The SEO Sprint Podcast

Adam Gent
The SEO Sprint Podcast

Do you want to work more effectively with product and engineering teams to get SEO projects executed? It all starts by shifting your mindset. I’m Adam Gent, an Independent Product Manager and Technical SEO Consultant who helps SaaS and Enterprise organisations implement SEO opportunities that drive results. I’ve had over a decade of experience working with developers and product and design teams. If you’re an SEO professional wanting to learn how to get things done in an organisation that relies on product and engineering teams to execute SEO projects, this podcast is for you.

Episodes

  1. Lessons from Indeed | Gus Pelogia

    07/27/2023

    Lessons from Indeed | Gus Pelogia

    This week I interview Gus Pelogia an SEO Product Manager at Indeed. Gus has worked both in-house and at digital agencies in Argentina, the Netherlands, and Ireland. He spent 5 years as an Account Manager and Team Lead at agencies such as Spark Foundry (Core) and Wolfgang Digital, working with clients from travel, e-commerce, and professional services. In this podcast, we talked about: Getting into SEO Getting into product Product Requirement Documents Engineering Buddy Discovery with developers Cross-team collaboration tips Insight into working on projects Why future-proofing ideas get buy-in Product and engineering team structure Delivery process and procedure Importance of ownership in teams Conways Law in large organisations Raising problems is also about raising solutions Writing effective SEO tickets Importance of planning tickets Prioritising SEO initiatives and bets MVPs in SEO Learning from Product Managers SEO Forecasting and SEO A/B Split Testing Listen now on Apple, Overcast and Spotify. Recommended top three skills: Gus would recommend the following skills to learn: Business Acumen - Understand how to handle business situations and sell your ideas to other teams. Technical literacy - Learn to code and better understand technology so you can build confidence to work on custom-built websites. Ownership - Learn to own projects and conversations, don’t be afraid to speak up. Where to find Gus: Website Twitter LinkedIn Note: Gus is speaking at BrightonSEO in September 13th / 14th.

    1h 5m
  2. Lessons from Scribd | Abby Gleason

    07/20/2023

    Lessons from Scribd | Abby Gleason

    This week I interviewed Abby Gleason, an SEO Product Manager at Scribd. Abby leads the organic search strategy for Scribd, a reading subscription service with millions of ebooks, audiobooks and more. Abby has a wealth of experience working with content, business and technical teams working in agencies. As an SEO moving into a product role, Abby has learned to adapt and embrace many engineering practices to get things done. In this podcast, we talked about: Getting into SEO Getting into product Combining user and Google experience to drive results Why Googlebot is a user The full process of getting things done with developers Working with designers and developers Designers are a superpower Meeting facilitation and product managers Product manager = communication Process of writing briefs for developers Importance of collaboration anchor points Conversation > Documentation Communicating Problems > SEO Solutions Devs asking for solutions vs Devs asking for problems Why SEO specialists matter in development teams Why SEO PMs need to prioritise ruthlessly Why listening matters Prioritising and SEO Product Roadmaps Creating SEO Product Strategy Four Types of SEO Strategy Communicating to the management team Forecasting process How to say no in an internal team Release planning process + ruthless prioritization Retrospective In this podcast, we talked about: Listen now on Apple, and Spotify. Recommended top three skills: Abby would recommend communication broken down into three parts: Clear written communication - Avoid a wall of text in Slack, email or documents, and use on-page SEO and readability best practices. Show your personality - You must show your personality at work in your communication as it helps people remember you. Internal networking - You need to meet with people, have one-on-ones and listen to get a better understanding of the business problems.

