Explore every episode of the podcast LaunchPod | Product Management Podcast
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Title
Pub. Date
Duration
How to Avoid AI FOMO like Patagonia | Angela Clark, VP Digital
24 Mar 2026
00:30:42
I keep meeting teams across the country that are facing intense pressure to shoehorn AI into every feature, often without a coherent thesis on the problem it’ll solve. But what if the smartest move in the AI gold rush is to actually slow down?
Angela Clark, VP of Digital at Patagonia, is doing exactly that. At a brand known for its fierce commitment to the planet, Angela is applying that same intentionality to their digital experience. Instead of blowing budgets on every new AI tool, she’s taking a thoughtful approach to building a personalized customer journey across an audience that spans both elite pro athletes and weekend warriors.
In this episode, Angela shares:
How her team is designing a customer journey that caters to the buyer on a 1:1 level, including Product Detail Pages that can speak effortlessly to either extreme of their customer base
Her playbook for managing AI-related “shiny object syndrome" and keeping your roadmap focused on the customer.
And why Patagonia flipped the definition of “customer lifetime value” to align with their conservation-driven mission — even happily downselling you to a refurbished item instead of a newer, more expensive version.
00:00 Introduction
01:43 Angela's career journey
03:30: The PDP problem: Serving elite athletes & urban buyers on the same page
07:00: Building personalization through behavioral signals
09:30: Personalization: it's not a tech problem, it's a customer journey problem
00:15:30 How Angela built the foundation of digital at Patagonia
20:30: How to navigate slow-moving organizations
23:00: Redefining customer lifetime value around Patagonia's mission
26:30: AI FOMO — and why you're not actually falling behind
31:30: Conclusion
LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.
Special Guest: Angela Clark.
The Anti-Headcount Billion-Dollar eCom Playbook | David Cost, CDO (Rainbow Shops)
17 Mar 2026
00:26:57
How many engineers does it take to run the ecommerce site for a retail company that does over a billion dollars in revenue per year?
Well, if you’re Rainbow Shops, the answer is just 2.
Most ecommerce teams assume scale requires more engineers, more tools, more complexity. Chief Digital Officer David Cost has built something many people in ecommerce would say isn't possible — a lean, fast-moving digital operation that runs on vendor partnerships instead of a massive internal team. Two engineers, hundreds of programmers' worth of output, and none of the overhead that comes with scaling the traditional way.
In this episode, David shares:
A detailed, under-the-hood look at the specific vendors they use to stay so lean
His playbook for using strategic partnerships with vendors as an external dev team
How being a testbed for new tech gives them a competitive edge
And why their choice of ecommerce platform was vital in enabling Rainbow’s digital strategy
00:00 Introduction
00:42 David’s product journey
02:36 How Rainbow runs with only two engineers
03:07 Rainbow's decision to migrate from Salesforce Commerce Cloud to Shopify
07:14 How Rainbow uses AI to support a lean team
11:34 Rainbow's partnership with Lica for AI-generated product images
17:25 The future of personalization in ecommerce
23:01 Shop Pay and Rainbow's checkout features
26:15 Conclusion
LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.
Special Guest: David Cost.
The World’s Safest Driver Isn’t Human. Can Waymo Stop Traffic Deaths? | Chinmay Jain, Dir. Product
10 Mar 2026
00:24:53
40,000 people a year die from traffic accidents in the US. Our guest today is Chinmay Jain, Director of Product Management on Waymo's Driving Behavior team, who is working to make that number 90% smaller.
In this episode, Chinmay shares:
How he thought through leaving YouTube at its peak to join a moonshot company that could have civilization-level impact
Waymo’s actual AI eval process, using massive simulations based on millions of real-world driving miles to maximize edge cases, ultimately turning trust into their real product
And the misleading, but common, metrics Chinmay and his team learned to spot that could have seriously derailed Waymo’s progress
00:00 Introduction
01:40 Chinmay’s decision to leave YouTube for Waymo
04:12 How does Waymo test its AI in the physical world?
06:09 Waymo’s layered evaluation system
09:53 Simulations and ML gains at Waymo
16:48 Waymo’s metrics for safety
21:33 What driving choices make training AI drivers the hardest?
24:00 Conclusion
LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.
Special Guest: Chinmay Jain.
The Cortisol UI: How We Fix FinServ’s Empathy Problem | Melissa Douros, CPO (Green Dot)
03 Mar 2026
00:32:14
Most financial products are optimized for transactions, not human emotion. For many people, this transforms an already fraught topic into pure anxiety.
Our guest today is building banking for what she calls the Cortisol UI.
Melissa Douros has spent over 26 years in financial services, starting in debt collection and now serving as the Chief Product Officer at Green Dot. Early on, she learned firsthand that shame is a terrible retention mechanism. That lesson now shapes how she builds financial products for millions of users — for whom the time spent simply navigating their finances can be the most stressful of the day.
In this episode, Melissa shares:
How finserv companies can design for the “Cortisol UI“ by building trust and experiences that reduce anxiety before the transaction
An experiment she ran for Discover’s 5% cashback program where test users collapsed under decision paralysis — proving that more choice can actually increase financial stress
How she flipped Great Wolf Lodge’s booking model from 70% call center to 90% digital while enhancing the human experience
And how Green Dot is navigating AI and agentic commerce without breaking the one thing banks can’t afford to lose: trust
00:00 Introduction
01:00 Melissa's finserv background and how she landed in product
05:10 How Green Dot builds trust as a financial services product
07:29 Building for the "Cortisol UI" to lessen user stress, especially in finance
9:55 Quietly fixing customer issues while not inundanting them with feature releases
14:35 Green Dot moving compliance from the backend to a key part of the product team
16:20 Launching AI features in a high-risk industry
18:36 Decision paralysis and Discover's failed attempt at a 5% cashback reward program
24:57 How Melissa digitized Great Wolf Lodge's customer experience
30:51 Conclusion
LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.
Special Guest: Melissa Douros.
The $500M Lesson from Amazon’s Homepage Redesign | Rahul Chaudhari (ex-Amazon, Kohl’s)
24 Feb 2026
00:33:55
How do you redesign the most visited e-commerce webpage in the world? Rahul Chaudhari helped reshape the Amazon homepage during his years as a product leader there, before becoming VP of Product and Technology at Kohl's.
In this episode, Rahul shares:
Amazon’s “customer backwards” approach - and how he used it to unlock half a billion dollars of value on the Amazon homepage
The secret to product adoption: leverage existing customer habits to unlock new opportunities
And how Amazon and Google raised the bar for digital experiences so high that now every other product pays the price
00:00 Intro: Rahul's journey from marketing to product
03:08 Why “mid” digital experiences no longer work
07:35 Rebuilding the Amazon homepage “hero” to be customer-backwards
12:48 Experimentation + adoption metrics: measuring what actually matters
14:20 Adoption > clicks: Defining the right success metrics
18:41 AI and the future of retail: Rethink the business model, not the tools
21:50 Agentic shopping: What happens when ChatGPT becomes the homepage?
23:30 From keyword search to intent-based shopping
25:57 AI needs containers, not just models
30:29 Will AI level the playing field for small retailers?
33:16 Conclusion
LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.
Special Guest: Rahul Chaudhari.
