LaunchPod | Product Management Podcast

How is AI changing the game for sports betting? Marty Styles, VP of Product at Pro Football Focus (PFF), visits LaunchPod to share how his team is bringing pro-grade football analytics, trusted by every NFL team, to everyday bettors. Marty shares how his team: Built Key Insights, an AI-powered feature that simplifies 200+ data points per play into actionable betting takeaways Designed the Player Prop Tool, which combines PFF’s grades with market odds to reveal hidden betting edges Used Play Finder and AI-driven film study to transform raw data into instant, searchable insights Positioned PFF as the “Bloomberg Terminal of sports betting”, giving bettors the same edge NFL teams rely on Links LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marty-styles/ PFF: https://www.pff.com/ Chapters 00:00 Introduction 01:46 The Value of PFF's Data 02:14 Transitioning from B2B to B2C 03:17 Understanding the Sports Betting Market 04:38 The Role of AI in PFF's Products 09:00 Simplifying Complex Data for Consumers 10:32 Key Insights and AI Integration 14:20 Ensuring Accuracy and Trust in AI Outputs 17:20 Introducing the Player Prop Tool 19:36 Targeting Intermediate Bettors 22:12 Product Marketing Strategy 25:53 AI and Data Analysis in Betting 29:32 Future of AI in Sports Analytics 33:23 Conclusion Follow LaunchPod on YouTube We have a new YouTube page! Watch full episodes of our interviews with PM leaders and subscribe! What does LogRocket do? LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.Special Guest: Marty Styles.

How do you decide what to build when growth is flattening and you're facing intense competition from free products? When Aleks Bass joined Typeform as Chief Product Officer, she was faced with this exact challenge. In this repeat episode, we cover: The "Feature Constellation" Concept: How combining features can unlock exponential customer value and willingness to pay. Prioritization at Scale: How Typeform used a MaxDiff survey to rank 86 features and find a 75% overlap in what all their user segments wanted. Research-Driven Strategy: The step-by-step process for turning deep customer insights into a clear, actionable product roadmap that aligns the entire company. Identifying Your True ICP: How the research revealed three distinct customer groups and helped Typeform prioritize marketers, who had bigger budgets and a higher willingness to pay for less mature features. Balancing Data and Intuition: Why deep domain expertise is a product manager's superpower and how to use research to bolster, not replace, your gut instinct. Find part two of this episode here: https://youtu.be/iNHArB4q2TU Links LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aleksbass/ Typeform: https://www.typeform.com/ Resources How To Say "Not Yet" To Enterprise | Deepti Mendiratta, VP Of Products (HungerRush) | LaunchPod: https://youtu.be/WHapWGbuS0Q Chapters 00:00 How Combining Features Creates 10x Value 02:26 The Challenge: Flattening Growth & Hyper-Competition at Typeform 04:45 The Danger of "Incrementalization" in a Horizontal Product 07:50 Reigniting Growth with a Customer-Centric Strategy 11:50 The Research Plan: How to Figure Out What to Build, Fast 15:15 The Methodology: Using a MaxDiff Survey to Prioritize 86 Features 19:00 Surprising Discovery: 75% of Features Were Wanted by Everyone 24:30 Why Feature Maturity Matters for Different Personas 33:35 Unlocking Exponential Value with "Feature Constellations" 34:30 Case Study: Why "Video Answers" + "AI Analysis" is a 10x Combination 38:30 How to Use Research to Drive Company-Wide Alignment Follow LaunchPod on YouTube We have a new YouTube page! Watch full episodes of our interviews with PM leaders and subscribe! What does LogRocket do? LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.Special Guest: Aleks Bass.

On today’s episode of LaunchPod AI, we’re talking with Joel Polanco, Senior Hardware Product Manager at Intel’s Edge Computing Group. He’s led dozens of enterprise AI edge deployments and knows exactly what it takes to run AI models locally at scale. In this episode, we discuss: Why AI at the edge will cause a whole new wave of disruption across multiple industries Why moving AI to the edge slashes costs and levels up customer experience And real-world examples of edge AI deployments Joel has seen - from IT assistants to agents that restock store shelves from a single photo Links LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jpolanco/ Intel: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/homepage.html Joel's PM articles on the LogRocket blog: https://blog.logrocket.com/author/joelpolanco/ Chapters 00:00 Introduction 03:32 Retail Applications of Edge AI 04:57 Cost and Implementation Considerations 06:18 Real-World Use Cases and Challenges 12:00 Future of AI and Edge Computing 30:42 Practical Advice for Product Executives 33:46 Conclusion Follow LaunchPod on YouTube We have a new YouTube page! Watch full episodes of our interviews with PM leaders and subscribe! What does LogRocket do? LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.Special Guest: Joel Polanco.

