Product Thinking
Melissa Perri
Successful product management isn’t just about training the product managers who work side by side with developers everyday to build better products. It’s about taking a step back, approaching the systems within organizations as a whole, and leveling up product leadership to improve these systems. This is the Product Thinking Podcast, where Melissa Perri will connect with industry leading experts in the product management space, AND answer your most pressing questions about everything product. Join us each week to level up your skillset and invest in yourself as a product leader.
Episodes
Mentioned books
40 snips
Mar 25, 2026 • 30min
Episode 265: How Marketplace Teams Decide What to Build
Mauricio Monico, a product leader with experience at eBay and Wish who led marketplace turnarounds, and Craig Saldanha, Yelp’s Chief Product Officer who codified marketplace decision tenets. They discuss marketplace fundamentals, risks of copying competitors, vetting merchants and delivery quality. They also cover explicit product tenets, balancing two-sided trade-offs, and modeling flywheels for sustainable growth.
22 snips
Mar 11, 2026 • 30min
Episode 264: Product at Scale Inside the World’s Largest Financial Institutions
Vishal Kapoor, Senior VP at Affirm who embeds compliance and metrics into fintech product work. Jameson Troutman, Head of Product at Chase who shifted funding toward product capacity and empowered teams. Marco De Freitas and Amber Brestowski, Vanguard product leaders driving mission-aligned digital transformation. They discuss modernization tied to client outcomes, funding capacity not projects, embedding legal/compliance, and weekly cadences for prioritization.
20 snips
Feb 25, 2026 • 30min
Episode 263: From Product Leader to CEO
Fabrice des Mazery, product leader who frames product work as disciplined investment decisions. Sean Solme Kim, senior product leader from Amazon and TikTok who runs metric-driven, outcome-focused teams. Mercedes Chatfield Taylor, executive search advisor who guides product leaders toward CEO and board readiness. They discuss paths to CEO, building ownership and accountability, and treating product work like investment decisions.
19 snips
Feb 11, 2026 • 17min
Episode 262: Organizing Product Teams Around Value
Matthew Skelton, Team Topologies co-author and team design expert; and Jose Quesada, VP of Product Management at American Express. They discuss organizing teams around value streams not architecture. They cover starting with outcomes, timing transformations, and building psychological safety to learn through experiments. They also link product operations and team design to faster, safer value delivery.
33 snips
Jan 28, 2026 • 20min
Episode 261: AI Implementation in Regulated and High-Trust Industries
Jessica Hall, CPO at Just Eat Takeaway, discusses AI trade-offs and long-term capability building. Magda Armbruster, Head of Product at Natural Cycles, explains embedding QA, regulation, and privacy into daily product work. Maryam Ashoori, AI product expert from IBM Watsonx, breaks down how agents reason, why LLMs hallucinate, and the need for guardrails and human oversight. They focus on risk, cost, simplicity, and governance.
94 snips
Dec 10, 2025 • 9min
Episode 260: Avoiding Common Mistakes in Org Design
Dive into the world of organizational design with insights on structuring product teams around value streams for enhanced efficiency. Discover the pitfalls of too many decision layers and the need for agile control chains. Learn how to define clear roadmap ownership and balance skill sets to minimize delays. Melissa sheds light on avoiding architecture-based organization, stressing the importance of platform teams as scalable allies. Start with a solid product strategy to set your organization up for success!
41 snips
Dec 3, 2025 • 32min
Episode 259: Simplifying AI for Global Customer Impact with Srinivasan Raghavan
Srinivasan Raghavan, Chief Product Officer at Freshworks, shares his journey from engineering to product management. He discusses how AI is transforming product managers into "product builders" by simplifying design and prototyping processes. Srini highlights Freshworks' use of AI agents to enhance customer satisfaction through automation and the importance of creating uncomplicated user experiences. He emphasizes staying customer-focused and embracing real-user insights to drive successful product outcomes.
6 snips
Nov 26, 2025 • 7min
Episode 258: Treating Internal Tools with Equal Rigor
Discover the nuances of product management, as Melissa Perri discusses the critical differences and similarities between inbound and outbound products. She highlights how internal tools, like algorithms for insurance claims, can dramatically affect customer experience. The conversation emphasizes the importance of strategy and rigorous processes for all products, regardless of their audience. Internal tools are not just support systems; when mismanaged, they can harm users. Tune in for actionable insights on maximizing value streams effectively!
41 snips
Nov 19, 2025 • 38min
Episode 257: Making Product Launches Work at Scale with Michael Dodsworth
Michael Dodsworth, Founder and CEO of Fanfare, shares insights on the art of storytelling in product launches. He elaborates on how simplified, resonant narratives can captivate audiences and drive product success. The conversation dives into creating immersive experiences that enhance customer journeys, emphasizing the importance of aligning strategic goals with audience engagement. Additionally, Michael discusses translating launch principles to software, the significance of cross-functional collaboration, and the role of AI in modern product development.
43 snips
Nov 12, 2025 • 9min
Episode 256: De-Risking Product Launches Effectively
Explore the age-old debate of big features versus small releases in product management. Melissa Perri emphasizes the power of incremental updates that provide immediate user value and foster feedback for future development. Discover strategies for effectively balancing stakeholder needs with customer goals and learn how to de-risk long-term projects through phased releases and feature flags. With insights on treating small features as experiments, this discussion is packed with practical advice for any product manager navigating complex decisions.
