How to Succeed in Product Management: a new Foster faculty podcast
No one could have predicted what an impact one phone call in February would have on the product management community.
Red Russak, a founding team member at Apptentive, had been serving as a founding advisory board member of the Product Management Center at the Foster School of Business when a realization hit that would send him and the center’s founding director, Jeff Shulman, on an unforgettable journey.
“If the Product Management Center is about knowledge, community, and impact, it has to have a presence where product managers are looking for knowledge and community,” Russak told Shulman on that fateful call. “Right now, that’s on Clubhouse. And there’s a big opportunity there.”
To dispel Shulman’s wariness of another new social media platform, Russak pulled together a group of product leaders and an audience on Clubhouse for a discussion on how to succeed in product management. And with that, a hit show was born.
Fast forward to today and “How to Succeed in Product Management” is not only a weekly show on Clubhouse that has engaged thousands of product managers, it is also a podcast available on all major podcasting platforms.
After Shulman and Russak successfully co-hosted their first Clubhouse show together, they recruited Soumeya Benghanem, a product executive at VMware, to regularly share her experience and expertise alongside some of the best product managers in the world. The trio has developed a winning formula.
Each week, Shulman moderates a discussion among Benghanem and guests from leading companies such as Google, Netflix, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, T-Mobile, Zillow and Salesforce. Russak entertains and interacts with the audience as he invites them to share their thoughts or ask questions of the product leaders. Benghanem reliably shares brilliant insights, valuable frameworks and practical stories. The trio picks a specific topic each show that will help the audience succeed in product management, such as setting objectives and key results, aligning stakeholders toward a common vision, developing empathy as a skill, and embedding accessibility into the product development process.
Shulman, the Marion B. Ingersoll Professor of marketing at the Foster School, honed his podcasting craft hosting the award-winning Seattle Growth Podcast. Russak has proven adept at cultivating community and been recognized by President Barack Obama for his work co-founding New Tech Northwest. Benghanem has amassed a significant following creating popular communities such as The Week in Product and Techbuilders, and generously sharing her knowledge as often as possible.
To enjoy “How to Succeed in Product Management” live, follow @profshulman, @redrussak, and @soumeya on Clubhouse and tune in on Tuesdays at 4 p.m. PDT. You can also download episodes of “How to Succeed in Product Management” on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcasting platform.
Check out the podcast trailer:
