What does it take to build successful products now? Ezinne & Oji Udezue (co-Authors at ProductMind, ex-CPOs of Calendly, Typeform & WP Engine)

Jun 11, 2025

Oji Udezue and Ezinne Udezue, product management experts and co-authors of 'Building Rocketships,' share insights on navigating the evolving tech landscape. They discuss how AI is transforming collaboration without replacing product managers. The duo emphasizes the necessity of ambition, clarity, and disciplined execution in building world-class products. They also highlight the shift from writing specs to orchestrating systems for better customer outcomes, and the importance of mastering the entire product development arc.

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ADVICE

Ambition Drives World-Class Success

To build world-class companies, start with strong ambition and clearly define your goal to be among the top in your space.
Align your organization's systems and people to this vision to create extraordinary outcomes.

ADVICE

Clarity Transforms Legacy Firms

Clear ambition and purpose can transform legacy or scaled companies even under private equity management.
Align everyone around who you serve and the problem you're solving to focus efforts effectively.

INSIGHT

AI Enables Prototyping in Code

AI doesn't replace product managers but changes collaboration by enabling prototypes as living code instead of documents.
This accelerates iteration and improves clarity across teams when used with discipline.

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What does it mean to build world-class products in the age of AI? In this episode, Randy Silver talks to Ezinne and Oji Udezue, co-authors of Building Rocketships, a playbook for building high-growth companies in today’s fast-evolving tech landscape. Together, they unpack what product looks like now, how AI changes collaboration, and why ambition, clarity, and disciplined execution matter more than ever.

Key takeaways
— Building world-class products starts with clear ambition and choosing big, meaningful problems
— AI isn't replacing PMs, it's changing the way product work gets done—especially in how we collaborate
— Vibe coding enables faster iteration and clearer communication through prototyping in code
— The product manager’s job is to lead teams and help the organisation build the right thing, not just anything
— Clarity, focus, and leadership buy-in are essential to successful transformation, even in legacy organisations
— Product teams need to shift from writing specs to orchestrating systems that drive customer and business outcomes
— Every product person should master the full arc: solving today's problems, helping customers succeed, and spotting future opportunities

Chapters
0:00 The "should PMs code?" debate
1:54 First product roles and how the book came to life
4:49 The mission behind Building Rocketships
7:13 Why the book is for leaders and their partners
10:01 Differences between world-class teams and everyone else
13:35 What ambition really looks like
17:10 How clarity transforms legacy companies
23:10 AI, vibe coding, and the new spec: working prototypes
30:10 Redefining the product team’s role in the AI age
35:02 What skills PMs actually need to thrive now
42:54 The one mistake PMs can't afford to make

Featured Links: Follow Ezinne on LinkedIn | Follow Oji on LinkedIn | ProductMind | Buy their new book 'Building Rocketships: Product Management for High Growth Companies'

Our Hosts
Lily Smith enjoys working as a consultant product manager with early-stage and growing startups and as a mentor to other product managers. She’s currently Chief Product Officer at BBC Maestro, and has spent 13 years in the tech industry working with startups in the SaaS and mobile space. She’s worked on a diverse range of products – leading the product teams through discovery, prototyping, testing and delivery. Lily also founded ProductTank Bristol and runs ProductCamp in Bristol and Bath.

Randy Silver is a Leadership & Product Coach and Consultant. He gets teams unstuck, helping you to supercharge your results. Randy's held interim CPO and Leadership roles at scale-ups and SMEs, advised start-ups, and been Head of Product at HSBC and Sainsbury’s. He participated in Silicon Valley Product Group’s Coaching the Coaches forum, and speaks frequently at conferences and events. You can join one of communities he runs for CPOs (CPO Circles), Product Managers (Product In the {A}ether) and Product Coaches. He’s the author of What Do We Do Now? A Product Manager’s Guide to Strategy in the Time of COVID-19. A recovering music journalist and editor, Randy also launched Amazon’s music stores in the US & UK.