CRAFTED. | The Tech Podcast for Founders, Makers, and Innovators

Paige Costello is the the head of AI and co-head of product at Asana and on this episode of CRAFTED. we're exploring what it means to ship products with AI, how AI will change the way work gets done, and how to organize your teams for success in this brave new world.We explore:How the future of work – and communicating about work – is changingWhy Asana chose to create an “AI org” instead of a less centralized innovation approachHow Asana ships — and measures the success of — AI-powered features, e.g. SmartStatus, that aim to take the drudgery out of workHow product management is changing with the rise of AIWhy running an A/B test is harder when a non-deterministic (i.e. unpredictable by design) GenAI tool is involvedWhy it’s so important to “get out of the building” and some of Paige’s favorite user research moments from doing soThe latest with “PaigeBot” and what Paige hopes AI can do for her***CRAFTED. is brought to you in partnership with Docker, which helps developers build, share, run and verify applications anywhere – without environment confirmation or management. More than 20 million developers worldwide use Docker's suite of development tools, services and automations to accelerate the delivery of secure applications. CRAFTED. is produced by Modern Product Minds, where Dan Blumberg and team advise companies on product, discovery, growth, and experimentation. Subscribe to CRAFTED., follow the show, and sign up for the newsletter 👉 Crafted.fm***Key Moments:[02:17] AI-generated status reports: How Asana summarizes a project – or many projects – using AI. And why it needs to do so carefully. [05:00] How to organize for innovation: How Asana organizes its teams to integrate AI and the strategies they employ for effective AI implementation.[09:06] How AI will change the role of product managers and why the stochastic nature of AI will be something we all have to get used to[14:26] Challenges of prototyping and scaling AI[16:07] How Asana uses AI internally and how it dogfoods its own products[18:17] Profound implications of AI + the future of work[22:20] Will AI really help product managers get out of the building more? Or do we just find new excuses not to? And what Paige finds so powerful about “being in someone’s space”[25:32] An update on “PaigeBot” and what Paige wishes a bot would do for her

Henrik Werdelin is on an AI-fueled mission to launch thousands of startups a year. He is the founder of BARK, which went public, and prehype, a studio that has incubated several unicorns. With Audos, Henrik is building AI agents that can coach founders how he would — if he had infinite time to do so. And Audos is not just for the cliche founder looking to launch a unicorn… It’s for entrepreneurs of all stripes. With AI making things easier, Henrik expects to see lots more “DonkeyCorns,” i.e. highly profitable businesses operated by just one or two people. “DonkeyCorns party like unicorns, but they grind like mules.”Check out this episode for lots of practical tips for how you can get more out of AI. Plus, we’ll peer into the weird future we’re building. Takeaways from this episode: AI enables new businesses to be created, launched, and tested very quickly. Henrik shares how Audos uses AI to help founders focus on their customers, launch, and get customersHenrik talks to his AI agents like they’re people: He gives them names and backstories. By doing so, he finds he has a better partner than a bot or Google search would be. The more creative you are with prompts, the better the AI will be. e.g., Ask for “ten ideas that will definitely get me fired”“Customer-founder fit” is the most important ingredient to Henrik Use “signal mining” to prove there is real demand for your product“The swipe” proves there is real intent for your product, i.e. get people to pay for it, even if you haven’t built it yet.BARK succeeded (it’s gone public) by following its mission (be “Disney for dogs”) not by following its utility (boxes of stuff for pets)“Relationship capital” and “humanity” will be more important, as AI continues to excel at technical jobs. Take AI seriously right now. And Henrik says senior leaders need to be using it themselvesIt’s weird out there: We discuss the uncanny valley of talking to AI agents (including those that impersonate your dead spouse) Rock and roll – Henrik tells the story of his career break: As an intern, he pulled an on-air stunt at MTV that he was sure would get him fired, but instead got him a huge promotion.Henrik is the author of The Acorn Method: How Companies Get Growing Again. And he’s writing a new book, Me, My Customer, and AI. He also co-hosts the podcast Beyond the Prompt, which features the interesting, weird, and uncanny-valley ways people are using AI in their day-to-day lives, as well as practical tips for how you can go beyond “beginner mode” in your own use of AI. CRAFTED. is brought to you in partnership with Docker, which helps developers build, share, run and verify applications anywhere – without environment confirmation or management. More than 20 million developers worldwide use Docker's suite of development tools, services and automations to accelerate the delivery of secure applications. CRAFTED. is produced by Modern Product Minds, where CRAFTED. host Dan Blumberg and team can help you take a new product from zero to one... and beyond. We specialize in early-stage product discovery, growth, and experimentation. Subscribe to CRAFTED., follow the show, and sign up for the newsletter 👉 crafted.fmKey Moments (00:00) - Intro (02:56) - Henrik’s method for launching startups (04:08) - Why “customer-founder fit” is the first thing he looks for and how it manifested at BARK (06:43) - How to use “signal mining” to prove there is real demand for your product (08:42) - Launching BARK Air, “a totally real airline for dogs” (12:28) - Launching Audos and using AI to launch thousands of startups a year (18:07) - “DonkeyCorns!” Why we will see more highly profitable companies run by just one or two people (22:32) - How Henrik uses AI, why he personifies his agents, and the creative prompts he uses (28:52) - The stunt that nearly got Henrik fired at MTV, but instead was his career break (32:02) - Why big companies need to take AI seriously right now (35:29) - How Henrik advises entrepreneurs looking for their next play (38:14) - “Pursue interestingness” (39:26) - The uncanny valley of AI embodying people (40:52) - Outro

