19 NOV 2019 · There’s 10,000 different ways to do it. But when it comes to setting goals (and prioritizing and measuring them) which way is best? Find out in this episode of Build, where Maggie talks to Rachel Neasham, VP of Product at Lola.com. Before joining the startup world, Rachel was an officer in the U.S. Army. But after four years at West Point, two deployments, and five years in the Army, Rachel was ready for a new challenge and eventually found her way into product management. Maggie and Rachel talk about the things they say are really top of mind for product leaders – like how to go from strategy to individual team goals, how to navigate the balance between being super quantitative with just shipping what makes sense, and how to develop roadmaps. Want to know what Maggie and Rachel say is the the real job of product leaders? Listen to the full episode.

19 NOV 2019 · Marty Cagan is often referred to as the most influential person in the product space. He got his start building products for eBay, AOL and Netscape Communications, and Hewlett-Packard. Now he's a partner at Silicon Valley Product Group where he helps companies create winning product strategies and grow their product organization. Oh, and it just so happens that Marty has been a longtime role model for Build’s host, Maggie Crowley. So in this episode, Maggie and Marty sit down for an epic discussion of all things product management. Some of the topics they cover are: how to really build cross-functional teams, why companies don’t actually operate like their role models, and the real difference between discovery and delivery. And that barely scratches the surface. Want to hear the one piece of advice Marty gives to product managers? Listen to the full episode.

19 NOV 2019 · On this episode of Build, Maggie sits down with Brittany Davis and Bryan Landers from Backstage Capital. Maggie's been in product for a while, and one thing she hears over and over from her peers is that they want to start their own project. So she decided to bring in Brittany and Bryan – two VC pros who are actually out there evaluating and funding startups – to see what their advice is on what makes for a good startup.

19 NOV 2019 · Today on Build, Maggie sits down with Ellen Chisa, CEO and co-founder of Dark, which is making it possible to build an app in a single afternoon. Maggie and Ellen talk through her journey from PM to product leader to founder & CEO. Plus her years of experience at Microsoft, Kickstarter, Lola.com and now her latest venture, Dark. Also on Build, learn how to set up a product team and listen to what Ellen’s reading now, from fiction to the best reads for product leaders.

19 NOV 2019 · On today's episode of Build, Maggie sits down with FYI co-founder Marie Prokopets to talk through how to run seriously effective project post-mortems. Marie explains what they are, why you should be doing them, what you can hope to learn and much more. You'll leave this episode (and your first post-mortem) with tangible takeaways you can use to improve your processes. And hey, they're not just for product people. Post-mortems apply to everyone and everything. So be sure to tune in for more from Maggie and Marie.

19 NOV 2019 · On this episode of #Build, board advisor and Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School, Julia Austin, shares her point of view on what makes a truly great product manager. How does she know? Well years of experience spent as CTO at Digital Ocean and VP of Engineering at VMWare and Akamai. Julia also opens up about her time as a lecturer at Harvard Business School and experience serving as a board advisor to startups including Drift, Wistia, Help Scout, ZappRx and others. Before you go leave a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review and share the pod with your friends! Be sure to check out more insights on the Drift blog at drift.com/blog and find us on Twitter @maggiecrowley, @drift, @seekingwisdomio and @austinfish. In This Episode: 0:09 – Maggie introduces Julia Austin 0:40 – Introduction of the two big topics of today’s show: 1. What is a great product manager, 2. How one builds a carrier in production management 0:57 – Julia shares how she went from production itself to teaching about it 4:23 – Product manager is not a cool CEO position, but it turns ideas into made products and can be very gratifying 5:48 – The process of idea to realization in project management that she teaches in Julia’s class 8:32 – By taking a product management class one can walk through and gain knowledge about the whole process 9:05 – Kinds of people customarily being most successful in product management 16:29 – Julia explains what a ‘typical’ product manager looks like 20:24 – You don’t have to build the most fancy things all the time 21:57 – Sometimes you have to take scary risks 23:20 – What makes a great PM is someone who says ‘I know this is the right thing to do,’ and can make the call 23:28 – Julia shares advice on how one can get their first PM job 26:46 – Advice on how to evaluate the next carrier steps as a PM, and whether to go / remain in a big or a start-up company 35:32 – Julia shares some final pieces of advice 37:21 – Be willing to take risks 38:03 – Don’t be focused on titles, but on what you will actually do

19 NOV 2019 · Today on Build, host Maggie Crowley sits down with Christina Wodtke, author of the legendary book Radical Focus: Achieving Your Most Important Goals with Objectives and Key Results, which Maggie describes as the best book on goal setting – ever. In the episode, Maggie and Christina, dive deep into Christina’s experience in product roles at MySpace, Zynga and Linkedin, her transition out of industry and into academia as a lecturer at Standford, and of course using Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) as a framework for achieving your team and company-wide goals. So if you’re looking to start 2019 off on the right foot, this episode is for you. Before you go leave a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review and share the pod with your friends! Be sure to check out more insights on the Drift blog at drift.com/blog and find us on Twitter @maggiecrowley, @drift, @seekingwisdomio and @cwodtke.

19 NOV 2019 · On this episode of Build, Maggie and special guest Alexa Nguyen from the Drift product team talk about what happens after you write a one pager. At Drift, 'story time' is the next step in the product development cycle. It's where product managers, engineers, and designers get together in one room to outline the problem they're solving and identify any open questions. So the goal of the meeting isn't about coming up with a solution to the problem – it's about empathizing with the user and then creating a list of questions you want to answer afterwards. Want to know Maggie and Alexa's three steps to a successful story time? Listen to the full episode.

19 NOV 2019 · On this episode of Build, Maggie sits down with Melissa Perri, product management and UX expert and author of Escaping the Build Trap: How Effective Product Management Creates Real Value. Maggie and Melissa dive deep and explore what the build trap is and what it means for product managers, plus how product management teams can get out of the build trap and drive real business value – not feature factories. Want to hear Melissa's two best pieces of advice for PMs? Listen to the full episode.

19 NOV 2019 · What works for some product leaders is often so company and culture-specific that it’s hard to see how you can take those best practices and make them work at your own company. So on this episode of Build, Maggie talks to Scott Williamson who is the VP of Product Management at GitLab. Before joining GitLab in 2019, Scott ran product management at SendGrid and CA Technologies, so he’s got first-hand experience developing a product philosophy at one company and then bringing it over to another company. Want to learn how Scott shifted from focusing on features to focusing on problems? Listen to the full episode.