Avsnitt
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Every PM has to build AI features these days.
And with that means a completely new skill set:
- AI prototyping
- Observability, Akin to Telemetry
- AI Evals: The New PRD for AI PMs
- RAG v Fine-Tuning v Prompt Engineering
- Working with AI Engineers
So, in today’s episode, I bring you a 2-hour crash course into becoming a better AI PM.
I’ve teamed up with Aman Khan.
When it comes to people creating AI PM content, Aman Khan is amongst the most insightful and informed. And that's because he's been an AI PM since 2019:
- He worked at Cruise on self-driving cars.
- He's worked with Spotify on their AI systems.
- And now he works at Arize, one of the leading observability and evals companies.
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Brought to you by:
Miro: The innovation workspace is your team’s new canvas
Jira Product Discovery: Plan with purpose, ship with confidence
Maven: Get $100 off Aman’s course with my code ‘AAKASHxMAVEN’
Amplitude: Test out the #1 product analytics and replay tool in the market
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Timestamps:
Can Anyone Become AIPM? - 0:00
5 AIPM Skills Overview - 5:52
Skill 1: AI Prototyping - 6:31
Ad: Miro - 13:35
Ad: Atlassian - 14:50
Building Trip Planner Agent - 15:27
Ad: Maven - 29:46
Ad: Amplitude - 30:40
Skill 2: Observability - 50:34
Skill 3: Evals - 1:10:10
RAG vs Fine-Tuning vs Prompt Engineering - 1:29:54
Bolt Teardown - 1:30:32
Skill 5: Working With Engineers - 1:43:24
Don't Make These Mistakes - 1:48:33
2 Hours Weekly Plan - 1:53:55
AIPM Jobs Exist - 1:57:45
Aman's Resources - 2:00:48
Outro - 2:04:00
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Key Takeaways:
1. Cursor beats Bolt for serious AI PMs. While Bolt is great for quick mockups, Cursor gives you the control you need to build real agent systems and understand what's happening under the hood.
2. Observability comes before evals. Just like regular products need telemetry for analytics, AI products need traces for evals. Point Cursor to documentation and it adds what you need.
3. Vibe coding doesn't scale. Looking at outputs and deciding if they "feel good" works for prototypes, but not production. You need systematic evals to measure what "good" actually means.
4. Most PMs fine-tune too early. Aman showed a prompt outperforming a fine-tuned model. Start with prompting (95% of results), add RAG for external data, only fine-tune for cost/speed.
5. Your evals need evals. When your LLM judge marks outputs as "friendly" while your human labels say "robotic," that mismatch tells you exactly where to improve your system.
6. Use text labels, not numbers. LLMs understand "friendly vs robotic" better than 1-5 scales. They're trained on language, not mathematics.
7. AI engineers want data, not docs. Stop sending Google Docs with requirements. They want you labeling datasets and defining success through evals.
8. Bolt is just a really good prompt. Aman tore down Bolt's architecture - it's system prompts + tool calling + code generation. The "magic" isn't magic.
9. Side projects are your interview hack. When Aman asks "What are you building?" he can immediately gauge curiosity, initiative, and hands-on experience.
10. Don't automate yourself too early. Use AI as a second brain for analysis, but don't try to automate your entire job. Learn to work with reasoning models to push your thinking.
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Check it out on Apple, Spotify, or YouTube.
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Where to Find Aman:
LinkedIn: Aman Khan
X: Aman Khan
Substack: aiproductplaybook.com
Company: Arize
Course: The AI PM Playbook
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Related Podcasts:
Tutorial of Top 5 AI Prototyping Tools
Complete Course: AI Product Management
We Built an AI Agent to Automate PM in 73 mins (ZERO CODING)
We Built an AI Product Manager in 58 mins (Claude, ChatGPT, Loom + Notion AI)
We Built an AI Employee in 62 mins (Cursor, ChatGPT, Gibson, Crew AI)
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Up Next
I hope you enjoyed the last episode with Tom Occhino (where we gave an in-depth v0 tutorial). Up next, we have episodes with:
Dan Olsen - Author, Lean Product Playbook
John Beckmann - Head of Events + Webinars, Zoom
Tanguy Crusson - Head of Product, Jira Product Discovery
Finally, check out my latest deep dive if you haven’t yet: The Playbook to Land Your First PM Job.
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If you want to advertise, email productgrowthppp at gmail.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.news.aakashg.com/subscribe -
“My whole Product, design, and engineering team has v0 licenses.”
That’s what Jeremy Epling, CPO at Vanta, said in a recent episode.
So, I went straight to the source.
I sat down with the CPO of Vercel to unpack why v0 is becoming the tool for modern product and engineering teams alongside vibe coders.
We cover:
- The future of AI prototyping for PMs and designers
- How v0 builds product
- A full tutorial of v0
Whether you’re a PM trying to stay ahead, a founder rethinking velocity, or a builder curious about what’s next, this episode is for you.
Brought to you by:
WorkOS: Your App, Enterprise Ready
Jira Product Discovery: Build what matters to business and users
The AI Evals Course for PMs & Engineers: You get $800 with this link.
Product Faculty: Get $500 off the AI PM certification with code AAKASH25
Timestamps:
Preview – 00:00:00
The Agenda – 00:01:07
Live Demo 1: Cloning LinkedIn Newsfeed – 00:03:01
Live Demo 2: Personalized Apollo Homepage (Based on User Behavior) – 00:04:50
Ad 1: WorkOS – 00:09:50 A
d 2: Jira Product Discovery – 00:11:O2
LinkedIn Demo Continued – 00:11:58
Live Demo 3: Grok-Powered Post Composer – 00:14:04
What He’s Building with v0 – 00:15:34
The Feature Factory Problem – 00:24:16
Team Size Behind v0 – 00:27:25
Ad 3: AI Evals Course by Hamel & Shreya – 00:29:39
Ad 4: AI PM Course by Product Faculty – 00:30:39
Team Size Behind Vercel – 00:31:26
Competing with Bolt, Lovable, Replit & Others – 00:34:18
His Reflections on Creating React – 00:35:39
Demo Updates and What’s Changed – 00:37:57
How Vercel Builds Products – 00:43:45
How v0 Team Uses v0 Internally – 00:48:37
How PMs Should Think About Prototyping – 00:50:26
From Integration Idea to Shipped Feature: Thought Process – 00:53:04
Buying v0 Licenses for the PM Team – 00:57:37
His Journey: From Engineer to CPO – 00:59:32
How He Landed the CPO Role at Vercel – 01:03:56
The Future of AI for PMs – 01:11:19
Closing Thoughts – 01:14:37
Key Takeaways
1. The prototype is the new PRD. You don’t need a 5-page document to explain an idea anymore. A working prototype - even if imperfect - communicates 10x more. And with tools like v0, you can build one in minutes.
2. Building speed doesn’t eliminate the need for strategy, it amplifies it. When anyone can ship, the most important job becomes deciding what’s worth building. Product discernment is more valuable than ever.
3. v0 isn’t just for engineers. Designers, PMs, and even salespeople are now building working apps without touching code. The line between "builder" and "non-builder" is disappearing.
4. Internal use cases drive innovation. The most successful v0 features didn’t come from competitive analysis, they came from real internal needs. If it solves your own team’s pain, it’ll likely solve others’.
5. Prototyping is now a cross-functional superpower. PMs can validate hypotheses instantly. Designers can test flows without waiting on devs. Sales can create tools for prospects on the fly. Every role levels up when they can build.
6. Fast iteration doesn't mean reckless shipping. The team behind v0 deliberately avoids becoming a “feature factory.” Speed is a tool, not a reason to skip prioritization or problem framing.
7. Your first user is you. This is the core ethos behind v0. If your own team doesn’t use the thing you’re building, something’s wrong. Internal conviction leads to better external adoption.
8. AI won’t be a separate feature, it’ll be the fabric. In the near future, no one will ask “What’s your AI roadmap?” It’ll just be how products get built, used, and improved - quietly running underneath everything.
9. Small teams can ship big things. The v0 team is under 14 people, yet they’ve built a tool that’s enabling thousands to build faster. Size is no longer a limiting factor — clarity and leverage are.
