Products That Count holiday party featuring Uber early VC

As product design matures as a discipline, it has the potential to partner or conflict with established product management disciplines. These growing pains can be hard on teams, or they can be opportunities for growth. How do we avoid a car wreck and use the journey to arrive at a harmonious outcome? Oracle SVP User Experience Design, Hillel Cooperman, shares his experience on how product management and product design can work together for success.

Hillel Cooperman is senior vice president of user experience design at Oracle, where he is transforming Oracle’s user experiences for customers. Cooperman is focused on bringing state-of-the-art, consumer-grade user experiences across devices to enterprise software scenarios. His goal is to raise the bar on every interaction customers have with Oracle software and with Oracle itself. Cooperman also recently served as design director of Microsoft’s Azure Data and Machine Learning Platform. At Microsoft, we also worked as a product unit manager of the Windows User Experience team delivering the Windows AERO desktop user experience. Cooperman has also been a speaker at numerous design and industry events including San Francisco Design Week, the Seattle Interactive Conference, DesignThinkers, CreativeMornings, Microsoft’s Professional Developers Conference, O’Reilly Tools of Change, Microsoft Ignite, and TED.

Product leadership roles are constantly evolving as companies get more complex, consumer marketing gets concentrated, and enterprise software becomes harder to commercialize. The old ways of building and leading product processes and teams don't work anymore. New skills and roadmaps are necessary for modern product executives to have true impact within the C-Suite of any organization. What does it mean to be a product executive in 2020? Livongo fmr Chief of Growth, now Co-founder and CEO of Emilio Health, Naomi Allen, discusses how to succeed in the New Role of the Modern Product Executive. She will also share experiences about her untraditional path to product leadership, shaping two of the hottest recent IPOs in healthtech, and co-founding her new company in pediatric behavioral health.

Naomi Allen is currently the Co-Founder and CEO at Emilio Health, which is building the world’s first technology-enabled Behavioral Health Home for children and their families. Naomi is a serial entrepreneur and executive with over 15 years building and leading high growth healthtech companies. She was Chief Growth Officer at Livongo until their IPO (NASDAQ: LVGO). Prior to Livongo, Naomi was Co-founder and ran Product, Sales, Operations, Implementation and Client Success at Castlight Health for 8 years until post-IPO (NYSE: CSLT). She's a 2018 Silicon Valley Woman of Influence and is also an advisor to numerous world-class early stage companies. She has recently spoken at conferences including JPMC Healthtech Women, Wharton Healthcare Conference, Constellation Connected Enterprise’s Future of Work, National Business Coalition on Health, CFO Magazine webinar, National Business Group on Health’s Business Health Agenda, Forbes Online, Public Radio “Air Talk”, and Berkeley Haas Business School Healthcare Entrepreneurship course.

Yelp has been a fan of Products That Count since our very first speaker series started 5 years ago, so it's a treat to celebrate our 5-yr milestone anniversary with them. Data Science Product Manager is a role which includes everything a traditional PM does, but also requires an operational understanding of advanced analytics and machine learning software development, along with a realistic view of its responsibilities, key skills, capabilities, and limitations. We’re excited to kick off our 2020 San Francisco speaker series with Yelp Head of Data Science Justin Norman. Norman will discuss Data Science Products, including what they are and why we should care about them.

Justin serves as Head of Data Science at Yelp. He is a career data professional and Data Science leader with experience in multiple industries and companies. Previously, Justin was the Director of Research and Data Science at Cloudera Fast Forward Labs, head of Applied Machine Learning at Fitbit, the head of Cisco’s Enterprise Data Science Office and a Big Data Systems Engineer with Booz Allen Hamilton. In another life, Justin served as a Marine Corps Officer, with a focus in Systems Analytics and Device Intelligence. Justin is a graduate of the US Naval Academy with a degree in Computer Science and the University of Southern California with a Master’s Degree in Business Administration and Business Analytics.

We’re excited to kick off our 2020 Speaker Series in NYC with Google fmr Product Lead Alex Diaz who says that 'Product Manager' might be the most misleading title in tech. Diaz believes that it actually has little to do with managing or the product! Instead, great Product Managers often focus on making their teams more effective — often through better communication and process — which in turn leads to better products. This talk explores what building and managing product teams means in different environments and how it can lead to more successful products.

Alex Diaz has more than a decade of experience in Product Management, with some of the biggest names around on his resume. He recently served as the VP of Product at Jetty, which is a new financial services company for everyday renters. Alex has also worked with several early-stage companies helping to clarify their product vision, improve internal processes, mentor junior PMs, interview candidates and more. He also put in time as the VP of Product Management for Yahoo and served as a Senior Product Manager at Google.

As product managers, we obsess over the needs of our users and try our best to create features that will delight them. We often leave pricing to be an afterthought. However, the pricing of a software product can sometimes be one of the most important. Through various examples, Coursera Product Head Kapeesh Saraf shares examples of how product managers can keep pricing front and center as they build their product roadmaps.