Smarter AI Models Won't Fix Your Deployment | Maryam Ashoori, VP PM/Eng (IBM, Watsonx)
17 Feb 2026
00:26:49
In this episode, we’re joined by Maryam Ashoori, VP of Product and Engineering at IBM’s Watsonx platform. With a background that includes 2 master's degrees in AI, a PhD in Systems Design Engineering, and named on over 30 patents at IBM, she’s been on the bleeding edge for over a decade. Currently leading the charge on Agentic AI and AI Governance at IBM, Maryam is a bridge between the theoretical frontier of AI and the messy reality of enterprise deployment.
In this episode, Maryam:
Tells why AI has been stuck in pilot purgatory for longer than expected, and what you need to do today for a successful enterprise deployment
Calls shenanigans on the “biggest, best model” crowd, and why often a smaller, more focused tool is the right choice
Explains how to build an agnostic architecture that can handle the realities of an AI world where models advance faster than anybody can keep up
00:00 Intro
02:18 From ChatGPT hype to enterprise reality: use cases, ROI, and the rise of agents
06:11 Security, accountability & governance: who’s responsible when agents go wrong?
10:37 Risk-based rollout: use-case scoping, Risk Atlas, and guardrails like PII detection
17:10 Observability for agentic workflows
18:21 Why compute optimization matters
22:58 Designing for model agility: abstraction layers, routing, and picking the right model
27:23 Conclusion
LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.
Special Guest: Maryam Ashoori.
Using AI to Preserve 140 Years of History at the LA Times | Deepika Manglani, VP Product (LA Times)
04 Feb 2026
00:25:13
In this episode, we’re joined by Deepika Manglani, VP of Product and Program Management at the LA Times. Deepika’s career in media spans over 15 years, culminating in her current role, where she’s bringing the 140-year-old institution into the future.
In this episode, Deepika shares:
How her team is using AI to preserve a unique trove of historical data, over 12 million pages of news archives from as far back as the 1800s
What this digital archive and maturation of AI enables for future storytelling, media innovation, and news personalization
Why combining product and program management was critical to navigating massive transformation at the LA Times through a period of heavy M&A activity
00:00 Intro
00:15 Deepika's career journey in media and product leadership
01:25 Building from scratch at LA Times
05:06 Digitizing historical archives
08:40 Challenges and innovations in AI and OCR
19:54 Future prospects and personalization in news
24:33 Conclusion
LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.
Special Guest: Deepika Manglani.
Designing for Attention: How CrossFit Builds Product for Community-Led Growth | Ben McAllister, CPTO
27 Jan 2026
00:25:48
In this episode, we’re joined by Ben McAllister, the Chief Product and Technology Officer at CrossFit, and one of the most thoughtful product leaders I’ve had the pleasure of speaking with.
Ben’s path is anything but linear: with a degree in physics, a short stint in consulting, and time spent as a creative director at a design agency before moving into senior product roles at Under Armour. Now he’s shaping one of the world’s most iconic fitness ecosystems.
In this episode, Ben shares:
Why attention is the ultimate currency in product design, and how to design for the “spotlight” versus the periphery.
The “Infovore” Advantage: Why the best product leaders borrow ideas from outside the tech world; and
How to build a cohesive product strategy for a complex, decentralized network like CrossFit’s global community of affiliates and athletes.
00:00: Introduction
00:41: Ben's non-linear career path: From physicist to product leader
03:23: The "infovore" mindset in product management
06:00: Storytelling, juxtaposition, and the science of learning
08:48: Designing product for attention
12:00: Why product leaders shouldn't ignore marketing
15:10: CrossFit's origins as an internet-native brand
19:44: What is the CrossFit Open?
24:37: Conclusion
LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.
How AI Can Eliminate the “Chaos Tax” in Enterprise Software | Karthik Viswanathan (TalAiro)
20 Jan 2026
00:28:15
In this episode, we’re joined by Karthik Viswanathan. Formerly a product leader at AT&T, Macy’s, and Optum, he’s now the founder of TalAiro, an HR tech startup that is rethinking the operating system for recruiting.
Karthik argues that the hidden failure of the modern tech stack is forcing the user to serve as a “manual integration layer. He explains how the push to "unbundle" features results in a “Chaos Tax”— consuming 40-60% of the workday with fighting disconnected tools rather than doing their jobs.
Beyond that, Karthik also discusses:
How AI can make work more human: Why the true value isn't in replacing jobs, but automating the "devil's cut" of administrative work.
The journey from enterprise leader to founder: What building TalAiro from scratch taught Karthik about prioritization after years of leading enterprise product orgs, such as focusing on the 20% of workflows that drive 80% of the value
00:00: Introduction
00:54: Karthik's product background
02:58: The "chaos tax" and how tool sprawl negatively impacts product efficiency
04:25: Challenges in HR tech
09:26: Working backwards from customer problems to build your digital solution
11:53: How TalAiro differentiates itself as an HR tool
15:03: The role of AI in enhancing human potential
20:59: Karthik's transition from enterprise to startup leader
27:14: Conclusion
LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.
Special Guest: Karthik Viswanathan.
April Dunford’s 1 Killer Question to Expose Weak AI Product Positioning
13 Jan 2026
00:36:02
This week, we’re joined by the undisputed queen of B2B positioning, April Dunford.
April is the best-selling author of the seminal book "Obviously Awesome" and the new hit "Sales Pitch." She has spent 25 years as a startup executive and consultant helping companies stop guessing and start winning. If you have ever struggled to explain exactly why customers should pick you over the other guy, this episode is a masterclass.
In this episode, April talks about:
Why Positioning is a Product Problem: How undefined positioning leads to wasted roadmaps, "not good enough" feedback from Sales, and engineering teams burning out on features that don't win deals.
The "AI Washing" Trap: Why saying "We have AI" is no longer a strategy—and how to articulate the specific value your tech unlocks that the competition can’t.
Why she loves when competitors lie: How to ethically trap competitors who over-promise features (and the one question sales should tell your prospects to ask them).
And finally, Vision vs. Reality: How to sell the "glorious future" without losing the deal you need to close today.
00:00: Introduction
01:45: April's journey from engineering to marketing to product positioning expert
05:00: The shifting lansscape: Position from COVID to the AI era
10:45: Moving beyond "AI washing" to find differentiated value
15:30: Defining your true competitive landscape
20:30: How to be worth your customers' migration risk
23:45: Why April likes when competitors "lie" about their capabilities and features
32:00: Why positioning is critical for product and engineering alignment
35:00: April's new book details
LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.
Special Guest: April Dunford.
Is Dashboarding Dead? How AI Is Changing Analytics UX | Robert Henkhaus, VP of Product (Enverus)
06 Jan 2026
00:27:09
From U.S. Army sniper to VP of Product, Robert Henkhaus knows a thing or two about high-stakes decision-making. Today, he’s a product leader at Enverus, the software platform guiding billions of dollars in global energy capital.
Fresh off Enverus’ acquisition by Blackstone, Robert joins us to discuss how to innovate when the pressure is on.
In this episode, we cover:
Why "Black Box" AI Fails: How Enverus builds trust with investment stakeholders by forcing AI to "show its work" on multi-million dollar recommendations.
The Death of the Dashboard: Robert’s hot take on why AI will soon make traditional charts obsolete.
Surviving Acquisition: The "60-Day Horizon" strategy Robert uses to keep team velocity high amidst Private Equity uncertainty.
