The Product Experience

• How to pick the right product tools for your team - Moshe Mikanovsky (Product Coach)

  In this episode of The Product Experience, Lily and Randy sit down with Moshe Mikanovsky—product coach, educator, and host of the Product for Product podcast—to explore what makes an effective product management toolkit. From identifying the real problems in your workflow to choosing and implementing tools that stick, Moshe outlines a pragmatic, user-centric approach to tool selection. Chapters:2:59 – From Engineering to Product Management5:25 – Why Choosing Tools is Hard8:11 – Elements of a Product Stack10:49 – From Roadmaps to Analytics14:01 – A Framework for Selecting Tools18:01 – Comparing Tools Beyond Features21:18 – Test and Validate Your Tool Choices26:01 – Why Implementation is Critical28:04 – What’s Changing in Product Tools29:26 – AI and the Future of Product Management32:01 – Keeping Your Stack Modern34:29 – Making the Case for Budget & ROI37:23 – When ROI Forces a Change38:45 – Final Thoughts & Listener Call to ActionFeatured Links: Follow Moshe on LinkedIn | Moshe's Product Manager Toolkit | PostHogOur HostsLily Smith enjoys working as a consultant product manager with early-stage and growing startups and as a mentor to other product managers. She’s currently Chief Product Officer at BBC Maestro, and has spent 13 years in the tech industry working with startups in the SaaS and mobile space. She’s worked on a diverse range of products – leading the product teams through discovery, prototyping, testing and delivery. Lily also founded ProductTank Bristol and runs ProductCamp in Bristol and Bath. Randy Silver is a Leadership & Product Coach and Consultant. He gets teams unstuck, helping you to supercharge your results. Randy's held interim CPO and Leadership roles at scale-ups and SMEs, advised start-ups, and been Head of Product at HSBC and Sainsbury’s. He participated in Silicon Valley Product Group’s Coaching the Coaches forum, and speaks frequently at conferences and events. You can join one of communities he runs for CPOs (CPO Circles), Product Managers (Product In the {A}ether) and Product Coaches. He’s the author of What Do We Do Now? A Product Manager’s Guide to Strategy in the Time of COVID-19. A recovering music journalist and editor, Randy also launched Amazon’s music stores in the US & UK.

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• How to build a Product-Led Operating Model that sticks - Jen Swanson (CEO, Tuckpoint Advisory Group)

  Transformations are hard, and too often, they fail to deliver on their promise. In this episode of The Product Experience, Lily and Randy speak with Jen Swanson, CEO of Tuckpoint Advisory Group, to unpack why transformation initiatives falter and what it truly takes to succeed.Key Takeaways— Transformation requires intentionality: Real transformation isn't accidental or surface-level; it must be deliberate, comprehensive, and backed by leadership.— Avoid ‘transformation theatre’: Pretending to change—without restructuring ownership, processes, or collaboration—is worse than doing nothing at all.— Start with honest orientation: Knowing your starting point is essential before plotting a path forward.— Executive involvement is non-negotiable: Transformations can’t be delegated. Leadership must model the change and communicate relentlessly.— Product-led is about mindset, not just teams: Everyone should operate within the product model, but not all need to be on product teams.— Pace matters: Organisations must assess their capacity for change and determine the right balance between ambition and sustainability.— Give grace for the learning curve: People need space to be bad at new things before they get good—psychological safety is essential.Chapters0:00 – Introduction & the myth of sneaky transformations1:01 – Jen’s background and path into product2:53 – What transformation really means5:53 – Defining honest orientation8:00 – What is transformation theatre?12:09 – When real change feels fake13:04 – The importance of executive commitment16:04 – Why transformations fail19:11 – Common catalysts for transformation22:06 – Product-led vs product thinking25:00 – Who’s in the opOur HostsLily Smith enjoys working as a consultant product manager with early-stage and growing startups and as a mentor to other product managers. She’s currently Chief Product Officer at BBC Maestro, and has spent 13 years in the tech industry working with startups in the SaaS and mobile space. She’s worked on a diverse range of products – leading the product teams through discovery, prototyping, testing and delivery. Lily also founded ProductTank Bristol and runs ProductCamp in Bristol and Bath. Randy Silver is a Leadership & Product Coach and Consultant. He gets teams unstuck, helping you to supercharge your results. Randy's held interim CPO and Leadership roles at scale-ups and SMEs, advised start-ups, and been Head of Product at HSBC and Sainsbury’s. He participated in Silicon Valley Product Group’s Coaching the Coaches forum, and speaks frequently at conferences and events. You can join one of communities he runs for CPOs (CPO Circles), Product Managers (Product In the {A}ether) and Product Coaches. He’s the author of What Do We Do Now? A Product Manager’s Guide to Strategy in the Time of COVID-19. A recovering music journalist and editor, Randy also launched Amazon’s music stores in the US & UK.