Sports, and the way we experience them, is changing. And AI, 5G, 3D, and all the other buzzy acronyms are why. Behshad Behzadi is the CTO and Chief AI Officer of Sportradar and on this episode of CRAFTED., we explore ways sports and technology are intersecting in novel, weird, and amazing ways. Sportradar creates immersive experiences and data products for sports fans, players, leagues, and bettors. Behshad joined after 17 years at Google where he co-founded Google Assistant, Google Lens and more. He's been building with AI and voice for way longer than most and has lots of practical advice on how to get the most out of AI. Takeaways from this episode:AI enables incredibly precise levels of personalization — and that’s coming to a sports experience near you“GenAI is like a hammer…” but don’t use it like one. Traditional coding is often more effective, and you may want a mix of GenAI and old school code for different parts of the same problemYou don’t always need the latest greatest GenAI models – save costs by using smaller models when you canTo build moats, look to your data and customer relationships; less so to your GenAI modelsWhen adopting GenAI, corporations need good governance and oversightGoogle Assistant, which Behshad helped launch, promised too many things in its earliest versions, leading to user confusionIgnore the competition and focus on user needs (not easy when there is a race to dominate a market, as there was with the rise of Siri, Google Assistant, and Alexa)Behshad says the “ultimate assistant” is coming within the next 20 yearsBehshad says AI will help cure many diseases in the next 20 yearsKey Moments:(02:42) - Why this (AI) moment is so exciting in sports and beyond (04:04) - Personalizing the fan experience (06:09) - How GenAI can give you a competitive advantage (and where it won’t) (08:05) - How companies can succeed with GenAI, and pitfalls to avoid (10:48) - When to use GenAI and when to use old school coding (11:59) - midroll (13:10) - Adopting GenAI internally for writing code and more (16:06) - Building Google Assistant and early AI + voice products (18:09) - Why you should ignore the competition, and other hard moments from scaling Google Assistant (20:58) - Why Behshad believes “ultimate assistant” will soon be reality and many diseases will be cured thanks to the rise of AI (22:32) - Outro CRAFTED. is brought to you in partnership with Docker, which helps developers build, share, run and verify applications anywhere – without environment confirmation or management. More than 20 million developers worldwide use Docker's suite of development tools, services and automations to accelerate the delivery of secure applications. CRAFTED. is produced by Modern Product Minds, where CRAFTED. host Dan Blumberg and team can help you take a new product from zero to one... and beyond. We specialize in early stage product discovery, growth, and experimentation. Learn more at modernproductminds.com Subscribe to CRAFTED., follow the show, and sign up for the newsletter 👉 crafted.fm

Jeff Birkeland is the SVP of Product and Platform at Included Health, a company that aims to be the app on your phone that you first think of when you have a healthcare need.On this episode of CRAFTED., we explore why “the integration itself is the innovation.” Included Health has more than 2,000 employees across both technology and clinical care, and its services are used by many top companies and their employees. The goal: create an integrated experience that brings it all together… from insurance to diet to doctors to drugs and more… The disjointed nature of healthcare is something Jeff has experienced personally. Such as when he asked his surgeon about food: “ He told me directly like, ‘Hey, the dietician stuff is not my thing…’ Our challenge at Included health is how do we make those connections?”To make those connections, Jeff relies on skills he learned before he got into product: He used to make documentaries. We'll hear how Jeff applies this power of narrative at Included Health and at Headspace, where he used to lead the consumer product team. Takeaways from this episode:Often, the “integration itself is the innovation.”Consider the “in-between” times: What is your user doing before and after they use your product? What should they do? Personalization: How small product details for you add up to a great product experienceGenAI: How to build and test new AI-powered experiencesSpeed matters: the quicker you make something, the more your user will want to do it (an old lesson from Google, that also applies at Included and many more things)Key Moments:(02:35) - “Like a movie” — How Jeff applies his storytelling skills to user experience (03:58) - Consider the “in-between moments” – What is your user doing before and after they use your app? And how Jeff applied this thinking at Headspace (05:42) - “The dietician stuff is not my thing,” said Jeff’s surgeon. Included Health is trying to prevent its members from that sort of disjointed experience (08:12) - Lessons from leading the consumer product team at Headspace (11:10) - About Included Health and what is surprising Jeff about healthcare innovation (14:34) - Personalization: How Included Health is creating personalized experiences to serve members better (18:30) - AI and product development: experimenting with using AI to answer members’ questions about their insurance coverage (21:49) - Evaluating the AI product and considering whether it’s ready for a wider roll out (23:38) - Outro CRAFTED. is brought to you in partnership with Docker, which helps developers build, share, run and verify applications anywhere – without environment confirmation or management. More than 20 million developers worldwide use Docker's suite of development tools, services and automations to accelerate the delivery of secure applications. CRAFTED. is produced by Modern Product Minds, where CRAFTED. host Dan Blumberg and team can help you take a new product from zero to one... and beyond. We specialize in early stage product discovery, growth, and experimentation. Subscribe to CRAFTED., follow the show, and sign up for the newsletter 👉 crafted.fm

