Convergence Ashok Sivanand

In this compelling episode of the Convergence podcast, we're talking product strategy with Ben, a seasoned expert creating product roadmaps that lead to customer delight. Ben’s journey in the product domain is as diverse as it is fascinating, having started in the early 2000s at eBay under the mentorship of Marty Kagan. He’s also a co-founder of Prodify, a company that helps companies become product-driven and a co-author of the influential book "Build What Matters".
Ben gave us so many great insights that we decided to break the episode into two parts. 
In Part 1, host Ashok Sivanand and Ben explore a wide range of topics crucial for any product leader. From crafting robust product roadmaps and communicating visionary strategies, to the nuances of hiring and managing product teams, this conversation is packed with actionable insights. Ben also shares personal anecdotes and lessons from his experiences, especially intriguing stories from his time at the wearable company Whoop, shedding light on the challenges and triumphs of managing product strategies in a dynamic market environment.
Inside this episode...
How to drive alignment and insightful conversations with stakeholders that allow a roadmap to emerge How to communicate a roadmap  Should you be concerned about cannibalizing your own products? The role of product teams to create customer value that can be extracted to create business value  How data can be dangerous without a strong vision What to look for on a resume that signals "take a chance on this person" What tools Ben uses to scale up someone's business acumen quickly Subscribe to the Convergence podcast wherever you get podcasts including video episodes to get updated on the other crucial conversations that we'll post on YouTube at youtube.com/@convergencefmpodcast
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Discover the pivotal role of strategic conversations in shaping successful product teams in our latest episode of the Convergence podcast, featuring Integral's Director of Product Management Bailey O'Shea. In part one of our series "9 Conversations You Forget to Have With Your Product Team," we explore the crucial discussion of the "why" behind your product initiatives. This episode unpacks how a clear understanding of business strategy and goals can significantly influence the success of product development and team alignment.
Unlock the full potential of your product team with Integral's player coaches, experts in lean, human-centered design. Visit integral.io/convergence for a free Product Success Lab workshop to gain clarity and confidence in tackling any product design or engineering challenge.
Inside the episode...
Understanding the Importance of 'Why': How aligning your team's efforts with the business strategy can lead to greater productivity and product success. Facilitating Strategic Conversations: Techniques for ensuring all team members—from engineers to stakeholders—are on the same page regarding business goals. Impact of Vision on Product Development: Real-world examples of how a well-articulated vision can transform team motivation and output. Exercises to Elicit the 'Why': Practical activities like the press release exercise to help teams internalize and articulate the project's purpose. Documenting and Communicating Vision: The significance of maintaining accessible, clear documentation to keep the team aligned, especially when onboarding new members. Subscribe to the Convergence podcast wherever you get podcasts including video episodes to get updated on the other crucial conversations that we'll post on YouTube at youtube.com/@convergencefmpodcast
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Learning about our customers, and developing products based on their needs is simple to understand, but difficult to execute when you balance your customer desires against what’s best for your shareholders, and what your team can build, deliver and operate.
Host Ashok Sivanand and Jim Simpson, CEO of Blumira, discuss his journey in product management, from early coding adventures with a Commodore 64 to leading a cybersecurity SaaS company. Discover how Jim's unique background as a third culture kid and his extensive experience in the tech industry have shaped his approach to product management, leadership, and navigating the intricate balance between customer needs and business demands.
Unlock the full potential of your product team with Integral's player coaches, experts in lean, human-centered design. Visit integral.io/convergence for a free Product Access Lab workshop to gain clarity and confidence in tackling any product design or engineering challenge.
Inside the episode...
Jim Simpson's early fascination with coding and the pivotal decision between a Commodore 64 and an Atari. The influence of Jim's upbringing in Japan on his open-mindedness and adaptability in leadership. The transition from coding to product management: key lessons and pivotal moments Jim's approach to recruiting, mentoring, and nurturing talent in product management. How Blumira is innovating in the cybersecurity space under Jim’s leadership as CEO. The challenges and rewards of stepping into a CEO role from a product management background. Practical advice for aspiring product managers on acquiring the necessary skills and mindset for success. An exploration of the ‘third culture kid’ identity and its impact on professional and personal growth. The importance of customer interaction and how it shapes product development strategies. Subscribe to the Convergence podcast wherever you get podcasts including video episodes on YouTube at youtube.com/@convergencefmpodcast
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Strong teams and transformed product practices drive growth. In order to drive outcomes using software and build great product teams, you need to drive speed to value and adapt quickly. The problem is, technology teams and business teams are often disjointed and lack clarity around each other’s “why.”
