Jeff Patton is well-known as the father of story-mapping – a visual way of mapping out and prioritizing your product backlog. Jeff is someone who deeply understands how teams come together to build products – and where that process can go off the rails. If you’re a product manager – or aspire to be one – Jeff’s work is fundamental background knowledge. Listen in and learn how to navigate around the common obstacles of corporate life that keep your product from succeeding.
Jared Spool is a legend in user interface design. Through his pioneering consultancy, User Interface Engineering, he’s helped hundreds of teams create more usable and delightful software. Jared’s latest project is Center Centre — a 2-year college for UX professionals that’s setup to train the next generation of user interface professionals. His approach to product design is informed by decades of experience and pattern-matching – I love hearing his stories and actionable chunks of UX wisdom: Join us for a far-reaching and high-impact conversation about user experience design.
Cindy Alvarez is an expert in customer research and iterative development. She’s the author of Lean Customer Development, a hands-on guide for validating product and feature ideas. She’s worked for small and medium-sized startups – and now runs user experience for Yammer (a Microsoft company). Cindy’s got a flair for explaining user-centered design in a compelling and understandable way. From her early days doing tech support for her professors at Harvard—to her current leadership role evangelizing lean tactics at Microsoft—Cindy thrives on new challenges. Listen in and learn how a seasoned UX expert blends customer development with product leadership.
Dan Olsen is a seasoned product manager – and the author of the Lean Product Playbook, a soup-to-nuts handbook for doing smart product management with Lean principles. Dan runs the Lean Product & Lean UX Meetup in Silicon Valley, where he brings cross-functional teams together to lean how to create great products. Dan is an articulate proponent of a lean & disciplined approach to product development – and he knows the power of choosing the right mental model to organize your thinking. In this interview, you’ll learn how an experienced product manager approaches customer discovery, rapid prototyping and smart MVP development.
Teresa Torres is a rising star in product management, and the author of the popular “Product Talk” blog. She’s got an eclectic background in cognitive science, UX design, startup management and organizational change – which gives her a unique perspective on product discovery. Teresa shares her deep & hard-won product wisdom – and her inspiring perspective on the long game of product management. Learn how one talented product manager is forging a new path & shaking up the organizational change management game.
If you’ve ever struggled to get your team or organization to adopt Lean principles that really work – this interview is for you. Jeff Gothelf is a Lean UX expert who specializes in enterprise software & change management. In his new book, Sense & Respond, Jeff and his co-author Josh Seiden provide tools & techniques that help large organizations listen to customers & create new products continuously. In this fascinating interview, Jeff summarizes what he’s learned working with enterprise leaders – and pinpoints the speed bumps that get in the way of effective Lean product development. Listen in and discover how to implement change management that really works.
Christina Wodtke is a designer, educator and author who’s worked for a string of iconic Internet companies – Yahoo, LinkedIn, Myspace, and Zynga. Now she teaches design thinking, story structure and how to use OKRs – with her own unique twist. Christina has a gift for bringing ideas from different disciplines into design & management. Listen in and learn about Christina’s boundary-crossing model of design thinking as distributed cognition. It blew my mind – I know you’ll enjoy it to.
Samuel Hulick is a user onboarding expert who runs a popular website called useronboard.com where he deconstructs the initial experience of popular apps and services. I first met Samuel in Amsterdam, where were were both speaking at TNW Europe. We clicked immediately – and bonded over our shared love of great design – and smart design process. If you want to know what goes into creating a great first-time experience, listen in and discover how this tech-savvy designer became a world-class expert in onboarding.
Laura Klein a customer development ninja. She runs the “Users Know” website, and wrote UX for Lean Startups. In this episode, we explore design-led growth hacking, ninja user research techniques, and how to turn your hot idea into a high-learning MVP. Find out how to create better products with Laura’s special blend of Lean UX with smart customer research.
Steve Portigal a world-class expert in customer research, and the author of Interviewing Users, a practical handbook oh how to get the most value from customer interviews. In this podcast, Steve pulls back the curtain on his professional journey and shares powerful insights about who to talk with – and what to listen for – when you’re interviewing users.
