EP#32 Vindhya C – Unpacking product management, building ‘customer-centric’ products & founder-product manager dynamics

In this episode, Vindhya C, Founder @OnThatJob / Product @Pexels, joins our host Digjay, to talk about her experience as a product consultant with early stage startups, the typical lifecycle of a product & how modern no-code creator tools are changing that, building ‘customer-centric’ products, common missteps by founders at the MVP & product-market-fit stage of a startup, identifying and hiring good product managers & Founder-PM dynamics.

‘OnThatJob’ is a cohort-based learning program that helps people understand the scope of a specific job, especially in the early stages of a startup. Vindhya, popular on Product Twitter as Vindytalks, is known for her blogs on Product Management & consulting early stage startups. She also won Hacker Noon’s PM of the year award in 2019. Prior to joining Pexels, Vindhya worked in various product roles at startups like Loco (Pocket Aces) & Directi. You can connect with her here on Linkedin / Twitter

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Show notes –

1. (03:30) Typical lifecycle of a product; How ‘No-code’ tools have inverted that lifecycle – sharing the end-product first & working backwards to build the product

2. (07:19) Different approaches to build a ‘customer-centric’ product

3. (09:26) Founder missteps at the MVP & PMF stage

4. (12:45) Different roles of a Product Manager; Org structures within startups that can empower product managers

5. (18:57) Strategizing vs actually building the product; When to adopt an experiment & fail fast approach

6. (25:46) When should a founder hire a product manager? Identifying & hiring good product managers

7. (33:10) Founder-PM dynamics; passing over responsibilities

8. (36:53) Rapid fire and closing remarks

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