00:00 Intro
03:39: Product innovations at Enverus
4:03: AI in the energy sector: How Enverus is implementing AI in oil and gas operations
6:47: Progressive disclosure and using AI to improve the user experience
9:56: Product engagement scores: How Enverus tracks success metrics
15:39: How internal teams are engaging with AI at Enverus
17:53: Are dashboards dead? How AI is transforming analytics
19:36: Enverus' recent acquisition by Blackstone
28:00: Conclusion
LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.
Special Guest: Robert Henkhaus.
Why AI Agents Are the Future of ERP | Bret Tushaus, VP Product (DelTek) - Repeat
30 Dec 2025
00:28:16
In this repeat episode of LaunchPod, originally published on Aug 12, 2025, we’re talking with Bret Tushaus, VP of Product at Deltek.
In this episode, we discuss:
How Deltek built Dela — an AI agent framework powering everything from smart summaries to autonomous accounting
Why AI is rewriting the role of Product Management, and what leaders need to know now
How Bret’s team leveled up their AI skills fast — with short, high-impact sprints focused on real tools and real problems
00:00 Introduction to AI in Product Management
01:06 Building AI-Powered Solutions at DelteK
03:05 Smart Summaries and Predictive Analytics
08:24 Intelligent Exploration and Conversational Interfaces
17:39 The Future of AI Agents
22:14 Getting Started with AI in Your Team
26:52 Final Thoughts
LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.
Special Guest: Bret Tushaus.
Lessons from the Launch that Became a Silicon Valley Punchline | Berni Fisher, VP Product (Appcues)
23 Dec 2025
00:25:08
This week, we sat down with Berni Fisher, VP of Product at Appcues and a self-described "first principles goddess." Berni goes deep on what it was really like behind the scenes during the notorious 2012 Apple Maps launch, the triple threat problem at ButcherBox where they exist at the intersection of grocery, eCommerce, AND SaaS, and more.
In our conversation, Berni discusses:
Surviving the "2012 Apple Maps Debacle" and the intense backlash post-launch, as well as how the team used a "triage mindset" to prioritize fixes based on customer usage and risk.
Her Black Friday Gamble: Why she pushed for a risky site overhaul at ButcherBox right before their busiest season, resulting in double-digit conversion gains
And Customer-Led AI Innovation: how Appcues used their own product to poll users on AI trust, leading to a roadmap driven by actual customer needs rather than industry hype.
00:00 Introduction
01:43 Berni Fisher's product journey
04:44 Challenges and Lessons from Apple Maps
15:26 Transition to ButcherBox
17:27 Innovations and Customer Focus at ButcherBox
24:35 AI Innovations at Appcues
27:34 Conclusion
LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.
Special Guest: Berni Fisher.
Why Top-of-Funnel Traffic is Dead (& How TED is Replacing It ) | Tricia Maia, Head of Product (TED)
17 Dec 2025
00:34:01
Today, we’re joined by Tricia Maia, Head of Product at TED. We all know TED Talks — but behind the scenes, TED is undergoing a massive product transformation to adapt to a post-AI media landscape. In this episode, Tricia Maia, Head of Product at TED, pulls back the curtain on how they’re solving the “discovery” crisis facing digital media today.
Tricia shares:
Why “views” are dead: Explaining why TED is abandoning top-of-funnel traffic as their North Star metric and shifting focus to “depth,” completion rates, and account signups to combat volatile search algorithms
AI that actually scales: How TED is using advanced AI auto-dubbing — not just subtitles — to clone speakers’ voices into other languages, driving 2-3x better performance
The “gap” strategy: The challenge of connecting a decentralized ecosystem of free users and volunteers at TEDx with an ultra-premium live experience that can cost up to $12,500 per ticket
00:00: Introduction
01:51: TED's Media Landscape in an AI World
02:17: What does "Product" mean at TED?
04:24: How TED is Dealing with Challenges and Strategies in Media Discovery
14:59: Evolving Metrics and Goals Beyond Vanity Metrics Like Views
24:24: How TED is Connecting Digital and Event Audiences
32:22: TED's New AI Auto-Dubbing Initiative
37:14: Conclusion
LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.
Special Guest: Tricia Maia.
Make the C-Suite Think Like a Startup (Without Getting Fired) | West Stringfellow, VP Product (ex-Target, Blackhawk)
09 Dec 2025
00:32:25
Today, we’re joined by West Stringfellow, currently VP of Product at Blackhawk Network and former VP of Innovation at Target.
In this episode, West shares:
How he went from stealth startups to leading innovation at a company with over $77 billion in annual sales
The methods he uses to manage up and influence leadership in order to achieve the outcomes necessary to create successful organizations time and time again
The bold move that accelerated his Target career, which included hand-delivering over 300 copies of his innovation proposal to every executive at their Minneapolis HQ, even catching the attention of Target’s CEO
An inside look at how Blackhawk is thinking about AI and digital transformation by cultivating “culture carriers” to champion AI
00:00: Introduction
01:17: West's career journey
02:08: Project Goldfish and West's startup background
05:43: Making product and strategy decisions at Target
06:25: West building a Techstars Startup Accelerator
08:39: How West's work at Target inspired his startup, HowDo
09:44: How did West "manage up" at Target?
17:05: An introduction to Blackhawk
21:02: Digital transformation with gift cards
23:44: How Blackhawk is using AI
30:29: Big AI wins
33:09: Conclusion
LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.
Special Guest: West Stringfellow.
Why PMs are Leveling up into AI Product Engineers | Sarah Jacob Singh, CPTO (Medbridge)
02 Dec 2025
00:28:21
Today, we’re joined by Sarah Jacob Singh, CPTO at Medbridge, a digital healthcare platform.
In this episode, Sarah shares:
Why AI means all companies have to act like startups again, with product more tightly integrated from engineering all the way to go-to-market
How many Product Managers are evolving into Product Engineers - building prototypes, shipping code, and helping developer teams innovate faster
The ways Medbridge is leveraging AI-enabled Product Engineers to ship big bets weekly instead of quarterly
00:00: Introduction
01:53: Sarah’s career journey
03:56: The expanding role of product management
08:22: The impact of AI on product and engineering
11:35: Prototyping and feedback loops
17:20: AI adoption in healthcare
19:04: What is the “product engineer”?
22:47: In-house vs. Purchased solutions
29:13: Medbridge’s upcoming hackathon
30:54: Conclusion
LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.
Special Guest: Sarah Jacob Singh.
A Serial Founder’s Guide to Pivots, Exits, and AI | Raj Singh, VP of Product (Mozilla)
25 Nov 2025
00:28:37
Today, we’re joined by serial entrepreneur Raj Singh. His multiple exits have landed him in product leadership roles at companies like Salesforce.com, and, most currently, as a VP of Product at Mozilla, where he’s leading the team creating new AI products for SMBs.
In this episode, Raj shares:
How his companies navigated multiple pivots, with innovations from ChatGPT and Zoom leading most recently to an acquisition by Mozilla
What makes “agentic browsers” the next major interface for the web, and how they could change everything from ad models to API access
And why Mozilla’s stewardship of Gecko, one of only three major browser engines, is essential to keeping the internet open in the age of AI
00:00: Introduction
01:50: Raj’s entrepreneurial journey
03:52: The evolution of meeting summarization tools
07:51: Raj’s product pivot
08:26: Adapting to video communication during the pandemic
16:05: Pulse’s viral growth and Mozilla acquisition
20:25: AI and browser integration
27:10: Mozilla’s role in browser innovation
30:58: Conclusion
LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.