April Dunford is an expert at product positioning. She’s advised hundreds of B2B companies on how they can make their products Obviously Awesome  — that’s also the title of her bestselling book on positioning. On this episode of CRAFTED., April shares tips on how you can make your product standout and how you can drive more sales — that’s the focus of her latest book, Sales Pitch.April says great positioning starts when you truly understand the answer to this question: “If you didn't exist, what would a customer do?” And the answer may surprise you: “We lose half of our deals in B2B to ‘do nothing!’” Do nothing – the status quo – is a fierce competitor and April has identified ways to help customers gain the confidence they need to make a scary purchase decision (e.g. buying a new CRM). Key here: don’t sell to your customer; help them buy. April is fun and has a knack for sharing colorful anecdotes and analogies that will stick with you. e.g. Tune in to find out what buying a toilet has to do with B2B SaaS. Takeaways from this episode:Positioning defines how your product is the best in the world at delivering something to a defined group of peopleGreat positioning starts with understanding the competition. Not what you think the competition is, but what your customers actually evaluate you against. e.g. Is your product cake (dessert) or a muffin (breakfast)? They’re both made of bread and pretty similar, but they’ve got totally different competitors.Startups often have great positioning at the outset, but then it slips over time as new competitors copy what you do and your uniqueness gets lost. You need to pay attention to your positioning as the market changes.Don’t sell! Help your customers buy. Don’t assume they know how to! Imagine you’re selling a CRM… When was the last time your customer bought one? Ten years ago? If ever. Help them contextualize your product among the others out there.Lead with business outcomes! Not features.Key Moments:(00:00) - Introduction (02:20) - - Working with founders, being "the positioning expert", and why positioning is so tricky to get right (05:22) - - How to make your product "Obviously Awesome" (07:18) - - The five elements of great positioning (15:59) - - Why "do nothing" is your strongest competitor: 50% of B2B deals are lost to "do nothing" (17:43) - - Don't sell: Rather, "help your customers buy" (and what buying a toilet has to do with this) (29:50) - - April positions herself: How she grew her personal brand and narrowed in on her solopreneur offering (33:16) - - Outro CRAFTED. is brought to you in partnership with Docker, which helps developers build, share, run and verify applications anywhere – without environment confirmation or management. More than 20 million developers worldwide use Docker's suite of development tools, services and automations to accelerate the delivery of secure applications. CRAFTED. is produced by Modern Product Minds, where CRAFTED. host Dan Blumberg and team can help you take a new product from zero to one... and beyond. We specialize in early stage product discovery, growth, and experimentation. Subscribe to CRAFTED., follow the show, and sign up for the newsletter 👉 crafted.fm

Making media is hard. Distributing it to the right audience even more so. GenAI can help. Matt Monahan is the president of Arc XP at the Washington Post. On this episode, we're digging into the core technology of any media company: the content management system (CMS), why they’re so hard to build right and how new GenAI tools can reduce the toil required for journalists to get their stories to the right audience. Arc XP is not only the CMS used by the Washington Post, but it’s also used by many other publishers, broadcasters, and companies with stories to tell. Matt shares more on the challenge of commercializing and white-listing an internal tool for others to use. It’s a tantalizing idea – turn that cost center into a profit center! — but it’s not for the faint of heart. Plus, lessons from Jeff Bezos, the owner of the Washington Post, including how the Post uses key Amazon practices, such as the “six page memo” and “one- and two-way doors.” Key Moments: (00:00) - Introduction (02:25) - From print to digital: hard product & organizational changes (04:17) - Why the CMS is where it all comes together (06:27) - Commercializing an internal tool: selling Arc XP to other publishers (10:07) - AWS and the impact of Jeff Bezos on the Washington Post (11:30) - The famous six-page memo and how the Post benefits from it (14:06) - GenAI: New features Matt is building to reduce toil for journalists (20:45) - How to pick the right model and fine tune it (23:24) - Matt’s a pilot! What flying has taught him about running a business (24:33) - Being nimble: Why there are more “one way doors” than you think (26:07) - Outro CRAFTED. is brought to you in partnership with Docker, which helps developers build, share, run and verify applications anywhere – without environment confirmation or management. More than 20 million developers worldwide use Docker's suite of development tools, services and automations to accelerate the delivery of secure applications. CRAFTED. is produced by Modern Product Minds, where CRAFTED. host Dan Blumberg and team can help you take a new product from zero to one... and beyond. We specialize in early stage product discovery, growth, and experimentation. Learn more at modernproductminds.com Subscribe to CRAFTED., follow the show, and sign up for the newsletter 👉 crafted.fm

Dr. Kristen DiCerbo is Khan Academy’s Chief Learning Officer, where she sets the company's product, teaching, and learning strategy — with AI at the forefront. Khanmigo is amazing. It’s the GenAI-powered product from Khan Academy that helps students learn and teachers teach — and could revolutionize education. Khan Academy is used by 12 million students a month! And they’ve been an early adopter of GenAI. Khanmigo coaches students in math and English, helps teachers prepare lesson plans, enables parents to get help as they help their children with their homework, and much more… On this episode of CRAFTED., Kristen shares how they build with Generative AI  — and how you can learn from their experiences to build your own AI experiences. We dig into how Khan Academy:Builds with GenAI’s unpredictability in mindHelps GenAI get good at math (and also built a UX that masks the ways it is bad at it)Gave Khanmigo an “inner monologue” that helps it slow down and better tutor studentsBuilt a “prompt playground” where they can evaluate various promptsBuilt a “prompt library” where they can keep track of promptsEmploy fine-tuning, red teaming, hackathons, and more…Sal Khan’s new book is entitled “Brave New Words: How AI Will Revolutionize Education (and Why That's a Good Thing)” – On this episode we explore how and why!***(00:00) - Introduction (02:04) - Education + technology: Kristen early experiences (05:10) - Khan Academy primer: 12M students a month! (07:36) - Getting early access to GPT4 (09:02) - GenAI: early experiments with tutoring (11:40) - GenAI is bad at math! How Khan Academy grappled with this (17:02) - Building an AI-powered writing tutor (21:09) - How AI can free teachers from grading homework and help students learn more quickly (22:40) - Prompt chaining: why you need to break up your prompts to get good results (24:08) - Preventing AI-powered plagiarism (27:50) - The role of teacher in an AI world (31:46) - Outro ***CRAFTED. is brought to you in partnership with Docker, which helps developers build, share, run and verify applications anywhere – without environment confirmation or management. More than 20 million developers worldwide use Docker's suite of development tools, services and automations to accelerate the delivery of secure applications. CRAFTED. is produced by Modern Product Minds, where CRAFTED. host Dan Blumberg and team can help you take a new product from zero to one... and beyond. We specialize in early stage product discovery, growth, and experimentation. Learn more at modernproductminds.com Subscribe to CRAFTED., follow the show, and sign up for the newsletter 👉 crafted.fm

