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The Product Manager

Hannah Clark - The Product Manager

102 episodes

21 hours ago

The Tin Man’s silk heart in The Wizard of Oz is a perfect metaphor for AI right now—it can convincingly mimic empathy, but it’s not the real thing. In this episode, Hannah Clark sits down with Megan O’Rourke, Executive Director of Product at Metalab, to explore the delicate balance between AI-powered productivity and human-driven resonance. They dive into why empathy and storytelling are irreplaceable in both product development and leadership, and the risks we run if we trade them away for e...

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The Tin Man’s silk heart in The Wizard of Oz is a perfect metaphor for AI right now—it can convincingly mimic empathy, but it’s not the real thing. In this episode, Hannah Clark sits down with Megan O’Rourke, Executive Director of Product at Metalab, to explore the delicate balance between AI-powered productivity and human-driven resonance. They dive into why empathy and storytelling are irreplaceable in both product development and leadership, and the risks we run if we trade them away for e...

Show more...

Episodes (20/102)

The Product Manager

How to Turn Neurodivergent 'Challenges' Into Leadership Superpowers (with Frankie Berkoben)

ADHD might be the product trait nobody’s putting on their resume—but maybe they should. In this episode, Hannah sits down with executive coach Frankie Berkoben to unpack the complex intersection of ADHD, executive function, and product leadership. Together, they explore how ADHD traits like systems thinking, emotional intelligence, and comfort with ambiguity make product people exceptional—and why those same strengths often lead to burnout, inconsistency, or shame in traditional work environm...

1 day ago

48 minutes

The Product Manager

Finding Your Unfair Advantage in Product’s Wild West Era (with Margaret-Ann Seger, Head of Product at Statsig)

Product-market fit isn’t enough anymore. In an age where AI is making it easier for anyone to ship a half-decent product, the real battleground is distribution. Margaret-Ann Seger (Head of Product at Statsig) joins Hannah Clark to talk about how AI is reshaping go-to-market strategy, why speed and feedback loops are becoming product differentiators, and how her team at Statsig is baking collaboration and empathy into every part of their product dev cycle. From lo-fi GTM experiments to the pow...

1 week ago

26 minutes

The Product Manager

The Systems Thinking Process Used by the Most Adaptable Product Leaders (with Sheryl Cababa, Author of Closing the Loop)

What if instead of racing to solve problems, you paused to map the entire system first? In this episode, Hannah sits down with Sheryl Cababa—author of Closing the Loop: Systems Thinking for Designers and founder of Optimistic Design—to talk about what it really means to design for complexity. From AI adoption to organizational policy changes, Sheryl brings a systems lens to the decisions leaders make (often too hastily) in fast-moving environments. They explore how design leaders can avoid sh...

2 weeks ago

42 minutes

The Product Manager

What Does Engineering Excellence Look Like in the Age of AI? (with Anish Dhar, Co-founder and CEO of Cortex.io)

The “AI is coming for your job” headlines have been exhausting—especially if you're a software engineer. But as Cortex.io founder Anish Dhar explains, engineering isn’t dying; it's evolving. In this episode, Hannah sits down with Anish to unpack what engineering excellence actually means in 2025, why measuring developer productivity is still wildly misunderstood, and where AI coding tools fit into the real world of production-scale systems. Spoiler: you can’t vibe-code your way to a million u...

3 weeks ago

29 minutes

The Product Manager

How to Make Passion Your Differentiator in an AI-Driven World (with Norma Løvhaugen, VP Strategy at Neat)

What does passion really look like on a product team? In this episode, Hannah sits down with Norma Løvhaugen, VP Strategy at Neat, to unpack how passion fuels team collaboration, customer empathy, and a culture of innovation. They explore the difference between building products with passion versus simply shipping features—and why that distinction matters more than ever in an age of generative AI. Norma shares how Neat channels passion into a uniquely cohesive product experience, from obsessi...

