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© 2025 PRODUCTEA with Leah, Growth & Senior Leadership
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Honest, unfiltered conversations with the best from tech - spilling the tea about product, growth, and senior leadership topics.
www.leahtharin.com
113 Episodes
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Vincent Pierri, Public speaking coach and LinkedIn’s "PowerPoint ninja" with 25K+ followers, dismantles stage fright myths and reveals how to craft unforgettable talks. He shares practical frameworks like the "3Ps" (Pain Point-Problem-Promise) and the "ingredient spectrum" for engaging content. Perfect for founders and leaders tired of boring presentations, this episode is full with actionable tweaks. Timestamped Segments 00:02:54 - 00:05:10 "The Pastor’s Secret: Non-Tech Origins" Vince revea...
Anna Karina Schmitt, a world-record free diver and former tech executive, shares her journey managing multiple sclerosis through lifestyle changes, mindfulness, and freediving. She talks about reclaiming control by prioritizing self-responsibility, structured habits, and mental resilience. Her approach blends practical health strategies with lessons from extreme sports, insights for founders and leaders overwhelmed by burnout. Timestamped Segments 00:01:04 - 00:02:06 "From Burnout to World Re...
The art of crafting a compelling two-sentence company description. Anthony Pierrie dismantles common marketing myths, revealing why product functionality matters more than vague outcomes, and introduces his "positioning anchors" framework. We dive into real-world examples, differentiation strategies, and why founders often sabotage their own messaging. Timestamps 00:01:38 - 00:07:00 The elevator pitch crisis: Why outcomes aren’t enough.00:07:00 - 00:14:00 Positioning anchors: Primary vs. seco...
Scott Brinker, HubSpot's VP of Platform Ecosystems and "Godfather of MarTech," unpacks the chaos of marketing tools, why AI won’t replace human strategy, and how vertical solutions beat bloated platforms. He reveals why marketers must balance brand-building with data myopia and why usage-based pricing is the future. Timestamps & Segments 00:03:36 – 00:07:00 | MarTech’s Explosion (And Why It’s Harder Than Ever) Scott explains why marketing has never been more complex despite tech advance...
Larry Robinson, CPO of Bright Plan and Salesforce veteran, unpacks how to balance data with gut instinct in product leadership. From hiring dilemmas to prototyping emotional reactions, he reveals why sometimes the "soft" skills of intuition and storytelling outpace spreadsheets. Hot takes on why your next MVP should prioritize passion over precision. Timestamps & Segments 00:00:00-00:07:00 | Data vs. Gut: The Product Leader’s Tightrope Larry’s framework for blending analytics with instinc...
Etie Hertz, CEO of Loris.AI, breaks down how AI isn’t replacing humans - it’s unlocking superpowers for customer service teams. From analyzing 100% of customer conversations to predicting emerging issues before they blow up, he reveals how enterprises can turn empathy into a scalable strategy. Plus, why chatbots are headed for commoditization and the real value lies in the intelligence layer above. Timestamps & Segments 00:02:00 – From Lawyer to AI Disruptor Etie’s journey from predicting...
Andres Glusman, experimentation expert and former Meetup product leader, unpacks why 89% of experiments fail - and why that’s a good thing. From redesign pitfalls to balancing data with intuition, he shares hard-earned lessons on turning failure into explosive growth. It’s not about running more tests, but smarter ones. Timestamps & Segments00:01:02 – 00:10:00 The Experimentation Conundrum Andres breaks down why most experiments fail, the "VC mindset" for testing, and why a 65% loss rate ...
Evie Brockwell unpacks why 92% of PMs are crispy-fried – and why "just meditate more" isn't the answer. We dissect toxic sprint culture, ADHD-friendly boundary hacks, and why treating burnout like a product churn problem might save your sanity (and your career). 🕒 Timestamps 00:02:28 - The Burnout Recipe High-driven PMs + chaotic orgs = guaranteed burnout. It’s not your fault – it’s the cult of "ASAP" as a personality trait. 00:11:38 - Boundaries Aren’t B.S. Why "I’ll just answer this Slack a...
Melissa Perri drops truth bombs about why most companies fail at AI integration, how legacy giants self-sabotage innovation, and why "slapping AI on it" is the fastest way to irrelevance. Timestamps & Key Moments 05:59 – AI: Innovation vs. Lipstick on a Pig Why QuickBooks is losing to startups like Digits. Melissa’s rule: If AI doesn’t make the problem 10x easier, you’re just checking a box. 12:36 – Corporate Innovation’s Dirty Secret Legacy companies fear self-disruption. Spin out autono...
Forget corporate utopias—John Cutler spills the real tea on why work sucks and why we are messy. On "organized anarchies," why 50% of your team is checked out, and how to turn chaos into strategy. Perfect for you if you are tired of performative frameworks. Timestamps & Key Moments 00:00 - Intro to the Chaos John’s AI-generated roast sets the tone: “Product management’s most unhinged mind” dissects why companies are glorified dumpster fires. 01:56 - Why Work Sucks The “garbage can theory”...