Kelsey Hightower is a legend. He regularly gives live software demos in front of tens of thousands of people, improvising them like it’s jazz. He’s a master storyteller and a master craftsman. He helped evangelize and establish Kubernetes and recently retired (at 42!) from Google where he was a distinguished engineer. Kelsey loves to level people up and in this conversation we discuss the power of innovation that happens after going from Zero to One. Or, as Kelsey puts it, “From Hello, World to Hello, Revenue” — and why those boring innovations show true grit and craftsmanship. We also discuss the art of the demo, how Kelsey engages crowds with his humanity, and how you can, too. And Kelsey shares what he’s learned in his first year of retirement. He’s actually quite busy and has to remind folks that “I’m retired; not tired.” He’s fixing up his house, making time for others, and “learning how to live.” We get into what that means… This episode is very special. Enjoy!Key Moments:[03:06] “I’m retired; not tired.” – What Kelsey’s been up to in his first year off the job — and why he refuses to mount his TV over the fireplace[04:51] “How do the makers mature?” — Kelsey’s thoughts on how developers can advance their careers by getting good at innovating after, sometimes long after, going from zero to one[08:53] Keeping an open mindset: how developers integrate new technologies, e.g. Docker [17:13] “Creating good software is very emotional”[20:40] The art of the live demo[25:39] Humans are natural storytellers – embrace it! [27:31] Vulnerability and how Kelsey learned to be so confident on stage[30:38] The time Kelsey nearly bombed on stage, but turned it around into an “extra dope” moment on stage at a Google keynote[36:15] “A lot of people don’t realize how much power they have until way later in life” – why even the really little things (like saying hello to a stranger) matter[39:28] Representation matters: being a black man in tech[42:15] The power of open source[45:04] “What is my actual impact on society?” — why Kelsey retired: [47:46] Kelsey’s hopes for the future — and why we should be more excited about human intelligence, not just artificial intelligence***CRAFTED. is brought to you in partnership with Docker, which helps developers build, share, run and verify applications anywhere – without environment confirmation or management. More than 20 million developers worldwide use Docker's suite of development tools, services and automations to accelerate the delivery of secure applications. CRAFTED. is produced by Modern Product Minds, where CRAFTED. host Dan Blumberg and team can help you take a new product from zero to one... and beyond. We specialize in early stage product discovery, growth, and experimentation. Learn more at modernproductminds.com Subscribe to CRAFTED., follow the show, and sign up for the newsletter 👉 crafted.fm

Colin Nederkoorn is the founder and CEO of Customer.io, a top customer engagement platform that enables companies to send the right message to the right user at the right time on the right channel. The platform is used by Notion and lots of other top SaaS companies to personalize user onboarding and more. When Customer.io was founded in 2011, there were analytics platforms and there were things you could do with that data, but as the mobile era was taking off – and user onboarding became even more critical – Colin recognized a need for companies to immediately send users messages based on the actions there users had just taken – or (and this was a lot harder to build) the action they had not taken. On this episode, we learn from Colin how he built and scaled Customer.io from slideware he pitched to early customers into a company that today boasts top clients and a lofty valuation. Plus, tips on how you can improve your own onboarding. ***Key Moments:[2:17] How Colin got into product management and early experiences[5:00] Becoming head of product at DevPost (fka ChallengePost)[7:00] “We were so naive that we just did, we did it.” – Founding Customer.io[10:12] Onboarding and more ways companies use customer.io[14:43] Why you shouldn’t optimize your onboarding too early[17:17] Challenges at customer.io today and their emerging multi-product strategy[19:12] AI vs. rules engines; and how Customer.io is using AI now and experimenting[22:22] Why triggering a notification when a user has not done something is so much harder than if they have[23:55] Infrastructure and constant scaling – one of customer.io’s biggest challenges***CRAFTED. is brought to you in partnership with Docker, which helps developers build, share, run and verify applications anywhere – without environment confirmation or management. More than 20 million developers worldwide use Docker's suite of development tools, services and automations to accelerate the delivery of secure applications. CRAFTED. is produced by Modern Product Minds, where CRAFTED. host Dan Blumberg and team can help you take a new product from zero to one... and beyond. We specialize in early stage product discovery, growth, and experimentation. Learn more at modernproductminds.com Subscribe to CRAFTED., follow the show, and sign up for the newsletter 👉 crafted.fm