How did an AI agent help 4x the productivity of collections teams? Dave Ruda, VP of Product at Billtrust, visits LaunchPod to share how his team built a collections AI that transformed drudgery work into high-impact outcomes. Dave shares how his team: Reduced average email handling time from 8 minutes to just 2.5 minutes Built an AI agent that categorizes and prioritizes collector workflows to maximize efficiency Designed a “human in the loop” system to ensure trust, personalization, and better customer outcomes Developed a learning loop that adapts to each collector’s voice and scales across email and voice channels Links LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/druda/ Billtrust: https://www.billtrust.com/ Chapters 00:00 Introduction 03:18 Billtrust's AI Journey 05:10 "Human in the Loop" 06:22 Billtrust's FinTech Solutions 09:54 Challenges in Collections 13:04 Agentic Email Functionality and Automating Email Processing 17:19 Building a Learning Loop To Better Understand Customers 19:05 Empowering Product Managers With AI 24:33 AI Governance and Future Prospects 27:39 Concluding Thoughts and Future Plans Follow LaunchPod on YouTube We have a new YouTube page! Watch full episodes of our interviews with PM leaders and subscribe! What does LogRocket do? LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.Special Guest: Dave Ruda.

Why is AI adoption so hard inside companies? Derek Pharr, CPO at Sporcle, joins LaunchPod to reveal the 3 biggest barriers to AI adoption and how he helped his team overcome them. In this episode, you’ll learn how Sporcle: The 3 biggest barriers to AI adoption and how Derek addressed them How Sporcle built a “content intern” with Claude Projects to augment trivia writers and improve user engagement How Derek prototyped, tested, and rejected a doomed product idea in under an hour Links LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/derekpharr/ Sporcle: https://www.sporcle.com/ Resources How Lattice’s PM team built an AI Slack “Intern” | Neha Monga, CPO (Ex-Lattice) | LaunchPod: https://stories.logrocket.com/p/how-lattices-pm-team-built-an-ai Chapters 00:00 Intro 03:17 The 3 Biggest Barriers to AI Adoption 06:35 Building a “Content Intern” with Claude Projects 15:08 Scaling Trivia Creation Without Losing Quality 25:34 Prototyping and Killing a Doomed Idea in Under an Hour 34:15 Lessons for Product Leaders on AI Adoption Follow LaunchPod on YouTube We have a new YouTube page! Watch full episodes of our interviews with PM leaders and subscribe! What does LogRocket do? LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.Special Guest: Derek Pharr.

Today, we’re talking with Zach Heller, VP of Product at Penn Foster Group. In this episode, we discuss: How Penn Foster plans to literally “fill a stadium” with 150,000 graduates by 2029—doubling completion rates to do it Why they shifted focus from acquisition to graduation—and how that’s now driving over 50% of enrollments through word-of-mouth How AI-powered learning tools boosted course completions by 25% in just one year, setting a new record for outcomes Links LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ztheller/ Resources The Hidden Cost of 0.1% Churn | Ken Houseman, VP of Product (Zuora): https://youtu.be/-wDVkPUK104 Chapters 00:00 Doubling Completion Rates & Graduation Goals 02:04 Filling a Stadium: The 150K Graduate Vision 04:09 Fixing the Funnel: Retention Over Acquisition 06:14 Experimentation That Doubled Completion 08:17 B2B vs B2C: Why Completion Rates Drive Revenue 10:19 Word of Mouth as a Growth Engine 12:21 Fail Fast, Learn Faster: Experimentation Mindset 14:24 AI-Powered Learning: Writing Coach Breakthrough 18:00 Human + AI: Scaling Student Support 20:34 Product-Led Growth in EdTech 24:37 Economic Mobility Through Education 26:41 Looking Ahead: Scaling to 150K by 2029 36:56 Final Takeaways: Experimentation at Scale Follow LaunchPod on YouTube We have a new YouTube page! Watch full episodes of our interviews with PM leaders and subscribe! What does LogRocket do? LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.Special Guest: Zach Heller.

