The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

20 Product: Robinhood CPO on The 3 Stages of Product Management, How to Structure and Execute Great Product Reviews, The Secret to Building a World-Class Hiring Funnel in Product Team Building with Aparna Chennapragada

Apr 20, 2022

Aparna Chennapragada, Chief Product Officer at Robinhood and former VP at Google, shares her extensive experience in product management. She explains the three stages of product management: solve, scale, and sustain. Aparna dives into effective customer discovery, emphasizing critical questions and common pitfalls. She offers insights on structuring a hiring process for product teams, identifying red flags, and fostering an innovative culture. Her blend of analytical and creative approaches reveals the art and science behind successful product development.

40:27

Creator website

Episode guests

Aparna Chennapragada

AI Chapters

Episode notes

Intro

3min

From Academic Roots to Product Management: A Journey Through Google's Evolution

3min

Navigating the Intersection of Art and Science in Product Management

3min

Balancing Customer Insights and Intuition in Product Management

2min

Hiring and Onboarding Product Managers

11min

Navigating Employee Performance and Product Reviews

16min

Enhancing Team Collaboration and Product Development with Innovative Tools

3min

Aparna Chennapragada is Chief Product Officer @ Robinhood, the company revolutionizing consumer finance with commission-free investing, and tools to help shape your financial future. As for Aparna, prior to Robinhood, she spent an incredible 12 years at Google, most recently as VP and GM for Consumer Shopping and also as the lead AR and Visual Search products. Aparna is also an active angel investor with a portfolio including Khatabook, Statsig and On Deck to name a few. If that was not enough, Aparna is also a board member at Capital One.

In Today’s Episode with Aparna Chennapragada You Will Learn:

1.) Origins in Product:

How Aparna made her way into the world of product and product management?
What were Aparna's biggest takeaways from her 12 years at Google?
What does product management mean to Arpana today?

2.) Customer Discovery: 101

What are the 3 different stages of product management?
What does great customer discovery look like?
What are the best questions to ask? How should one dig deeper?
Where do so many make mistakes in customer discovery?
What should product people take from the answers? What should they disregard?

3.) The Hiring Process:

How should founders breakdown the process of hiring for their first in product?
What does the interview process look like? How should founders structure it?
What core questions should teams ask of prospective candidates?
What are red flags when interviewing potential product hires?
What literal tests and case studies can founders do to test the quality of candidates?

4.) The Onboarding Process:

How should founders structure the onboarding process for new product hires?
What can founders do to make PMs successful in their first 30 days?
Where do many product hires make the biggest mistakes in the first 30 days?
What can product hires do to build trust with their new team?

Items Mentioned in Today's Episode with Aparna Chennapragada

Aparna's Fave Resource: Shishir's Executive Onboarding

Remember Everything You Learn from Podcasts

Save insights instantly, chat with episodes, and build lasting knowledge - all powered by AI.