
Global Product Management Talk
#ProdMgmtTalk Professionals forwarding the movement for product excellence by design. Discussions about the art, craft and discipline required for products that contribute value. All aspects of customer development, user experience, product innovation, design, development, marketing and scaling. @ProdMgmtTalk Founded by @CindyFSolomon talking with thought leaders from Silicon Valley and beyond. @StartupProduct @ProductSummit Syndicating The Everyday Innovator with Chad McAllister.
Latest episodes

Sep 26, 2017 • 41min
TEI 143: Organization performance improvement for product managers
Global Product Management Talk is pleased to bring you the next episode of...
The Everyday Innovator with host Chad McAllister, PhD.
The podcast is all about helping people involved in innovation and managing products become more successful, grow their careers, and STANDOUT from their peers.
About the Episode:
Product management is the economic engine of society. It drives value creation. Without products, whether they be a tangible item like consumer goods, such as toothpaste, a service such as Uber, a checking account, or any other product form, the economic system we enjoy would not exist. It is through innovation — the creation of new products — that value is created for customers and for organizations. Because of that, your role contributing to product and innovation is vital to not just your organization but to society.
While your role is critical in this value creation, it also gives you unique insights into your organization — insights that equip you for an even larger role if you wish. This role is creating a more valuable organization. You can go from building better products to building a better organization. Phrases like organizational improvement, performance improvement, quality management, and performance excellence are used to describe such transformations.
My guest has been helping organizations make performance improvements for many years. He seeks to inspire and lead people and organizations to achieve organizational excellence. And don’t think this is just about improving the bottom line — organizational excellence is creating a positive work environment along with being a responsible contributor to the community. His name is Adam Cohen. I hope you enjoy the discussion and learning how product managers and innovators can have a larger role in organizational performance.

Sep 19, 2017 • 41min
TEI 142: Platforms and innovation for product managers
Global Product Management Talk is pleased to bring you the next episode of...
The Everyday Innovator with host Chad McAllister, PhD.
The podcast is all about helping people involved in innovation and managing products become more successful, grow their careers, and STANDOUT from their peers.
About the Episode: This episode focuses on platforms — a topic I haven’t discussed yet on this podcast. An effective platform strategy is important for growing organizations as well as those that are starting. There are different perspectives on platforms and this interview primarily explores digital platforms.
My guest is Larry Keeley, a strategist who has worked for over three decades to develop effective innovation methods, based in science and analytics. He is President and co-founder of Doblin Inc, an innovation strategy firm known for pioneering comprehensive innovation systems that materially improve innovation success rates and innovation return on investment. Doblin is now a unit of Deloitte Digital.
Larry is also the author of the book Ten Types of Innovation, the Discipline of Building Breakthroughs, which you’ll hear us talk about towards the end of the interview.

Sep 12, 2017 • 38min
TEI 141: How product managers can better lead change
Global Product Management Talk is pleased to bring you the next episode of...
The Everyday Innovator with host Chad McAllister, PhD.
The podcast is all about helping people involved in innovation and managing products become more successful, grow their careers, and STANDOUT from their peers.
About the Episode:
Our work is the work of innovation. A few years ago I heard the word innovation expressed as in-a-new-way. It’s a helpful phrase to remember that the very nature of innovation means doing something new — something we have not done before — something in-a-new-way. This puts us at the center of change. The very nature of our work as product managers and innovators is change.
We often need to help others we work with understand why change is required. It is a skill we can learn and my quest calls it Change Intelligence. She wrote the book on the topic, Change Intelligence: Use the Power of CQ to Lead Change That Sticks. She coaches business leaders, teams, and product managers to effectively lead change in their organizations. She is also a highly sought-after speaker for leadership and change keynotes all over the world. Her name is Barbara Trautlein.
There are three primary change styles. Listen to identify your individual change style and how you can more effectively work with others who have different styles.

Sep 5, 2017 • 36min
TEI 140: Market validation in 3 steps – with Bryan Elanko
Global Product Management Talk is pleased to bring you the next episode of...
The Everyday Innovator with host Chad McAllister, PhD.
The podcast is all about helping people involved in innovation and managing products become more successful, grow their careers, and STANDOUT from their peers.
About the Episode: Creating a successful product requires a diverse set of skills and one of them is properly validating a product concept. One form of this is market validation — understanding what a market segment values in the form of a product that solves a meaningful problem.
To explore the steps for conducting market validation, I spoke with Bryan Elanko, who works on strategic planning and commercialization initiatives for National Oilwell Varco. Bryan has worked in the oil and gas industry for almost ten years across various design, engineering, and management roles. In one of these roles, he implemented NPD systems to drive increased collaboration and innovation, which makes him a great guest for you, the Everyday Innovator. I hope you enjoy the discussion.

