EP 341 - Pendo CEO on a Decade of Data-Driven Innovation and Differentiation
Nov 1, 2023
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Pendo CEO shares insights on data-driven innovation, auto-instrumentation, and approachable analytics. Todd discusses prioritizing differentiation over customer requests and leveraging emerging technologies. The podcast also emphasizes the importance of speed, strong opinions, and continuous innovation for product management.
Pendo.io emphasizes the importance of personalization and delivering unique product experiences that cater to individual user needs.
Todd Olson highlights the significance of speed and the need to move fast as a young company, taking advantage of the agility that startups have to stay ahead of the competition.
Deep dives
Pendo.io: A Comprehensive Platform for Product Management
Pendo.io is a 10-year-old product management platform that helps companies deliver great user experiences and drive engagement. The platform offers a comprehensive set of features, including strong product data analytics, in-product messaging, MPS scores, roadmapping, and idea management. Pendo.io aims to go beyond just building software at scale to ensuring that people are getting value out of it. The platform captures both quantitative and qualitative data to provide insights and support decision-making. Pendo.io's unique selling propositions include the ability to install it with limited to no development work, retroactive analytics, and a broad range of capabilities that make it a system of engagement for product. The platform is suitable for companies of all sizes, from startups to large organizations, across various industries, including B2B SaaS, financial services, healthcare, and even traditional market sectors. Pendo.io emphasizes the importance of personalization, delivering unique and differentiated product experiences that cater to individual user needs.
Creating Unique and Differentiated Products
Todd Olson, the CEO and founder of Pendo.io, emphasizes the importance of having a unique and differentiated product. He believes that great products are the result of having strong opinions and taking risks as a product manager. Todd encourages product managers to challenge the status quo, iterate quickly, and push for innovative ideas that go beyond what customers directly ask for. He believes that the best products are often the ones that offer something unexpected and deliver value in ways users didn't anticipate. Todd also highlights the significance of speed and the need to move fast as a young company, taking advantage of the agility that startups have to stay ahead of the competition.
The Role of Product Management and Building Influence
Todd emphasizes that product management is a sphere of influence role rather than a management position with direct reports. Product managers need to be effective influencers and bridge the gap between different teams and stakeholders. He recommends that aspiring product managers have an entrepreneurial mindset and exhibit tech fluency. Todd suggests assessing a candidate's ability to challenge assumptions, negotiate with engineering teams, and fight for the right features. He believes that a product manager's strength lies in their ability to influence and provide a unique vision for the product that pushes against existing norms and expectations.
AI and Innovation in Product Management
Todd discusses the growing role of AI in product management and the potential it holds for optimizing product experiences. He mentions Pendo.io's efforts to leverage product data to train AI models and provide insights for product managers. Todd expresses excitement about recent advancements in natural language generation and how open AI models like chat GPT have catalyzed interest in AI among product teams. He highlights the opportunities AI presents for personalization, customer engagement, and speeding up innovation. Todd notes that AI-related technology trends are experiencing growth despite the overall decline in tech markets and venture funding.
What is the role of data-driven innovation and differentiation in building great products? In this podcast episode, Nacho Andrade meets with Pendo CEO and Co-Founder Todd Olson to discuss lessons learned from building a product analytics platform over 10 years. Todd shares how Pendo has challenged conventions through its vision of comprehensive data collection and personalized insights. Listeners will learn how focusing on auto-instrumentation, broad capabilities, and approachable analytics has served customers across industries. Todd also discusses how constantly negotiating timelines and prioritizing differentiation over customer requests has fueled Pendo's growth. The discussion provides actionable advice for product thinkers on leveraging emerging technologies, influencing teams, and using speed and opinions to deliver unique value to users.
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