The Product Podcast

Jay Lee, the Senior VP of Product at the NBA, shares insights from his journey and his role in transforming how fans engage with basketball. He discusses the challenging yet exciting mission of redesigning the NBA app to enhance global fan experience, including real-time scores and multi-language broadcasts. Jay dives into the innovative use of AI to create engaging narratives from game data, and he highlights the future of sports technology, including virtual reality features that redefine fandom for millions.

Jeetu Patel, Executive Vice President and Chief Product Officer at Cisco, shares his insights on navigating the AI and cybersecurity landscape. He discusses Cisco's bold strategies following the Splunk acquisition, emphasizing the need for customer-centric innovation and collaboration with competitors. Jeetu highlights the significance of integrating AI into product management and tackling modern cybersecurity threats through strategic agility. He also explores the future of AI, focusing on improving modular systems and user experiences, pushing for a shift towards an AI-first approach.

Andrew Davidson, Senior Vice President of Product at MongoDB, shares insights into the company's remarkable growth from an open-source project to a $20B enterprise platform. He discusses the empowerment of developers through AI, enhancing productivity and simplifying complexity. Davidson emphasizes the importance of open-core models to maintain accessibility while adding premium features. He highlights nurturing a culture of continuous learning and collaboration within teams as essential for innovation, and the significance of building a robust partner ecosystem for scalability.

Stephen Hsu, Chief Product Officer at Calendly, shares his journey transforming the platform from a simple scheduling tool to a comprehensive meeting lifecycle solution. He discusses the importance of a customer-centric approach in product development and explores the integration of AI to enhance user experiences. Stephen also emphasizes modular design for adaptability, strong platform integrations, and the critical role of activation metrics in driving customer retention. His insights offer a roadmap for navigating growth in a competitive landscape.

Frank te Pas, Head of Enterprise Product at Perplexity AI and former product leader at Flexport, shares insights on revolutionizing search with AI. He discusses the challenges of integrating AI into existing products and the importance of modular design for flexibility. Frank emphasizes a customer-centric approach to innovation, leveraging AI to enhance user experiences. He also explores trends in the AI landscape, detailing how organizations can effectively transition to an AI-first model and adapt to the rapid tech evolution.

Jessica Hall, Chief Product Officer at Just Eat Takeaway, illustrates her transformative journey in food delivery, steering a global giant that serves over 84 million customers. She discusses the importance of customer-centric innovation, emphasizing adaptability in expanding markets and integrating diverse team cultures post-acquisition. Hall highlights future trends like self-driving cars, AI, and virtual kitchens, while advocating for simplification in processes before automation. Her insights reflect a commitment to enhancing user experience and navigating the evolving landscape of delivery.

Mario Queiroz, Chief Product Officer at Hinge Health and former VP at Google known for co-inventing Chromecast, shares his fascinating journey from tech to healthcare. He discusses the innovative fusion of hardware with software that led to the creation of Chromecast. Mario also elaborates on how Hinge Health is revolutionizing chronic pain treatment through personalized AI solutions. He emphasizes the critical need to align product success with patient outcomes and navigates the complexities of scaling healthcare innovations.

Vinod Suresh, US Chief Product Officer at GoDaddy, shares his remarkable journey of adaptability, having attended 13 schools. He emphasizes the importance of lifelong learning and effective time management in shaping his leadership. Vinod discusses GoDaddy’s Entrepreneur's Wheel, designed to assist small businesses in establishing a digital presence. He shares insights on creating a connected ecosystem through seamless product integration and reveals how GoDaddy fosters innovation through a culture of experimentation and the innovative 'Aero' initiative.

Tom Wang, the Chief Product Officer at Turo, shares insights from his journey in scaling Turo into a billion-dollar peer-to-peer car-sharing marketplace. He discusses the significance of creating emotional connections with customers through unique vehicle offerings. Tom emphasizes the role of AI in driving product innovation and how vital high-quality hosts are for marketplace success. Additionally, he highlights the importance of customer feedback in refining product strategies and developing a culture of collaboration within the product team.

In this episode, of The Product Podcast, we chat with Tomer London,Co-founder and Chief Product Officer of Gusto, the leading HR platform for small and medium-sized businesses in the US. Tomer shares his journey from coding his first inventory management system for his dad’s clothing store as a teenager to building Gusto into a comprehensive payroll and HR platform serving over 300,000 small businesses. He opens up about the challenges of evolving his role as CPO, transitioning from hands-on coding to building product teams, and scaling the company while staying deeply customer-focused.In this episode, Tomer dives into the importance of embedding compliance into the core of Gusto’s product, why he believes product management should be data-aware but not data-dependent, and how he fosters a culture of intuition-driven decision-making. He also shares how Gusto integrates AI to streamline processes, from payroll automation to enhancing customer support, all while maintaining the human touch that defines their success. CONTENT(00:19) 🌱 Early Beginnings: Building Software for a Small Business (03:33) 💪🏽 From Engineer to Product Leader(04:45) 👨🏽‍⚖️ The Importance of Compliance in Small Business Solutions(11:00) ⚖️ Balancing Data and Intuition in Product Management(20:26) 💥 Gusto's Product Expansion Strategy (35:51) 🤖 AI and Human Touch in Customer Experience KEY TAKEAWAYS👇:Customer-Centric Product Development: Tomer emphasizes that listening to customers and addressing their pain points is the foundation for building successful products. Gusto's focus on helping small businesses manage compliance and payroll seamlessly has driven its product-market fit.Data-Aware, Not Data-Dependent: Tomer believes that while data is important, product managers should balance it with intuition built from direct customer interactions. This approach ensures that products are not just functional but deeply aligned with user needs.Scaling with AI & Human Touch: Gusto’s innovative use of AI enhances internal efficiency and customer service. Tomer shares how AI-driven features like automated data entry make life easier for users, while maintaining personal connections through exceptional customer support.FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL:- Follow our Podcast on Tik Tok here- Follow Product School on LinkedIn here- Join Product School's free events here - Find out more about Product School hereBROUGHT TO YOU BY:Eppo, the next-generation A/B testing and feature management platform built for modern growth teams by alums of Airbnb and Stitch Fix. Visit their website https://www.geteppo.com/, and 10x your experiment velocity.CREDITS:Host: Carlos Gonzalez de VillaumbrosiaGuest: Tomer London