Aug 29, 2017 • 36min
TEI 139: Crisis management for product managers – with Jim Parham
Global Product Management Talk is pleased to bring you the next episode of...
The Everyday Innovator with host Chad McAllister, PhD.
The podcast is all about helping people involved in innovation and managing products become more successful, grow their careers, and STANDOUT from their peers.
About the Episode: The topic of this episode is crisis management — meaning a crisis that threatens the reputation of a brand or product. When a crisis happens that involves a product, the product manager is expected to help with the issues. Also, as you take on more leadership responsibilities, it becomes more likely, if a crisis occurs, that you’ll be part of the team helping to manage the problem. No organization wants to be in a crisis, but when it happens, people who know how to respond are highly valued.
To learn more about managing a crisis, I spoke with Jim Parham. Jim is the Chief Operating Officer at Hirons, an advertising and public relations company based in Indianapolis. He is also a lead Crisis Communication Manager and fondly known by customers and employees as the Professor, in part for his deep thinking as well for teaching part-time at Indiana University. He brings a background in journalism and senior leadership of large organizations, including serving as VP of Marketing.
I hope you are not involved in a crisis management situation, but when it happens, knowing what Jim shares will help you be proactive instead of reactive.

Aug 22, 2017 • 40min
TEI 138: The science behind success for product managers
Global Product Management Talk is pleased to bring you the next episode of...
The Everyday Innovator with host Chad McAllister, PhD.
The podcast is all about helping people involved in innovation and managing products become more successful, grow their careers, and STANDOUT from their peers.
About the Episode: Much of the advice we’ve been told about being successful as a product manager and innovator is logical, earnest… and downright wrong. My guest, Eric Barker, explores the science of success. In his book, Barking Up the Wrong Tree, Eric reveals the science behind what actually determines success and—most important—how you can achieve it. Eric also has a popular blog by the same name as his book, Barking Up the Wrong Tree, that also shares science-based answers and expert insight on how to be successful.
Much of the insights can be summarized as:
Know yourself and pick the right pond.
This means knowing your strengths and working in an environment where you can frequently use your strengths. This and more is summarized below and discussed in the interview.

Aug 14, 2017 • 39min
TEI 137: How product managers look & sound like leaders
Global Product Management Talk is pleased to bring you the next episode of...
The Everyday Innovator with host Chad McAllister, PhD.
The podcast is all about helping people involved in innovation and managing products become more successful, grow their careers, and STANDOUT from their peers.
About the Episode: Have you noticed leaders in your organization sound and look different from other employees? It’s not always true for all organizations, but leaders often talk differently — they are optimistic when they speak, they ask insightful questions, and they tend to focus on what is most important.
To explore the topic of what leaders sound like – also known as, how to talk like a leader, I spoke with Tom Henschel, a professional actor who is now an executive coach. He works with clients primarily on achieving the look and sound of leadership. He’s a communication skills coach and has been running his company, Essential Communications, since 1990.
Before that, Tom got his start as a professional actor after attending The Juilliard School and going on to perform in over a hundred plays and episodes of television. He was also a successful director and university teacher.
He also has a monthly podcast, “The Look & Sound of Leadership,” which is a permanent member of the “What’s Hot” business podcast section on iTunes.

Aug 8, 2017 • 41min
TEI 136: Improving organizations with Design Thinking and Positive Change Leader
Global Product Management Talk is pleased to bring you the next episode of...
The Everyday Innovator with host Chad McAllister, PhD.
The podcast is all about helping people involved in innovation and managing products become more successful, grow their careers, and STANDOUT from their peers.
About the Episode:
This podast is your home for making your move from product manager to Product Master so you can BEAT the competition. There are four levels, which spell BEAT, toward product mastery — Build your base, Earn professional certification, Apply deep dives, and Transform the organization. The fourth level — transform the organization — is the topic of this episode. At this level, product managers go from building better products to building a better organization. This is a role product managers are uniquely equipped for and are the best resource for organizations that truly want to improve.
Someone who has helped several organizations be better, specifically those in health care, is Dr. Gene Beyt. Gene is a medical doctor who now works with organizations as a healthcare designer, educator, artist, and creative director. He has a simple mission — to put human needs and well-being at the center of all that we do.

Aug 1, 2017 • 52min
TEI 135: The essential 4-step product innovation process based on Design Thinkin
Global Product Management Talk is pleased to bring you the next episode of...
The Everyday Innovator with host Chad McAllister, PhD.
The podcast is all about helping people involved in innovation and managing products become more successful, grow their careers, and STANDOUT from their peers.
About the Episode: I love hearing how companies are creating successful products that provide customers value, which is the topic of this episode. Gordon Stannis, the Director of Design and Strategy at Twisthink shares their approach to developing innovative solutions for their Fortune 500 clients. Gordon started his work as an industrial designer and then moved into product development and management roles.
We discuss the process Gordon uses for creating innovative products, and he shares the product journey of a tool for competitive swim coaches as an example of the process.

Jul 25, 2017 • 48min
TEI 134: 4 steps for building an innovation ecosystem- with Dave Oventhal, DBA
Global Product Management Talk is pleased to bring you the next episode of...
The Everyday Innovator with host Chad McAllister, PhD.
The podcast is all about helping people involved in innovation and managing products become more successful, grow their careers, and STANDOUT from their peers.
About the Episode: My discussion is with Dave Oventhal, who has spent over twenty years in various product development and marketing positions, including product planner, product marketing manager, and product manager, and has led product management teams in various industries. He has extensive experience conducting qualitative and quantitative research and has been directly involved in hundreds of product development projects. He has served as a chapter president for the Product Development and Management Association (PDMA) — an organization I also recommend to product managers. And, he has a doctorate in business administration with an emphasis in strategy and innovation.