CJ Gustafson (ex-PWC tech CFO, finance provocateur) unpacks how tariffs and economic chaos are gutting SaaS valuations, why AI budgets are CEOs’ midlife crisis splurges, and how to recession-proof your product strategy. Timestamps & Key Moments 00:00 - Tariffs: The SaaS Killer You Didn’t See Coming $1.8T wiped from global equities overnight (worst drop since COVID). Median SaaS multiples crash below 5x forward revenue: “Your customers move atoms, even if you don’t.” 07:46 - CFO Surviv...
John Zeratsky, co-creator of the Sprint Method and VC partner at Character, spills the tea on why "vision-driven" startups often fail, how to validate hypotheses before burning cash, and why your pitch deck needs more grit than glitter. Cue the rapid prototyping, competitor smackdowns, and hot takes on AI hype. Timestamps 00:00 – Intro: John’s journey from Google Ads to VC (and why tall founders have an edge)05:48 – “Vision-driven” is a red flag: Why early-stage startups should ditch grand ...
Why building opinionated products is the future, why skipping MVPs in established markets works, and how AI will reshape customer onboarding. When I met Srikrishnan Ganesan for the first time, he impressed me with his original framing of what it means to find (and refind) product-market fit constantly. Timestamps02:23 – From SMB to Enterprise: Scaling Without Losing Vision Rocketlane’s year-long stealth build focused on unifying project management, docs, and customer portals. The secret? Star...
What’s up with the disconnect between product teams and business goals? Why vibes won't pay the bills, and how product teams can avoid the "elephant graveyard" of low-impact work. If you've ever wondered how to align your work with business outcomes - or why your CEO might be the "support worker of the board" - this one's for you. Chapters with Timestamps 00:00–04:30 The Vibes Economy: Why founders sell visions to investors but fail to communicate existential realities to their teams.The dang...
Connecting your work to business outcomes is a phrase we hear more and more in product and growth. Here's how Mackenzie Hughes and Tara Goldman from Goldhue lay it out and why we can't sleep on this anymore. Chapters with Timestamps 00:00-05:30 Meet the "Therapist for Type A Product Leaders" and the "Ops Whisperer" Tara Goldman's journey from VP of Product to coaching PMs on speaking executiveMackenzie Hughes' transition from GTM strategy to the "dark side" of product ops05:30-15:00 The Great...
Ross Pomerantz (aka Corporate Bro) pulls back the curtain on turning sales cringe into viral gold. The ex-Oracle SDR turned B2B comedy king reveals how he monetizes corporate absurdity, why "scalable AI solutions" make audiences snooze, and how to survive when algorithms decide your career. Contains NSFW cold call stories, LinkedIn rage-bait truths, and why Salesforce pays him to roast CRMs. Chapters with Timestamps 00:00–04:30 From MLB dreams to Oracle’s cold call trenches: “My first prospec...
Adam Fishman, interim SVP of New Products at Mozilla, shares insights on zero-to-one product development, killing unsustainable projects, and navigating AI’s impact on B2B SaaS. He breaks down Mozilla’s stage-gating process for innovation, the challenges of balancing ambition with practicality, and why distribution often trumps product in today’s crowded market. Chapters with Timestamps 00:00–03:30 Adam’s role at Mozilla: Building beyond Firefox, managing innovation, and why “killing projects...
Lidia Oshlyansk reflects on navigating decades of tech evolution - from webmaster days to AI - and shares tactical advice for product operatives. Drawing parallels between today’s AI boom and past shifts (web/mobile revolutions), we talk about transferable skills (negotiation, systems thinking) over fleeting tools, debunks "future-proofing," and advocates curiosity-driven adaptability. Key Timestamps 01:58 - Lidia’s unconventional path: From "business architect" to CPO roles at Spotify/Google...
From streamlining user research to improving cross-functional alignment, Tal Raviv shares practical tips for PMs to embrace AI without fear. The key? Start small, experiment often, and use AI as a thought partner - not a replacement. Whether it’s summarizing transcripts, building custom assistants, or leveraging tools like ChatGPT and Notion AI, the future of PM work isn’t about avoiding AI - it’s about mastering it. Key Takeaways AI Won’t Replace PMs, But It Will Change the Job: AI is a tool...
Senior Scientist Julia Chantin unpacks how cognitive biases and flawed feedback loops sabotage learning—and why SaaS leaders need to care. From debunking misconceptions (like why “proving” someone wrong often backfires) to the power of embodied learning, Julia reveals how diverse perspectives and physical interaction drive breakthroughs. Learn actionable strategies to challenge assumptions, build resilient teams, and design products that align with how humans actually learn - not just how we ...
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