Product Chats Podcast

Customer success isn't just a department, especially in subscription businesses.

In this episode, Rebecca Kalogeris, VP of marketing for Pragmatic Institute, interviews Kirsten Butzow, senior VP of customer operations at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, who explains why companies have to earn their customers business on a regular basis and how to do it.

They discuss that even know the product team understands the market problems, it's the customer success team that will reveal whether or not the product team hit the mark. They also outline the natural checkpoints along the way to know if the organization is staying grounded in the problems and personas.

How often should you conduct market visits? What data should you gather? And, where does discovery fit within the product roadmap cycle? This episode is a recording from the latest Product Chat featuring Ted Best, senior vice president of product at Offerpad. During his expert presentation, he answers these common market visit questions and explain how to implement a continuous discovery strategy. He also provides an approach to using market visits to answer the “why” of the roadmap, not just the “what” and the “when.”

There isn't just one type of buyer's journey, there are three: trust journey, relationship journey and analytical journey. During this episode, Rebecca Kalogeris, VP of marketing for Pragmatic Institute, interviews pricing expert Mark Stiving, chief pricing educator at Impact Pricing. Not only does he explore the three types of buyer's journeys in-depth, but he also gives listeners the one question they should ask to quickly identify which journey their customer is on. He also explains the value map and why you should always assume your buyer is on a trust journey until proven otherwise.

“The roadmap really should be a conversation” - Jim Semick, founder and chief strategist of Product Plan. 

Are you curious what the best framework is to plan and prioritize a product roadmap? Are you a Product Manager that wonders how often to update this tool? Listen in as Rebecca Kalogeris is joined by Jim Semick to discuss Product Plan’s annual survey results, his tried and true method of ‘value vs effort’ and his advice on updating and maintaining roadmaps that work. 

Jim explains that updating roadmaps often keeps the product conversation open, and that for how many hours product managers spend managing the roadmap each week that it’s important to share them with their teams frequently so there’s a level of transparency and understanding when something changes. Roadmaps are embodiment of strategy, building the roadmaps are a part of how you define and share that strategy across the organization.

(This episode was recorded during our recent Product Chat)

During this episode, Lindsay Hunt, director of product at TaskRabbit shares insights on customer and revenue retention and how to build products and services that keep your market coming back. She teaches how to navigate when you have two users in a marketplace, strategic angles to entice and delight customers and opportunities for revenue growth by nurturing relationships and creating products people want to buy.

This episode is for anyone trying to figure out how to leverage storytelling in their role as a product manager or product marketer. The VP of marketing for Pragmatic Institute and host, Rebecca Kalogeris, interviews Matthew Woodgett, founder and CEO of Go Narrative who explains that a story isn't an artifact or finished product like a book or movie, but instead, using is a way of communicating.

He explains how stories help companies prioritize, connect departments and gain buy in for roadmaps. During the conversation, Matthew outlines an efficient and effective way to think about storytelling when you're a busy professional, which he describes as the 3D framework: Desire, difficulty and denouement.

In this episode, Rebecca Kalogeris, VP of marketing for Pragmatic Institute, hosts Erin Neal Enterprise Account Executive at Klue. Erin explains how to systematically approach objections to win customers who are talking with the sales team. The approach taught in this episode shows how to be collaborative rather than combative when approaching objections. Erin and Rebecca also cover how to provide sales with the tools they need to be successful in their objection handling with prospects.

Klue is company that provides market and competitive intelligence software that enables competitor research and delivery of sales battlecards to B2B Sales teams.

Mark Miller and Ted Vaugh, authors of Culture Built My Brand: The secret to winning more customers through company culture, join Rebecca Kalogaris, VP of marketing at Pragmatic Institute to talk about the intersection of culture and brand. They outline the 5 pillars of the brand, which include culture, products and services, the story of the company, user experiences and identity. They also explore the frustration that emerges when different departments and different people own different parts of the brand because it becomes complicated to shape culture. The conversation includes tips on how to address culture as someone who isn’t a leader at the organization. Mark and Ted explain that a marquee culture drives performance, but a bad culture can kill the brand.

Rebecca Kalogeris, VP of marketing for Pragmatic Institute and Cindy Cruzado, certified instructor at Pragmatic Institute, discuss how to build a company culture that is healthy and creative especially in remote and hybrid working environments. Cynthia shares how to make disagreement comfortable and common as a way to support different ideas. They both agree that having fun along the way supports all of the team-building initiatives, and they include some game ideas that their teams find engaging.