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  39:05
• What does it take to build successful products now? Ezinne & Oji Udezue (co-Authors at ProductMind, ex-CPOs of Calendly, Typeform & WP Engine)

  What does it mean to build world-class products in the age of AI? In this episode, Randy Silver talks to Ezinne and Oji Udezue, co-authors of Building Rocketships, a playbook for building high-growth companies in today’s fast-evolving tech landscape. Together, they unpack what product looks like now, how AI changes collaboration, and why ambition, clarity, and disciplined execution matter more than ever.Key takeaways— Building world-class products starts with clear ambition and choosing big, meaningful problems— AI isn't replacing PMs, it's changing the way product work gets done—especially in how we collaborate— Vibe coding enables faster iteration and clearer communication through prototyping in code— The product manager’s job is to lead teams and help the organisation build the right thing, not just anything— Clarity, focus, and leadership buy-in are essential to successful transformation, even in legacy organisations— Product teams need to shift from writing specs to orchestrating systems that drive customer and business outcomes— Every product person should master the full arc: solving today's problems, helping customers succeed, and spotting future opportunitiesChapters 0:00 The "should PMs code?" debate1:54 First product roles and how the book came to life4:49 The mission behind Building Rocketships7:13 Why the book is for leaders and their partners10:01 Differences between world-class teams and everyone else13:35 What ambition really looks like17:10 How clarity transforms legacy companies23:10 AI, vibe coding, and the new spec: working prototypes30:10 Redefining the product team’s role in the AI age35:02 What skills PMs actually need to thrive now42:54 The one mistake PMs can't afford to makeFeatured Links: Follow Ezinne on LinkedIn | Follow Oji on LinkedIn | ProductMind | Buy their new book 'Building Rocketships: Product Management for High Growth Companies'Our HostsLily Smith enjoys working as a consultant product manager with early-stage and growing startups and as a mentor to other product managers. She’s currently Chief Product Officer at BBC Maestro, and has spent 13 years in the tech industry working with startups in the SaaS and mobile space. She’s worked on a diverse range of products – leading the product teams through discovery, prototyping, testing and delivery. Lily also founded ProductTank Bristol and runs ProductCamp in Bristol and Bath. Randy Silver is a Leadership & Product Coach and Consultant. He gets teams unstuck, helping you to supercharge your results. Randy's held interim CPO and Leadership roles at scale-ups and SMEs, advised start-ups, and been Head of Product at HSBC and Sainsbury’s. He participated in Silicon Valley Product Group’s Coaching the Coaches forum, and speaks frequently at conferences and events. You can join one of communities he runs for CPOs (CPO Circles), Product Managers (Product In the {A}ether) and Product Coaches. He’s the author of What Do We Do Now? A Product Manager’s Guide to Strategy in the Time of COVID-19. A recovering music journalist and editor, Randy also launched Amazon’s music stores in the US & UK.

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  47:04
• Rerun: Building fun products at scale: Inside King Games with Todd Green (CEO, King)