Special Guest: Raj Singh.
When CPO Becomes CMO: The Expanding Role of Product Leaders | Karen Chao (Flowspace)
18 Nov 2025
00:27:12
Today, we’re joined by Karen Chao, Chief Product Officer at Flowspace, an ecommerce logistics platform, where she’s also taken on a role as head of marketing. Previously, Karen held product leadership roles at Apple, Replicon, Innit, and more.
In this episode, Karen shares:
How she ended up running Marketing on top of Product, and how bringing these two functions under one leader has improved go-to-market for Flowspace
The biggest surprises she’s uncovered running marketing as a product leader, from chaotic tool stacks to the next wave of AI-powered go-to-market automation
And how Flowspace’s product team uses AI tools like Cursor and Claude to accelerate discovery and prototyping, and even ship small bug fixes straight to production without Engineers involved
(Ethically) cheat your way to $250M+ | Mikal Lewis, Product Exec. (Whole Foods, Nordstrom): https://youtu.be/5txeT2U_YQo
Chapters
00:00: Intro
02:06: Karen's career highlights
03:59: How Karen and Flowspace are using AI in their team workflows
15:11: The intersection of product and marketing
22:13: What's surprised Karen most about transitioning from product to marketing
29:12: Conclusion
LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.
Special Guest: Karen Chao.
When AI Makes Engineering Too Fast for Product Teams | Oji Udezue (ex-Typeform & Calendly)
13 Nov 2025
00:24:08
On today’s episode of LaunchPod, we’ve got something special for you. Normally, you’d have to join us in person at one of the dinners we host for product leaders to hear this talk from Oji Udezue. But the response has been so great, we had to bring him onto the show again.
Oji has previously held product leadership roles at Typeform, Twitter, Calendly, and Atlassian. Today, he’s joining us to share a major problem in product delivery that he’s seeing as AI adoption increases across teams.
In this episode, we discuss:
The “three-speed problem,” as Oji calls it – how AI will bring about a 10x increase in engineering velocity. But where does that leave product management and go-to-market teams if they can’t keep up?
Why AI is a BS term, as it’s really five new AND distinct capabilities – and how to use those as a framework for smarter product strategy
And how his “shipyard model” for product teams will ensure you keep up and thrive, even as AI reshapes how we build software
00:00 Introduction
1:21 Building Rocket Ships by Oji and Ezinne Udezue
1:55 What is the shipyard model in product?
5:20 The evolution of technology: Why AI is just a new technology level
7:50 The 5 flavors of AI
13:23 The limiting function of development is no longer the speed of engineering – but what is it now?
17:05 Solving the three-speed problem
21:32 Conclusion
LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.
Special Guest: Oji Udezue.
Product Lessons from a $3B Bootstrapped eCom Platform | Trevin Chow, CPO (Big Cartel)
04 Nov 2025
00:33:46
Today, we’re joined by Trevin Chow, Chief Product Officer at Big Cartel, an ecommerce platform for independent creators to turn their art into income. Previously, Trevin held product leadership roles at Nike, Microsoft, Axon, and more.
In this episode, Trevin shares:
How they thread the needle between brand history and innovation — respecting a 20+ year legacy while still driving towards the future
His process for creating “simple magic” by making features so simple, they delight users — even if that trades less customization for better ease of use
How AI is transforming product and design workflows by drastically cutting down the time between idea and innovation
And what product leaders can learn from rethinking simple as a benefit rather than a constraint
00:00: Intro
03:22: The product journey that led Trevin to Big Cartel
05:55: Big Cartel's 20+ year legacy and how they look at innovation
12:28: Why simplicity can trump complexity in software
13:26: Products and features that delight ft. an example from Alaska Airlines
18:03: Why Big Cartel launched a "pause subscription" button, and the value it drove
21:09: What makes features appear "magical" in today's product landscape
23:06: The overlap between product management and product design
23:40: Trevin's guide to hiring for curiosity and grit
33:17: Conclusion
LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.
Special Guest: Trevin Chow.
How Tinder Swiped Right on Customer Experience | Curtis Stevens (ex-Tinder)
28 Oct 2025
00:27:46
Today, we’re talking with Curtis Stevens, who, until recently, was Tinder’s Director of Product Consumer Insights, and prior to that held product leadership roles at Qualtrics, Amazon, and more.
In this episode, Curtis shares:
How AI can actually be a tool for human connection
His process behind Tinder’s transformation into customer-centricity, with real, measurable results
How to balance short-term user joy with long-term product innovation and future features
And how AI is driving customer experience changes faster than research can follow, and what you can do to keep up
LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.
Special Guest: Curtis Stevens.
The Hidden AI Revolution in Construction | Rajitha Chaparala (Procore)
23 Oct 2025
00:08:30
On today’s episode, we’re talking with Rajitha Chaparala, VP of Product at Procore, a construction management solution and one of the most successful examples of vertical SaaS out there today.
In this episode, we discuss:
How Rajitha and her team are using LLMs to streamline complex processes like requests for information (RFIs), project revisions, and construction site walkthroughs
Why building trust and showing real, immediate value were key to getting AI buy-in from construction professionals, historically hesitant to adopt new tech
Why Rajitha believes this is construction’s moment for AI, and how the shift from skepticism to curiosity happened almost overnight
00:00 Introduction
00:48: The complexity of construction and technology adoption
02:00: AI streamlining Requests for Information (RFIs) in construction
04:00: Why LLMs are ideal for construction's unstructured data
06:00: Building trust for AI adoption
08:00: The future of construction thanks to AI adoption
LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.
Special Guest: Rajitha Chaparala.
Linear’s Secret to Building Powerful AI Products | Nan Yu, VP of Product (Linear)
16 Oct 2025
00:29:32
Today, we’re joined again by Nan Yu, Head of Product at Linear.
In this episode, Nan shares:
Why you’re wrong to think of AI as a way to reduce costs -- and why the real value is in enabling new work that was previously impossible
The 3 must-haves he’s deduced from across the most successful AI products to produce consistently great outcomes for users
The behind-the-scenes details of Linear’s new Agent Interaction Guidelines
00:00: Intro
03:24: Using AI as a harness, the systems and context layers that make AI tools repeatable and useful at scale
07:54: Scaling AI tools to ensure consistency and quality
14:14: Analyzing user interaction, tweak time, and feedback
18:29: Linear's new Agent Interaction Guidelines
22:14: How AI is changing the role of engineers
27:42: AI's impact on junior roles
30:10: Conclusion
LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.
Special Guest: Nan Yu.
Reinventing SaaS: Zuora's AI Transformation | Karthik Chakkarapani and Shakir Karim (Zuora)
09 Oct 2025
00:31:30
Today, we’re joined by Shakir Karim (Senior VP of Product) and Karthik Chakkarapani (CIO & Senior VP of Corporate Operations) from Zuora.
In this episode, Shakir and Karthik discuss:
Why they believe AI is a bigger inflection point than web, mobile, or cloud
Their internal AI agent workflow that automatically resolves thousands of service requests instantly, freeing teams to focus on strategy
How they cut a major feature deployment step from 14 days to 10 minutes using Claude Code
Why prompt-a-thons and hackathons have been vital for driving not just AI adoption but AI literacy
00:00: Intro
02:15: Zuora's 10x initiative
07:00: Zuora's internal AI agent
10:00: Accelerating content creation using Trupeer
12:00: Cutting video content creation down from 4 weeks to 5 hours
17:00: AI in practical workflow
22:00: Scaling AI innovation and literacy internally
28:32: AI prompathons and hackathons
29:54: Conclusion
LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.