(This episode of Pragmatic Live was captured during our recent Product Chat session)

How do product pros deliver innovative solutions to users, leverage technology and develop tactical plans without a prior blueprint or example to follow?Ebony Shears, VP of product at Forbes, to the Product Chat shared how she gains team enthusiasm and buy-in, and how she determines what opportunities are worth pursuing at the 103-year-old institution.

In this episode, Andrew Wale, the chief revenue officer at Twintag, meets with Rebecca Kalogeris, VP of marketing for Pragmatic Institute, to discuss how to use a great product as a vehicle to engage with customers and enhance their experience. He explains how to give customers information when they need it and in a user-friendly format with tools like QR codes. When customers have to navigate robust websites, they might get lost in their search for an answer. He shows how product-led communication breaks down these types of barriers and improves customer retention.

We are going to be a product excellence team, so how do we measure how effective we are?" - Sherwin Damdar

Rebecca Kalogeris, VP of marketing for Pragmatic Institute interviews Sherwin Damdar, director of product management and innovation at Garlock, and he shares how he uses the sales of differentiated products to measure his teams' success. He says that differentiated products must meet three criteria: They must be unique, valuable and proven. Together they talk about how product managers can find areas of opportunity by evaluating problems customers have and the solutions they are willing to pay for.

What a wonderful time to be product marketing, and Pragmatic instructor, Rich Nutinsky, explains why in this episode hosted by Rebecca Kalogeris, VP of marketing for Pragmatic Institute. They discuss how the world of product management has evolved because of new technology and refined approaches to customer research. Rich also shares his own experiences as a product professional and how product training was a game-changer early in his product management career path. They conclude that we are in fact in the age of products.

Rebecca Kalogeris, VP of marketing for Pragmatic Institute, interviews Dr. Nancy Li, director of product, mentor and YouTuber. In this episode, Nancy gives all the details on her powerful story and some amazing tips on climbing to the top of the product industry, from worker-bee to director and beyond.

Dr. Nancy has mentored more than 100 professionals to break through in product management, check out her YouTube below.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIXcpwAsd6uO6PQ7VaMbXpg

"Demand generation at its base definition is simply generating demand for a product or service, and then converting that demand into a lead." - Charlotte Bohnett

Rebecca Kalogeris, VP of marketing for Pragmatic Institute, interviews Charlotte Bohnett, the senior director of demand generation at WebPT. In this episode, she talks not only about what makes demand generation successful but also what qualifies as quality content marketing. As a leader in the field, she shares strategies for building effective content marketing teams from the ground up and talks about the importance of retaining the best employees on your team.

Rebecca Kalogeris, VP of marketing for Pragmatic Institute, interviews Leidy Klotz, author of Subtract: The Untapped Science of Less. He encourages people to fight their instinct to add to projects, products and to-do lists as a way to display competence. Instead, Leidy teaches listeners how to add value to life and work through subtraction. The muscle for adding is strong for most people but subtraction takes practice and intention through prompts and reminders. During the episode, Leidy provides strategies to add subtractive solutions to their toolbox.
"Historically, adding was the only option to improve things. But now, there are so many opportunities to take things away to make things better." - Leidy

Listen in to our recent Product Chat with Oji Udezue, chief product officer at Parsable, as he discusses his experience and shares fundamental product systems that can accelerate your path to achieving repeatable, consistent innovation for your organization.

Rebecca Kalogeris, VP of marketing for Pragmatic Institute, and Diana Richardson, technical product manager at Core Logic, explore the challenges that immerge with team and culture during an acquisition. Diana experienced acquisitions during her career and she shares how to navigate the uncertainty during the early stages of acquisition and how to spot opportunities rather than worry about "what ifs."

During the upcoming holiday, allow us to be your guide for some excellent product listening. We look back at one of our most popular episodes featuring David Meerman Scott.

What does neuroscience and selfies have in common?  They help create "fandom".

Join us for this episode of our Pragmatic Live Podcast to address just this, and what it means to build and keep fans. Our own Rebecca Kalogeris is joined by David Meerman Scott, to discuss his recent book, Fanocracy: How to turn fans into customers and customers into fans, to address more than just proximity, but how you can empower your fans to help you grow. We chat with David to understand what Fanocracy is, how it can be utilized and how we can tap into our existing fandom. 

Rebecca Kalogeris, VP of marketing for Pragmatic Institute, and Diane Pierson, an instructor at Pragmatic Institute, talk about how the product industry has evolved during the last 15 months as the world drastically changed during the pandemic. They discuss what changes they predict are permanent and what might be a temporary shift to manage a unique environment. Rebecca and Diane also talk about how to measure success when the baseline is no longer relevant, and how to put structures in place to prepare for the unpredictable."You can't know what's going to happen, but be ready to act when it does. Keep these lessons with you and use them as you go forward. I think the future is going to be different, but I think we've got a lot of promise for this role as we go forward."