10. The future of product roles is hybrid. Expect to see more design-engineers, PM-builders, and AI-augmented contributors. Tools like v0 are collapsing boundaries — and giving everyone a chance to ship.
Check it out on Apple, Spotify, or YouTube.
Where to Find Tom
LinkedIn: Tom
Website: www.tomocchino.com
Company: vercel
v0: v0.dev
Related Podcasts:
Tutorial of Top 5 AI Prototyping Tools
Complete Course: AI Product Management
We Built an AI Agent to Automate PM in 73 mins (ZERO CODING)
We Built an AI Product Manager in 58 mins (Claude, ChatGPT, Loom + Notion AI)
We Built an AI Employee in 62 mins (Cursor, ChatGPT, Gibson, Crew AI)
Up Next
I hope you enjoyed the last episode with Brett (where we discussed how he built a $2M/y one person productized agency and how you can too). Up next, we have episodes with:
Aman Khan - AI PM @ Arize AI, Spotify, Cruise
John Beckmann - Head of Meetings Product, Zoom
Tanguy Crusson - Head of Product, Jira Product Discovery
Finally, check out my latest deep dive if you haven’t yet: AI Evals: Everything You Need to Know to Start.
If you want to advertise, email productgrowthppp at gmail.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.news.aakashg.com/subscribe -
Saknas det avsnitt?
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Brett Williams (better known as Brett from DJ on X) built a design business over a weekend, scaled it to $80K/month… and still didn’t quit his job.
Now he has, and he runs a $2M/year one-person business.
In today's episode, he helps you steal his playbook:
Brought to you by:
Amplitude: The market-leader in product analytics
Jira Product Discovery: Build What Matters To Business And Users
The AI Evals Course for PMs and Engineers: Use code “ag-product-growth” to get $800 off.
Timestamps:
Preview - 00:00:00
How Brett Started a Business with Full-Time Job - 00:02:41
Why Brett's Approach is Different - 00:07:59
Concept Behind Packaging - 00:09:47
Ad - 00:12:31
Ad - 00:13:10
Strategies to Reach Success - 00:14:33
Common Requirements of Clients - 00:17:25
How Long is Brett's Turnaround - 00:21:04
Focus on Distribution Platfrom - 00:24:43
Brett's Life on Twitter - 00:28:29
Design in Figma -- Tutorial - 00:32:41
Ad - 00:35:31
Importance of Using AI Skills Right - 00:36:12
Handling Thumbnails - 00:55:09
Ending Notes - 01:08:23
Key Takeaways
1. One guy. One Trello board. $2 million a year. DesignJoy is what happens when you stop overcomplicating and start executing. No team. No agency overhead. No client onboarding flow. Brett built a $2M/year design business with just a landing page, a Trello board, and relentless output. People pay for clarity and DesignJoy offers just that.
2. He was making $80K/month… and still didn’t quit his job. Most founders quit when the side hustle hits $10K. He waited until $80K/month, then still applied to 60 jobs. Why? Because deep down, he wasn’t sure it would last. That’s the quiet truth for many solo builders: it’s not just about making money, it’s about believing you deserve it.
3. His offer is stupidly simple and that’s what makes it genius. One flat price. One request at a time. One-man turnaround in ~48 business hours. That’s it. Clients don’t need to scope projects, negotiate timelines, or wonder what they’ll get. It’s design like Netflix: press play, get results. As they say, simplicity scales better than process.
4. DesignJoy was built in 48 hours and validated in real-time. No growth strategy. No “perfect launch.” Just a clean offer built in a weekend, launched Saturday, clients by Sunday. And then? He kept going not by making it absolutely complex, but by refining the exact same system for years.
5. He designs faster than most teams can Slack about it. He doesn’t wireframe, brainstorm, or explore 12 directions. He one-shots full high-fidelity designs in Figma using instinct, experience, and a deep mental library of design patterns. No templates. Just speed, conviction, and clarity - honed from years of obsessively consuming great design. In essence, real mastery as Robert Greene has proclaimed for years!
6. He doesn’t chase perfection, he chases velocity. His goal isn’t to win design awards. It’s to get you 90% of the way there, fast. And if the first version isn’t right, he doesn’t defend it, he just ships another one. That’s why clients love him. That can be another reason why he’s making more than like 99.99% of the designers!
7. His distribution channel is only X (Twitter) and here how he nails it. He treats X (Twitter) as oxygen. He’s not there to share random thoughts he’s there to build distribution. Whether it’s revenue milestones or AI-powered design tutorials, everything he posts is battle-tested for reach. And right now, nothing is outperforming high-value, visual tutorials. So, if your work involves AI somehow, make sure you’re dropping banger visuals. Overall, if I conclude his content strategy, it would be this: highly valuable content, jumping on trends, controversial/hot takes, etc.
8. He doesn’t trust Figma anymore. Ask him what Figma has become, and he won’t hold back: “They’re building for developers, not designers.” He’s watched the updates shift toward dev mode and tokens while UI/visual designers get left behind.
9. But why he doesn’t do any meetings with clients? He built his business around the idea that great work is communication. His clients don’t want another Zoom call, they want a landing page by Friday. That’s why he wins. Every deliverable speaks louder than status updates.
10. Here’s how you can build a one person agency around your expertise:→ Productize your strongest skill.→ Limit what you offer to what you’re best and fastest at.→ Pick one platform and post with consistency and clarity.→ Work solo if you can but systematize everything.
Sounds too simple but truly that’s only the sauce.
Check it out on Apple, Spotify, or YouTube.
Where to Find Brett
Twitter: Brett
Company: Designjoy
Course: Productize Yourself
Related Podcast:
How this Ex-Amazon VP makes $950k/yr post retirement
Up Next
I hope you enjoyed the last episode with Harish Mukhami (where we built AI Customer Success Agent). Up next, we have episodes with:
Thomas Occhino - CPO, Vercel
Aman Khan - AI PM @ Arize AI, Spotify, Cruise
Nan Yu - Head of Product, Linear
Finally, check out my latest deep dive if you haven’t yet: Career-Launching Companies: These are the Companies You Should Work For
If you want to advertise, email productgrowthppp at gmail.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.news.aakashg.com/subscribe -
This is another episode from our AI PM series.
This time, we’re building an AI teammate that runs user research, writes product docs, and powers customer success end-to-end with GibsonAI founder, Harish Mukhami.
Brought to you by:
Amplitude: The market leader in product analytics
Linear: Plan and build products like the best
Maven: I’ve launched my own curation of their courses
Timestamps:
Preview – 00:00:00
Building AI Customer Success Agent (Tool Stack) – 00:01:46
Role of GibsonAI in Building Customer Success AI Agent – 00:07:29
Using Data from O3 Mini – 00:09:20
Ad (Amplitude) – 00:10:13
Ad (Linear) – 00:10:45
Directing GibsonAI – 00:11:45
Connecting GibsonAI via MCP – 00:17:38
Role of Cursor – 00:21:10
Python Script Inserting Data – 00:26:56
Understanding Cursor Modes – 00:29:00
Ad (Maven) – 00:30:38
Our Dashboard Is Ready – 00:31:01
AI Agent That Analyzes Data and Recommends Actions – 00:33:44
The Most Important Thing Agent Is Doing – 00:41:46
Aakash’s Reaction to Output – 00:50:51
Role of CrewAI – 00:52:01
Why He Built GibsonAI – 00:56:35
Final Thoughts – 01:00:15
Key Takeaways
1. Production Over Prototypes - Stop building prototypes and start shipping production-ready AI employees. Gibson AI, Cursor, and CrewAI let you go from concept to production in hours. Harish's agent was backed by a scalable database handling 10,000 users day one—no rebuilding required.
2. Amplify, Don't Replace - Your next 10x gain comes from making existing teams superhuman. AI agents analyze dashboards 24/7 and draft personalized outreach, while human CS agents focus on high-touch relationships and strategic decisions.
3. Three-Tier Implementation Strategy - Follow this roadmap: dashboard → human-approved recommendations → autonomous actions. Start with AI insights humans review, then AI recommendations humans approve, finally autonomous execution for low-risk tasks.
