DiscoverProduct Builders – Interviews About App Development, Product Design, UX/UI and Digital Products31 - Building Digital Products at a Legacy Brand — with Samantha McCarthy, AVP, Product Management at Sotheby’s
31 - Building Digital Products at a Legacy Brand — with Samantha McCarthy, AVP, Product Management at Sotheby’s

31 - Building Digital Products at a Legacy Brand — with Samantha McCarthy, AVP, Product Management at Sotheby’s

Update: 2025-09-02
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In this episode, Samantha McCarthy, AVP, Product Management at Sotheby’s, joins us to discuss what it takes to build proprietary tools inside a 300-year-old company. She shares how her team balances the weight of tradition with the speed of modern product development, and what it means to build for ultra-high-net-worth clients in real time.


We discuss:


How Sotheby’s matured its internal product org to support digital transactions.

Why clear communication and analogies help bridge tech and non-tech teams.

Challenges of building tools for a small, ultra-high-net-worth user base.

How legacy data informs the shift to platform-level thinking.

Why the team chose to build proprietary tools instead of buying off-the-shelf.

What it takes to deliver real-time, high-stakes auction experiences online.


💬 Samantha says: “There’s a performance and a drama and an immediacy to a lot of the auction experience that goes into how we think about things that I think really impacts not just how we build products, but how we work with the rest of the business. And how they understand what we're doing is really crucial.”



Resources Mentioned:


Samantha McCarthy

https://www.linkedin.com/in/samanthajmcc/


Sotheby’s | LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/company/sothebys/


Sotheby’s | Website

https://www.sothebys.com/en/




This episode is brought to you by Majestyk Apps


We imagine, design and build digital products. With clients like Chevrolet, Audiomack, IBM, Barefoot and more, you can be sure you are in good hands. Reach out to us at MajestykApps.com


If you enjoyed today’s show, please leave a 5-star review. For more information and links to all of the resources mentioned in today’s episode, visit ProductBuildersPodcast.com.



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31 - Building Digital Products at a Legacy Brand — with Samantha McCarthy, AVP, Product Management at Sotheby’s

31 - Building Digital Products at a Legacy Brand — with Samantha McCarthy, AVP, Product Management at Sotheby’s

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