point for product leaders & practitioners to learn and share what it takes to design, build, market, and sell better products. Learn more at betterproduct.community. 

Takeaways: 

• Creating categories is all about timing & awareness. Use tools like Gartner, ProductHunt, and expert newsletters to figure out where to start. 
• Product is “the proof behind the category you’re trying to create.”

Things To Listen For: 

[0:00] Exciting news - the Better Product Community is on Slack! 

[1:30] A primer on why we’re talking about category creation

[2:00] What category creation is, what it isn’t, and categories vs. industries

[4:30] How & why to use tools like Gartner to validate your product’s category 

[5:00] What to do if you’re an early-stage company in an emerging category 

[7:00] Overview: How should you start thinking about category creation? 

• Understand your business in the context of the wider market
• Think about your current growth stage and your growth trajectory
• Consider the resources available to you 

[7:30] Understand positioning to uncover your category creation potential 

[10:00] How to think about your growth trajectory, with lessons from “Play Bigger”

[11:00] The advantages of building your product in an emerging category

[12:00] Even if you’re creating a new category, use familiar interaction patterns

[14:30] Product is “the proof behind the category you’re trying to create.”

[16:00] You need resources to support the content you need to build a category

[18:00] You have to tell people “over and over again” what your category means

How you position your product can help you connect with the people who most need it, unlocking rapid growth for your company. But first, you need a solid foundation. Today, Christian and Meghan discuss what product leaders get right vs. wrong when positioning their products. Led by Meghan’s insights in product marketing, we’ll also walk through a process any team can use to find a position that will give you a cutting edge while letting you stay true to who you are. 

Follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter to see the latest in Better Product, a show part of the Better Product Community powered by Innovatemap. The community is the connection point for product leaders & practitioners to learn and share what it takes to design, build, market, and sell better products. Learn more at betterproduct.community. 

Takeaways: 

• To create a positioning strategy, you need: 
• • A foundational statement that is the truth of your product 
  • Benefit pillars that focus on your differentiators 
  • A description of your product features as proof 
• Positioning work is internal, but it should inform the external. 
• Test your positioning’s effectiveness by asking if it’s simple, meaningful, repeatable, and relevant. 

Things To Listen For: 

[1:30] Friday recordings, turning 40, and why smart people have worse memories 

[2:30] Icebreaker: if you could debate anyone, real or not, who would it be? 

[3:00] Meghan’s hot take: “90% of cars are so much uglier than they have to be”

[4:00] Christian’s defense of minivan designs and the 2014 Toyota Sienna 

[9:30] Today’s topic: how we shape perceptions of our product with positioning 

[10:00] Positioning says who you are and why you matter

[11:00] “Positioning at its core is your north star; it should set the course” 

[12:00] How appreciation for positioning in product has evolved over time 

[12:30] Increasingly, product marketers and product designers are working together to bring positioning to life (see our episode on Pinterest)

[13:30] Can you tell if a product is positioned well from an outside perspective? 

[14:30] Your positioning works if it’s simple, meaningful, repeatable, and relevant 

[15:00] Positioning statements must be factual and true to who you are 

[16:30] Positioning explains why your designers are designing, and for whom 

[18:00] How to start applying your positioning to a product roadmap 

[20:00] What to do about positioning when you’re an in-house product marketer

[24:00] Why to revisit positioning as your company grows and hires new leaders

[25:30] Consider changing your positioning when something foundational shifts

[28:00] Previewing our upcoming series, Unlock Product Marketing

This episode is part 2 of our two-episode exploration of social media products. Visit part 1 to hear Christian & Meghan’s thoughts on how social media products are evolving, and to hear what we mean when we say “anti-social media.” 

Follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter to see the latest in Better Product, a show part of the Better Product Community powered by Innovatemap. The community is the connection point for product leaders & practitioners to learn and share what it takes to design, build, market, and sell better products. Learn more at betterproduct.community. 

Takeaways: 

• There’s a difference between building a “social network” and a “social universe” that values learning and intentional knowledge-sharing. 
• A person’s lived experience will influence how they build digital products—and it will impact how users interact with your product. 
• Because most social media is about “hiding our shadows,” users don’t tend to have a balanced experience. 

Things To Listen For:

[1:30] The story behind Diem and the motivation for building it

[2:00] Why Diem isn’t trying to create a “new social network” 

[3:00] Why women and non-binary people need a dedicated social space 

[4:00] How Diem sees opportunity in building products that are more empathetic 

[6:00] Why considering lived experience matters when building products 

[8:00] If you don’t have the same experience, you have to be open to others’ 

[9:30] Does technology “not allow empathy”? 