"If your salespeople are asking for discounts that are too big or too often, then your product team hasn't given sales the tools, knowledge and confidence they need to win deals at the right price."
- Mark Stiving.

Rebecca Kalogeris, VP of marketing for Pragmatic Institute, talks with Mark Stiving, founder of Impact Pricing, about the importance of value-based pricing. In this conversation, Rebecca and Mark explain what a value-based pricing table is and how it can equip sales teams so they can confidently and effectively approach prospective buyers.

In this episode, Jennifer Romanowski, senior product manager at FordDirect, explains how training with Pragmatic Institute revolutionized her approach to product management. The host Rebecca Kalogeris, VP of marketing for Pragmatic Institute, talks with Jennifer about how she introduced Pragmatic training to FordDirect and the big changes it influenced at the company.
"I completed the pragmatic courses Foundation, Focus and Build and walked out with light bulbs going off. I believe that I was a good product manager, but now not only did I have an entire framework but I also knew how to help other product managers.

There are always more ideas than time. In this episode, Rebecca Kalogeris, VP of marketing for Pragmatic Institute, interviews Pragmatic Instructor, Amy Graham, about how to evaluate potential opportunities to determine what is worth a "yes" and what deserves a "no." The system gives every person (regardless of job title) an opportunity to feel heard while also letting the data speak to the viability of the idea.

Rebecca Kalogeris, VP of marketing for Pragmatic Institute, Paul Young, an instructor at Pragmatic Institute, have a fun and light conversation about the products that have had a positive impact on their life. They dive into side discussions about how products can solve important and relevant problems but create new problems in the process. They also sprinkle in tips and tricks on how to create products people are excited to share with others.

Stakeholders in a company are moved by two things: one is business results, and the other is stories. The goal is to break down the business metrics into usage metrics to start having a complete picture of your target customers.

Dan Balcauski, principal consultant at Product Tranquility, joins our host, Rebecca Kalogeris, VP of marketing for Pragmatic Institute, to discuss the relationship between qualitative and quantitative data and how to use both to capture powerful insights.

The term "NIHITO" or "nothing interesting happens in the office" promotes getting outside the comfort of your office and speaking with customers directly, but that certainly can't be the only way to get good market data, can it? Especially in the time of Covid-19, what else can product professionals tap into in order to compile this type of data?

Former Pragmatic instructor and SVP of customer operations at Houghton, Kirsten Butzow, joins our host Rebecca Kalogeris, VP of marketing and product strategy for Pragmatic Institute, to discuss how her current position is a treasure trove of market data, and how product professionals can better understand their customer segments in order to tailor their products to their customers.

How do you create innovative and solution driven product teams?  How do you create a culture and environment that hums with creativity?  Those questions are filled with buzz words we all know well, but in this episode, we get into how it's actually done.

Oji Udezue, chief product officer for Parsable, joins our host Rebecca Kalogeris, VP of marketing and product strategy for Pragmatic Institute, to dive deep into how he has created said environments, and used his extensive experience in the product realm to create top-tier teams that focus on creative solutions.

How do you define product marketing?

Francisco Bram, head of product and growth at Uber Eats, joins our host Rebecca Kalogeris, VP of marketing and product strategy for Pragmatic Institute, to chat about how he and Uber Eats defines this essential role, as well as the 10 commandments of product marketing.  You don't want to miss this one!

What do companies like Humana, Uber and Farmers Insurance have in common?  They can see into the future. How do they do this?  Always-on consumer data.

Nis Frome, cofounder and VP of product at Feedback Loop, joins our host Rebecca Kalogeris, VP of marketing and product strategy for Pragmatic Institute, to discuss how this type of data can provide live foresight as opposed to insight into past events.  You may even say it's a super power, but the kicker is, anyone can learn to leverage this type of data to better understand their customers.

Flashback Friday's - Why do we do this?  Over years worth of content, there are times where previous episodes contain useful information that valuable enough to revisit.

Product marketing expert Kevin Krusiewicz of Marketing Trail Guide joins Pragmatic Live host Rebecca Kalogeris to discuss the importance of understanding your market before creating and marketing your products. Understanding who is going to use and buy your product, performing market research and really understanding the different buying journeys of your personas ensures that you’re not building and marketing a product in search of a market, and are instead creating and presenting a product a market has been searching for. 

Want to learn more about market research, persona building and product marketing? Check out our Foundations and Market courses. And make sure you subscribe today so you never miss a great episode of Pragmatic Live!

What does it mean to be part of the product-led movement, and what does it take to transition into a product-first strategy?