Special Guests: Karthik Chakkarapani and Shakir Karim.
The Secrets Behind a 30x AI Product Team | Zac Hays, CPO (Luxury Presence)
07 Oct 2025
00:23:31
Today, we’re joined by Zac Hays, CPO at Luxury Presence, a fast-growing real estate tech platform that made a huge bet on AI adoption across the company..
In this episode, we discuss:
Luxury Presence's 30x Value Principle and how they rethought goals and projects to have exponential-level impact
The AI design sprint process that allowed the company to 20x product velocity
How their mandatory AI bug triage policy has cut resolution time by 80%
00:00: Intro
03:31: How Luxury Presence started tinkering with AI
08:15: Automating bug fixes (the 80% reduction)
10:50: Zac's "AI Design Sprint" process
14:00: Using AI to tackle tech debt and codebase rewrites
19:04: Building an "autonomous" AI marketing team
22:22: Conclusion
LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.
Special Guest: Zac Hays.
Zapier’s AI Transformation Playbook with Phil Lakin (Zapier)
30 Sep 2025
00:32:35
Today, we’re joined by Phil Lakin, Head of Enterprise Innovation at Zapier.
In this episode, we discuss:
How Phil built No-Code Ops into a thriving community and SaaS product - and what led to its acquisition by Zapier
Why Phil ended up leading the initiative on Zapier’s first solution-based product, and the decision process behind making it Lead Router
How Zapier is driving AI transformation across both their org and others with hands-on bootcamps, agent workflows, and a 97% AI literacy rate among employees
00:00: Intro
01:30: How Phil built the No-Code Ops community and why Zapier acquired it
05:45: Building Lead Router and how it shaped Zapier's roadmap
10:20: Building with Zapier Primitives
15:10: How Zapier achieved 97% AI literacy
20:25: AI agents and workflow automation
26:40: Tactics for bringing employees on board with new AI tools
32:55: What other companies can learn from Zapier’s AI transformation
39:15: Where Phil sees AI, no-code, and automation heading next.
44:00: Conclusion
LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.
Special Guest: Phil Lakin.
Copilot, Claude, & OptiGPT: The AI Stack Driving Optimizely
25 Sep 2025
00:08:36
How is Optimizely reshaping experimentation with AI? Cory Liebgott, VP of Product at Optimizely, joins LaunchPod to share how her team is using AI into both customer-facing solutions and their own product workflows.
Cory shares how her team:
Uses Copilot and Claude for everything from PRD writing and meeting recaps to translating technical language into accessible insights
Developed OptiGPT, an internal AI assistant that surfaces customer data, product knowledge, and HR policies in seconds
Built a customer-facing AI query tool that also became a surprise hit internally for measuring customer health and engagement
Encourages a culture of experimentation where PMs demo and share AI tools, turning emergent use cases into productivity boosts across teams
00:38 Exploring AI tools as a team
01:43 Real-world AI productivity wins
03:16 Inside OptiGPT: Optimizely’s AI assistant
04:08 Using AI for research and prototyping
05:10 When AI surprises: Emergent capabilities
06:22 Lessons learned: Sharing and experimenting
LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.
Special Guest: Cory Liebgott.
How 1 CPO Uses AI to Deliver Like a Full Product Team | Michael Krafft, CPO (FoundersCard)
23 Sep 2025
00:35:26
Today, we’re joined by Michael Krafft, CPO at FoundersCard, a membership community for entrepreneurs and executives offering exclusive perks and VIP treatment.
Previously, Michael worked in investment banking, led product teams at American Express, and played a key role in turning around Alight, an HR-tech firm, ahead of its IPO.
In this episode, we discuss:
How Michael uses AI to be a 1-person Product team at a profitable startup with more than 250K members
His AI-driven discovery engine that automates interviews, segments users, and turns feedback into roadmap-shaping insights
Why working as both a leader and IC lets him move from idea to prototype to product in record time with tools like V-Zero and Lovable
The simple test that boosted paid conversions by 50%—and how he runs growth experiments far beyond his team’s size
00:00 Intro
03:04 How AI Drove Down CAC and Fueled Growth
06:06 Using AI to Analyze Customer Interviews
09:10 Turning Feedback Into Roadmap Insights
12:13 AI-Powered Discovery Engine for PMs
15:17 One-Person Product Team With AI Tools
18:20 Scaling Insights Beyond Human Bandwidth
21:23 Automating PRDs With AI
24:25 From Idea to Prototype in an Afternoon
27:28 Running Growth Experiments With AI
30:31 Conversions, Retention, and AI Testing
33:33 Customer Insights That Shape the Roadmap
36:36 Paid Conversion Boosts With AI
39:37 Final Takeaways for Product Leaders
LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.
Special Guest: Michael Krafft.
Top 4 AI Workflows Every PM Leader Should Know
18 Sep 2025
00:26:59
Unlock the future of product management with AI. In this episode of LaunchPod, we dive into the top 4 AI workflows every product manager needs, from automating user research to building smarter prototypes and running faster experiments.
Hear real stories from product leaders who are already using AI to:
*Turn hours of customer interviews into actionable insights
*Prototype and test new features in record time
*Automate PRDs and documentation without losing quality
*Drive data-backed decisions that accelerate growth
Chapters
00:00 Why AI is changing product management
00:30 Avoiding missteps with AI-powered customer insights
02:00 Prototyping and testing faster with AI tools
04:00 Automating PRDs and product documentation
06:30 Using AI for smarter data analysis and decision making
09:00 Balancing AI with product intuition and strategy
11:00 The future of AI in product workflows
LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.
Special Guests: Derek Pharr, Neha Monga, Roman Gun, and Sierra Hahn-Ventrell.
Why Optimizely is Betting on Agentic AI | Cory Liebgott, VP of Product (Optimizely)
16 Sep 2025
00:31:07
How is Optimizely reshaping experimentation with AI? Cory Liebgott, VP of Product at Optimizely, joins LaunchPod to share how her team is building agentic AI tools that put customer trust at the center.
Cory shares how her team:
Pivoted away from risky benchmarking AI to focus on agentic AI tailored to each customer’s brand and data
Launched Opal, Optimizely’s AI suite built on Google Gemini, with strict governance to keep customer data secure
Developed experimentation agents that suggest test ideas, run experiments, and summarize results
Built internal AI tools like OptiGPT to streamline workflows, from PRDs to customer research, boosting productivity across teams
00:00 Introduction
01:52 Implementing Agentic AI at Optimizely
04:58 The Importance of Customer Feedback
06:27 Using AI Tools Internally at Optimizely
15:30 DocuSign and the Squeaky Wheel Problem
30:36 Conclusion
LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.
Special Guest: Cory Liebgott.
The Company Using AI to Change the Game for Sports Betting | Marty Styles, VP of Product (PFF)
09 Sep 2025
00:33:25
How is AI changing the game for sports betting? Marty Styles, VP of Product at Pro Football Focus (PFF), visits LaunchPod to share how his team is bringing pro-grade football analytics, trusted by every NFL team, to everyday bettors.