4. Human-Loop Insurance - Human-in-the-loop is customer relationship insurance. Harish built approval workflows because random AI emails "will only make the problem worse." AI should amplify human judgment, not bypass it.
5. Proactive Beats Reactive - Proactive churn prevention beats reactive win-back by orders of magnitude. AI agents monitor engagement patterns and usage metrics to address churn risks before customers consider leaving.
6. MCP Integration Magic - MCP makes AI tools actually talk to each other. Harish could query databases, update schemas, and deploy changes directly from Cursor—seamless integration without manual tool switching.
7. Information Processing Automation - Any role that "ingests information and sends out information" is automatable. SDRs, recruiters, executive assistants—if it involves processing data and taking action, AI handles the heavy lifting.
8. Specialized Model Selection - Different models excel at different tasks. Harish used O3 Mini for planning, Claude Sonnet for coding. Match your model choice to the specific job rather than defaulting to popularity.
9. Day-One Infrastructure - Production-grade infrastructure eliminates the prototype-to-production death valley. Starting with scalable database infrastructure means your demo can actually handle real user volumes when stakeholders want to scale.
10. Always Review Code - Read AI-generated code even when moving fast. Despite impressive capabilities, human oversight remains critical: "Make sure it is the code that you want." Speed matters, but understanding what you ship is non-negotiable.
Check it out on Apple, Spotify, or YouTube.
Where to Find Harish
LinkedIn: Harish Mukhami
Company: GibsonAI
Related Podcasts:
Tutorial of Top 5 AI Prototyping Tools
Complete Course: AI Product Management
We Built an AI Agent to Automate PM in 73 mins (ZERO CODING)
We Built an AI Product Manager in 58 mins (Claude, ChatGPT, Loom + Notion AI)
Up Next
I hope you enjoyed the last episode with Jeremy Epling (where we discussed the lessons he learned from working at Microsoft and now CPO, Vanta). Up next, we have episodes with:
Bret @DesignJoy - Running Solo $2M/yr Design Agency
Thomas Occhino - CPO, Vercel
Aman Khan - AI PM @ Arize AI, Spotify, Cruise
Finally, check out my latest deep dive if you haven’t yet: Career-Launching Companies: These are the Companies You Should Work For
If you want to advertise, email productgrowthppp at gmail.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.news.aakashg.com/subscribe -
Jeremy Epling has led product at every level - Microsoft, GitHub, and now as Chief Product Officer at Vanta.
In this episode, he unpacks what most PMs get wrong about strategy, how AI is reshaping product development, and how to excel at your career.
Brought to you by:
Linear: Plan and build products like the best
Amplitude: Try their 2-min assessment of your company’s digital maturity
Maven: I’ve launched my own curation of their courses
Timestamps:
Preview – 00:00:00
Working at Internet Explorer – 00:02:05
Why He Encourages AI Prototyping Tools – 00:06:15
Ad (Linear) – 00:09:56
Ad (Amplitude) – 00:10:48
AI Prototyping Tools Impact Continued... – 00:11:23
How a Microsoft Feature Gets Built – 00:15:47
Changes in PM Role Inside Microsoft – 00:17:57
Lessons Learned From Satya – 00:20:59
Steps to Move Up the Career Ladder – 00:25:11
Ad – 00:30:45
Communication as a Step in the Career Ladder – 00:31:33
Moving Beyond the Product – "The Final Step" – 00:34:11
GitHub for PMs – 00:37:33
Experience as a VP – 00:42:33
Evolving Expectations of Director-Level Roles – 00:48:51
Getting Job in Vanta – 00:51:59
Secret Behind Vanta's Success – 00:58:01
Growth in PLG vs. Enterprise – 01:01:36
Unique Things About Building a Product – 01:03:57
Embracing All AI Software – 01:07:16
Evaluation of PMs at Vanta – 01:11:12
Advice to PMs With No Experience – 01:13:56
Key Takeaways
* Big companies teach you how to scale. Great ones teach you how to focus. At Microsoft, Jeremy learned how to operate at massive scale - teams, systems, legacy complexity. But it wasn’t until GitHub that he saw what it meant to focus on developers, ruthlessly prioritize, and ship with empathy. Learning how to balance enterprise-scale thinking with startup-speed execution shaped his career.
* “Strategy” isn’t about having a roadmap, it’s about knowing what not to build.He learned early on that the best PMs aren’t the ones who ship the most features. They’re the ones who create clarity, say no often, and focus the team on why they’re building something, not just what.
* Prototyping is the new PM’s superpower. At Vanta, every PM gets access to V0. Why? Because the fastest way to learn is to build. His philosophy: “If I can show it, I can test it. If I can test it, I can learn.” Seeing is believing and customers don’t respond to decks the way they respond to demos.
* The lines between PM, design, and engineering are gone. At high-functioning companies, designers submit pull requests, engineers make design calls, and PMs prototype. Roles are fluid, and the best teams adapt to each other instead of clinging to old job descriptions.
* Most PMs don’t understand GitHub but they should. You don’t have to be technical to learn GitHub. You just have to be curious. The best PMs at GitHub - even the non-coders - understood the dev workflow, knew what a PR felt like, and respected the architecture. That empathy changed how they built product.
* Want to grow into VP-level roles? Improve your business acumen. Shipping features won’t get you there. Understanding margin, pricing, GTM, and how your product makes money will. He didn’t start out as a “business” PM, but he made a point to learn the mechanics of how things grow and that’s what unlocked leadership roles.
* If you’re doing the same job after 4 years, you’re probably not growing. He kept switching teams every few years at Microsoft not because he was bored, but because growth requires friction. Every new domain forced him to relearn how to build, lead, and communicate.
* Satya Nadella didn’t just save Microsoft, he redefined what it meant to build product there. Under Ballmer, the strategy was “build everything.” Under Satya, it became “build what matters.” He saw firsthand how Satya’s obsession with clarity and developer-first thinking rewired the org. That’s what made it the best place for PMs to work back days.
* If your team is waiting for a spec, they’ve already lost momentum. He doesn’t believe in 20-page PRDs. Instead, he believes in fast cycles, shared prototypes, and cross-functional discovery.
* Letting go is the lost art for PMs! One of the fastest ways to grow as a PM? Kill projects that don’t matter even if they were your idea. According to him, the PMs who get promoted are the ones who know when to let go and when to keep building on the idea.
Check it out on Apple, Spotify, or YouTube.
Where to Find Jeremy
LinkedIn: Jeremy Epling
Company: Vanta (Get $1,000 off with our link)
Related Podcasts:
Write a Great Product Strategy: Lessons from Ravi Mehta
How to Develop Your Product Strategy, with Satyajeet Salgar
Shek Viswanathan (2x CPO): “Product Management isn’t going to exist in 5 years”
Sergio Pereira: How to PM with AI at Early Stage Startups
The Claire Vo Episode: PM is Dead. So Now What?
Tutorial of Top 5 AI Prototyping Tools
Up Next
I hope you enjoyed the last episode with strategy legend, Roger Martin (the last video you’ll ever need to watch on Strategy). Up next, we have episodes with:
Bret @DesignJoy - Running Solo $2M/yr Design Agency
Harish Mukhami - Fmr Head of Product, Siri; CPO, Leaflink
Thomas Occhino - CPO, Vercel
Finally, check out my latest deep dive if you haven’t yet: What Product Management Interviewers Care About: Insights from 500+ Interviews
If you want to advertise, email productgrowthppp at gmail.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.news.aakashg.com/subscribe -
Tired of "strategic roadmaps" nobody follows?
Roger Martin reveals why 95% of companies fail to build a strategy that actually drives results and how to craft one that wins real customers, at scale.