In this first part of a continuing series on the Convergence podcast, Ashok Sivanand and Bailey O'Shea, Head of Product at Integral, explore 9 conversations essential for the success of product teams that are too often forgotten. These conversations are cultivated from the years of experience Ashok and the team at Integral have consulting with some of the best product makers in the world.
This discussion is vital for product managers and team leaders, offering an in-depth look at the nuanced dialogues that shape a product's journey from ideation to market execution. Learn about the often-overlooked discussions that can significantly enhance agility, speed up market delivery, and maintain team alignment as your operations scale.
Unlock the full potential of your product team with Integral's player coaches, experts in lean, human-centered design. Visit integral.io/convergence for a free Product Access Lab workshop to gain clarity and confidence in tackling any product design or engineering challenge.
Inside the episode...
Understanding Communication Impact: Ashok and Bailey discuss how insufficient communication can severely affect team dynamics, decelerate processes, and impede agility. Critical Conversations for Product Teams: They highlight the crucial but frequently missed discussions necessary within product teams to prevent bottlenecks and foster a culture of transparency. Methods for Effective Dialogue: They share detailed strategies on facilitating these conversations to ensure comprehensive alignment across roles from engineers to product managers. Practical and Theoretical Insights: The episode offers practical examples and theoretical insights to help listeners understand the application of these conversations in real teams, along with the foundational theories behind their significance. Subscribe to the Convergence podcast wherever you get your podcasts, including video episodes on YouTube at youtube.com/@convergencefmpodcast.
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In this episode of the Convergence Podcast, host Ashok Sivanand welcomes Farhan Thawar, the Vice President of Engineering at Shopify. Farhan's journey to Shopify came through the acquisition of Helpful, a company he co-founded. With a rich background in leadership roles at Microsoft, Trilogy, and as Vice President of Engineering at both Extreme Labs and Pivotal Labs—where Ashok had the pleasure of collaborating with him—Farhan brings a wealth of experience in building high-performing, engaging technical teams. This episode explores how Shopify, under Farhan’s leadership, operates like a colossal experiment, constantly pushing the boundaries of experimentation and research and development across the company, not just within the product and engineering teams.
Listeners will gain insights into Shopify's innovative use of generative AI to enhance customer and team experiences, the integration of tools like Copilot for pair programming, and the effective cultivation of a culture that fosters simplicity in code and robustness in product delivery. Farhan's approach to leadership has not only scaled to accommodate hundreds, if not thousands, of team members but has also maintained a strong focus on recruitment, attracting what he terms "F— yes candidates." The conversation also covers how Shopify's leadership remains deeply connected to their work and maintains technical sharpness, driving a culture where both the product and the people behind it thrive.
Unlock the full potential of your product team with Integral's player coaches, experts in lean, human-centered design. Visit integral.io/convergence for a free Product Access Lab workshop to gain clarity and confidence in tackling any product design or engineering challenge.
Inside the episode...
The learning mindset at Shopify. 
Code isn’t the artifact. The learning is the artifact. 
Complexifiers versus simplifiers 
Increasing leverage as an engineering leader
Leaders should be involved in recruiting.
How to get the best leverage on your time, and how to bring the support teams like HR and finance along to work like with an R&D and product mindset
Pragmatic framework around process
Subscribe to the Convergence podcast wherever you get podcasts including video episodes on YouTube at youtube.com/@convergencefmpodcast
Learn something? Give us a 5 star review and like the podcast on YouTube. It's how we grow. 

Welcome to the Convergence podcast! I'm Ashok Sivanand and I've created the Convergence podcast to help you build the most engaged product teams who can ship the most successful products.
My passion for products and timing stems from a combination of my working in Japanese manufacturing, building IoT software products for lean manufacturers, and working at industry powerhouses in product like Pivotal Labs. This passion led to founding Integral in 2017, a product engineering consultancy that enables our clients to harness technology to develop better products, grow their revenue streams, and enable new business models. We've had the pleasure to collaborate with brands like Ford, Honda, Rocket Mortgage, Airstream, and Bosch to enable their teams and build some amazing products in artificial intelligence, cloud, mobile, and web.
On the Convergence podcast, I'll be speaking with industry leaders, as well as sharing insights from my team on deconstructing the best practices, principles, and philosophies that lead to building the best product teams. If you're a chief product officer, a chief technology officer, or a VP of engineering, or you're growing towards one of those roles, I highly recommend you subscribe to the Convergence Podcast and get some of the insights that will help you lead your product teams and enable them to consistently ideate, validate and ship products that your customers love. Products that will help you grow your business. Thanks a lot for listening.