4 weeks ago

38 minutes

The Product Manager

Mastercard’s SVP of Global Products on How to Enter New Markets (with Simone Paul Tamussin)

Expanding internationally is more complex than ever, with economic uncertainty, shifting regulations, and unpredictable tariffs creating constant challenges. While overseas opportunities can be tempting, businesses must navigate a landscape full of blind spots and evolving risks that demand careful planning and adaptability. Simone Tamussin, SVP of Product Management at Mastercard Gateway, shares valuable insights from his experience working with companies facing these hurdles. He discusses c...

1 month ago

24 minutes

The Product Manager

Managing Stakeholder Perception: How Product Leaders Build—and Lose—Influence (with Carolyn Dolezal & Kate Leto)

Two seasoned executive coaches, Carolyn Dolezal and Kate Leto, share candid insights on the realities of executive leadership and how to truly earn the trust and confidence of your team and stakeholders. They debunk common myths and explore how personal agendas can undermine leadership effectiveness, while offering practical advice for building influence even when the odds aren’t in your favor. The conversation also covers how to recover from early leadership missteps and develop the skills n...

1 month ago

35 minutes

The Product Manager

How Parenting Made Me a Better Product Leader (with Anuj Jhunjhunwala, Director of Product at Merge)

Becoming a parent profoundly changes how you approach product leadership, blending personal and professional challenges in unexpected ways. Anuj Jhunjhunwala, Director of Product at Merge, shares how parenting teaches lessons in influence without authority, clear communication, and time management that directly apply to leading products. Anuj offers candid insights on how managing toddlers parallels managing stakeholders, why career growth feels more like navigating a mountain than climbing a...

1 month ago

32 minutes

The Product Manager

The AI-Enhanced Team: A New Playbook for Product Leaders (with Andrew Saxe, VP of Product at Smartling)

As we navigate the AI revolution, we’re collectively creating a new reality that’s far from utopian, and both leaders and individual contributors are struggling to find their way through the uncertainty. Questions around workplace ethics, output quality, and long-term impacts are top of mind for many, but this presents an opportunity to learn from each other’s breakthroughs and shape the future we want to see. Andrew Saxe, VP of Product at Smartling, shares his experience leading a company th...

1 month ago

27 minutes

The Product Manager

How to Be ‘Limitless’: The Mindset Shift That Opens Doors (with Uma Subramanian, Founder of Limitless Leaders)

What's holding you back from reaching your next level? For many, the biggest obstacle is often a mental one, not a physical one. By shifting your perspective and zooming out, you can find pathways around the challenges that seem insurmountable. Uma Subramanian, founder of Limitless Leaders and former Microsoft leader, shares her journey of achieving extraordinary success by adopting a limitless mindset. Uma explains how she overcame limiting beliefs, reframed her mindset, and transformed her ...

2 months ago

32 minutes

The Product Manager

How to Use AI to Research Like a Researcher (with Cori Widen, User Research Lead at Photoroom)

Research has often suffered from shortcuts, assumptions, and poorly conducted user interviews, long before AI entered the picture. While there are concerns about AI exacerbating these issues, today we’re exploring how AI can actually improve research practices by standardizing and democratizing good research at scale. Cori Widen, User Research Lead at Photoroom, joins us to share how AI is being leveraged to transform research practices at her company. She discusses the cultural mindset that ...

2 months ago

23 minutes

The Product Manager

The Nuances of Product Leadership No One Talks About (with Debbie McMahon, CPO at The Financial Times)

A seedling and a tree may share the same DNA, but their roles in the ecosystem are vastly different—just like junior and executive product leaders. As leaders climb the ranks, their focus shifts from producing features to providing structure and support that allow teams to thrive. Debbie McMahon, Chief Product Officer at the Financial Times, reflects on this evolution and how her approach to leadership has matured over time. From managing complex internal and external relationships to knowing...

2 months ago

32 minutes

The Product Manager

Zoom's CPO on Evolving Product Strategy in a Post-Pandemic Market (with Smita Hashim)

Zoom’s journey from a popular video conferencing tool to a household name during the COVID-19 pandemic was followed by a wave of competition. But rather than being overwhelmed, Zoom has embraced new opportunities for innovation, especially with the rise of AI. Smita Hashim, Zoom's Chief Product Officer, shares insights into the company's response to the challenges of the pandemic and the rapid shifts in the tech landscape. Smita discusses her experience leading Zoom through this transformati...