Brought to you by:
WorkOS: Your App, Enterprise Ready
Amplitude: Try their 2-min assessment of your company’s digital maturity
Linear: Plan and build products like the best
Timestamps:
Preview - 00:00:00
Myth About Strategy - 00:02:13
Understanding What Are Inputs - 00:05:54
The 5 Question Framework - 00:06:30
Walmart’s Fumble - 00:08:48
Ad - 00:10:38
Ad - 00:11:51
Where Business Schools Are Failing - 00:12:35
Anthropic Vs OpenAI - 00:27:11
Ad - 00:30:19
Difference Between Planning & Strategy - 00:35:52
How to Leverage Your Position for Strategy - 00:41:23
SouthWest’s Success Story - 00:43:16
Predicting the Future As A Strategist – 00:54:20
Thinking Template for Product Leaders - 00:57:20
The Autopilot Curse - 00:58:40
Exploiting Your Competitors Mixed Motives - 01:09:45
Closing Notes - 01:11:20
Key Takeaways
* Most "strategy" is just budgeting with prose. According to Martin, at least 90% of strategy out in the world is merely a list of laudable initiatives that don't fit together to create a compelling reason for customers to choose you over competitors.
* Strategy compels customers to take desired actions. The core purpose of strategy is making integrated choices that cause customers to pull money from their pockets and give it to you instead of someone else, not just planning activities.
* Five questions make a complete strategy. A real strategy answers: What's your winning aspiration? Where will you play? How will you win? What capabilities must you have? What management systems do you need to build and maintain those capabilities?
* The best competitive advantage exploits what competitors "won't" do. The most powerful strategic positions come from understanding competitors' mixed motives. Things they could do but won't because it would hurt their core business (like Walmart avoiding e-commerce to protect store investments).
* Strategy works when your "where to play" and "how to win" form a matched pair. Your choice of market segment should enable a distinctive advantage, and your advantage should be perfect for your chosen segment—they must reinforce each other.
* Business schools teach tools, not strategy. MBA programs focus on analytical frameworks like five forces and resource-based view, but rarely teach how to create an integrated strategy that makes real-world choices.
* Product managers often focus on initiatives instead of strategy. The typical mistake is creating a roadmap of features without first determining where to play and how to win, making the roadmap an input rather than an output of strategy.
* Great strategists don't plan for the future to resemble the past. Martin emphasizes having an explicit theory about how the future will be different, while constantly updating this theory as new information emerges.
* Southwest Airlines' winning strategy came from integrated choices. Their decisions to use only one plane type, avoid hubs, eliminate seat assignments, and pay workers more for flexibility all reinforced their 15-minute gate turn strategy.
* Strategy requires what Martin calls "Bayesian updating". The key is continuously asking: "What would have to be true for our strategy to work?" and watching those assumptions like a hawk, updating your strategy as facts change.
Check it out on Apple, Spotify, or YouTube.
Where to Find Roger
LinkedIn: Roger Martin
Some of His Awesome Books:
Playing to Win
A New Way to Think: Your Guide to Superior Management Effectiveness
Creating Great Choices: A Leader's Guide to Integrative Thinking
Related Podcasts:
Write a Great Product Strategy: Lessons from Ravi Mehta
How to Develop Your Product Strategy, with Satyajeet Salgar
Build a Snap Product Strategy: How to Succeed as a PM and Product Leader
Up Next
I hope you enjoyed the last episode with Andy (where we vibe coded our way to build a $1M AI app). Up next, we have episodes with:
Jeremy Epling - CPO, Vanta
Bret @DesignJoy - Running Solo $2M/yr Design Agency
Harish Mukhami - Fmr Head of Product, Siri; CPO, Leaflink
Finally, check out my latest deep dive if you haven’t yet: The European Tech Market Map: Biggest Players, Startups, and Job Opportunities
If you want to advertise, email productgrowthppp at gmail.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.news.aakashg.com/subscribe -
Ever had a killer product idea… but no clue how to actually build it? You’re not alone.
But here’s the good news: You don’t need to know how to code.
Andy Carroll, a 15-year PM veteran (and vibe coding wizard), shows you exactly how.
Brought to you by:
Maven: I’ve just launched my unique curation of their top courses
Miro: The innovation workspace: your team’s canvas
Amplitude: Try their 2-min assessment of your company’s digital maturity
Timestamps:Preview – 00:00:00
What Is Vibe Coding? – 00:01:57
Vibe Coding Tutorial Begins – 00:05:18
Ad – 00:10:32
Ad – 00:11:20
Building a Full-Stack Mobile App – 00:12:16
Creating the AI Sports Reporter – 00:18:12
Developing AI Tools Live – 00:21:22
Ad – 00:30:33
AI Sports Reporter (Part 2) – 00:31:25
Reviewing the Learning Page – 00:34:18
Using Prompts to Generate a Brand Logo – 00:42:04
Designing an Infographic – 00:46:49
Why Prompt Quality Is Everything – 00:50:21 Recap of the Live Build Session – 00:53:59
How PMs Should Use These Tools – 00:58:34
The Future of Vibe Coding for PMs – 01:00:15
What Is Aisle Partners? – 01:04:08
Should PMs Consult, Stay Full-Time, or Build Their Own Product? – 01:07:24
Closing Notes – 01:11:20
Key Takeaways
Vibe coding puts product creation in non-technical hands. Even after 15 years as a PM, Andy can't write code from scratch. But AI tools like Windsurf and Lovable made it possible for him to collaborate with AI to build real products without coding skills.
Front-load your planning to avoid rebuilding everything. He painfully learned that diving straight into coding creates expensive headaches. So, it’s best to use AI to draft strategy documents and architecture plans first, preventing the frustration of multiple false starts.
Set up a simple deployment pipeline immediately. GitHub for code, Netlify for deployment, and Superbase for databases is his recommended stack. Deploy frequently and early as waiting too long means facing hundreds of errors at once instead of fixing small issues.
Create PM deliverables in hours, not weeks. He built a detailed product roadmap and strategy documents in a single afternoon. These become living references in GitHub that team members can access anytime, eliminating version control nightmares.
Watch out for AI's eagerness to change your code. Windsurf has two modes: safe "chat" and powerful "write." Only toggle to write mode when you want changes made, otherwise, AI might drastically refactor your entire page when you just want a font color change.
Switch AI models when you hit roadblocks. Different models have different strengths. He uses Claude 3.7 for brainstorming, DeepSeek for specific tasks, and switches to GPT-4 when stuck. A fresh model may solve problems that the first one couldn't.
Validate ideas faster than ever before. Skip weeks of perfecting logos, brands, and pixel-perfect designs. Build something "good enough" quickly, get real feedback, and iterate based on actual user responses rather than internal debates.
Target your creativity where it matters most. AI tools eliminate 90% of implementation busy work. Use templates for standard elements like landing pages, then focus your team's energy exclusively on the features that truly differentiate your product.
Automate status reports and presentations. He generates comprehensive project updates directly from his roadmap progress, feeding them into presentation tools like Gamma. This eliminates hours spent creating the same PowerPoint slides teams have made for decades.
People are launching profitable side hustles with vibe coding. Entrepreneurs like Peter Levels and John Rush build and monetize micro-SaaS products through vibe coding. The approach allows testing ideas quickly and pivoting without emotion when something doesn't work.
Check it out on Apple, Spotify, or YouTube.
Where to Find Andy:
LinkedIn: Andy Carroll
His AI implementation company: Aisle Partners
Related Podcasts:
Pawel Huryn: How to Actually Become an AI PM, Complete Course
Tutorial of Top 5 AI Prototyping Tools
Bolt Tutorial from the CEO: We Live Build a Remote Job board
We Built an AI Agent to Automate PM in 73 mins (ZERO CODING)
Up Next
I hope you enjoyed the last episode with Matt (where we discussed how to build a $100M AI company). Up next, we have episodes with:
Roger Martin - Author, Playing to Win
Jeremy Epling - CPO, Vanta
Bret @DesignJoy - Running Solo $1.9M/yr Design Agency
Finally, check out my latest deep dive if you haven’t yet: The European Tech Market Map: Biggest Players, Startups, and Job Opportunities
If you want to advertise, email productgrowthppp at gmail.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.news.aakashg.com/subscribe -
If you’ve ever thought you’re a great PM and should build something of your own with AI, today’s episode is for you.
Matt, who built a $1B+ AI product company LogRocket, shares the full roadmap on building a $100M company.
