Welcome to the Great Life Experiment Podcast! Join me, your host Monique Schafer - as we grapple with the messy and beautiful, and ever-changing world of our personal and professional lives, and the business world around us. There is no one right way. Let’s experiment together.
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Welcome to the Great Life Experiment Podcast! Join me, your host Monique Schafer - as we grapple with the messy and beautiful, and ever-changing world of our personal and professional lives, and the business world around us. There is no one right way. Let’s experiment together.
#35 How Great Product Leaders Think: Navigating the Future of Product Management ft. Ravi Mehta
Great Life Experiment Podcast
53 minutes
4 weeks ago
#35 How Great Product Leaders Think: Navigating the Future of Product Management ft. Ravi Mehta
Product leadership has always been about navigating complexity - people, priorities, and pressure to deliver. But in a world being reshaped by AI, where change is faster than our ability to process it, the real challenge isn’t what we do, it’s how we think.
In this episode, Monique sits down with Ravi Mehta, one of the most respected voices in modern product leadership. Ravi has served as Chief Product Officer at Tinder, Product Director at Facebook, and VP of Consumer Products at TripAdvisor, where he led large-scale teams and helped drive billion-dollar growth. Today, he is a hands-on advisor to fast-growing consumer and AI startups and the co-creator of Reforge’s Product Leadership and AI Strategy Programs, where he teaches the frameworks that help leaders scale themselves, not just their products.
Together, Monique and Ravi unpack the mental frameworks behind exceptional product leadership and how to build systems that think, not just teams that execute. They explore the necessity of self-promotion, the balance between speed and quality in decision-making, and the ethical considerations surrounding AI. Ravi shares insights on recognizing when to transition in one’s career and the significance of aligning strategic goals with customer value. This is a conversation for anyone redefining what great leadership means and how to think like the kind of leader the future will need.
Timestamps:
(05:53) - Why Product Leadership Needs Its Own Playbook
(11:02) - Navigating Career Transitions
(14:03) - AI’s Impact on Product Management
(20:39) - Understanding Customer Needs
(22:59) - The Escalator Analogy in Career Progression
(25:56) - The “Impact = Environment × Skills” framework for career clarity
(28:37) - The Power of Frameworks
(32:01) - Recognition and Impact in Organizations
(33:57) - Self-Promotion as an Act of Service
(36:34) - Velocity vs Latency in Decision-Making
(43:59) - Strategic Goal Setting: Why Goals Are Not A Strategy
(51:23) - Ravi’s message to every product leader navigating AI change
Connect with Ravi:
• Website | https://www.ravi-mehta.com/
• LinkedIn | https://www.linkedin.com/in/ravimehta/
Connect with Monique:
• Website | https://www.thegreatlifeexperimentpodcast.com/
• Instagram - thegreatlifeexperiment_podcast | https://www.instagram.com/thegreatlifeexperiment_podcast
• Instagram - @itsmoniqueschafer | https://www.instagram.com/itsmoniqueschafer
• YouTube | https://www.youtube.com/@GreatLifeExperiment
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Great Life Experiment Podcast
Welcome to the Great Life Experiment Podcast! Join me, your host Monique Schafer - as we grapple with the messy and beautiful, and ever-changing world of our personal and professional lives, and the business world around us. There is no one right way. Let’s experiment together.