LaunchPod | Product Management Podcast

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.

Today on LaunchPod AI, we’re talking with Sierra Hahn-Ventrell, Director of Product Management at Apartment List. In this episode, we discuss how they: Analyze customer interviews with ChatGPT, even uncovering a missed insight that led to a full product strategy reset Built an AI Slack bot to flag issues in a new customer-facing tool before they become big problems And transformed sales enablement and automated documentation using NotebookLM and Claude Links LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shahnventrell/ Apartment List: https://www.apartmentlist.com/ Tools ChatGPT: https://chatgpt.com/ Gemini: https://gemini.google.com/ Claude: https://claude.ai/ NotebookLM: https://notebooklm.google.com/ Storylane: https://www.storylane.io/ Chapters 00:00 Introduction 02:47 AI Slack Bot for Property Management 03:59 Hackathon Project and Implementation 07:20 Challenges and Solutions in AI Integration 10:19 NotebookLM for Sales Enablement 13:10 AI in Product Strategy and Market Fit 16:52 Pushing AI to Its Limits 17:44 Using ChatGPT for Product Strategy 18:36 Guiding AI for Accurate Market Analysis 20:53 Leveraging Gong and AI for Sales Insights 24:40 Automating Documentation with AI 26:41 Balancing Innovation and Control in AI Adoption 31:36 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: Sierra Hahn-Ventrell.

Today, we’re talking with Charlie Kaplan, VP of Product at Audiomack about Product Market Fit and how to tell if you’ve got it or not In this episode, we discuss: How he drove 50x user growth at Cymbal, and why that still didn’t matter because they lacked strong fit The story of how he launched Audiomack’s product org and scaled to 42M MAUs, on the back of strong product market fit How he transformed failed features into new revenue streams—helping Audiomack grow into a platform big enough to host Taylor Swift, Kendrick Lamar, and more Links LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charliekaplan/ Audiomack: https://audiomack.com/ Resources The Lean Startup, by Eric Rise: https://theleanstartup.com/ Chapters 00:00 Introduction 05:23 The Rise and Fall of Cymbal 13:12 Lessons Learned and the Birth of Audio Mac 16:54 Finding Product Market Fit at Audio Mac 28:40 Innovative Growth Strategies and Experiments 35:11 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: Charlie Kaplan.

Today, we’re talking with Lanie Schenkelberg, former product manager and current VP of Product Marketing at Inovalon. In this episode, we discuss: The 4 essential elements of compelling product storytelling How to spot weak messaging - and what strong positioning really looks like How Lanie’s team led a storytelling overhaul that contributed to Inovalon’s growth Links LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laineschenkelberg/ Inovalon: https://www.inovalon.com/ Resources Make it Punchy, By Emma Stratton: https://punchy.co/make-it-punchy-book/ Obviously Awesome Positioning, April Dunford: https://www.amazon.com/Obviously-Awesome-Product-Positioning-Customers/dp/1999023005 Chapters 00:00 Intro 01:48 The Importance of Messaging and Storytelling in Product 03:01 How to go from Product Management to Marketing 06:10 Understanding the Customer's Big Win 12:45 The Hero Story Format 15:12 The Role of Positioning and Differentiation in Product Marketing 21:23 How Lanie Scaled Positioning at Inovalon 31:29 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: Lanie Schenkelberg.

Today, we’re talking with Dr. Deepti Mehtani, VP of Clinical and AI Solutions at NextGen Healthcare. In this episode, we discuss: How Dr. Mehtani’s team proved AI can be trusted with sensitive medical data - So why are you avoiding it in your own product? The key lessons behind NextGen’s AI that turns doctor-patient conversations into medical-grade, accurate, structured data And how Deepti and her team won over skeptical doctors and turned them into AI champions - saving them hours per day in the process Links LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drdeeptimehtani/ NextGen Healthcare: https://www.nextgen.com/ Resources Spotlight Interview: https://blog.logrocket.com/product-management/leader-spotlight-deepti-mehtani/ How To Say "Not Yet" To Enterprise | Deepti Mendiratta, VP Of Products (HungerRush) | LaunchPod: https://youtu.be/WHapWGbuS0Q Chapters 00:00 Intro 01:04 From Medicine to Tech 03:41 NextGen Healthcare Overview 04:54 AI Solutions for Clinicians 09:17 Patient Summaries and Ambient Assist 18:46 Building Trust in AI 21:12 Data Privacy and Security 27:51 Improving Patient Access 33:10 Cross-Industry Insights 34:56 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: Deepti Mehtani.

Today, our guest is Michael Park, VP of Product and Project Management at Buffini and Company. In this episode, Jeff talks to Michael about: His six lessons from scaling product from zero to $25M ARR The nuance that comes with the “founder mode” discussion And what a self-imposed sabbatical taught Michael about product leadership. Links LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gotothepark/ Resources Spotlight Interview: https://blog.logrocket.com/product-management/leader-spotlight-michael-park/ Chapters 00:00 Introduction 02:58 The Burden of Digital Inventory and Tech Debt 06:17 The Importance of Focus and Time Management in Product Development 06:48 Challenges and Realities of Product Management Practices 07:37 Michael Park's Sabbatical and Reflections on Product Leadership 13:37 The Value of Consistency and Fundamentals in Product Management 18:25 Hiring for Cultural Fit and Communicating Company Goals 20:47 Transitioning from Founder to Product Leader 27:22 The Role of a Product Leader in Scaling a Business 28:43 The Importance of Founder Involvement 30:45 Balancing Founder Mode and Professional Management 36:19 The Parent-Child Analogy in Business Leadership 41:53 The Debate on Roadmaps: Rigid vs. Squishy 46:32 Product Evangelism and Cross-Functional Collaboration 50:18 Conclusion and 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: Michael Park.