Brought to you by:
Miro: The innovation workspace: your team’s canvas
Linear: Plan and build products like the best
-
Timestamps:
Introduction - 00:00
Step 1: Build Projects - 01:23
Step 2: Develop Skills - 04:31
Step 3: Find Opportunities - 09:08
Ad: Miro - 10:09 Ad: Amplitude - 11:06
Product Growth Framework - 11:38
Step 4: Build MVP - 12:51
Step 5: Launch Strategy - 13:51
Step 6: Raise Funding - 16:40
Step 7: Growth Channels - 21:15
Step 8: Build Teams - 23:44
Step 9: Hire Executives - 26:21
Ad: Linear - 30:31
PM Workflow Solution - 31:29
Step 10: Funding Growth - 31:30
Step 11: Second Product - 35:29
Step 12: Expand Marketing - 39:28
Step 13: Product Portfolio - 41:53
Step 14: Develop Partnerships - 45:49
Step 15: Global Domination - 48:07
Founder's Lowest Point - 48:52
tarting Today's Advice - 50:12
Closing - 53:06
-
Takeaways:
* Start by building lots of projects. Build, build and build, just like Matt did since elementary school. His mobile game hit millions of users while an app he built for introverts failed completely. These hands-on experiences teach you more than any classroom ever could.
* Develop specialized skills. Find your superpower skill combination. It was Matt's coding plus design expertise that created the perfect foundation for LogRocket. So what unique skills can you combine to solve problems others can't?
* Deeply understand a problem domain. His time at Meteor showed him front-end development challenges firsthand. Put yourself in environments where you'll experience problems worth solving. Your insider knowledge will help you identify gaps that others miss completely.
* Build an MVP that tackles a specific challenge. His team created user session replay technology by working nights after their day jobs. So, start with something small but valuable that demonstrates your core insight and solves a specific pain point.
* Launch strategically with momentum. You can orchestrate your launch like a Hacker News campaign with friends ready to upvote. A coordinated push can generate thousands of day-one signups when executed with precision and timing.
* Establish sustainable growth channels. LogRocket's technical blog became their acquisition engine with 200 high-quality posts monthly. Find one channel that works and then double down on it hard before diversifying your marketing efforts.
* Be selective about fundraising. Matt successfully grew to $5K monthly revenue before raising $500K from Matrix Partners for his startup. In competitive markets, funding helps you outpace rivals, but remember each market requires a different capital approach to win.
* Focus intensely on recruiting. Make hiring your obsession once you have product-market fit. Great early hires attract more great talent naturally, creating a self-reinforcing cycle of exceptional team building.
* Choose executives that match your culture. Cultural alignment trumps raw skill when hiring executives. Look for leaders who enhance your existing culture rather than those who want to demolish and rebuild with their own imported approach.
* Expand your product portfolio deliberately. Building second and third products is crucial for continued growth. LogRocket expanded from session replay to AI-powered issue detection, creating a broader suite while serving the same developer and product manager customers.
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Where to Find Matt
LinkedIn
LogRocket
Email productgrowthppp at gmail.com to discuss advertising or guest opportunities.
-
I hope you enjoyed the last episode with Phyl Terry (Author, Never Search Alone). Up next, we have episodes with:
Andy Carroll - 15 years in PM, Vibe Coding Expert
Roger Martin - Author, Playing to Win
Jeremy Epling - CPO, Vanta
I’m so excited to share them with all of you.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.news.aakashg.com/subscribe -
If you're job hunting in 2025 and aiming for roles at top companies, this might be the best podcast you'll watch all year.
Phyl Terry (Author of “Never Search Alone” book, loved by thousands of PMs) shares the overlooked system used by top execs, Google VPs, and senior operators to actually get hired even in the toughest job markets.
Brought to you by:
* Linear: Plan and build products like the best
*Maven: I’ve just launched my unique curation of their top courses
* Amplitude: Try their 2-min assessment of your company’s digital maturity
Key Takeaways
* Everyone gets job search anxiety. Yes, everyone. Even Google VPs and C-level executives feel insecure when looking for work. This universal anxiety is precisely why you need support during the process.
* Group support flips anxiety into strength. Meeting weekly with a group of 4-5 job seekers creates accountability and shifts emotions from insecurity to hope, motivation, and confidence. Basically the four key elements you need for a successful search.
* Think of yourself as the product you're selling. "Candidate market fit" applies product thinking to your job search by finding where your skills intersect with market demand, just like product-market fit.
* Being specific about your target role increases opportunities. Counter to intuition, narrowing your focus (like "Director of Product at a Series B health tech company") makes you more memorable to your network and helps you stand out to recruiters.
* The "spray and pray" approach is a waste of energy. Sending resumes everywhere without focusing on candidate market fit is like launching products without understanding customers. Yes, it does feel productive but it rarely works.
* Ask others how they see your strengths. Your "listening tour" means gathering honest feedback from former colleagues and recruiters about where your skills actually fit in today's market.
* Create a "Job Mission with OKRs" document for interviews. This draft shows how you think about the role's responsibilities and objectives, demonstrating initiative and competence while clarifying expectations before accepting the job.
* First negotiate what you need to succeed. When receiving an offer, first discuss what you need to achieve the agreed objectives (team training, technical debt resolution, resources). This is something that greatly impresses employers and sets you up for future success.
* Always ask permission before introductions. Instead of sending cold introductions, ask your contact to first request permission from the target person. As this shows respect and dramatically increases response rates.
* Market conditions change what jobs you can get. During economic downturns, you may need to target lower positions than during boom times, but that’s okay. Since, in the long term it’s your adaptability that keeps your career advancing despite market shifts.
Check it out on Apple, Spotify, or YouTube.
Where to Find Phyl
LinkedIn: Phyl Terry
Website: phyl.org
Book: Never Search Alone
Related Podcasts:
Diego Granados (AI PM at Google) - The Ultimate Guide to Your Next Product Management Job
Dr. Nancy Li - Everything You Need To Know About 2025 Job Search Masterclass
Collin Lernell - How to Get a Product Leadership Job
Up Next
I hope you enjoyed the last episode with Aatir Abdul Rauf (where we discussed both of ours three viral posts and lessons you could learn). Up next, we have episodes with:
Matt Arbesfeld - Founder and CEO, LogRocket
Andy Carroll - 15 years in PM, Vibe Coding Expert
Roger Martin - Author, Playing to Win
Finally, check out my latest deep dive if you haven’t yet: The Art of Winning Interviews via Referral: Complete Guide
If you want to advertise, email productgrowthppp at gmail.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.news.aakashg.com/subscribe -
Today, we have a very fun episode.
We’re teaming up with my long-time collaborator and friend Aatir Abdul Rauf—who’s now a VP of Marketing and spent the past decade in senior product roles.
We’re each reviewing 3 of each other’s favorite posts.
Today, we’re chatting about:
* The New Trio - 00:01:34
*Growth Loops - 00:20:28
*The Languages of Product Management - 00:36:28
*5 Lessons from Netflix’s decline - 00:46:24
*Roadmap isn’t a strategy - 00:51:30
* My viral post of all time - 00:53:39
Brought to you by:
* WorkOS: Your app, enterprise ready
* Linear: Plan and build products like the best
* Amplitude: Try their 2-min assessment of your company’s digital maturity
Key Takeaways
* There’s a new trio in town. We all grew up on the “PM + designer + engineer” model. He advocates for the new trio: PM, PMM, and Growth. It’s a very important concept to think of. PMs build, PMMs tell the story, Growth makes it scale. If even one of those is missing, good luck sustaining anything.
* PMMs are the unsung heroes of real product impact. Most teams either ignore the role or treat it like launch copywriting. But without a PMM, users don’t understand the product. You can ship the most powerful feature ever but if no one knows it exists or why it matters, it’s worthless.
* Growth isn’t the first thing; it’s the multiplier. You don’t bolt on a growth loop day one. You ship → PM & PMM find what clicks → then growth turns it into a loop. Premature growth is how startups/teams burn cash and lose trust.
* PMF alone isn’t enough, you need sustainable PMF. You can hit PMF with a few power users… but what happens when the market shifts? You’ll not be able to sustain. So, always build products that can sustain themselves in the longer run.
* Alignment is the only way to scale. The trio (PM, PMM, Growth) needs shared answers on: what vision are we chasing?, what’s our real North Star?, and where are users actually getting stuck? This kind of clarity among everyone saves months of confusion later.