DevPost powers most of the world’s hackathons. And, according to founder and CEO Brandon Kessler, lately there is one overarching directive: “Executives from the top down are saying: `We need to do hackathons to uncover the value of ai.`” Nearly every one of the 1,200 hackathons DevPost powered last year was AI-centric. On this episode of CRAFTED., we explore why hackathons are still such a powerful tool, both as public competitions and as internal initiatives. And we hear the founding story of DevPost and why they pivoted from hosting public competitions of all kinds (cooking challenges with Michelle Obama! NYC Big Apps!) to only focus on developers. Plus, how and why DevPost launched a new product that is custom-built for internal company hackathons. ***Key Moments:[1:53] DevPost’s mission and why hackathons are still so valuable, especially at this moment with AI[6:20] What makes a hackathon successful?[8:40] Brandon’s story: he founded and ran a music label for years before seeing the opportunity with challenges[11:40] Launching ChallengePost, scaling up and powering all federal competitions under President Obama — and why they eventually changed the name and company focus to DevPost[15:46] Launching DevPost for teams: a tool for companies to run internal hackathons[19:00] Brandon’s favorite competitions over the years[22:00] How hackathons have mirrored the top tech trends: from cloud to XR to blockchain to AI[25:18] What’s something that sounds like science fiction now, but that Brandon thinks will be commonplace soon?***CRAFTED. is brought to you in partnership with Docker, which helps developers build, share, run and verify applications anywhere – without environment confirmation or management. More than 20 million developers worldwide use Docker's suite of development tools, services and automations to accelerate the delivery of secure applications. CRAFTED. is produced by Modern Product Minds, where CRAFTED. host Dan Blumberg and team can help you take a new product from zero to one... and beyond. We specialize in early stage product discovery, growth, and experimentation. Learn more at modernproductminds.com Subscribe to CRAFTED., follow the show, and sign up for the newsletter 👉 crafted.fm

Wonder aims to be a “super app for mealtime”, with people turning to it for everything from delivery to groceries to meal kits and more... It’s a very ambitious food-tech startup founded by Marc Lore, the legendary founder who previously built, scaled, and sold Diapers.com and Jet.com (to Amazon and Walmart, respectively). Wonder is rapidly opening stores across the East Coast that, as they put it, feature 30 restaurants in one location. The theory is that that one location can be 30x as profitable as a similarly-sized operation. Serving and delivering that many types of food, quickly, is an incredible operational challenge. And on this episode of CRAFTED., Wonder VP of Product Rich Przekop shares how his team has built custom software and data products to forecast demand, prevent waste, and make sure the food you want is ready for you. Plus, how Wonder is building for today, but also keeping an eye towards tomorrow… The software Rich and team are building may someday be offered externally to power all manner of food/logistics businesses. ***Key Moments:[2:27] The big vision for Wonder: “a super app for mealtime”[3:28] What it’s like working with legendary founder Marc Lore[5:08] How Rich got so into data (and how GenAI is now passing Wonder’s SQL test)[7:32] The ideal customer experience at Wonder[10:54] Why Wonder had to build custom software[13:02] How and why Wonder built a simulator to help it forecast demand, reduce food waste and prevent stockouts[20:04] How Wonder may someday whitelabel its logistics software and sell it to other companies[23:23] The culture at Wonder and why “Marc is the cheerleader” and Rich plays the role of “Yes, but also…” [26:00] The power of clear, measurable goals***CRAFTED. is brought to you in partnership with Docker, which helps developers build, share, run and verify applications anywhere – without environment confirmation or management. More than 20 million developers worldwide use Docker's suite of development tools, services and automations to accelerate the delivery of secure applications. CRAFTED. is produced by Modern Product Minds, where CRAFTED. host Dan Blumberg and team can help you take a new product from zero to one... and beyond. We specialize in early stage product discovery, growth, and experimentation. Learn more at modernproductminds.com Subscribe to CRAFTED., follow the show, and sign up for the newsletter 👉 crafted.fm

When Docker restructured, the company went back to its roots: super-serving developers. CTO Justin Cormack says that’s why the company is developer-obsessed, not customer-obsessed: “We really wanted to focus on the fact that it's the developer who loves Docker. It's the developer who is going to be using Docker every day…” Over the past decade, Docker exploded in popularity as companies moved to cloud and adopted software containers as they did... but the company struggled as a business and, five years ago, made massive changes: “When we restructured people were like, `Well, I kind of hope this works, but I doubt it will.`” Well, it’s working. Docker is now bigger than ever and growing.On this episode of CRAFTED... We'll discuss developer productivity, how Docker continues to build new products to improve it, and why so many organizations are in an awkward phase, with too many responsibilities being put onto the developer. We’ll also look beyond the container to new vectors of growth, including helping companies put GenAI to production. Plus, Justin will share tips for developers on how they can better communicate their needs. And what CFO-types can do in return: “the one thing they can do is actually listen to the developers!”***Key Moments:[3:13] Why Docker needed to restructure and refocus and why the turnaround has been a success[04:52] Why Docker is “developer-obsessed” not “customer-obsessed” [6:13] Docker’s explosive growth in its early years: containers, the cloud and microservices[08:48] Docker's Successful Restructuring and Product Development[11:22] “Shift Left” and why this trend of putting more responsibility onto developers earlier and earlier in development is great, but also can put too much pressure on developers, who need to be supported[13:53] How Justin and team prioritize Docker's roadmap [16:48] AI: How Docker is helping its client build RAG and other GenAI apps, and the tricky infrastructure needed to support them[19:38] Developer productivity and the importance of the inner loop[27:01] Developers love their laptops! And why Windows machines have become so popular[30:40] How to talk so your CFO will listen and the rise of business-focused engineers***CRAFTED. is brought to you in partnership with Docker, which helps developers build, share, run and verify applications anywhere – without environment confirmation or management. More than 20 million developers worldwide use Docker's suite of development tools, services and automations to accelerate the delivery of secure applications. CRAFTED. is produced by Modern Product Minds, where CRAFTED. host Dan Blumberg and team can help you take a new product from zero to one... and beyond. We specialize in early stage product discovery, growth, and experimentation. Learn more at modernproductminds.com Subscribe to CRAFTED., follow the show, and sign up for the newsletter 👉 crafted.fm

