Better Product

Twitter recently announced their rebrand, but don't worry the bird lives on. What can we learn from this iconic product?  In The Minute, Christian invites Meghan Pfeiffer Senior Brand Designer and Product Marketer of Innovatemap to discuss the Twitter rebranding strategy. You’ll hear how to think about product rebrands and how to apply it.

The most likely outcome when launching a startup is failure. How do you know when to try anyway? For Dennis Mortensen, CEO and Founder of x.ai, it’s not the data. It’s not the idea. It’s the pain you’re solving for that will allow you to propel forward,  even when the statistics are stacked against you. As the How to Use Data series continues, he provides the Better Product community with a word of caution to anyone building a data-driven startup. 

Rarely will a person have experienced almost every role in the product life cycle, but this isn’t the case for this featured guest.  In this episode of The Minute, Anna and Christian revisit one of their most unique conversations with entrepreneur and investor Ade Olonoh. When it comes to product, Ade has seen it all from building, overseeing, and is now investing. Hear how ideas come to fruition, and how Ade built Formstack, his first company, in just four weeks.

Often we approach ideas and products without a full understanding of the users. How do we focus on the users first instead of the product?  “You can validate bad ideas done well, but you can't really tell whether the idea itself was good without research.” Christain Beck In the conversation with Marieke McCloskey, Lead UX Researcher at Humu, we break down the misconceptions many founders have about research while sharing ways to maximize its impact earlier in the process.

In this episode, Anna and Christian revisit one of their first episodes with Kyle Lacy, now Chief Marketing Officer for Lessonly. At the time of this recording, he was the VP of Marketing, and he shared how Lessonly’s now pervasive brand came to be.  In today’s The Minute episode, you’ll hear their conversation discussing the role brand played in Lessonly’s ability to differentiate from other software companies.

On this episode of Better Product, Christian and Anna are joined by Kat Kennedy, Chief Experience Officer at Degreed, a learning experience platform that provides a better, smarter, faster way to develop and share your team's skills. As the conversation unfolds, Kat explains why you have to be intentional about what you’re trying to solve and how looking at numbers is never enough. Along the way, you’ll learn how you can use data to create a competitive advantage. To connect with other product professionals and gain exclusive access to additional resources head over to betterproduct.community.

If you’re in the product world, the name Marty Cagan is most likely one you’re familiar with. He’s a pioneer, a leader, and author of INSPIRED. We had him on the show in 2019 and he had a lot to say about product culture, which left Anna and Christian with a lot to talk about right after his interview.  In this Minute episode you’ll hear their conversation discussing what it means to be a real product manager, what it looks like to have a product culture in your organization and how all that translates to impact your company, no matter its size.

Today’s episode is a little different because instead of revisiting the past, we want to highlight something coming up that our listeners might want to know more about.  Today, Tina Hafer of Innovatemap joins Better Product to talk about the upcoming webinar she’s hosting on January 26. The topic is a foundational aspect of product marketing: product hierarchies. Whether you’re thinking about positioning, presentation decks, or even onboarding, product hierarchies can give you a common language and framework to refer to as you figure out how to market and sell your product.  Interested in attending? Go to innovatemap.com/events to sign up.

What we’ve set out to discuss in our newest series is the real power of data. The issue in today’s world isn’t access to data - rather -  it’s this feeling of “more is more.” Yet, the power of data doesn’t come from more. It comes from being able to tell a story with it.  The reality of data is that most people collect it but don’t know what to do with it. What you’ll learn in this series has little to do with collecting data, instead, it’s taking a look at maximizing it and being able to act on it as a result.  Interviews will highlight organizations and people who are doing industry-leading work with data and using it not just to build databases, but to build valuable products. Joining the series is Kat Kennedy from Degreed, Marieke McCloskey from Humu, Dennis Mortenson with x.ai, and Kendra Clarke, Sparks and Honey.  To never miss an episode and gain exclusive access to additional resources head over to betterproduct.community.

What if Masterclass and TikTok had a B2B baby? The result would be Guide, a video-based learning platform focused on bite-sized video content.  In this episode of Better Product LAUNCH, Christian sits down with Tim Salau, CEO and Co-Founder of Guide, for a conversation about why work matters, and the importance of exercising more control over our career. Tim and his team founded Guide as a life-skills training platform for highschool students. Then COVID happened. As the conversation unfolds, you’ll hear how Guide pivoted into an enterprise-focused B2B learning and talent development app.

