Episode 222: Designing for Real User Understanding with Dheerja Kaur

Dheerja Kaur, Vice President of Product Management at Robinhood, joins Melissa Perri on the Product Thinking Podcast to discuss her journey from engineering to product leadership. Her experience integrating design and user experience into product development at Robinhood has fostered a culture of ambitious thinking and learning by doing.

Dheerja shares insights into balancing experimentation with strategic objectives and emphasizes the importance of empowering product teams to think big while aligning with organizational vision. Would you like to empower your product teams to think ambitiously while staying aligned with business goals? Don't miss out on Dheerja's insights.

You’ll hear us talk about:

• 07:34 - Defining the Product Manager Role

Dheerja reflects on her transition from software engineering to product management at ESPN and how she navigated the shift from a technical role to a strategic one.

• 13:01 - Coaching without Micromanaging

Dheerja shares strategies on finding the balance between providing guidance to new PMs and allowing them the autonomy to grow, fostering a supportive learning environment.

• 28:09 - Balancing Experimentation with Ambitious Goals

Dheerja discusses how to encourage teams to think big and have a portfolio of bets to achieve ambitious objectives while maintaining a culture of learning and experimentation.

Episode resources:

Dheerja on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dheerja/

Robinhood website: https://robinhood.com/

Check our new course: https://productinstitute.com/p/mastering-product-strategy-overview

Timestamps:

00:00 Coming Up

00:56 Intro

06:29 Dheerja’s journey into product

13:01 Coaching PMs without micromanaging

17:53 Learning Design

22:16 UX In Finance

28:09 Balancing experimentation with ambitious goals

33:32 Proving the business value of great design

38:43 Embracing risk