Software, hardware, and biotechnology are playing an increasingly transformative role in our mental health and wellness. On this episode of CRAFTED., recorded live on the “Next” stage at SXSW, we discuss what investors look for in these new companies and how they separate what’s real — and what’s near-term — from what’s hype. On stage with host Dan Blumberg are:Amy Kruse, General Partner & Chief Investment Officer at Satori Neuro, and a trained neuroscientistMatias Serebrinsky, Co-founder and General Partner at PsyMed Ventures, and the host of Business Trip, which is a great podcast if you want to go even deeper on these topics. Listen at businesstrip.fm Christie Nicholson, Founder of Studio Lumina, and the co-host for this panelWe’ll explore AI-powered tools for mental health, the new area of “enerceuticals” (energy replacing the “pharma”), psychedelics, and why what’s in your gut is so important to your mental state. Hear from investment experts who have a wide view of this growing startup landscape and better understand which new ventures are likely to succeed.— Key Moments:[03:18] Recent advances in biotech and why advances in data and AI are helping biology become a more “mature” science[05:30] Why AI is overhyped, but also where it’s not[09:07] Why psychedelics are overhyped, but also where they’re not[11:24] What’s real and amazing: brain-computer interfaces, e.g. humans controlling robotic arms with the minds[13:55] What’s real and amazing: precision psychiatry and neuroscience[15:42] The emerging field of “enerceuticals” -- using energy instead of drugs, e.g. low intensity focused ultrasound[17:47] Neuroplasticity: our brains can change![23:01] Mental health, the gut-brain axis, and food as medicine[34:58] The business models of bio tech startups and how to know when a company is making progress on a years-long effort—CRAFTED. is brought to you in partnership with Docker, which helps developers build, share, run and verify applications anywhere – without environment confirmation or management. More than 20 million developers worldwide use Docker's suite of development tools, services and automations to accelerate the delivery of secure applications. Learn more at Docker.comCRAFTED. is produced by Modern Product Minds, where my team and I can help you take a new product from zero to one... and beyond. We specialize in early stage product discovery, growth, and experimentation. Learn more at modernproductminds.com Subscribe to CRAFTED., follow the show, and sign up for the newsletter 👉 CRAFTED.fm

Dr. Gabriella Rosen Kellerman is the Chief Product and Innovation Officer at BetterUp, a multi-billion dollar startup that helps people and companies level up. Through a combination of human coaching and AI, BetterUp is able to offer the kind of executive coaching that used to be reserved for... executives.  On this episode of CRAFTED. we dig into how BetterUp ships new products, proves they work, and what's next… Key Moments:[2:23 - 7:27] How BetterUp helps companies and employees level up[7:27 - 11:15] How BetterUp build products — and why they have more than the typical product trio of product/design/engineering[11:15 - 14:22] Launching the Group Coaching product, testing it, and scaling it (during the pandemic) [14:22 - 17:42] “Kids in the candy store” – how BetterUp is building with GenAI after so many years of building with GOFAI (good old fashioned AI)[17:42 - 20:38] Challenges as BetterUp has scaled up and what’s next for the company[20:38 - 22:26] The “whitewater world of work” and what makes Gabriella optimistic about the future—The book: Tomorrowmind — CRAFTED. is brought to you in partnership with Docker, which helps developers build, share, run and verify applications anywhere – without environment confirmation or management. More than 20 million developers worldwide use Docker's suite of development tools, services and automations to accelerate the delivery of secure applications. Learn more at Docker.comCRAFTED. is produced by Modern Product Minds, where my team and I can help you take a new product from zero to one... and beyond. We specialize in early stage product discovery, growth, and experimentation. Learn more at modernproductminds.com Subscribe to CRAFTED., follow the show, and sign up for the newsletter 👉 Crafted.fm—

Diaa El All is the founder and CEO of Soundful, which enables anyone to create brand new music in just a few seconds with AI. And on this episode of CRAFTED., we are literally making music.We’re also talking about the ethics of using AI to make music. Diaa has been very outspoken about what he sees as the misguided practices of other AI+music companies that train their models by just scraping the web. At Soundful, they’ve taken a different approach: they are painstakingly building their own proprietary data by recording musicians playing one note at a time and then layering the notes to create music that sounds better than if you’d just sampled songs. “We've done it. There is a way where technological advancement and working with the rights-holders and protecting them can co-exist together.” We discuss:* Why Diaa stands with the music industry against what he sees as other companies' move fast & break things approach to AI * Diaa’s background as a classical musician, DJ, ghost producer, and founder* How Soundful built its data and how it layers sounds together to make music* Soundful’s origin story and how it emerged from Diaa’s work with AI and marketing automation* Why humans are so important when making music * Why music theory rules are important to follow – except when they’re not!* What to expect next… and how incredible AI voice cloning has become***CRAFTED. is brought to you in partnership with Docker, which helps developers build, share, run and verify applications anywhere – without environment confirmation or management. More than 20 million developers worldwide use Docker's suite of development tools, services and automations to accelerate the delivery of secure applications. CRAFTED. is produced by Modern Product Minds, where Dan Blumberg and team advise companies on product, discovery, growth, and experimentation. Subscribe to CRAFTED., follow the show, and sign up for the newsletter 👉 Crafted.fm***Key Moments:[02:01] Ethical AI in Music Creation: How Soundful builds its AI ethically, avoiding training on copyrighted materials and using proprietary data.[05:00] Diaa’s journey from Cairo to the Royal Academy of London, and his various roles in the music industry before founding Soundful[07:02] Soundful’s origin story[10:10] Soundful's music creation process, including the use of music theory rules and proprietary data sets to generate tracks[12:08] How Soundful manages the non-deterministic nature of AI to ensure unique, high-quality music outputs for users.[14:36] How Soundful levels people up and why he’s so excited to level up that great singer who is not yet a great producer[17:00] The hardest part of building Soundful - working with the music industry and winning their acceptance[21:55] Predictions for the future, including advancements in voice cloning and the potential for democratizing creative opportunities.

