Sera Tajima Podcast Scaling Climate Impact: Inside Watershed's Journey to Reduce 500 Mt of Global Emissions
This is Watershed's zero to one journey. From serving tech companies with climate interest to building enterprise-grade solutions for Fortune 500s, Molly Goldberg (Group Product Design Lead, Apps and Foundations) and Tess Hannel (Product Designer, Finance) take us inside this Series C climate tech startup that's tackling global emissions at scale.
Discover how they're helping multinational corporations measure, report, and reduce their carbon footprint with a rigorous approach to data and auditable artifacts. Learn how their design team balances technical complexity with user experience while working toward an ambitious goal of reducing global emissions by 500 megatons—equivalent to Brazil's entire carbon output.
The conversation spans building effective design teams, tackling complex Scope 3 emissions, navigating corporate sustainability requirements, and creating measurable climate impact. Whether you're a founder looking to create impact at scale or a product designer interested in climate tech, this episode reveals valuable insights about building solutions for one of our generation's most pressing challenges.
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Chapters
[00:00:00] The Inspiration to Join a Climate Startup
[00:03:31] How Watershed is Reducing Global Emissions by 500 mt
[00:06:45] Product 0-1 Journey
[00:10:20] Calculate Emissions from Primary Activity Data
[00:12:37] Gathering Scope 3 Emissions as Levers
[00:15:55] How Watershed Found PMF Upmarket
[00:19:22] Key JTBD, Policy, CSRD, ESG
[00:22:15] Joining Climate Tech and Climate Expertise
[00:24:50] Growth Opportunities in Financial Institutions Scope 3.15
[00:27:33] Watershed Design Teams & Customer JTBDs
[00:32:59] Gaps in Data, Support Team, Activation
[00:39:38] Customer Profiles, Reporting, Data, Watershed Customers
[00:48:00] Investment in ESG, Report Authoring
[00:50:13] Future Investment Forecasting & Insurance Risk
[00:52:10] Design Team OKRs
[00:55:54] How to Hire a Great Design Team
[01:00:39] Interviewing and Onboarding at Watershed
[01:01:52] Hiring Designers Interested in Climate
[01:06:33] Measuring Success on Product Usage
[01:09:04] Transition Into Climate Tech With No Background
[01:11:57] Biggest Surprise Working at Watershed
[01:14:55] Lightning Session ⚡️
Where to find Molly & Tess:
Molly Goldberg, Group Product Design Lead, Apps, and Foundations