What’s it really like to make a hard call inside a global bank? Peter Bailey, Product Director at J.P. Morgan Payments, joins Trisha to unpack the decision that nearly “got me fired” - calling off a launch when the data vendor wasn’t the right fit, but then won the trust of his peers and leaders by making the right call.
In this episode of Hard Calls, he and host Trisha Price reconnect as past colleagues and dive into the benefits of focusing on the developer experience. Peter explains why building for developers at J.P. Morgan is as strategic as building for customers.
And speaking of customers, the two talk about the knowledge they’ve gained when they bring customers along with “near-vana,” (listen to the episode to learn more). They also discuss the mindset needed to lead through today’s disruptions from AI and blockchain, all the while maintaining data security and compliance.
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Presented by Pendo. Dive deeper at pendo.io or connect with Trisha Price on LinkedIn
“At the end of the day, your job is to build enterprise value as a CPO.” - Jodi McDermott
In this episode of Hard Calls, three-time CPO turned product and board advisor, Jodi McDermott at Switchback Advisory, talks with host Trisha Price. Together, they explore how to navigate the tough decisions product leaders face and what it takes to be a successful product leader today.
Here's what you'll discover:
The hard calls that protect team culture. The tough talent decisions every leader eventually faces: removing a high-performer who's quietly poisoning the team culture, and reassigning a beloved team member who is simply in the wrong role for them and for what the team needs.
When to walk away from a product. Not all revenue is good revenue, and a product leader needs to know when to say no in order to focus resources on what can actually scale.
Why financial acumen is a product leader's biggest flex. Product leaders must act as P&L owners, not just product visionaries. Learn the ideal investment distribution for most products: 30% maintain, 30% sustain, and 40% growth.
The strategic power of Product Operations. A good product ops team can be an extension of a CPO, setting the operating standards for the team, collecting and analyzing data, so the team can be free to explore and spend more time with users.
How to build connected teams. Embrace servant leadership and vulnerability to foster genuine connections with team members spanning the globe.
Episode Chapters
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Presented by Pendo. Dive deeper at pendo.io or connect with Trisha Price on LinkedIn
Remember the SaaS playbook that built today’s tech giants? Well, it’s officially dead. The AI revolution is rewriting the rules, leaving companies without a roadmap for what comes next.
However, Pendo CEO and co-founder, Todd Olson, is mapping out a new playbook using insights from customers, other founders, and his own team, all of whom are either beginning and in the midst of their AI transformations.
In this episode, host Trisha Price and Todd unpack how leaders can thrive when everything they know gets turned upside down. This isn’t your typical founder interview - it’s an open, honest conversation about leading when there’s no playbook to follow.
Here’s what you’ll discover:
“There’s no AI playbook. …Even the AI-native founders are just experimenting like the rest of us.” - Todd Olson
The power behind an entrepreneurial spirit. Todd shares his thoughts on what the role of a CEO needs to be during a transformation. And why his majors and minors, along with his entrepreneurial mindset, are exactly what the company needs from him right now. Todd’s lesson: Have the conviction to show that your idea can work.
How Pendo went all-in on AI. Todd reveals the strategy behind acquiring AI-native companies over established players, and how injecting new DNA changed everything from engineering practices to innovation. He also shares how his role in experimenting with AI tools inspired the rest of the company.
How to balance AI innovation with enterprise expectations. Todd explains the balancing act he and his team face with enterprise customers who still expect familiar and compliant solutions, while simultaneously introducing AI agents and workflows to guide the company through an AI transformation.
Whether you’re a founder trying to reinvent your business model or a product leader tasked with building your company’s AI strategy, this episode reveals what it actually takes to lead with entrepreneurial conviction when the only certainty is change.
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Presented by Pendo. Dive deeper at pendo.io or connect with Trisha Price on LinkedIn.
What do you do when a customer asks for a feature that isn’t on your roadmap? In this episode of Hard Calls, Trisha Price and Mark Mitchell, Chief Product Officer at Morgan Stanley at Work, share personal, candid stories of the hardest calls Mark has made - starting with knowing when to walk away from a big prospect that just isn’t the right fit.
Mark breaks down how he weighs effort, impact, and adoption when deciding which product investments to make and why “massive size, small impact” requests are the real landmines.
Balancing strategy, execution and priorities is always challenging for product leaders, but Mark shares his 90-day-9-week-9-month time-horizon framework, and you’ll be surprised how easy it is to manage.
They go deep on user adoption as the north-star KPI, the “whole product” motions that actually drive it, and the customer focus that keeps product, sales, marketing, and education aligned.
What makes for a great product organization? “For us, it starts with us making sure that we understand the needs of the customer. Understand the needs of the problem and the problem that we're trying to solve, and spend a lot of time understanding the front side of discovery and planning and all the things that go into building a great product.”