Kapeesh Saraf is the Senior Head of Products at Coursera. In this role, he oversees user growth and consumer (B2C) as well as Degrees products. Before Coursera, Kapeesh was Product Head at Zynga. Kapeesh received his Master’s degree in Management Science from Stanford University and earned a Bachelor of Engineering from the University of Pune in India.

Great products require a strong point of view and durable team culture and values. The Outlook mobile team DNA came together, a little more than five years ago, and was formed with two parts small startups via acquisitions and one part Microsoft. Outlook Mobile Product Head, Michael Palermiti, shares his experiences and learnings the team went through as it evolved and grew to more than 100 million active users since launching Outlook on iOS and Android in 2015. Many of the team cultural values that existed on Day Zero remain core to the success of the team and product today.

Michael Palermiti is the Head of Product working on Outlook for iOS. His team works closely with all disciplines and several partner teams across Microsoft to design and build a differentiated mobile email and calendar app that enables users to connect, organize, and get things done on the go. We’re not the default email and calendar app on iOS devices, so we must win every user by choice — and that requires intense user-driven focus. Under Michael’s leadership, the Outlook for iOS team’s active users tripled while maintaining high-app ratings, daily habitual engagement, and strong retention. Michael has been at Microsoft for 19 years and has a Bachelor of Science from Florida State University.

As Product people, we're accountable to everyone who uses our products. Our goal is to create the best possible experiences possible for them - that is why customer retention is one of the most useful indicators that we are doing our jobs. Why is retention so important to measure, and what steps can be done to improve it? FYI & Crazy Egg Co-Founder, Hiten Shah, talks about the three steps to improve retention, and the benefits of incorporating customer obsession into your work.

Hiten Shah is a co-founder of several SaaS companies including FYI, Crazy Egg, and KISSmetrics. Hiten has an email newsletter called Product Habits, where he and his co-founder Marie teach people how to do customer-centric product development.

As product managers, we are required to be customer-centric. That said, the ways in which we interact with customers are often overlooked. How can product managers build better products through data-driven analysis of their customers’ needs? WW (formerly Weight Watchers) fmr Product VP Nicolas Chikhani shares best practices for optimizing the customer experience - from customer service engagement to building every touch point with your customers in mind.

Nicolas Chikhani is the Chief Product Officer at Feelmore Labs, a Brooklyn-based stealth startup focused on a new category of wellness devices. He also teaches a class at Columbia University on Product Management and Business Analytics. Previously, he spent 6 years at WW (formerly Weight Watchers) where he held various leadership Product Management positions, including VP of Product. Prior to that, he spent 4 years at Morgan Stanley. He holds a Masters in Financial Engineering from Columbia University and a Masters in Engineering from ENSTA in Paris, and currently lives in NYC.

There are 10 secret, psychological drivers that we all have, whether we want to admit it or not. This framework explains why we do what we do and how you can take advantage to improve your product. What are the drivers and how you can tap into them to boost growth and engagement? Zillow Product VP, Nate Moch, to share tactical examples of ways to increase conversions, grow your user base, and take your business to the next level.

Nate is Vice President, Product at Zillow and has been with the company for over 13 years. He is responsible for Zillow’s Growth and Rich Media Experience teams, helping expand Zillow’s audience and unique rich media. Nate has built and managed a number of Zillow products, including its Growth teams and mortgage business. Nate joined Zillow from Microsoft and has an MBA from the University of Washington and a CS degree from DePauw University.

The job of every company in the early days is to prove their W3: Who they are selling to, what their target customer is buying and why do they buy it. In these early days the focus of the company should be customer development, and not “sales” and “product management”. How can companies focus on the W3 and eventually move into more traditional sales and product development? Techstars Managing Director and Author of Sell More Faster, Amos Schwartzfarb, shares actionable tactics to help companies prove their W3, and how early stage “sales” is actually product development.

About the Speaker: While attending college at the University of Massachusetts in 1992 Amos fell in love with rock climbing which brought him to Northern California in 1993 and eventually a job packing boxes for Shoreline Mountain Project. While there Amos helped turn an old school mail-order company into one of the first e-commerce companies which launched his career into the startup world. After Shoreline, Amos went on to 6 other startups including HotJobs.com, Work.com, Business.com, mySpoonful, Blacklocus and Joust. At each of these startups, his responsibility was always directly related to figuring out product market fit, early sales and building sales organizations. Then, in 2015, he moved over to the investor side as Managing Director of Techstars in Austin. Now after over 70 seed stage investments Amos has become one of the more active early stage investors, via Techstars Austin in all of Texas.

This lively session connects two of mankind’s greatest inventions: product management and world mythology. Enough with that newfangled stuff - boost your product leadership skills with learnings that are thousands of years old. How do mythological tales apply to delivering great product outcomes? LinkedIn fmr Product Lead, Prasad Gune’s, extensive experience in enterprise and consumer software means you’ll walk away with actionable insights for your PM toolkit (and maybe hear a new myth or two).