* You can’t copy-paste growth loops, you apply them to your context. He shared his 13 types of loops and literally you should have it on your desk if you do anything with growth. The real insight is pick one that supports your product and the whole ecosystem at the given moment. The one that fits your product’s natural behavior. If you try to force it, it will break.
* PMs need to be multilingual. If you can’t speak Salesian to sales, Designees to design, and Techugu to engineering… You’re not going to get buy-in. Remember, you’re not just planner anymore, you’re the translator. If you want to build your influence, you need to learn their language.
* Distribution is part of product; not just marketing. This part will hit hard. You might’ve built features that worked beautifully… but went completely unnoticed. Why? No in-app education, no onboarding touch, no internal enablement. Shipping =/= adoption.
* Content is product and packaging is UX. We also touched down on our content creation journey. We both broke down what made our biggest posts go viral.Here’s what we’ve learned: People don’t share content because it’s clever. They share it because it makes them feel understood. Same rule applies to features, by the way.
* You go viral by being useful, not loud. Every high-performing post we had started with: “What’s a real problem I face as a PM?” Then it was turned into a visual or framework others could actually apply. That’s the bar. That’s how you build signal that spreads.
Check it out on Apple, Spotify, or YouTube.
Where to Find Aatir
LinkedIn: Aatir Abdul Rauf
Newsletter: Behind Product Lines
Related Podcasts:
* Marty Cagan - Marty shares how irreplaceable PMs build products that drive real business outcomes.
* Melissa Perri - Melissa shows how to tie product work directly to the company's existential goals.
* Jaryd Hermann - We dove deep into Product-Led Growth (PLG)
Up Next
I hope you enjoyed the last episode with Matt LeMay (Author, Impact-First Teams on how to build $1m+ product team). Up next, we have episodes with:
Phyl Terry - Author, Never Search Alone
Matt Arbesfeld - Founder and CEO, LogRocket
Andy Carroll - 15 years in PM, Vibe Coding Expert
Finally, check out my latest deep dive if you haven’t yet: The Art of Winning Interviews via Referral: Complete Guide
If you want to advertise, email productgrowthppp at gmail.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.news.aakashg.com/subscribe -
Imagine a Product Management content creator who… Reddit actually likes? Yep, the most “complain-y” part of the internet actually loves Matt LeMay. His book Product Management in Practice, consistently gets praise there.
So, when I heard he was launching a second book, that too on the important subject of how to be impact-oriented as a product team, I had to have him on.
Today, we’re chatting about:
* Impact-First Product Teams - 01:13
* How to Win the Love of Reddit - 14:38
* Breaking the "Low Impact Death Spiral" - 31:14
* How His Business Breaks Down as an Author - 53:15
Brought to you by:
* Linear: Plan and build products like the best
* Miro: The innovation workspace: your team’s canvas
* Amplitude: Try their 2-min assessment of your company’s digital maturity
Key Takeaways
* The business expects a return on its investment in product teams—with teams costing roughly $1 million annually, you must proactively manage the conversation about why your work matters to the business.
* Most organizations perpetuate low-impact work through the "low impact death spiral"—teams choose easier, less scrutinized projects that lead to complicated products, making high-impact work even harder, which further incentivizes low-impact work.
* Understanding your business's next existential milestone is critical—whether it's raising funding, hitting quarterly revenue targets, or expanding to new markets, this determines how you should measure your team's success.
* The most commercially-minded product leaders are often the happiest—by accepting that success depends on factors outside your control, you can focus on contributing what you can and find greater satisfaction in your work.
* Many product teams have goals stored in multiple disconnected places—this creates confusion about what success actually looks like and makes it impossible to drive day-to-day decision-making.
* Draw a direct line from your work to business impact—keep your goals no more than "one step away" from company goals, using clear statements like "converting X single-product users to multi-product users will contribute Y revenue."
* Breaking free of Silicon Valley best practices is liberating—most companies operate in different commercial contexts than big tech, requiring different approaches and tradeoffs.
* The question every team should ask: "If you were CEO, would you fully fund this team?"—this mindset shift helps people understand the resource investment their team represents and evaluate their true impact.
* Product managers should prioritize clarity over comfort—addressing miscommunications or misconceptions immediately prevents much bigger problems down the road, even if it feels awkward.
* Platform teams can demonstrate impact by directly connecting to the metrics of teams they support—they should focus on how their work helps other teams deliver more impact or deliver impact more quickly.
Check it out on Apple, Spotify, or YouTube.
Where to Find Matt
* Books:
* "Impact First Product Teams"
* "Product Management in Practice"
* LinkedIn: Matt LeMay
* Website: https://mattlemay.com/
Related Podcasts:
* Marty Cagan - Marty shares how irreplaceable PMs build products that drive real business outcomes.
* Melissa Perri - Melissa shows how to tie product work directly to the company's existential goals.
* Ed Biden - Ed and I talk about the cost and ROI of product teams, and how to prove your ROI.
Up Next
I hope you enjoyed the last episode with Brad Schaefer (VP of Product at $1B+ Abrigo on How to go from PM to VP). Up next, we have episodes with:
* Aatir Abdul Rauf - VP Marketing, VFairs; 70K+ on LinkedIn
* Phyl Terry - Author, Never Search Alone
* Matt Arbesfeld - Founder and CEO, LogRocket
Finally, check out my latest deep dive if you haven’t yet: Most People are Building AI Products Wrong - Here's How to do it Right
If you want to advertise, email productgrowthppp at gmail.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.news.aakashg.com/subscribe -
Two VPs (Aakash & Brad) candidly discuss how they went from their first PM job to VP, what actually helped them (no gatekeeping), and how you can do the same.
Brought to you by:
Linear: Plan and build products like the best
Amplitude: Try their 2-minute assessment of your company’s digital maturity
In this episode:
Trailer – 00:00
Intro to Brad & Abrigo – 01:25
How we Became PMs - 2:55
How to Grow from PM to Senior PM – 07:21
Aakash’s Journey from PM to Senior PM – 09:58
What Really Drives Promotions (Career Matrix) – 14:12
Ad (Linear) – 16:58
Ad (Amplitude) - 17:50
Deep Dive: Using the Career Matrix for Growth – 18:25
Moving from Senior PM to VP – 20:49
What It Takes to Get Promoted from IC to Manager – 26:51
This One Behavior Changes Everything (But Few PMs Do It) – 28:36
Ad (Attio) - 29:40
How to Be Seen as a Leader - 30:43
Brad’s Own Promotion Case to Manager – 34:47
Path from Manager to Director – 37:40
Aakash on Influencing a Company Without the Title – 38:48
What Helped Aakash & Brad Reach the VP Level – 48:47
Advice for PMs Who Want to Reach VP in Under 10 Years – 53:38
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Where to Find Brad
LinkedIn
Abrigo
Email productgrowthppp at gmail.com to discuss advertising or guest opportunities.
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I hope you enjoyed the last episode with Pawel Huryn (Complete Course: AI Product Management). Up next, we have episodes with:
Matt Le May - How to be Impact-First
Aatir Abdul Rauf - VP Marketing, VFairs; 70K+ on LinkedIn
Phyl Terry - Author, Never Search Alone
I’m so excited to share them with all of you.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.news.aakashg.com/subscribe -
In today's podcast, Pawel Huryn shows you every key skill to become an AI PM. We go from basics to expert mode: starting at AI prompting, then AI PRDs, fine-tuning, RAG, MCP, and finally AI Agents.
Brought to you by:
Linear: Plan and build products like the best
Miro: The innovation workspace
Amplitude: Try their 2-minute assessment of your company’s digital maturity
In this episode:
Trailer - 00:00
Why AI PMs Are Paid So Much - 1:25
Effective Prompting for AI PMs - 02:39
Ad: Linear - 09:57
Ad: Miro - 10:42
AI PRD Template - 11:54
Fine-Tuning vs RAG - 16:42
Ad: Amplitude - 19:01
Fine-Tuning Demo: Creating a Yoda-Style AI Assistant - 19:52
RAG Implementation: Connecting Documents to AI Chatbots - 30:03
MCP (Machine-Callable Programs): Working with Multiple Tools - 59:00
AI Agents: Creating Advanced Product Research Assistants - 01:18:31
Future of AI Product Management - 01:33:16
Outro - 01:35:49
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Where to Find Pawel
LinkedIn
Newsletter
YouTube
Email productgrowthppp at gmail.com to discuss advertising or guest opportunities.