Finally, Mark shares how a highly regulated financial services enterprise, such as Morgan Stanley at Work, is embracing AI—from code assistance to internal copilots—and why he believes AI will soon be a prerequisite input for product decisions.
Whether you're navigating short-term pressures or long-term strategy, new to product or a seasoned leader, this episode will add to your knowledge base to help you make smarter product bets and deliver value at scale.
Love the episode? Download and listen to Hard Calls every two weeks in your favorite podcast app, drop us a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review, and share this episode with a teammate who’s staring down their own hard call today. Every subscription and review helps more product leaders find the show—let’s build better products together!
Presented by Pendo.
Explore more insights at pendo.io or connect with Trisha Price on LinkedIn.
Vantaca is bringing AI innovation to an industry in desperate need of disruption - community management or HOAs. Vantaca CEO, Ben Currin joins Trisha Price in this episode of Hard Calls and talks about how Vantaca is wrapping AI and agentic workflows into traditional SaaS software to improve the way we work with each other and agents.
Product leaders from any industry will gain great insights into how to think differently about their AI projects. You’ll hear about the lessons learned when the team goes all in on letting go of old mindsets, processes, and sunk costs to create a scalable AI strategy that anyone can benefit from.
Ben shares how an acquisition made Vantaca’s AI vision take hold and scale its AI roadmap. You’ll also be surprised to hear his story about how understanding the basics of a car, such as the steering wheel and brakes, is the same thinking that product managers should apply to create a great user experience, and the three things he does to balance these two priorities.
The two also discuss the benefits Vantaca has gained by becoming product-led and how staying close to the customer allows them to develop and iterate better products using some fun new AI tools.
Love the episode? Download and listen to Hard Calls every two weeks in your favorite podcast app, drop us a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review, and share this episode with a teammate who’s staring down their own hard call today. Every subscription and review helps more product leaders find the show—let’s build better products together!
Presented by Pendo.
Explore more insights at pendo.io or connect with Trisha Price on LinkedIn.
In this episode of Hard Calls, host Trisha Price sits down with Jessica Soroky, product operations leader turned Chief of Staff to the CEO at Engine. The two discuss the symbiotic relationship between product operations and a successful product organization. Their conversation offers an inside look at what operational excellence really looks like and the hard calls it takes to achieve it in your company.
A few highlights from the episode:
Love the episode? Subscribe to Hard Calls in your favorite podcast app, drop us a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review, and share this episode with a teammate who’s staring down their own hard call today. Every subscription and review helps more product leaders find the show—let’s build better products together!
👀 Connect with Jessica Soroky on LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicasoroky/
🔗 Learn more about Pendo at pendo.io
📬 Follow Trisha Price on LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/trisha-price-3063081/
In this episode of Hard Calls, host Trisha Price sits down with legendary product thinker Marty Cagan, partner at Silicon Valley Product Group and author of Inspired, Empowered, and his latest book, Transformed.
Marty shares one of the hardest calls of his career and the lessons it taught him about how users respond to change. From there, Trisha and Marty explore what it means to truly transform a product organization from the inside out. It’s not about processes or giving people new titles. It’s about building trust, developing product sense and defining what a successful product operating model looks like for your organization.
You’ll learn:
Whether you’re a product leader at a Fortune 500 or a startup founder scaling your team, this conversation will challenge your assumptions—and give you a framework for action.
📚 Grab Marty’s book Transformed
🔗 Learn more at svpg.com
Presented by Pendo.
Explore more insights at pendo.io or connect with Trisha Price on LinkedIn.
In the premiere episode of Hard Calls, host Trisha Price sits down with her longtime mentor, Founding CEO and Executive Chairman of the Board for nCino, Pierre Naudé, for a deeply personal and practical conversation about what it really takes to make hard decisions as a product and business leader. Trisha and Pierre share their lived experience scaling nCino from a scrappy startup to a public company, recounting the pivotal product, technology, and people decisions they made along the way.
Trisha reflects on the most important lessons she learned working alongside Pierre: from making platform bets and scaling org structures, to defining “whole product” thinking and knowing when to evolve your team. Whether you're leading your first team or preparing for your company's next inflection point, this episode is packed with honest insight and tactical wisdom.
Links & Resources
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Presented by Pendo.
Explore more insights at pendo.io
Every product leader has to make them: the high-stakes decisions that define outcomes, shape careers, and don't come with easy answers.
The Hard Calls podcast, hosted by Trisha Price, features candid conversations with product and tech leaders about the pivotal decisions that drive great products and the pressure that comes with it. From conflicting priorities and unclear success metrics to aligning teams and navigating executive expectations, you will hear compelling stories and best practices that drive business outcomes and help you make the Hard Calls.
Real decisions. Real stakes. Real leadership.
Presented by Pendo
Learn more at pendo.io/
Follow Trisha Price on LinkedIn