Prasad Gune is SVP, Product at Signifyd, the world’s largest provider of guaranteed fraud protection. Before joining Signifyd, Prasad was Senior Vice President for product at OpenTable, leading global product management, strategy and design for all consumer and restaurant products and experiences. Prior to OpenTable, he spent seven years at LinkedIn, serving as product lead for LinkedIn Recruiter, building it from its infancy into LinkedIn’s flagship monetization product within the Talent Solutions business. Prior to LinkedIn, Prasad held senior product management roles at Oracle and Siebel Systems as well as various consulting roles at Bain & Company.

When looking at the state of your product, short-term KPIs provide insight into what’s working right now. However, ensuring long-term success goes beyond these early indicators. How can you ensure success in Year 2 of your plan to build toward your 3-5 year goals? Docusign fmr Product VP Damon Dean shares his experiences on crafting the right milestones in your product strategy to ensure that you not only know where you’re going - but are getting there when you thought you would.

Damon Dean is the VP of Product at Flexport - setting the company’s strategy for building innovative solutions for freight forwarding. Prior to joining Flexport, he served as VP of Product at Docusign - holding product leadership roles for nearly a decade. In addition, Damon has held product roles at Sprout Designs, Revcube and the California Healthcare Foundation. Damon is a graduate of UCLA and currently lives in the Bay Area.

The rapid rate of technological innovation is making an impact not only on product development - but how companies manage themselves internally and externally. From ways of working to connecting with customers, businesses at every stage need to evaluate how they're functioning at every level. What does it take to reimagine how a mature business operates in the short-term for long-term gains? LearnVest Director of Product, Roman Geyzer, talks about the power of digital transformation - sharing results that he's driven through key product strategies and implementing a culture of experimentation.

Roman Geyzer is a Director of Product at LearnVest. Prior to joining LearnVest, he led the product lead at LearnVest. In addition, Roman worked at Allocate Software and spent over a decade as an online services consultant. Roman holds a degree from Fordham University and currently lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Viral growth is the holy grail for enterprise companies. Product managers and marketers spend late nights thinking of tactics that can make their product “go viral". How can product managers operationalize viral loops? Yammer fmr VP of Product, David Stewart, discusses different strategies and tactics that focus on channel optimization and product design to make your product “go viral".


David was VP of Product at Yammer. Prior to joining Yammer, David was Chief Business Officer at Turo; Senior Director of Growth at Playdom; and worked in product marketing and management at YouTube and Google. He started his career at the Boston Consulting Group. David received his bachelor's degree and MBA from Yale University.

It’s easy for product managers to get laser-focused on a singular growth metric (such as engagement or user conversion). That said, you can lose sight of your product’s big picture value - especially when it comes to keeping your customers happy. How can you stay focused on your users and drive your business forward at the same time? Microsoft Product Director Gail Giacobbe discusses how PMs can operate like customer experience managers to drive business growth by anchoring their priorities around the customer journey.



About The Speaker: Gail Giacobbe is a Director of Product & Data Science at Microsoft - focusing on the company’s experience & devices organization that provide organizations with tools to scale their business. Prior to joining Microsoft, Gail was VP Product at GoDaddy and led product teams at Skype - along with over a decade at Microsoft working on their Office product team. Gail holds a Master’s Degree from Brown University and currently lives in Seattle.

There are many qualities that define great product managers - but none is more important than your ability to own your domain. From your customers' feedback to product results, there's a difference between "owning" your product and "renting" it. What does it take to truly take ownership of your product? DoorDash Product VP Rajat Shroff shares the secret to operating as a product owner - providing best practices that are proven to steadily increase your effectiveness.



About the Speaker: Rajat Shroff is the VP of Product at DoorDash - leading the product development and strategy for the company’s delivery service solutions. Prior to joining DoorDash, he held Product VP roles at Groupon and Valassis Digital. In addition, Rajat has held product leadership roles at Deem and Buysight. Rajat has also held product roles at Oracle and Rhythm NewMedia. Rajat holds a degree from The University of Texas at Austin and currently lives in the Bay Area.

If you have your sights set on being a founder one day, then product management is the perfect role to master. From cross-functional operations to understanding your users, these are essential skills for building an early stage company. That said, how can you optimize your current PM experiences to set yourself up for becoming a successful founder? Blue Apron fmr Product VP Melody Koh talks about what it takes to build from zero to one - and how product managers can prepare themselves in the present for future success as a startup founder.

About The Speaker: Melody Koh is a partner at NextView Ventures - an NYC-based firm that focuses on investing in early-stage tech companies who are building solutions for the everyday economy. Prior to joining NextView Ventures, she led the product team at Blue Apron and also worked on the product team at Fab.com. In addition, Melody founded WineMe/FirstCrush and also worked for Evercore & Time Warner Investments. Melody holds an MBA from Harvard University and currently lives in New York City.