Product Thinking

In this episode of the Product Thinking podcast, host Melissa Perri is joined by Stephen Bungay, author of The Art of Action and former Director of the Ashridge Strategic Management Centre. Join them as they explore Stephen’s approach to strategy execution. They discuss the common struggles in strategy execution and how to overcome them in your product management team.

Stephen is an author, keynote speaker, teacher, and strategy consultant to some of the world’s leading companies. He is the former Director of the Ashridge Strategic Management Centre, based in London, and was previously the Professor of Stra...

In this episode of the Product Thinking podcast, host Melissa Perri is joined by Margaret Jastrebski, the SVP of Product at Tegus. Join them as they explore what it means to be a leader today. They discuss Margaret’s role at Tegus, the power of alignment within an organization, understanding sales and marketing, and the importance of a vision for execution.

Margaret (MJ) Jastrebski joined Tegus, the Company Intelligence platform for key decision makers, in December 2023. Before this, MJ was the CPO at Stylitics. She has a strong background in multiple product roles at TXI, Caribou, Prodify, and Sh...

In this episode of the Product Thinking podcast, host Melissa Perri is joined by Jacob Morgan, author of “Leading with Vulnerability.” Join them as they explore what it means to be a leader today. They discuss Jacob’s personal journey to vulnerability, balancing vulnerability and competency, the importance of being self aware and many actionables to be a better overall leader.

Jacob is a five-time best selling author, keynote speaker, professionally trained futurist and all-round expert in leadership and the employee experience. Starting his career in marketing strategy and SEO, he has gone onto roles such as the CMO of...

In this episode of the Product Thinking podcast, host Melissa Perri is joined by Alex Wettrelos Chief Product Officer at Sunday. Join them as they explore the challenges of rapid scaling and then descaling during the 2022 tech-crisis. They discuss how Sunday, a fin-tech company innovating payment methods across the hospitality industry, went from an idea on a slide deck to 450 employees with $124 million of seed funding. They also touch on the differences between  product management in Europe & the US.

Alex worked with Sunday for four years. He primarily built and led the product and product design team whilst a...

In this episode of Product Thinking, Aaron Smith joins Melissa Perri. Together, they discuss Aaron’s best practices he learned from his time at Amazon, key leadership principles, creating a culture of accountability, and the destiny creator mindset. 

Aaron is the Chief Product Officer of Pattern in Salt Lake City. He joined Pattern back in 2020, bringing his impressive ecommerce and product credentials with him from some of the world’s most successful customer-centric companies such as Amazon, Grubhub, and Nordstrom. Pattern is a leading global ecommerce accelerator, reaching $1 billion revenue in 2022. They are an AI-driven tech platform that accel...

In this episode of the Product Thinking podcast, host Melissa Perri is joined by Darren Wilson, Chief Product Officer of Soul Machines. Join them as they explore Darren’s journey to CPO of Soul Machines, a company that produces digital humanoids. They discuss the challenges of building digital avatars, keeping up with AI technology, and leveraging user feedback to shape product strategies. 

Darren Wilson has worked at Soul Machines for almost five years. He joined the company to build and scale an entirely new product team, introducing a design-first approach while realigning a Product Engineering team to deliver the...

In this episode of Product Thinking, Matt DiBari joins Melissa Perri to discover the secrets of product management in high growth companies. Together, they discuss effective user research, the different mindsets in B2B & B2C, essential skills in high growth companies, and breaking into product management.

Matt DiBari is Chief Product Officer at SpotHero, over in Chicago. He joined SpotHero in 2019 as VP of Product, bringing more than 15 years of experience as a Product specialist in the world of automotives. At SpotHero, Matt is responsible for product vision and strategy, combining his love of product innovation and...

In this episode of Product Thinking, Mercedes Chatfield-Taylor, Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer at Artico Search, joins Melissa Perri. Together, they discuss navigating the hiring landscape for Chief Product Officers, the importance of technical expertise and commercial acumen in today's market, and what the difference is between a Head of Product and a Chief Product Officer.

Mercedes is a serial investment professional as well as Co-Founder and CEO of Artico Search. She’s a Limited Partner at four investment firms, including B Capital and Next Coast, and is a go-to woman for building teams for the most successful global in...

In this episode of Product Thinking, Tim Armandpour, Chief Technology Officer at PagerDuty, joins Melissa Perri to explore leadership qualities, product & technology roles, their challenges, and the importance of an overarching company vision. They discuss user-centricity, product-market fit, and aligning teams. 

Tim is almost in his ninth year at PagerDuty and has been the CTO since 2022. He’s been working across Product Development his entire career, with particular skills in business operations as well as building and growing stellar teams. 

Tim’s career in Product Development spans over 25 years, from being a Senior Director at Paypal to fou...

In this episode of Product Thinking, Craig Saldanha, Chief Product Officer at Yelp, joins Melissa Perri to explore user research, two-sided marketplaces, and the concept of the flywheel. They discuss future-proofing the business, building customer trust, and Yelp’s importance as a platform for reviews and recommendations. 

Craig has over twelve years experience in product management, with a focus on technology and digital content. He is skilled in product development, strategic planning, market segment analysis, change management and go-to-market strategies.

Craig has been Chief Product Officer for Yelp since 2022. The new product launches he has helmed inc...