Marty shares how his team:
Built Key Insights, an AI-powered feature that simplifies 200+ data points per play into actionable betting takeaways
Designed the Player Prop Tool, which combines PFF’s grades with market odds to reveal hidden betting edges
Used Play Finder and AI-driven film study to transform raw data into instant, searchable insights
Positioned PFF as the “Bloomberg Terminal of sports betting”, giving bettors the same edge NFL teams rely on
00:00 Introduction
01:46 The Value of PFF's Data
02:14 Transitioning from B2B to B2C
03:17 Understanding the Sports Betting Market
04:38 The Role of AI in PFF's Products
09:00 Simplifying Complex Data for Consumers
10:32 Key Insights and AI Integration
14:20 Ensuring Accuracy and Trust in AI Outputs
17:20 Introducing the Player Prop Tool
19:36 Targeting Intermediate Bettors
22:12 Product Marketing Strategy
25:53 AI and Data Analysis in Betting
29:32 Future of AI in Sports Analytics
33:23 Conclusion
LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.
Special Guest: Marty Styles.
The "Feature Constellation" Framework That Unlocks 10x Customer Value | Aleks Bass (CPO, Typeform) - Repeat
02 Sep 2025
00:43:21
How do you decide what to build when growth is flattening and you're facing intense competition from free products? When Aleks Bass joined Typeform as Chief Product Officer, she was faced with this exact challenge.
In this repeat episode, we cover:
The "Feature Constellation" Concept: How combining features can unlock exponential customer value and willingness to pay.
Prioritization at Scale: How Typeform used a MaxDiff survey to rank 86 features and find a 75% overlap in what all their user segments wanted.
Research-Driven Strategy: The step-by-step process for turning deep customer insights into a clear, actionable product roadmap that aligns the entire company.
Identifying Your True ICP: How the research revealed three distinct customer groups and helped Typeform prioritize marketers, who had bigger budgets and a higher willingness to pay for less mature features.
Balancing Data and Intuition: Why deep domain expertise is a product manager's superpower and how to use research to bolster, not replace, your gut instinct.
How To Say "Not Yet" To Enterprise | Deepti Mendiratta, VP Of Products (HungerRush) | LaunchPod: https://youtu.be/WHapWGbuS0Q
Chapters
00:00 How Combining Features Creates 10x Value
02:26 The Challenge: Flattening Growth & Hyper-Competition at Typeform
04:45 The Danger of "Incrementalization" in a Horizontal Product
07:50 Reigniting Growth with a Customer-Centric Strategy
11:50 The Research Plan: How to Figure Out What to Build, Fast
15:15 The Methodology: Using a MaxDiff Survey to Prioritize 86 Features
19:00 Surprising Discovery: 75% of Features Were Wanted by Everyone
24:30 Why Feature Maturity Matters for Different Personas
33:35 Unlocking Exponential Value with "Feature Constellations"
34:30 Case Study: Why "Video Answers" + "AI Analysis" is a 10x Combination
38:30 How to Use Research to Drive Company-Wide Alignment
LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.
Special Guest: Aleks Bass.
Why You Can’t Ignore AI Moving to the Edge | Joel Polanco, Senior Hardware Product Manager (Intel)
28 Aug 2025
00:32:54
On today’s episode of LaunchPod AI, we’re talking with Joel Polanco, Senior Hardware Product Manager at Intel’s Edge Computing Group. He’s led dozens of enterprise AI edge deployments and knows exactly what it takes to run AI models locally at scale.
In this episode, we discuss:
Why AI at the edge will cause a whole new wave of disruption across multiple industries
Why moving AI to the edge slashes costs and levels up customer experience
And real-world examples of edge AI deployments Joel has seen - from IT assistants to agents that restock store shelves from a single photo
00:00 Introduction
03:32 Retail Applications of Edge AI
04:57 Cost and Implementation Considerations
06:18 Real-World Use Cases and Challenges
12:00 Future of AI and Edge Computing
30:42 Practical Advice for Product Executives
33:46 Conclusion
LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.
Special Guest: Joel Polanco.
The AI Agent Behind 4x Productivity in Collections Teams | Dave Ruda, VP Product (Billtrust)
26 Aug 2025
00:28:53
How did an AI agent help 4x the productivity of collections teams? Dave Ruda, VP of Product at Billtrust, visits LaunchPod to share how his team built a collections AI that transformed drudgery work into high-impact outcomes.
Dave shares how his team:
Reduced average email handling time from 8 minutes to just 2.5 minutes
Built an AI agent that categorizes and prioritizes collector workflows to maximize efficiency
Designed a “human in the loop” system to ensure trust, personalization, and better customer outcomes
Developed a learning loop that adapts to each collector’s voice and scales across email and voice channels
00:00 Introduction
03:18 Billtrust's AI Journey
05:10 "Human in the Loop"
06:22 Billtrust's FinTech Solutions
09:54 Challenges in Collections
13:04 Agentic Email Functionality and Automating Email Processing
17:19 Building a Learning Loop To Better Understand Customers
19:05 Empowering Product Managers With AI
24:33 AI Governance and Future Prospects
27:39 Concluding Thoughts and Future Plans
LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.
Special Guest: Dave Ruda.
The 3 Biggest Barriers to AI Adoption Across Your Team | Derek Pharr, CPO (Sporcle)
21 Aug 2025
00:30:19
Why is AI adoption so hard inside companies? Derek Pharr, CPO at Sporcle, joins LaunchPod to reveal the 3 biggest barriers to AI adoption and how he helped his team overcome them.
In this episode, you’ll learn how Sporcle:
The 3 biggest barriers to AI adoption and how Derek addressed them
How Sporcle built a “content intern” with Claude Projects to augment trivia writers and improve user engagement
How Derek prototyped, tested, and rejected a doomed product idea in under an hour
00:00 Intro
03:17 The 3 Biggest Barriers to AI Adoption
06:35 Building a “Content Intern” with Claude Projects
15:08 Scaling Trivia Creation Without Losing Quality
25:34 Prototyping and Killing a Doomed Idea in Under an Hour
34:15 Lessons for Product Leaders on AI Adoption
LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.
Special Guest: Derek Pharr.
The EdTech Graduating 150K by 2X’ing Completion Rates | Zach Heller, VP of Prod. (Penn Foster)
19 Aug 2025
00:38:00
Today, we’re talking with Zach Heller, VP of Product at Penn Foster Group.
In this episode, we discuss:
How Penn Foster plans to literally “fill a stadium” with 150,000 graduates by 2029—doubling completion rates to do it
Why they shifted focus from acquisition to graduation—and how that’s now driving over 50% of enrollments through word-of-mouth
How AI-powered learning tools boosted course completions by 25% in just one year, setting a new record for outcomes
00:00 Doubling Completion Rates & Graduation Goals
02:04 Filling a Stadium: The 150K Graduate Vision
04:09 Fixing the Funnel: Retention Over Acquisition
06:14 Experimentation That Doubled Completion
08:17 B2B vs B2C: Why Completion Rates Drive Revenue
10:19 Word of Mouth as a Growth Engine
12:21 Fail Fast, Learn Faster: Experimentation Mindset
14:24 AI-Powered Learning: Writing Coach Breakthrough
18:00 Human + AI: Scaling Student Support
20:34 Product-Led Growth in EdTech
24:37 Economic Mobility Through Education
26:41 Looking Ahead: Scaling to 150K by 2029
36:56 Final Takeaways: Experimentation at Scale
LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.
Special Guest: Zach Heller.