-
I hope you enjoyed the last episode with Spenser Stakes (where we dove into his story of going from broke to building $1.5B company, Amplitude). Up next, we have episodes with:
Brad Schaefer - How to Become a VP of Product
Matt Le May - How to be Impact-First
Aatir Abdul Rauf - VP Marketing, VFairs; 70K+ on LinkedIn
I’m so excited to share them with all of you.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.news.aakashg.com/subscribe -
In this episode, Spenser (co-founder & CEO of Amplitude) shares how a failed AI voice assistant led to one of the most widely used product analytics platforms in the world.
Plus a full live demo of Amplitude’s latest AI, session replay, and experimentation features!
Brought to you by:
WorkOS: Your App, Enterprise Ready
Amplitude: Try their 2-minute assessment of your company’s digital maturity
Product Faculty: Get $500 off the AI PM certification with code AAKASH25
In this episode:
Preview – 00:00:00
How Big Is Amplitude? – 00:01:07
Beginning of His Journey (From MIT, building SIRI before SIRI, and more) – 00:02:09
Ad (WorkOS) – 00:09:50
Ad (Amplitude) - 00:11:04
Unorthodox Routine While Building – 00:11:39
Lessons That Sum Up the Whole Journey – 00:13:23
Fighting the Established Analytics Market – 00:13:56
How They’re Different From Kissmetrics, Google Analytics, etc. – 00:16:42
First Version of Amplitude – 00:18:06
How They Transitioned to Enterprise – 00:21:26
Biggest Roadblocks He Faced From Start to IPO – 00:22:18
Going Public — Felt Good or Bad? – 00:27:17
Ad (AIPM) – 00:29:35
Hiring and Firing – 00:30:23
His Involvement in Product as CEO – 00:31:57
Amplitude Demo Begins – 00:34:50
If You're Implementing Amplitude for the First Time, Start Here – 00:38:13
Tracking an Event – 00:40:49
Diving Deep into Product Analytics – 00:42:02
Why You Should Pay for Amplitude (Even with BI & Free GA) – 00:45:15
Aakash Shares BI vs. Amplitude Anecdote – 00:47:20
How They've Overcome AI Hallucinations – 00:49:44
Limitations of “AskAmplitude?” – 00:50:31
Where Product Teams Spend the Most Time in Amplitude – 00:51:29
Creating a Segmentation Chart – 00:52:44
Future of AI at Amplitude – 01:01:20
How Amplitude Uses Amplitude to Build Amplitude – 01:02:22
Deep Dive on His Role as CEO and Influence on Product – 01:07:41
How Do They Plan? – 01:09:59
Analyst Report on Amplitude (Focus on NRR) – 01:12:46
How They’re Empowering Marketing Teams – 01:15:24
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Where to Find Spenser
LinkedIn
Amplitude(Try their 2-minute assessment of your company’s digital maturity)-
Email productgrowthppp at gmail.com to discuss advertising or guest opportunities.
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I hope you enjoyed the last episode with Dr. Bart (where we dived into his story of going from Microsoft to 125 followers and how to crack interviews). Up next, we have episodes with:
Pawel Huryn - 190K+ on LinkedIn, Fmr CPO
Brad Schaefer - VP Product, Abrigo
Matt Le May - Author, Impact-First Product Teams
I’m so excited to share them with all of you.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.news.aakashg.com/subscribe -
Dr. Bart Jaworski was laid off as a PM at Microsoft. But he bounced back with a job just weeks later. And now he has 125K followers on LinkedIn. This is his story.
Brought to you by:
Amplitude: Try their 2-minute assessment of your company’s digital maturity
Product Faculty: Get $500 off the AI PM certification with code AAKASH25
In this episode:
Why Watch This - 00:00:00
Microsoft Layoff Story - 01:06
Processing Layoff Emotions - 02:16
How to Rebound After Layoff - 03:35
Finding Purpose Post-Layoff - 05:07
Job Search Success Strategy - 06:30
Returning to Former Employers - 08:42
Ad: AIPM Certification - 10:03
Maintaining Professional Relationships - 10:50
Breaking Into Microsoft - 11:44
Optimizing LinkedIn Profiles - 13:03
Microsoft Interview Preparation - 15:15
Live Resume Review - 21:38
Google Resume Analysis - 24:42
Ad: Amplitude - 29:48
The Reality of Big Tech - 31:26
Day in the Life at Microsoft - 34:34
Building LinkedIn Following - 38:52
Sustainable Content Creation - 42:02
Creating Viral LinkedIn Posts - 47:25
Crafting Engaging Hooks - 54:38
Content Creation Workshop - 59:04
Monetizing Your Audience - 1:03:00
Final Thoughts - 1:09:36
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Where to Find Dr. Bart
LinkedIn
Courses
YouTube
Medium
Website
Book
-
Email productgrowthppp at gmail.com to discuss advertising or guest opportunities.
-
I hope you enjoyed the last episode with Dr. Bart (where we dived into his story of going from Microsoft to 125 followers and how to crack interviews). Up next, we have episodes with:
Pawel Huryn - 190K+ on LinkedIn, Fmr CPO
Brad Schaefer - VP Product, Abrigo
Matt Le May - Author, Impact-First Product Teams
I’m so excited to share them with all of you.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.news.aakashg.com/subscribe -
If you’ve ever wanted to know how the best product teams automate their workflows, scale systems, and build platforms that actually drive impact, this episode is for you.
Brought to you by:
Amplitude: Try their 2-minute assessment of your company’s digital maturity
Product Faculty: Get $500 off the AI PM certification with code AAKASH25
In this episode:
Why Should People Watch This Episode – 00:00:00
How Airtable Reached $11.7 Billion Valuation – 00:01:18
How Airtable Is Different From Competitors – 00:03:01
Start of the Live Cooking Session – 00:07:17
How Can PMs Use Airtable AI to Automate Their Workflow – 00:07:36
Automating User Interviews – 00:08:16
Ad – 00:10:10
User Interviews Continued – 00:10:46
One Cool Thing About Airtable AI – 00:11:40
Sourcing Beta Participants – 00:20:02
Live Demo of Using CoBuilder (Airtable AI Developer Agent) for
Aakash’s Podcast Guests Calendar – 00:27:08
Ad – 00:27:52
Demo Continued – 00:28:42
Demo on Automating More Stuff (Requests From Aakash) – 00:36:02
Aakash’s Reaction After the Demo – 00:38:46
How Airtable Uses Airtable – 00:41:16
How Airtable Builds Product – 00:45:28
Measuring ARR Impact – 00:53:48
What He Thinks About Fuzzier Associations to ARR – 00:54:23
Aakash Sharing Personal Story About ARR Scenario – 00:56:19
How Airtable Manages Roadmap Planning – 00:59:29
How to Go From PM to VP – 01:01:23
Talking About Struggles Building AI Features – 01:09:42
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Where to Find Anthony
LinkedIn
Airtable
-
Email productgrowthppp at gmail.com to discuss advertising or guest opportunities.
-
I hope you enjoyed the last episode with David Pereira (where we discussed why most managers are bullish*t managers). Up next, we have episodes with:
Dr. Bart Jaworski - Senior PM, 125K+ on LinkedIn
Spenser Skates - CEO and Founder, Amplitude
Pawel Huryn - 190K+ on LinkedIn, Fmr CPO
I’m so excited to share them with all of you.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.news.aakashg.com/subscribe -
You’re not ready for this!
David Pereira exposes the 3 traps killing product teams, hot takes on b******t management, fake strategy, and what it really means to be a 10x PM.