    1h 6m
  3. Lessons from Searchmetrics | Malte Landwehr

    07/13/2023

    Lessons from Searchmetrics | Malte Landwehr

    This week I spoke to Malte Landwehr, the Head of SEO at idealo internet GmbH who has been the VP of Product at Searchmetrics and a former management consultant. Malte has A LOT of experience working and getting things done in product teams. He climbed the career ladder in the product team at Searchmetrics and became the VP of Product in a successful B2B enterprise SaaS company. Now he works in an SEO leadership role at idealo, the largest European comparison website, applying what he learned in product and business consultancy to get SEO initiatives executed. In this podcast, we talked about: How Malte got into SEO and Product Product Marketing Manager role Communication strategy in product How to get adults to learn something new Communication lessons applied to SEO Go-to-market strategy in a B2B product team Release plan example at Searchmetrics Feature flagging and releasing Product and development team structure SEOs in product and engineering teams Moving into the VP of Product role Product teams getting buy-in Explain the product vision How to work with developers Setting the SEO vision SEO Strategy Stack Product Roadmaps SEO and Now/Next/Later Roadmaps B2B Product Management Rabbit Hole Adam rants about Log File Analysis in SEO Applying product strategy to SEO Building trust in an organisation Listen now on Apple, and Spotify. In this podcast, we talked about: Recommended top three skills: For product managers: Learn to say no - You need to learn to prioritise ruthlessly and keep your team focused. Learn how to say no - You must learn how to say no because it is key to building relationships. Sales-led is key - In B2B enterprise SaaS, the sales-led approach is important to drive revenue (despite what all the books say). For SEOs working with product managers: Problems > Solutions: You need to bring problems to the product team and work with them on the solution. Always bring a solid why: You need to write down a problem and focus a lot on the WHY to help you and the team to prioritise your work ruthlessly. Where to find Malte: LinkedIn Twitter References: SEO Strategy Stack Now/Next/Later Roadmap Feature Flagging Explained

    1h 8m
  4. Lessons from Zoopla and Papier | Areej AbuAli

    07/06/2023

    Lessons from Zoopla and Papier | Areej AbuAli

    This week I speak to Areej AbuAli the founder of Women in Technical SEO & an Independent SEO Consultant who has worked at companies like Zoopla and Papier. In this podcast, we talked about: How Areej started working in SEO Getting Tech SEO Implemented using a bespoke framework The experience with Terry the Product Manager Getting tickets implemented in a marketing team with developers How Areej learned to prioritise recommendations to tech teams ruthlessly The reality of getting tech SEO implemented in an enterprise organisations Getting buy-in at a large organisation Working with tech teams to plan SEO recommendations The move to Papier because the role was in a product team The structure of the product team at Papier and how SEO sits in it How SEO tickets were implemented and validated with the tech team How to build trust in the team How to add SEO recommendations to the product roadmap The difficulty of needing work from marketing Creating a team SEO slack channel for the whole team Communicating the wins and shoutouts to the team Being the only SEO in the product team Planning, scoping and slicing SEO recommendations into tickets Future-proofing websites and making them SEO-friendly The power of retrospectives in tech teams Why Tech SEOs should sit in the product and engineering team Technical problems = people problems 80% of your recommendations won’t get implemented, so keep focused The three top skills to work effectively in product and engineering teams Areej’s recommended top three skills: Keep recommendations concise - Make sure that anything you communicate to the development team is clear, simple and easy to digest (tickets, emails, documents, etc.) Future-proof a website - Work with the tech team to build a functionality that solves problems at scale, not putting plasters on the website. Fight to move SEO into tech - When working in-house, fight and get buy-in to move the SEO team into the tech team (product and engineering). Where to find Arrej Website: https://www.areejabuali.com/ Website: https://www.womenintechseo.com/ References The RPI Framework Product Managers Retrospectives Writing tickets Sprints