Agentic AI for Vertical Software | Bret Tushaus, VP Product (Deltek)
12 Aug 2025
00:28:16
Today on LaunchPod, we’re talking with Bret Tushaus, VP of Product at Deltek.
In this episode, we discuss:
How Deltek built Dela—an AI agent framework powering everything from smart summaries to autonomous accounting
Why AI is rewriting the role of Product Management, and what leaders need to know now
And how Bret’s team leveled up their AI skills fast — with short, high-impact sprints focused on real tools and real problems
00:00 Introduction to AI in Product Management
01:06 Building AI-Powered Solutions at Deltek
03:05 Smart Summaries and Predictive Analytics
08:24 Intelligent Exploration and Conversational Interfaces
17:39 The Future of AI Agents
22:14 Getting Started with AI in Your Team
26:52 Final Thoughts
LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.
Special Guest: Bret Tushaus.
AI Is Killing SaaS Pricing: Lessons From 10k+ Customers | Prittam Bagani, VP of PM (Chargebee)
05 Aug 2025
00:42:43
Today, we’re talking with Prittam Bagani, VP of Product Management at Chargebee, where they have insight into how over 10,000 customers are optimizing their pricing models.
In this episode, we discuss:
How AI is forcing companies to rethink pricing - and why usage-, outcome-, and agent-based models are the future
Why OpenAI made over 100 pricing changes in a single year and what you can learn about agile pricing experimentation from it
And how to build the necessary technical and product infrastructure to test pricing models in real-time across millions of users
00:00 Introduction
02:25 Pricing Models in the AI Age
06:28 Challenges and Best Practices in Outcome-Based Pricing
18:37 Technical Complexities and Real-Time Pricing Adjustments
22:01 The Power of Timely Upgrades
23:07 Hybrid Pricing Models: The Future
24:57 Complexities in Sales-Led Growth
28:10 Unit Economics and Usage-Based Pricing
LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.
Special Guest: Prittam Bagani.
How Lattice’s PM team built an AI Slack “Intern” | Neha Monga, CPO (Ex-Lattice)
31 Jul 2025
00:27:02
On today’s episode of LaunchPod AI, we’re talking with Neha Monga, former Head of Product at Lattice and has led product teams at Meta, Amazon, Expedia, and more
In this episode, we discuss:
The AI workflows that are table stakes for PMs now—and how to adopt them so you don’t fall behind
How Neha’s team used Figma Make + Claude to spin up high-fidelity prototypes, gather customer feedback fast, and slash validation time with design and engineering
And the PM “intern” they built inside Slack to instantly surface insights from their massive customer feedback library
00:00 Intro
01:31 The Rapid Evolution of AI
02:38 Essential AI Tools for Product Managers
04:04 Choosing the Right AI Tool Stack
05:07 Challenges and Solutions in AI Integration
11:09 Prototyping and AI in Product Development
17:00 The Future of AI in Product Management
19:16 Building Custom AI Solutions
27:20 Conclusion
LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.
Special Guest: Neha Monga.
How Zuora is Betting on Retention-Led Growth | Ken Houseman, VP of Product (Zuora)
29 Jul 2025
00:36:58
Today on LaunchPod, we’re talking with Ken Houseman, VP of Product at Zuora.
In this episode, we discuss:
Why even a 0.1% increase in churn can cause huge losses, and how to turn retention into a growth engine
How Zuora made payments so valuable that customers want to pay more - boosting revenue, margins, and customer retention
And how Ken used AI to slash prototyping time and unlock faster, smarter product development
00:00 Introduction
01:14 Ken Houseman's Experience
02:45 The Role of Retention in Growth
06:38 Zuora's Approach to Subscription Billing and Payments
10:28 Enhancing Payment Processing with AI
30:57 The Future of AI in Product Management
38:03 Outro
LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.
Special Guest: Ken Houseman.
Inside Apartment List’s AI-Powered Product Team | Sierra Hahn-Ventrell, Dir. of PM (Apartment List)
24 Jul 2025
00:31:08
Today on LaunchPod AI, we’re talking with Sierra Hahn-Ventrell, Director of Product Management at Apartment List. In this episode, we discuss how they:
Analyze customer interviews with ChatGPT, even uncovering a missed insight that led to a full product strategy reset
Built an AI Slack bot to flag issues in a new customer-facing tool before they become big problems
And transformed sales enablement and automated documentation using NotebookLM and Claude
02:47 AI Slack Bot for Property Management
03:59 Hackathon Project and Implementation
07:20 Challenges and Solutions in AI Integration
10:19 NotebookLM for Sales Enablement
13:10 AI in Product Strategy and Market Fit
16:52 Pushing AI to Its Limits 17:44 Using ChatGPT for Product Strategy
18:36 Guiding AI for Accurate Market Analysis
20:53 Leveraging Gong and AI for Sales Insights
24:40 Automating Documentation with AI
26:41 Balancing Innovation and Control in AI Adoption
31:36 Outro
LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.
Special Guest: Sierra Hahn-Ventrell.
Growing to 42 Million Users: Audiomack's Growth Playbook | Charlie Kaplan, VP of Product (Audiomack)
22 Jul 2025
00:33:55
Today, we’re talking with Charlie Kaplan, VP of Product at Audiomack about Product Market Fit and how to tell if you’ve got it or not
In this episode, we discuss:
How he drove 50x user growth at Cymbal, and why that still didn’t matter because they lacked strong fit
The story of how he launched Audiomack’s product org and scaled to 42M MAUs, on the back of strong product market fit
How he transformed failed features into new revenue streams—helping Audiomack grow into a platform big enough to host Taylor Swift, Kendrick Lamar, and more
00:00 Introduction
05:23 The Rise and Fall of Cymbal
13:12 Lessons Learned and the Birth of Audio Mac
16:54 Finding Product Market Fit at Audio Mac
28:40 Innovative Growth Strategies and Experiments
35:11 Outro
LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.
Special Guest: Charlie Kaplan.
The 4 Essentials of Killer Product Storytelling | Lanie Schenkelberg, VP of Product Marketing (Inovalon) | LaunchPod
15 Jul 2025
00:32:15
Today, we’re talking with Lanie Schenkelberg, former product manager and current VP of Product Marketing at Inovalon.
In this episode, we discuss:
The 4 essential elements of compelling product storytelling
How to spot weak messaging - and what strong positioning really looks like
How Lanie’s team led a storytelling overhaul that contributed to Inovalon’s growth
00:00 Intro
01:48 The Importance of Messaging and Storytelling in Product
03:01 How to go from Product Management to Marketing
06:10 Understanding the Customer's Big Win
12:45 The Hero Story Format
15:12 The Role of Positioning and Differentiation in Product Marketing
21:23 How Lanie Scaled Positioning at Inovalon
31:29 Outro
LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.
Special Guest: Lanie Schenkelberg.
Designing AI for the ICP That Doesn’t Trust New Tech | Deepti Mehtani, VP, AI (NextGen) | LaunchPod| Deepti Mehtani, VP, Clinical & AI Solutions (NextGen) | LaunchPod
08 Jul 2025
00:33:10
Today, we’re talking with Dr. Deepti Mehtani, VP of Clinical and AI Solutions at NextGen Healthcare.
In this episode, we discuss:
How Dr. Mehtani’s team proved AI can be trusted with sensitive medical data - So why are you avoiding it in your own product?