“So if you take any great startup and look backwards, you'll see that 90 percent of their growth came from like 10 percent of the stuff that they tried. So how do you find that 10 percent as quickly as possible?”Matt Lerner has advised hundreds of startups on how to grow. Now, the CEO of SYSTM has written a book called Growth Levers and How to Find Them where he shares his approach. This episode of CRAFTED. is full of actionable advice on how you can grow your products and companies. Matt will tell us about the mindset shift founders need to make from thinking about their products to thinking about their customers needs. We'll talk about jobs-to-be-done (JTBD) style interviewing and why it's such a powerful approach, but also why at first Matt was put off by some of the overly academic language that often goes with jobs. And we'll talk about how you can get new customers to that aha moment as quickly as possible, so they stick with your product. Plus, lots of real talk about founders and the mistakes they make. Welcome to CRAFTED., a show about great products and the people who make them. CRAFTED. brings you stories of founders, makers, and innovators that reveal how they've built game changing products and how you can too.—Key Moments:[0:00] Intro[2:20] 90 percent of growth comes 10 percent of the stuff you try[3:53] Over-thinkers, under-thinkers, and delegators: the 3 types of founders and the mistakes they make[7:40] Why the pace of learning is so important[9:51] Great examples of companies that learn quickly[10:52] The “locksmith moment” and why you need to find yours[12:45] Jobs-to-be-Done style interviewing and why it’s so effective[14:07] How to do a JTBD interview[16:05] The mindset shift founders need to make from thinking about their product to thinking about the customers’ needs – and why it’s so hard for them to do so[21:24] Growth Sprints and how to set them up for success[25:07] Retention and customer activation: still (!) overlooked by most and why it’s so critical[29:00] Matt writes a blog post on the spot about how working at an oil refinery taught him about startups[31:36] Writing a book is not an agile process! And the fantastic reception for Growth Levers—CRAFTED. is produced by Modern Product Minds, where host Dan Blumberg also advises companies on product discovery, growth, and experimentation. Learn more and sign up for the CRAFTED. newsletter at modernproductminds.com —CRAFTED. is sponsored by Artium, a next generation software development consultancy that combines elite human craftsmanship and artificial intelligence. See how Artium can help you build your future at artium.ai—More on Matt Lerner:His company: SYSTMThe book: Growth Levers and How to Find Them

On April 1st, 2013, ProdPad promised something revolutionary: “We now take your backlog of ideas, and with highly advanced big data crunching algorithm technology, automagically render a complete and accurate product roadmap. [...] The Auto-Roadmap Tool not only builds itself, but also covers for the hardest part of the Product Manager’s job: Getting complete buy-in from your team.”Amazing! And product managers wrote in with unbridled excitement itching to get their hands on this incredible tool.Except… this was obviously an April Fool’s joke, right!? Well, fast forward to today and it ain’t a joke! ProdPad is building these automagical abilities right now. Thanks to Generative AI, this absurdist joke has become reality (though not yet the part about magically getting buy-in from your fussy stakeholders... that's in the 2.0 version :) On this episode of CRAFTED., Janna Bastow, the founder and CEO of ProdPad, founder of Mind The Product, inventor of the now-next-later roadmap, and an April Fool's prankster you need to keep your eye on describes what a great roadmap is, how AI is freeing up product people to do more meaningful work, and what the future of product management will entail (getting out of the building more!). Welcome to CRAFTED., a show about great products and the people who make them. Sign up for the CRAFTED. newsletter and explore past episodes at modernproductminds.com***CRAFTED. is sponsored by Artium, a next generation software development consultancy that combines elite human craftsmanship and artificial intelligence. See how Artium can help you build your future at artium.ai. 

Enjoy this bonus, happy hour edition of CRAFTED., recorded live during SXSW. It’s a very unCRAFTED. CRAFTED. Featuring four innovators on a rooftop in Austin talking about what struck them at this year’s SXSW. Kick back and unwind with Christie Nicholson (Founder of the Studio for Communicating Complexity), Kwaku Aning (Director, Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurial Thinking (CIET) at San Diego Jewish Academy and Founder, Retro Futurism Consulting), James Burdine (Founder and Principal at Bishop Linville Consulting), and CRAFTED. host Dan Blumberg.Topics and tangents include: the use of AI in education and government, the data we unwittingly give platforms (e.g. Apple Vision Pro could detect when we have a great idea bc our eyes dilate when we do), the deconstruction and redistribution of SXSW, explore/exploit and the need to be bored, and much more random stuff.CRAFTED. is produced by Modern Product Minds. Sign up for the CRAFTED. newsletter and explore past episodes at modernproductminds.com***CRAFTED. is sponsored by Artium, a next generation software development consultancy that combines elite human craftsmanship and artificial intelligence. See how Artium can help you build your future at artium. ai.

