Products for People Podcast

Terry Storch – Global App Growth

Terry, from YouVersion, discusses the organization's background, team structure, and audience size. He explains the challenges of building a product for a global audience and the importance of user research. Terry also highlights the role of content contribution and partnerships in providing value to users. He emphasizes the focus on engagement and the prioritization process for product development. Lastly, Terry shares his own background and the importance of being a lifelong learner in the product field. Takeaways: * Scale and global ramifications for apps * User research and audience understanding * Prioritization and team structure * How to be successful in product

Erin Mendenhall – Data-driven Community

In this conversation, Jeremy Wold and Joshua Wold interview Erin Mendenhall, the Mayor of Salt Lake City. They discuss the role of government in relation to products and services, the responsibilities of the mayor, and the services provided by Salt Lake City. They also explore the economic opportunities and challenges faced by the city, as well as the importance of understanding and engaging with the audience. The conversation highlights the use of data analysis and feedback gathering to inform decision-making and prioritize needs. Mendenhall emphasizes the importance of transparency and accountability in achieving goals and recommends other cities to adopt similar practices. Quote about users feedback: "...caused us to throw everything up in the air for good reasons in 2020 and beyond. And try to build equity into the hub of how we function, and to question every way that we've gone about soliciting feedback so far." Key Takeaways * Products from a government perspective. * Engaging with the audience and gathering feedback is essential for understanding the needs and priorities of the community. * Data analysis and surveys can provide valuable insights for decision-making and prioritizing resources. * Setting goals and creating a roadmap helps guide the actions and priorities of a city government. * Transparency and accountability are key in building trust and achieving goals. * Other cities can benefit from adopting similar practices of transparency, accountability, and community engagement.

Joe Casson – Product Evolution

In this conversation, we discuss the evolution of product development, specifically focusing on Joe’s experiences at Qualified and Optimizely. Key Takeaways: - Understand the competitive landscape and identify gaps in the market to drive product evolution. - Gather feedback from passionate customers who care deeply about the product. - Develop internal empathy and build relationships within the organization to facilitate effective communication and decision-making. - Utilize the Circle Framework to guide the comprehension, innovation, renovation, and creation of projects. Key Points: 00:00: Evolution of Product 06:30: Catalyst for Product Change 11:00: Understanding the Competitive Landscape 16:22: Gathering Feedback from Customers 25:48: Internal Empathy within the company 39:19: The Circle Framework

Dan Gebler – Experience-driven Products

This episode includes Dan Gebler, Director of Product Management at Meta. Dan has led product orgs at Soundcloud and Adobe, to name a few, and we cover the following topics: - Product vision: how to create and sell it - User testing (Qual/Quant) - Global: things to consider - AI ramifications - Getting into and the role of Product Management - Advice: Importance of curiosity A couple of quotes from Dan: “The experience has to have a great outcome, whether you are an end-user customer, or you're an internal business customer. There really isn't any excuse for designing something and building something that won't work really well.” About testing: "...the testing culture, experimentation culture, and growth cultures are just so different place to place. And often that depends on how solid your understanding or discovery work is at the beginning of a project.” About AI: “the companies that will be really successful with AI will have the right balance of customer facing applications: how can an end user, how can a customer actually feel empowered by working with something that's automated and has the superpower of being able to discover, find, match solve at a high speed and the technology actually improving on the back end.” “The responsible companies will see AI as an accelerator and a way to enhance.”

Leslie Snavely – Empathetic Leadership

Leslie is the President of CHG Healthcare which is a healthcare staffing and technology company of thousand of employees. We are going to discuss leadership and product within a few categories. Paths to change: - What can any role inform you for where you want to be Product innovation: - User research as a foundation Leadership: - Cultivating a growth mindset - Efficient communication Empowering women: - Deliberate empowerment vs passive Ok, a lot to cover around leadership and products.