The key lessons behind NextGen’s AI that turns doctor-patient conversations into medical-grade, accurate, structured data
And how Deepti and her team won over skeptical doctors and turned them into AI champions - saving them hours per day in the process
00:00 Intro
01:04 From Medicine to Tech
03:41 NextGen Healthcare Overview
04:54 AI Solutions for Clinicians
09:17 Patient Summaries and Ambient Assist
18:46 Building Trust in AI
21:12 Data Privacy and Security
27:51 Improving Patient Access
33:10 Cross-Industry Insights
34:56 Conclusion
LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.
Special Guest: Deepti Mehtani.
How to scale $0 to $25M ARR | Michael Park, VP of PM (Buffini & Co) | LaunchPod (Repeat)
01 Jul 2025
00:43:53
Today, our guest is Michael Park, VP of Product and Project Management at Buffini and Company.
In this episode, Jeff talks to Michael about:
His six lessons from scaling product from zero to $25M ARR
The nuance that comes with the “founder mode” discussion
And what a self-imposed sabbatical taught Michael about product leadership.
00:00 Introduction
02:58 The Burden of Digital Inventory and Tech Debt
06:17 The Importance of Focus and Time Management in Product Development
06:48 Challenges and Realities of Product Management Practices
07:37 Michael Park's Sabbatical and Reflections on Product Leadership
13:37 The Value of Consistency and Fundamentals in Product Management
18:25 Hiring for Cultural Fit and Communicating Company Goals
20:47 Transitioning from Founder to Product Leader
27:22 The Role of a Product Leader in Scaling a Business
28:43 The Importance of Founder Involvement
30:45 Balancing Founder Mode and Professional Management
36:19 The Parent-Child Analogy in Business Leadership
41:53 The Debate on Roadmaps: Rigid vs. Squishy
46:32 Product Evangelism and Cross-Functional Collaboration
50:18 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.
Special Guest: Michael Park.
Automating PRDs and Beyond with AI | Roman Gun, VP of Prod. (Zeta Global) | LaunchPod AI
24 Jun 2025
00:29:45
We're excited to kick off a new show focusing on the real-world AI applications that product teams are using to become faster, more efficient, and smarter.
Jeff has been traveling across the country meeting product leaders, and he keeps having the same conversation: every product person wants to know how their peers are using AI in their teams and their workflows.
So we’re bringing you those conversations about how your peers are using AI in their day-to-day to move faster and more efficiently than ever before.
In our first episode, we’re welcoming back Roman Gun, VP of Product at Zeta Global. In this episode, we talk about:
The prompting and workflow orchestrations Roman created to automate writing PRDs, one of the most disliked tasks of product managers, and how he has made them into living, breathing documents that initiate collaboration
The AI communities and platforms he uses, including Reddit and Discord, to stay ahead, learn new tricks, and gain early access to the best new tools
And Magic...not actual magic, but we have a little fun with Roman’s side-project centered around Magic: The Gathering, and how he built tools to prototype new decks and beat players with far more experience
00:25 AI in Action
01:27 Real-World AI Applications
02:41 Community and AI Learning
06:12 Automating PRDs with AI
11:51 Training AI for Better Outputs
14:48 Prototyping with AI Tools
16:03 Generating Baseline Code with AI Tools
16:17 The Power of Prototyping and User Feedback
16:36 Accelerating the Creative Process
18:18 Magic: The Gathering and AI Deck Building
19:28 Challenges and Innovations in AI Deck Building
21:35 Learning and Applying AI in Real Life
25:30 The Future of Junior Roles in Tech
30:21 Final Thoughts and Encouragement
LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.
Special Guest: Roman Gun.
How To Modernize Million-User Products | Kamal Srinivasan, SVP of Product (Alludo) | LaunchPod
17 Jun 2025
00:40:49
Today on the pod, we’re talking with Kamal Srinivasan, SVP of Product Development at Alludo.
In this episode, we discuss:
How CorelDraw was modernized from a legacy desktop tool into an AI-enabled, collaborative SaaS product, including:
The user research approach that balanced less mature users with the needs of long-time power users
And How they utilized AI to power entire workflows, helping all users behave like pros
We also discuss Kamal’s navigation of a major roadmap misalignment with senior leadership, including:
The real negotiation tactics he used to diffuse the initial conflict
And his “squiggly line” framework for balancing near-term revenue with long-term product vision
00:00 Intro
01:56 From PhD to Product Management
02:47 The Value of a PhD in Product Management
05:26 Challenges in Modernizing Legacy Products
06:11 Understanding Vector Graphics Design
09:47 Democratizing Design Tools
16:23 User Feedback and Product Development
19:49 Incorporating AI in Design Software
21:43 Integrating AI into Design Workflows
22:51 Enhancing Productivity with AI
24:15 Proactive Issue Detection with AI
27:21 Understanding Parallels Virtualization
29:50 Challenges and Strategies in Product Development
38:20 Effective Communication and Leadership
41:52 Conclusion and Future Plans
LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.
Today, we’re talking with Mahesh Guruswamy, CPTO at Kickstarter.
In this episode, we discuss:
How daily reflection on hard moments helped him grow as a leader—and led to his widely praised book How to Deliver Bad News and Get Away with It.
How Kickstarter went from “printing money” and experiencing “insane” PMF to plateauing - and how they created urgency and competition to quickly turn it around
The actual process Kickstarter used to activate its creator and backer communities to shape a better UX, build real loyalty, and re-ignite growth
00:00 Intro
01:09 Mahesh's Background and Kickstarter Connection
02:08 The Power of Writing and Self-Reflection
04:28 Publishing a Book: How to Deliver Bad News
05:53 Effective Communication and Feedback
06:46 Navigating Tough Conversations
11:03 Kickstarter's Evolution and Challenges
14:16 Listening to Customers and Adapting
19:36 Navigating Market Shifts and Growth
20:34 Prioritizing Customer Feedback
25:59 Building and Engaging the Community
29:54 Competitive Strategies and Organizational Culture
34:05 Leadership and Legacy
37:03 Conclusion and Future Prospects
LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.
00:00 Introduction to Lauren Schumann
03:09 Transition to E-commerce and PLG
07:15 Joining MailChimp and Early Challenges
09:50 Implementing PLG at MailChimp
13:43 Navigating Organizational Politics
19:03 Improving User Experience at MailChimp
19:26 Defining Key Customer Journey Metrics
20:30 Challenges and Solutions in Email Activation
21:40 Balancing Core Competencies and Expansion
22:59 The Role of AI in Product Management
24:50 Human Touch in the Age of Automation
27:48 Future of AI and Personalization
34:50 Outro
LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.
Special Guest: Lauren Schuman.
How to compete with Apple — and win | Steve Chazin, CEO & Founder (Skytech.io) | LaunchPod (Repeat)
27 May 2025
00:30:30
On today’s repeat episode, our guest is Steve Chazin, CEO & Founder of Skytech.io and formerly VP of Products at Alarm.com.
In this episode, we discuss:
Steve’s experience working at Apple, competing with Final Cut Pro, and his current role at alarm.com
The time he said no to Steve Jobs — and how that pushed his career forward
The importance of user-centered product design and the impact of AI in home security
00:00 Intro
03:05 Reviving Apple: The University Consortium
07:04 The iMac and Think Different Campaign
07:37 Lessons from Steve Jobs
11:35 Competing with Apple: The Avid Story
19:05 Current Role at Alarm.com
21:41 The Future of AI in Home Security
27:15 Advice for Aspiring Technologists
29:49 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.