  This week on The Product Experience, we revisit a great conversation with Todd Green, now President of King – the studio behind Candy Crush. Todd shares how he thinks about building products that are not only globally successful but enduringly fun. Todd takes us behind the curtain on what it really takes to build for mass audiences, create fun at scale, and grow empowered product teams.Key takeawaysFun can’t be optimised: Building successful games (or products) requires capturing something visceral. Metrics help, but “fun” starts as a feeling, not a number.Audience motivation matters more than demographics: Instead of targeting by age or gender, King focuses on why people play – whether it’s for calm, connection or challenge.Legacy products need product management too: The real work starts when a product survives beyond launch. King invests heavily in balancing new features with legacy complexity.Good product leaders own the business: At King, product leads (executive producers) are responsible for P&L – it's a full-stack role across delivery, team, and outcomes.Sharing insights is a team sport: King has full-time roles and informal networks dedicated to transferring learning between game teams.Ethical responsibility is core: King prioritises player wellbeing and long-term satisfaction – not just engagement – as a business principle.Building great managers is a product in itself: Todd sees first-line manager development as one of his top priorities for sustaining culture and performance.Key chapters  00:00 – Intro and Todd’s promotion 01:40 – Todd’s media roots and time at Fremantle 06:15 – Digital bibles and global format sharing 10:50 – Lessons from the Susan Boyle YouTube moment 13:40 – Shifting to King and the discovery of fun 18:30 – Motivations beyond boredom 22:45 – Building for a massive, diverse audience 26:40 – The product structure at King 30:10 – Keeping Candy Crush fresh after years at the top 35:05 – When to launch a new game 38:50 – Ethics and responsibility in game design 42:20 – Why qual and quant both matter 45:10 – How King shares knowledge across teams 48:00 – The hiring landscape and talent challenges 51:00 – Growing new managers and inclusive leadership 54:10 – Closing thoughts and Todd’s reflectionsOur HostsLily Smith enjoys working as a consultant product manager with early-stage and growing startups and as a mentor to other product managers. She’s currently Chief Product Officer at BBC Maestro, and has spent 13 years in the tech industry working with startups in the SaaS and mobile space. She’s worked on a diverse range of products – leading the product teams through discovery, prototyping, testing and delivery. Lily also founded ProductTank Bristol and runs ProductCamp in Bristol and Bath. Randy Silver is a Leadership & Product Coach and Consultant. He gets teams unstuck, helping you to supercharge your results. Randy's held interim CPO and Leadership roles at scale-ups and SMEs, advised start-ups, and been Head of Product at HSBC and Sainsbury’s. He participated in Silicon Valley Product Group’s Coaching the Coaches forum, and speaks frequently at conferences and events. You can join one of communities he runs for CPOs (CPO Circles), Product Managers (Product In the {A}ether) and Product Coaches. He’s the author of What Do We Do Now? A Product Manager’s Guide to Strategy in the Time of COVID-19. A recovering music journalist and editor, Randy also launched Amazon’s music stores in the US & UK.

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  35:52
• How Stack Overflow is competing with AI - Jody Bailey (CPTO, Stack Overflow)

  AI has changed the way developers work—and Stack Overflow is right at the centre of that shift. In this episode, Jody Bailey, CPTO at Stack Overflow, shares how the platform is adapting to AI, protecting its community, and embracing new revenue streams. We explore how LLMs are reshaping developer behaviour, why canonical answers still matter, and what it takes to keep trust, quality and community alive in the age of instant AI-generated code. If you’re working on dev tools, building with AI, or just wondering how to keep your product relevant through disruption, this one’s for you.Key takeawaysAI is both a disruptor and an enablerEngagement is shifting, not disappearingCommunity remains the core assetAI doesn't kill quality—it challenges itPrompt engineering is the new entry-level skillInnovation is iterative—even with AIStack is designing for tomorrow’s engineersJody’s vision is long termChapters00:00 – intro to Jody Bailey and his role at Stack Overflow03:30 – impact of AI and shift in how developers search for answers07:45 – Stack’s new business model: licensing data to LLMs10:15 – protecting community-contributed data and enforcing attribution13:20 – changing nature of search and the role of AI17:00 – trust, verification, and the evolving user experience21:10 – internal AI experiments and lessons learned25:00 – balancing community, learning, and AI-powered answers28:20 – new skills required for developers in an AI world31:40 – evolving engineering roles and the future of team structures36:10 – making Stack Overflow accessible for the next generation39:50 – what Jody’s most excited about for the futureFeatured Links: Follow Jody on LinkedIn | Stack Overflow | ‘Yes, Artificial Intelligence Has A Creative Side, Sort Of’ feature at ForbesOur HostsLily Smith enjoys working as a consultant product manager with early-stage and growing startups and as a mentor to other product managers. She’s currently Chief Product Officer at BBC Maestro, and has spent 13 years in the tech industry working with startups in the SaaS and mobile space. She’s worked on a diverse range of products – leading the product teams through discovery, prototyping, testing and delivery. Lily also founded ProductTank Bristol and runs ProductCamp in Bristol and Bath. Randy Silver is a Leadership & Product Coach and Consultant. He gets teams unstuck, helping you to supercharge your results. Randy's held interim CPO and Leadership roles at scale-ups and SMEs, advised start-ups, and been Head of Product at HSBC and Sainsbury’s. He participated in Silicon Valley Product Group’s Coaching the Coaches forum, and speaks frequently at conferences and events. You can join one of communities he runs for CPOs (CPO Circles), Product Managers (Product In the {A}ether) and Product Coaches. He’s the author of What Do We Do Now? A Product Manager’s Guide to Strategy in the Time of COVID-19. A recovering music journalist and editor, Randy also launched Amazon’s music stores in the US & UK.

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