Beyond Rapid Shipping: Thoughtful Product Development

This episode features an interview with Avantika Gomes, Group Product Manager at Figma. 

In this episode, Avantika shares with us:

• Assigning criteria for running beta successfully
• Building products for an expanding audience
• The importance of listening to your user base
• How collaboration can help reduce inefficiencies
• And so much more!

Host takeaways:

Kyle: 

• Being crisp on the problem. Collaboration is key, so when we have a good knowledge base and understand our personas we better understand their pain points and know where to start with mending them.
• Shipping fast and breaking stuff isn’t always the answer. Those of us who have been in the product space for a while have heard “ship it fast, break it fast” our whole careers, but Avantika invites us into a new way of thinking: thoughtful product development and the benefits it brings.

Lukasz:

• Recognizing there are other personas engaging with your products. Our products are built for certain people, so when that pool of people starts to grow, we have to understand who those people are, what they want, and how our products can meet their needs.
• Shipping fast and failing past depends on your product. If we think about an issue that might arise on Facebook, if something breaks, you may not even notice it as a user. But if you experience an issue with an MRI machine while you’re getting a scan, that can affect your life immediately. So, it’s important to be aware of the stakes at hand in terms of shipping fast or not.
• Focus on the right things when hiring. We can say we want to be inclusive and lead a more diverse team all day long, but we need to be aware of the exact parameters we’re using and ask ourselves: how can we hire and retain the best people for the job? How can we help them learn, grow, and flourish?

Segment Timestamps: 

*(00:29) - Ship it or Skip it

*(03:44) - PM Power Moves

*(29:07) - Host Takeaways

>> Connect with Lukasz Weber & Kyle Kolich 

>> Learn more about Zuora