Today on LaunchPod, we’re talking with Bret Tushaus, VP of Product at Deltek. In this episode, we discuss: How Deltek built Dela—an AI agent framework powering everything from smart summaries to autonomous accounting Why AI is rewriting the role of Product Management, and what leaders need to know now And how Bret’s team leveled up their AI skills fast — with short, high-impact sprints focused on real tools and real problems Links LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bret-tushaus-b959b56/ Deltek: https://www.deltek.com/en Chapters 00:00 Introduction to AI in Product Management 01:06 Building AI-Powered Solutions at Deltek 03:05 Smart Summaries and Predictive Analytics 08:24 Intelligent Exploration and Conversational Interfaces 17:39 The Future of AI Agents 22:14 Getting Started with AI in Your Team 26:52 Final Thoughts Follow LaunchPod on YouTube We have a new YouTube page! Watch full episodes of our interviews with PM leaders and subscribe! What does LogRocket do? LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.Special Guest: Bret Tushaus.

Today, we’re talking with Prittam Bagani, VP of Product Management at Chargebee, where they have insight into how over 10,000 customers are optimizing their pricing models. In this episode, we discuss: How AI is forcing companies to rethink pricing - and why usage-, outcome-, and agent-based models are the future Why OpenAI made over 100 pricing changes in a single year and what you can learn about agile pricing experimentation from it And how to build the necessary technical and product infrastructure to test pricing models in real-time across millions of users Links LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pbagani/ Chargebee: https://www.chargebee.com/ Chapters 00:00 Introduction 02:25 Pricing Models in the AI Age 06:28 Challenges and Best Practices in Outcome-Based Pricing 18:37 Technical Complexities and Real-Time Pricing Adjustments 22:01 The Power of Timely Upgrades 23:07 Hybrid Pricing Models: The Future 24:57 Complexities in Sales-Led Growth 28:10 Unit Economics and Usage-Based Pricing Follow LaunchPod on YouTube We have a new YouTube page! Watch full episodes of our interviews with PM leaders and subscribe! What does LogRocket do? LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.Special Guest: Prittam Bagani.

On today’s episode of LaunchPod AI, we’re talking with Neha Monga, former Head of Product at Lattice and has led product teams at Meta, Amazon, Expedia, and more In this episode, we discuss: The AI workflows that are table stakes for PMs now—and how to adopt them so you don’t fall behind How Neha’s team used Figma Make + Claude to spin up high-fidelity prototypes, gather customer feedback fast, and slash validation time with design and engineering And the PM “intern” they built inside Slack to instantly surface insights from their massive customer feedback library Links LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nehamo/ Email: mailto:neha.mo@gmail.com/ Website: https://intro.co/NehaMonga Tools ChatGPT: https://chatgpt.com/ Gemini: https://gemini.google.com/ NotebookLM: https://notebooklm.google.com/ Zoom AI: https://www.zoom.com/en/products/ai-assistant/ Granola: https://www.granola.ai/ Clark: https://www.superblocks.com/clark Cursor: https://cursor.com/en Chapters 00:00 Intro 01:31 The Rapid Evolution of AI 02:38 Essential AI Tools for Product Managers 04:04 Choosing the Right AI Tool Stack 05:07 Challenges and Solutions in AI Integration 11:09 Prototyping and AI in Product Development 17:00 The Future of AI in Product Management 19:16 Building Custom AI Solutions 27:20 Conclusion Follow LaunchPod on YouTube We have a new YouTube page! Watch full episodes of our interviews with PM leaders and subscribe! What does LogRocket do? LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.Special Guest: Neha Monga.

Today on LaunchPod, we’re talking with Ken Houseman, VP of Product at Zuora. In this episode, we discuss: Why even a 0.1% increase in churn can cause huge losses, and how to turn retention into a growth engine How Zuora made payments so valuable that customers want to pay more - boosting revenue, margins, and customer retention And how Ken used AI to slash prototyping time and unlock faster, smarter product development Links LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ken-houseman/ Zuora: https://www.zuora.com/ Resources Subscribed: Why the Subscription Model Will Be Your Company's Future - and What to Do About It, by Tien Tzuo: https://www.amazon.com/Subscribed-Subscription-Model-Companys-Future/dp/0525536469 Chapters 00:00 Introduction 01:14 Ken Houseman's Experience 02:45 The Role of Retention in Growth 06:38 Zuora's Approach to Subscription Billing and Payments 10:28 Enhancing Payment Processing with AI 30:57 The Future of AI in Product Management 38:03 Outro Follow LaunchPod on YouTube We have a new YouTube page! Watch full episodes of our interviews with PM leaders and subscribe! What does LogRocket do? LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.Special Guest: Ken Houseman.