Brought to you by:
Maven: Get $100 off David's Mastering Product Discovery course using my code AAKASHxMAVEN
Product Faculty: Get $500 off the AI PM certification with code AAKASH25
Amplitude: Try their 2-minute assessment of your company’s digital maturity
In this episode:
Why You Should Listen to This Podcast – 00:00:00
Ad – 00:01:20
Ad – 00:02:21
What Is Bullsh*t Product Management – 00:03:07
Aakash Sharing His First Full-Time Job Experience – 00:04:39
The Problem with the PM Job – 00:07:28
Sad Reality for Most PMs – 00:12:023
Common Traps for Most PMs – 00:15:25
Have You Been a Waiter Too? – 00:17:41
Navigating Your CEO's Endless Feature Requests (Role Play) – 00:23:40
One Thing Constant in Product Management Is “Challenges” (and How to Solve Them) – 00:26:14
Ad – 00:29:59
Solving Those Challenges (Continued) – 00:30:34
Summarizing What Strategy Health Check Includes – 00:38:04
They Say “Talk to Customers”, But You Don’t Have General Access – 00:40:50
Fixing Confirmation Bias in Interviews – 00:42:06
Summarizing Product Discovery Health Check – 00:43:20
Delivery Health Check – 00:43:33
What Worked for David in 2016 – 00:49:35
“I’m a Terrible Product Manager” – 00:51:24
“What Do All PMs Have in Common? Too Many Things on Their Plate” – 00:52:18
“Agile Is Dead. Scrum Is Dead. Everything Is Dead. We Know It All” – 00:56:29
How Can PMs Really Take Back the Driver’s Seat? – 00:58:53
Why You Should Look Bad in Your Job – 01:00:51
How David Is Spending His Time These Days – 01:01:58
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Where to Find David
LinkedIn
Courses
Newsletter
Untrapping Product Teams Book
Services
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Email productgrowthppp at gmail.com to discuss advertising or guest opportunities.
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I hope you enjoyed the last episode with Kate Syuma (where we dived deep into 25 product designs). Up next, we have episodes with:
Dr. Bart Jaworski - Senior PM, 125K+ on LinkedIn
Spenser Skates - CEO and Founder, Amplitude
Anthony Maggio - VP Product, Airtable
I’m so excited to share them with all of you.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.news.aakashg.com/subscribe -
Ex-Miro design lead Kate Syuma helped scale Miro to 20M users.
Now she’s breaking down LIVE 25 world-class product flows so you can steal what works for growth, onboarding, and activation.
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Brought to you by:
WorkOS: Your App, Enterprise Ready
Amplitude: Try their 2-minute assessment of your company’s digital maturity
Kate also runs a 3-week live course User-Centric Product-Led Growth. Use code AAKASHxMAVEN for $100 off.
In this episode:
Web Page Breakdown Examples
Dropbox & Linear – 00:03:30
Rows – 00:06:47
Amplemarket – 00:09:07
Signup Flow Examples
Figma / FigJam – 00:10:53
Dropbox (Signup perspective) – 00:12:48
Loom – 00:14:52
Grammarly – 00:16:10
FigJam (Post-signup) – 00:17:25
Onboarding Examples
Canva – 00:21:01
Slack – 00:23:49
Notion – 00:25:23
Miro – 00:28:58
Ad Break
Ad – 00:30:01
Miro (Continued) – 00:30:48
Sharing & Invitation Flow Examples
Linear – 00:32:47
Airbnb – 00:34:16
Notion & Figma (Invitation flow) – 00:38:11
Upgradation Flow Examples
Riverside – 00:41:07
Grammarly (Premium upgrade) – 00:42:45
Canva – 00:43:51
Loom – 00:45:29
Miro – 00:46:25
Figma – 00:46:59
Wrap-Up
What Kate is up to these days – 00:48:38
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Where to Find Kate
LinkedIn
GrowthMates Website
GrowthMates Newsletter
GrowthMates Podcast YT
3-Week Maven Course - Use code AAKASHxMAVEN for $100 off.
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Email productgrowthppp at gmail.com to discuss advertising or guest opportunities.
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I hope you enjoyed the last episode with Bryan Helmig (where we learned how to draft your email with MCP and AI). Up next, we have episodes with:
David Pereira - Author of Untrapping Product Teams
Dr. Bart Jaworski - Senior PM, 125K+ on LinkedIn
Spenser Skates - CEO and Founder, Amplitude
I’m so excited to share them with all of you.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.news.aakashg.com/subscribe -
This is wild!
Bryan Helmig LIVE shows how to turn AI models into real agents using MCP and Zapier to send Slack messages, draft emails, and automate workflows without writing a single line of code.
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Brought to you by:
Amplitude: Try their 2-minute assessment of your company’s digital maturity
Maven: Get $100 off their courses with code AAKASHxMAVEN
Product Faculty: Get $500 off the AI PM certification with code AAKASH25
In this episode:
Why Should People Watch This Podcast – 00:00:00
Ads – 00:01:34
What is MCP (Model Context Protocol) – 00:03:03
Does MCP Only Work with Anthropic? – 00:04:33
Why Zapier’s Take on MCP Matters – 00:05:43
Live Demo 1: AI Agent Sends Slack Message via MCP – 00:07:52
The Real Limitations of MCP and LLMs – 00:11:27
Live Demo 2: ChatGPT Drafts Gmail Replies Automatically – 00:15:56
Live Demo 3: Claude-Powered Slack Bot That Responds with Jokes – 00:23:18
Ad – 00:30:06
Why AI Needs Structure (Not Freeform Outputs) – 00:30:53
How Zapier Builds AI Features for the Real World – 00:31:54
How Zapier Structures Teams Around AI Work – 00:36:28
Zapier’s Culture of Fast AI Prototyping – 00:39:03
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Where to Find Bryan
LinkedIn
Zapier
Zapier AI agents
Zapier MCP
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Email productgrowthppp at gmail.com to discuss advertising or guest opportunities.
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I hope you enjoyed the last episode with Lewis Lin (where we discussed how to nail Product Management Interviews). Up next, we have episodes with:
Kate Syuma - Ex. Head of Growth Design at Miro
David Pereira - Author of Untrapping Product Teams
Dr. Bart Jaworski - Senior PM, 125K+ on LinkedIn
I’m so excited to share them with all of you.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.news.aakashg.com/subscribe -
When it comes to product management interviews, there’s no more authoritative voice than Lewis Lin (author of the legendary Decode and Conquer).
His books (over 500,000+ copies sold) have helped hundreds of thousands of PMs land jobs at top tech companies.Today, he shares everything he knows about nailing PM interviews:
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Brought to you by:
Maven: Get $100 off my curation of their top courses
GibsonAI: The awesome new AI Database Engineer startup
Attio: The next generation CRM built natively for AI
In this episode:
00:01:38 - "Decode and Conquer" helped Aakash land a $40K raise00:02:40 - Why Lewis is rewriting "Decode and Conquer" from scratch00:04:18 - AD: Amplitude Digital Experience Assessment00:04:52 - The rise of interview assignments00:10:04 - How to excel at interview assignments while juggling a full-time job00:15:04 - AD: Maven Courses00:16:14 - The 6 critical types of metrics questions you'll face00:19:57 - Lewis's advice on the best way to prepare for metrics questions00:26:51 - Why mock interviews matter most00:31:30 - AD: Maven AI PM Certification00:32:14 - How to discover real pain points using the GRR method00:35:15 - Coming up with thoughtful product solutions that stand out00:42:21 - How to approach system design interviews00:46:15 - The most common behavioral questions PMs get asked00:50:29 - Mistakes candidates make when answering behavioral questions00:54:51 - Misconceptions candidates still have after reading his book00:57:37 - What it takes to get a PM interview in 202501:02:26 - What Lewis is focused on now
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Where to Find Lewis
LinkedIn
YouTube
Website
Medium
Most famous books:
- Decode and Conquer
- The Product Manager Interview
- Be the Greatest Product Manager Ever
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Email productgrowthppp at gmail.com to discuss advertising or guest opportunities.
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I hope you enjoyed the last episode with Eric Simons (where we built a remote job board with Bolt). Up next, we have episodes with:
Bryan Helmig - CTO and Founder of Zapier
Kate Syuma - Ex. Head of Growth Design at Miro
David Pereira - Author of Untrapping Product Teams
I’m so excited to share them with all of you.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.news.aakashg.com/subscribe - Visa fler