In this episode of Better Product LAUNCH, Christian and Anna sit down with Todd Olson, CEO and Founder at Pendo, an online tool to help companies drive software adoption. Every product has a handful of “aha” moments–critical activities that justify the product’s existence when the customer experiences meaningful use. For Todd, the key to product-led growth is narrowing the gap between a user’s first exposure to the product and their discovery of that “aha” moment.  In this conversation, you’ll hear Todd discuss the critical element that can make or break your customers’ experience. Todd recently wrote a book titled, The Product-led Organization: Drive Growth By Putting Product at the Center of Your Customer Experience, now available on Amazon or wherever you get books.

In this episode of Better Product LAUNCH, Christian and Anna sit down with Alyson Watson, CEO at Modern Health, the first preventive mental health solution for employers. As a collegiate athlete, Alyson noticed there were coaches available for everything from weight training to nutrition and other physical requirements, but none devoted to mental health. Digging deeper, she discovered a need for a proactive and preventative approach to mental wellbeing, inspiring her to launch Modern Health.   In this conversation, you’ll hear Alyson discuss her mission to make mental healthcare tools accessible to everyone.

The digital product space has been permanently affected by the events of this year. In what ways?  In this episode, we’re diving deep into the changes that are likely to carry over into 2021.  To wrap up this year, Community Manager Ellie McCandless joins this episode of Better Product ON to flip the script on hosts Christian and Anna. As Ellie asks the questions curated from the community, Christian and Anna break down the lessons they’ve learned from our guests and recap their favorite moments hosting Better Product.

Kell Rakowski is the CEO and Founder of Lex, the lo-fi, text-centered social app that connects queer community. In this episode of Better Product LAUNCH, she sits down with Anna to discuss how she went from a photo director to a startup founder. Kell’s fascination with personal ads and lesbian culture were the sparks inspiring her to create a social network dedicated to the queer community. As she shares her passion for creating a special product with a high-quality user experience, you’ll hear how Lex evolved from a vibrant Instagram community to a venture-backed app.

In this episode of Better Product LAUNCH, Christian and Anna sit down with Ariela Safira, Founder and CEO at Real, a venture-backed mental healthcare company based in New York City.  Mental healthcare is full of negative stigma, and people often seek solutions after a traumatic event or as a last resort.  For Ariela and her team, the mission is to not just normalize therapy rather celebrate it. As Ariela shares her passion for improving mental healthcare, you’ll hear how Real integrates empathy, design, and progressive care to build an end-to-end mental healthcare experience.

In this episode of Better Product LAUNCH, Christian and Anna sit down with Andrew Guttormsen, the Co-founder of Circle, the modern community platform for creators.  Many platforms claim to build community, but most are just building an audience focused on the creator. With Circle, the focus is on the members and the interaction. As Andrew shares his story, you’ll hear how building a community differs from an audience, and how integrating a community into your product impacts your customer’s experience.

In this episode of Better Product LAUNCH, Christian and Anna sit down with the founder of Malomo, a shipment tracking platform helping e-commerce brands generate more revenue and loyalty by turning their shipment tracking experience into a marketing channel. As our first guest on the LAUNCH series, Yaw provides a rich perspective unearthing the meaning behind the name while highlighting the importance of the overall brand experience. To register for the speaker series visit betterproduct.community/speaker-series

Instead of only asking the designers to understand the ins and out of the business, when do we ask the business to understand design? In this episode, Alastair Simpson, VP of Design at Dropbox, points out that design leaders are also business leaders, noting what they need to understand about the company to secure a seat at the executive table. He also challenges the notion that it’s a one-way street, opening up the conversation to challenge businesses to understand the impact of design.   To hear from leaders like Alastair while tapping into the power of an interconnected community of product professionals, join betterproduct.community.

Brand is not just a logo, website, or color palette. It’s how your end-user experiences everything related to your company. On this episode, Christian and Anna revisit the highlights from the Product Brand series recapping the most important lessons learned. To engage more with the Better Product community, join our speaker series featuring experts from previous episodes. You can register by going to betterproduct.community/speakerseries 

Blake Bartlett from OpenView Venture Partners has been on the frontlines of this term helping define product-led growth and advocating for product companies to lean into the methodology.  In the conversation with Blake, you can expect to understand the term in more detail while breaking down the barriers for implementation. When it comes to the term product-led growth there are many misconceptions holding product professional back from embracing the approach.  Find out for yourself over the next few episodes as we hone in on what it really means to have product-led growth.  Connect with Christian: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christianmbeck/ Connect with Anna: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anna-eaglin/ Join the Better Product Community: https://betterproduct.community/ Connect with Blake: https://www.linkedin.com/in/blakebartlett/ To register for the speaker series visit betterproduct.community/speaker-series