    56 min

  5. 06/29/2023

    Lessons from Google, Reach PLC and eBay | Pedro Dias

    This week I speak to Pedro Dias a Technical SEO Consultant & Product Manager who has worked with companies like eBay, Dell and Reach PLC. He has a wealth of experience working in engineering and product teams, including working at Google in the Web Spam team building internal tools, and as the Director of Web Development at apis3, building websites for enterprise organisations. Recently, he’s worked at Reach as the Head of SEO, and with eBay working with engineering and product teams. In this podcast, we talked about: How Pedro got into SEO Pedro’s experience at Google in the Web Spam team How Google built internal tools in the Web Spam team The actual reality of releasing internal tools at Google The biggest challenges of tech execution in a web development team How Pedro made core web vitals a priority at Reach PLC How Pedro created a core web vital monitoring and debugging prototype How Pedro worked with engineering to start to solve the CWV problem The technical SEO work Pedro is doing at eBay How Pedro prioritises and approaches technical SEO work within eBay How Pedro communicates with different teams at eBay Top three things Pedro would wish they knew when they started in product Pedro’s recommended top three skills: Don’t wait to fix things - Don’t wait for people to put things on your lap, and be proactive in fixing things or solving problems. Over-communicate - Always over-communicate what you’ve done and what you want from people; don’t be afraid to shout about what you’ve done. Daring - Be daring, and don’t worry about what other people think (especially if you think you are not good enough, everyone is bumping around). Where to find Pedro Website: https://en.pedrodias.net/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/pedrodias LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pedrodias References Objectives and Key Results MoSCoW method SEO & UX Library Reach PLC eBay

    1h 9m
  6. Lessons from Craftsy and Custom Song | Tory Gray & Heather Kaeowichien

    06/14/2023

    Lessons from Craftsy and Custom Song | Tory Gray & Heather Kaeowichien

    This week I spoke to Tory Gray, the CEO of Gray Dot Company, and Heather Kaeowichien the Product Management Director at Gray Dot Company. They both have a wealth of experience working in product and engineering at companies like Craftsy, Custom Song and YourMembership. They now use their experience in product and engineering teams to get SEO strategies and roadmaps executed at organisations like Spark, Strapi and Uncorked Kitchen. In this podcast, we discuss: How they both got into SEO How they both found themselves working in product How they crafted product roadmaps How they communicated projects to developers How they worked with developers to get things done How they’ve applied what they’ve learned at The Gray Dot Company The top 3 skills they’d teach themselves if they could do it all again Tory’s recommended top three skills: Data analysis - How can we use data to tell stories that resonate with an audience and prioritize our recommendations based on business impact? Communication - Being able to communicate with multiple stakeholders in the business. Storytelling - Crafting a story to meet your audience's needs and get it to resonate with them. Heather’s recommended top three skills: Minimal Viable Products (MVP) - Ensure you’re not letting perfection hold you back; releasing things into the world lets you improve. Showcase your work - Constantly communicate what you’ve done to different teams; don’t just get stuck at your desk. Insert yourself - You are in a role where every team’s work impacts your work, so don’t be afraid to step in and understand what teams are doing. Where to find Gray Dot Company Website: https://thegray.company/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/GrayDotCo LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/graydotco YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GrayDotCo

    1h 1m
  7. The SEO Sprint Podcast

    SEASON 1, EPISODE 1 TRAILER

    The SEO Sprint Podcast

    Welcome to episode 1 of The SEO Sprint Podcast. A podcast that interviews SEOs who work in product and engineering teams to uncover actionable and practical advice on how to get things done. This podcast isn’t about SEO tactics or strategies. Instead, I want to understand the lessons that other SEOs have learned from working in product and development teams. For now, this podcast is an experiment. So it is just a limited series for now. Let me know if you find it useful! Website: https://www.theseosprint.com/

    2 min

Trailer

About

Do you want to work more effectively with product and engineering teams to get SEO projects executed? It all starts by shifting your mindset. I’m Adam Gent, an Independent Product Manager and Technical SEO Consultant who helps SaaS and Enterprise organisations implement SEO opportunities that drive results. I’ve had over a decade of experience working with developers and product and design teams. If you’re an SEO professional wanting to learn how to get things done in an organisation that relies on product and engineering teams to execute SEO projects, this podcast is for you.

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