Wes Bush, founder and CEO of Product-Led and author of best seller "Product-Led Growth: How To Build a Product That Sells Itself." , joins our host Rebecca Kalogeris, VP of marketing and product strategy for Pragmatic Institute, to get to the core of what the product led movement really is.

Ready to learn how to become a product first business?  Check out our full roster of updated courses!

Learn more about Wes Bush and his book here

* This episode of Pragmatic Live was captured during our recent Product Chat

How do you get inside someone's head to truly understand what they need?  Well, until that technology exists, there are steps you can take to get close when it comes to your marketing efforts.

In this episode of Pragmatic Live, COO Greg Bond and CEO Erik Wolf of Estound join our own Georgina Donahue to discuss the crucial steps in creating content that is not only profitable but transforms your marketing efforts.

The "Internet of Things" is a common term, but do you really understand what it is and why it’s important?

This week, we take a look back at an excellent breakdown of what this term really means and more.

Daniel Elizalde, IoT product manager extraordinaire, joins Pragmatic Live to discuss the Internet of Things and its impact on businesses. Daniel examines the importance of using IoT to collect real-world, real-time data to help enterprises expand their abilities, as well as the role of product management with IoT. He dives into the skills needed for product managers to really make the most of IoT to translate the data into real success.

Would you like to learn more about data and product management? Register for our new course, The Business of Data Science. And be sure to listen to our other great podcasts, and subscribe so you never miss another great episode.

• Overcoming tension and misunderstanding between product and design teams
• Advocating for design resources
• Partnering with UX designers on NIHITO research
• Crafting user personas and applying them throughout the product life cycle
• Framing problems vs. goals
• Creating “How Might We?” statements for ideation

• Artifact | “How Might We?” Statements Template
• Article | From the “Black Box” to the Sandbox: Advancing Product Management and Design Collaboration
• Article | Building Product Strategy with Design Thinking
• Article | Ask the Expert: “The Designers I Work with Keep Asking Me to Bring Them in Earlier. Should I?”
• Podcast | The Importance of Design for Product Managers
• Podcast | How to Build a Stronger Partnership with Design
• eBook | Exploring Design

How should design and product management team up on the journey to successful products?

Jim Dibble joins host Rebecca Kalogeris on the January 8 episode of Pragmatic Live. Get to know one half of the team behind Pragmatic Institute’s upcoming design practice, take away next steps for creating more user-friendly products, and hear all about our exciting new course Design.

“I think that storytelling is the key to marketing” - Martin Aguinis

How do you form a marketing strategy that curates for the 99%? Martin Aguinis, Product Marketing Manager at Google, joins us to discuss his strategy for reaching those that aren’t in the room with your product and how to focus on the human aspect of any product story to gain the most impact - not just results.

From utilizing your customers to announce a new feature, to know your product thoroughly enough to connect its users to it, Martin discusses how he makes that connection and how he has broken many traditional marketing frameworks to successfully launch products. He shares with us one of his secrets to success: how taking a step back and thinking about/repurposing information can provide massive insight.

Make sure you check out this podcast with Martin Aguinis on Marketing to the 99%, and sign up for one of our many Product Marketing courses to learn more about data science and how it can help your business. Subscribe today so you never miss out on any of our great resources.

Survey burnout is real.  Organizations are always looking for more insight from their customers and users, but there are a few things that make the Pragmatic Institute Annual Survey truly unique and beneficial to those who participate.  The data uncovered is even more valuable during a year in which we've experienced a constant change in the workplace.

In this episode of Pragmatic Live, Cali Frisbie, our own content and social strategist turns the tables on Rebecca Kalogeris, VP of marketing and product, to discuss the roots of the Pragmatic Institute Annual Survey and the types of helpful data that we publish within every year.

Get in on the action by taking our annual survey here.

Data is changing the way we do business. But how is it changing product marketing?

Rebecca Kalogeris, VP of marketing at Pragmatic Marketing, is joined by former Pragmatic instructor and product marketing expert Kirsten Butzow to discuss the importance of being both market- and data-driven to tell the right story to your audience and market. Kirsten details examples of businesses that have utilized data to improve their business or struggled without using data.

We all know design and product are powerful partners in the journey toward market-winning solutions. On this episode of Pragmatic Live, Co-Director of Design Practice Shannon McGarity joins our host Rebecca Kalogeris, VP of Marketing and Product Strategy, to share a sneak peek into Pragmatic Institute's upcoming design vertical.

Listen as the two discuss the synergy between product management and design, Shannon’s advice for leveraging that partnership, and Pragmatic’s new design-focused course for product managers. Or, read the full interview here.

Learn more about our design practice here and Shannon's rockstar background here.