Career trajectories used to be like steamships: full steam ahead. And then they became more like sailboats: lots of tacking. But now… we’re swirling in whitewater. And, as the Chief Product and Innovation Officer at BetterUp, Dr. Gabriella Rosen Kellerman helps people build the skill they need to flourish:“When you're kayaking in the whitewater. It's hard to get a sense of what could be around the bend, but if you know if what's coming up is a sudden cascade or versus another, you know, set of gentle bumps, or maybe it's a calmer space in the river, it can give you a great advantage.”On this episode of Crafted, we focus on the five key skill groups that can help you be more successful: Prospection, Resilience, Innovation and creativity, Social support by way of rapid rapport, and Mattering and meaning.And, good news! These skills can be trained!Gabriella writes about these skills in Tomorrowmind, which she co-authored with Martin Seligman. And, at BetterUp she builds products that help companies — and their people — build these skills at scale. On an upcoming episode of Crafted, we’ll explore how BetterUp does this using human coaching, backed by artificial intelligence systems. Welcome to Crafted, a show about great products and the people who make them. Crafted is produced by Modern Product Minds. Sign up for the Crafted newsletter and explore past episodes at modernproductminds.com—Key Moments:[00:00 - 01:01] Introduction[02:16 - 06:40] From psychiatry to tech[06:40 - 09:53] Key skill needed for a "tomorrowmind"[09:53 - 13:51] Developing Resilience Skills[16:55 - 18:53] Enhancing Perspective and Creativity[18:53 - 22:35] Planning and Dynamic Adaptation[22:35 - 26:05] The Role of Coaching in Skill Development[26:05 - 27:35] Outro and What's Coming in Part Two—Here’s the book:Tomorrowmind —Crafted is sponsored by Artium, a next generation software development consultancy that combines elite human craftsmanship and artificial intelligence. See how Artium can help you build your future at artium.ai

“You have to invest into change. You cannot invest into stasis.Daniel Kimerling has a keen eye for the trends, technologies, and cultural shifts that are going to be big. A decade ago, he took an insight – that developers needed powerful tool so they could embed banking services into their apps – and launched Standard Treasury, the very first banking-as-a-service (BaaS) startup. Today BaaS and "embedded finance" are huge. Now, as a VC and the founder of Deciens Capital, Dan is again looking for change:“From an ego perspective, I love being right. From a financial perspective, I love being right at the right time."The right team:"You have to be willing to embrace a level of physical, emotional, financial, psychological, spiritual pain and keep going. Just keep fucking going."And business models that actually make sense:"It's not that, like, Generative AI is not cool. As a Dweeb, it's fucking cool as hell. I got it. But then the question is: 'How the fuck are you gonna make a dime?'"This is a fun episode! Listen in for a masterclass in disruption. Also f-bombs. Lots of f-bombs. More on Crafted than ever before. Yet also mixed  with grace and humility. Dan is a mensch. :)Key Moments:[0:00] Introduction[2:07] How Dan got started in tech, as the very first employee at TechCrunch[4:58] Founding Standard Treasury, the very first banking-as-a-service (BaaS) company after meeting the founders of Twilio and Stripe and seeing the API’s and “embedding” were going to be huge[7:25] “What you kind of come to see is that to some degree everything is a financial plumbing problem.”[9:12] “You have to invest into change. You cannot invest into stasis.”[11:37] Founding Deciens Capital[12:23] The “industrial logic” of most VC firms and how Deciens aims to stay small and serve early stage founders[15:07] What Dan looks for when making an investment, including grit, variant perspective, and a MacGyver-like adaptability[18:36] Generative AI: Why VC’s are rushing in, but he’s skeptical about business models. Will all the spoils just go to the open source community + NVIDIA? [22:36] What Dan is excited about: the future of VC and building financial service products that people actually love[24:24] Personalization: “[Big banks] really serve a very median audience. And we have a number of companies [...] that are far outside of that middle lane. And thankfully, because of the power of the internet, the search and distribution costs for those opportunities is way lower than it would have been in a analog era.”[25:11] How Dan goes out of his way to help people – and how you can learn from his system[28:50] Outro[29:27] An F-bomb laced Easter Egg parting giftBooks mentioned:"A Brief History of Financial Euphoria" by John Kenneth Galbraith"Power Law" by Sebastian WallabyAbout CraftedCrafted is a show about great products and the people who make them. Hosted by Dan Blumberg, an entrepreneur, product leader, and public radio host with deep experience not only delivering major software releases, but also as the producer of the best known, and most listened-to, public radio shows. Dan has founded startups and led product releases and growth initiatives at LinkedIn, The New York Times, and as a consultant to fintechs and big banks. Before getting into tech, Dan led the team behind Morning Edition on WNYC, the most listened-to show on the nation’s largest NPR station. Dan produced, edited, reported for, and hosted this and other marquee news shows at WNYC and WBEZ and also frequently reported on national news events for NPR. Crafted is produced by Modern Product Minds. Sponsored ByCrafted is sponsored by Artium, a next generation software development consultancy that combines elite human craftsmanship and artificial intelligence. See how Artium can help you build your future at artium.ai.