2 months ago

21 minutes

The Product Manager

Do All Roads Lead to the Feature Factory? (with Aakash Gupta, Andrea Saez, and Pawel Huryn)

In this episode, we dive into the phenomenon of the "feature factory," where companies focus more on releasing products and features rapidly rather than prioritizing quality or user needs. John Cutler coined the term, and it perfectly captures the feeling many teams face: launching features without a clear understanding of who they’re for or how they impact the business. If this resonates with you, keep listening as we explore how to break free from this cycle. In our panel discussion, we hea...

3 months ago

42 minutes

The Product Manager

How to Break Into Product Management in 2025 (with Mariana Antaya, Product Manager at Microsoft)

In this episode, we catch up with Mariana Antaya, Product Manager at Microsoft, who first joined the show in February 2024. Since then, AI has gone mainstream, the tech job market has shifted, and her career has evolved significantly. Last time, Mariana shared practical advice for aspiring PMs, which became our most downloaded episode ever, and now we’re diving into what’s changed and what aspiring PMs need to succeed in 2025. Host Hannah Clark reconnects with Mariana to reflect on the rapid ...

3 months ago

20 minutes

The Product Manager

The Enterprise CPO’s Guide for Winning at AI (with Randhir Vieira, Chief Product Officer at Omada Health)

Navigating AI disruption is like steering a ship—startups move like speedboats, while enterprises must turn the equivalent of a cruise liner. In this episode, host Hannah Clark speaks with Randhir Vieira, Chief Product Officer at Omada Health, about how established companies can adapt to AI-driven change despite their size and complexity. With over a decade in operation, Omada Health faces different challenges than AI-native startups. Randhir shares strategies for integrating AI into both pro...

3 months ago

23 minutes

The Product Manager

How to Choose Tools Your Product Team Will Actually Use (with Moshe Mikanovsky)

How many logins do you use at work each week? If you’re not sure, you’re not alone. A 2024 report found that the average employee uses 36 cloud-based services daily—engineering teams use twice as many! Yet, over half of SaaS licenses go unused, wasting valuable resources. In this episode, host Hannah Clark sits down with Moshe Mikanovsky, founder of Products for Good and co-host of the Product for Product podcast. Moshe shares his framework for selecting the right tools, helping organizations...

3 months ago

21 minutes

The Product Manager

How Did This CPO Pull Off 350% Growth in Two Years?! (with Benjamin Berry)

Every career path comes with its own set of challenges—you just have to choose your hard. Leading product at a startup, finding product-market fit, and scaling a company is tough, but so is staying stuck in a feature factory. In this episode, host Hannah Clark sits down with Benjamin Berry, CPO of EvolutionIQ, to discuss how he navigated these challenges to help grow his company to a $730 million valuation. Benjamin shares the leadership strategies that enabled sustainable scaling, drove 350%...

3 months ago

27 minutes

The Product Manager

Product Leaders Share Their Team Priorities for 2025 (with Melika Hope and Ken Romano)

The product industry is constantly evolving, and navigating silos—both across departments and between leadership levels—can make career growth feel like a challenge. Without alignment, collaboration suffers, progress stalls, and figuring out how to advance becomes even harder. In this special panel episode, host Hannah Clark is joined by Melika Hope (Director of Product Management at Spotify) and Ken Romano (VP of Product at Stacker) to discuss what product leaders truly value in 2025. They d...

4 months ago

45 minutes

The Product Manager

The New Exec Playbook: Your Most Important First Moves in Your First Executive Role (with Yue Zhao)

Starting a new job is tough—but stepping into an executive role is a whole different challenge. With high stakes, unrealistic expectations, and all eyes on you, how do you navigate this transition successfully? In this episode, Hannah talks with Yue Zhao, executive coach and founder of The Uncommon Executive, about the realities of executive life, adapting to new dynamics, and essential steps beyond the typical 90-day plan. Resources from this episode: Subscribe to The Product Manager newslet...

4 months ago

33 minutes