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Piyali hosts this episode as a fireside chat conversation on “Women in Product” with guests Sofia Bautista (Legible), Ainsley Robertson (Clio), and Yassmin Taher (Amazon).   Our awareness of the topic ‘diversity in tech’ has raised quite a lot in the last few years and so we thought it would be a great time for us to talk about women leaders from the product management world.  Legible is hiring! https://legible.breezy.hr/Clio is hiring! https://www.clio.com/about/careers/ This is our final episode of season 2 (possibly the final episode ever). If you have any feedback for us, please join the ProductBC community or email us at [email protected]. Thanks for listening. Episode Notes [0m] Episode Introduction [2m3s] Introducing Ainsley (Clio) [5m17s] Introducing Yassmin (Amazon) [7m42s] Introducing Sofia (Legible) [11m30s] How did you land your first product role? Was it something you wanted to do? [19m30s] Why do you think women make great product managers? [23m13s] Career Paths and Learnings: Would you have done it differently? [29m10s] Did you experience any challenges or barriers in growing your career? [33m] Imposter syndrome, safety, salary negotiation, and workload [38m25s] State of diversity and inclusion for women in product/tech [42m55s] Advice for women just joining the industry [45m] Parting Thoughts [47m] Male allyship [49m15s] Final episode of the season announcement

In this episode, Blake and Piyali chat with Drew Lau (Salesforce) on the topic of how to go above and beyond in your product career. Topics include: Building your product career by learning to become a change agentHandling RejectionNetworking with other product people at different companies to find inspirationEpisode Notes [0m] Opening discussion[3m05s] Introducing Drew Lau[8m02s] PM career growth advice and being a change agent[11m08s] What can a junior PM do to influence others?[14m30s] Tips for facing rejection[17m50s] Discussion on product specialization over the product lifecycle[25m15s] Thoughts on mentorship & communities[30m05s] Where do you find inspiration?[32m50s] What books inspire you?[34m30s] Closing Thoughts & Outro

Season 2 is back after being away for a few months*. In this episode, we chat on a popular, often requested topic - how to get hired at a tech company. Blake chats with Jeremy Kaneb (Workday) and Kirill Vechtomov (Amazon, MySoulTeam) about their experiences across Product and Design roles for hiring and getting interviewed. Episode Notes [0m] Episode Introduction[1m50s] Introducing Jeremy and Kirill[5m14s] Working for American companies from Canada, remotely[12m30s] What problems do candidates face getting their foot in the door?[26m55s] Are internships still a good opportunity?[32m30s] Break[32m50s] Advice on the interview process[39m52s] Advice on offers and negotiation[45m25s] Final Thoughts* This episode was pre-recorded back in November, 2021.

We’re back with Season 2 of ProdcastBC after a few months away. We’re doing things a little bit differently with new co-host Piyali Dey and a seasonal theme on “Breaking into Product”.  For this first episode of the new season, we chat with Leah Maestri (Product Designer at Microsoft) to unravel her journey into Product Design and lessons learned along the way. Episode Notes [0m] Episode Introduction[0m 40s] Introducing Piyali & Discussion on Breaking into Product[4m 5s] Introducing Leah Maestri & her starts in Product & Design[6m 1s] Pivoting towards Product Design [10m 45s] The question that transformed my practice -- “How can I help?”[13m 30s] Lessons in Collaboration w/ PMs -- Lend a hand[18m 20s] Focus on your colleagues (in addition to your customers)[19m 30s] Advice for those starting out in Design/Product[21m 15s] Closing Thoughts from Leah[22m 5s] Final Comments

Today’s topic is a big one as we slowly start to come out of our year of living through a pandemic - mental health. Specifically, what sort of mental health advice can we offer to those working in product or tech? In any given year, one in five people in Canada will experience a mental health problem or illness. By age 40, about 50 percent of the population will have or have had a mental illness. I’m joined by Andrew Neufeld, co-founder and registered clinical counsellor at Alongside You, a Ladner-based integrated health agency. Together, we talk through a lot of the buzzwords, difficulties, tools, and advice on managing yourself or others through trying times. This is ProdcastBC. Episode Notes [0m] Episode Intro Overview[1m 1s] Introductions with Andrew[3m 25s] Observations on the mental health of tech workers over the past pandemic year[9m 48s] Thoughts on the rise of virtual health (remote) and mental health apps[16m 23s] Discussion and advice on "Imposter Syndrome"[21m 9s] Being "Always On" and "Work-Life Balance"[29m 30s] How to best deal with change and ambiguity in tech and product[36m 24s] Advice for people managers to help their teams[40m 53s] Tips on how to look out for people who might be struggling[45m] Closing Thoughts

In this episode, I'm joined by Niamh Cunningham, Chief Operation Officer at Rival Technologies, a mobile-first market research platform that helps brands close the gap in understanding how people live their digital lives. Niamh is a product leader having previously worked in Product roles at SAP, Mobify, and Vision Critical. Together, we dive into the topic of gender imbalance at tech companies and discuss what inspired her to come to Vancouver, advice for women breaking into the industry, how she got into a leadership role, and a look at the difficulty of being a parent over the span of the pandemic. 

For this second episode, I am joined by Eric Bin, head of Product at Article, an e-commerce based modern furnishings company that delivers to your home. Eric has been a strong product leader around Vancouver for years now, previously working in roles at Procurify, Clio, AbeBooks (an Amazon company), Coast Capital, Blast Radius, eBay and more. I’ll be chatting with Eric about his experiences in growing a product team, seeing the growth of the Vancouver product community, and his thoughts in hiring and building a diverse product team. 

In our first EVER episode of ProdcastBC, I am joined by Timothy Yeung, President of ProductBC and Associate Director at EY Canada. I’ve known Timothy for a few years now and have observed his growth in product roles from his last few years at Telus Digital, to his recent start at EY Canada.  I’ll be asking Timothy about his journey in coming to Vancouver from Hong Kong as an adult, his work with the rest of the ProductBC board to bring Diversity & Inclusion to the forefront of ProductBC’s goals this year, and how he has viewed the importance of declaring an organizational vision, mission, and values to keep on track for progressive change.