[10:30] Challenges on social media can be tied to what the platforms value 

[12:00] What happens when most social media is about “hiding our shadows” 

[13:30] How Diem is changing incentives to create a different social experience 

[14:00] Why Diem is tying its “social universe” to a higher purpose: passing power 

[18:00] What Diem means when it describes itself as a “social universe” 

[20:00] Building community is not the same as building technology 

[23:00] Why the product world needs alternative answers 

[26:30] How Diem is different from social media as we know it 

[29:00] Exploring the long-term vision for Diem as it continues to evolve 

[32:00] How Diem is creating a brand that is “exclusively inclusive”

[38:00] A reflection on how social media impacts children & teens 

[43:00] How Diem is ultimately about gender & power

D2C is becoming the new way we buy anything. From groceries to furniture, brands are cutting out the middleman and selling their products directly to the end consumer. 

Next-level products are what make this D2C transformation possible. In this series, we’re talking to the people behind a few of those products:

• Melanie Cummings, VP of Product at Fabletics
• Ben Clark, CTO of Casper Sleep
• Tsega Dinka, VP of Digital Product at Dollar Shave Club
• Liana Herrera, President & Co-founder of Bottomless

We also take an inside look at building products at a company that doesn’t identify as a tech company. And of course, Christian and Meghan will share the mic in exploring the brand implications of a D2C strategy. 

How does this impact the retail industry as a whole? We’ll explore that too. But mostly, this series will make you want to open up your phone and start shopping.

In this episode of Better Product LAUNCH, Christian and Anna sit down with Andrew Guttormsen, the Co-founder of Circle, the modern community platform for creators. 

Many platforms claim to build community, but most are just building an audience focused on the creator. With Circle, the focus is on the members and the interaction. As Andrew shares his story, you’ll hear how building a community differs from an audience, and how integrating a community into your product impacts your customer’s experience.

You might remember Dollar Shave Club skyrocketing to popularity after they released a viral video and embraced a “no B.S.” approach to business. As one of the first major D2C brands, the company used insights they gained at the front of the pack to pioneer a budding industry. In many ways, how we understand D2C today is thanks to DSC. 

Tsega Dinka, recently vice president of digital product at Dollar Shave Club, was there for it all as one of the company’s first product managers. On Better Product, he reflects on how the experience taught him to align product and non-product teams and what’s required to build an inclusive brand people will remember.

One of the guests we're bringing back is from the Big Bets in Product series. In The Minute, Ray Cao, the Managing Director and Global Head of Product Strategy and Operations of Tik Tok, answers Christian's big question about what the future has in store for the social media platform.

Imagine a world where every person in a company is understood. They have engaging 1:1s with managers where their voices are heard, and consistent opportunities to connect with their peers—whether they work together or not. This is the future people ops products are building; and, it’s the same future John Wetzel is defining as CEO & co-founder of Gather. He explains how people ops is transforming companies, how product leaders in the space can get necessary feedback, and most importantly, how Gather strives to get people ops leaders at early-stage companies “off their islands” to deliver a better employee experience. 

Follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter to see the latest in Better Product, a show part of the Better Product Community powered by Innovatemap. The community is the connection point for product leaders & practitioners to learn and share what it takes to design, build, market, and sell better products. Learn more at betterproduct.community.

Takeaways: 

• People ops is owning more and more of what HR once covered. 
• The best outcomes of people ops products happen in real life. 
• Effective people ops leaders think like product managers. 

Things To Listen For:

[2:00] How Gather got started, with inspiration from 2019 

[3:00] John’s past experiences in hardware and software before founding Gather

[5:00] How John defines “people ops,” and how the category differs from HR 

[5:15] The three functions of traditional HR: talent acquisition, logistics, people operations (a.k.a culture, communications, DEI)  

[6:00] The reality: people operations is owning “more and more” of HR 

[6:15] Is people ops going to become the “new HR,” or something else? 

[7:00] Explaining how the Gather product automates people ops work 

[8:30] How Gather integrates with Slack as a “workflow builder”

[9:00] Why Gather leverages & automates HRIS, the “CRM” of people ops 

[10:00] Exploring Gather’s unique product features, like the onboarding buddy 

[11:30] The best outcomes of Gather happen in real life, not through automation

[13:00] Why John & Gather believe “the future is people ops” 

[14:00] How marketing a people ops product relates to category creation

[15:30] Why does the world need people ops? 

[16:00] How John pairs his personal brand with Gather’s in marketing people ops

[17:00] How the Great Resignation is affecting people ops products 

[19:00] People ops is about harnessing the small moments in the workplace

[20:00] For people ops leaders, their product is the employee experience 

[24:00] Community can give you early feedback on your product and priorities