Senior Director of Product Shows You How To Stand Out and Earn Trust as a Product Manager

How do you get your first win fast as a new Product Manager, without betting your credibility on a 6-month project?

In this episode of the Intentional Product Manager Podcast, Shobhit Chugh sits down with Kunal Thadani, Senior Director of Product at Houzz to break down how product managers can stand out in their careers by earning trust fast, tying work to business outcomes, and prioritizing speed of execution over perfection. 

Kunal shares a repeatable approach for landing early wins, including building a simple revenue equation, dogfooding the product, and focusing on low-lift, high-impact optimizations before building anything new. 

They also talk about the Litmus Framework, a prioritization method that combines napkin math, resourcing cost, risk to existing revenue, and executive buy-in to increase decision quality and move faster with confidence. 

If you’re looking to win fast, build trust early, and stop betting your credibility on big ideas, this episode is for you.

Highlights:

00:00 Introduction and Podcast Overview
00:27 Guest Introduction: Kunal Thadani
01:08 Warm-Up Questions and Early Career Advice
02:49 Understanding Product Management Misconceptions
05:15 Effective Product Management Practices
06:50 Achieving Your First Big Win as a Product Manager
12:52 Case Studies: High Impact Wins
22:56 Introducing the Litmus Framework
25:21 Applying the Litmus Framework: Examples and Benefits
33:42 Fun Questions and Contrarian Beliefs
36:24 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Connect with Shobhit Chugh on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/shobhitchugh/

Connect with Kunal Thadani on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/kunal-thadani-72a13722/

Follow Kunal's newsletter here: https://www.insidergrowthhq.com/

www.intentionalproductmanager.com