Discover the collection of The Work Item podcast episodes with the Growth tag. Go to the Episodes page to listen to the latest releases, find interesting guests, or navigate through the history of the show.
Growth Podcast Episodes
#61 - Career Moats And Beyond, with Cedric Chin
October 9, 2023
In this episode, I am chatting with Cedric Chin - the founder of the CommonCog blog and business series. You might've read some of Cedric's writing on career moats before.
#50 - Problem And Product Management, with Isaac Hepworth
March 3, 2022
Today I chat with a good friend, mentor, and an all-around great person - Isaac Hepworth. Isaac is the person you should go to if you want to learn more about what it means to be achieving excellence in the product management space. We chat about the role of a problem solver, what it means to be a PM across different companies and titles, and what one can do to better prepare for an industry that changes by the day.
#49 - Product Management in Government, with Director of Product Management for the City and County of San Francisco, Adrianna Tan
February 17, 2022
Despite starting a career in product management at one of the big companies, I've never considered to do the same job but working for the government. Not because I didn't want to. Mainly, because I did not know that was even an option. As it turns out - it is, in fact, an option, and a pretty impactful one at that. To learn more about this career trajectory, I chatted with Adrianna Tan, Director of Product Management for the City and County of San Francisco. She shares her journey as a founder of startups and non-profits, an avid hiker and an advocate for an open web, and how it all combines in her work.
#48 - The Story of Working In Developer Relations, with Dan Shaw
February 7, 2022
This is the brand-new start of the third season of The Work Item podcast, and to make the kick-off even better I sat down with our good friend of the show, Dan Shaw, to learn more about their career. Dan shares the story of bootstrapping a Developer Relations arm at PayPal, wisdom around career decisions, and much more in this episode.
#47 - 2021 Reflections, Creativity, and More, with Mayuko Inoue
December 8, 2021
The end of 2021 is almost here, and it's time to wrap up the second season of The Work Item. And what better way to do that than to invite a good friend on the show to talk about their journey through the past 12 months? In this episode, I am chatting with Mayuko Inoue about all things 2021, the best choices in comfort foods, McDonalds french fries, thoughts on the content creator career path, and more. We wanted to make this episode very informal, yet informative. To borrow Mayuko's intro to her own podcast, Muko's Corner (which you should subscribe to) - sit down, get cozy, grab a cup of tea, and enjoy the show!
#45 - Startups, Growth, and A Quest to Build People-focused Companies, with Jennifer Kim
November 21, 2021
The decision to join a startup or a big company is not an easy one, as one has to consider many factors that go beyond just the financial side of things. In this episode, I talk to Jennifer Kim, a seasoned startup advisor with a lot of experience dealing with these kinds of decisions and more. Jennifer also specializes in the people part of the startup equation - arguably, one of the hardest ones. We chat about the current challenges startups encounter in this space, why it's important to build a diverse workforce, and what one individual can do to be a changemaker in their company's culture.
#38 - Becoming a Polymath, with Salman Ansari
July 11, 2021
From the early days - when we are growing up, to when we go to school, we tend to be involved in a lot of activities. From sports, to music, painting, coding classes. But as we grow up, we tend to specialize. One is a product manager, or a Python programmer, or even a doctor. According to my good friend Salman Ansari, this is where we have an opportunity to break out of the typical norms and become a polymath - a person with extensive knowledge in several domains. In this episode, I learn more about Salman's career, as well as his take on how someone can become a polymath.
#37 - Be A Builder, With Jack Zerby
June 25, 2021
Last time I chatted with Jack, I had pages of questions I still wanted to ask - with this episode, I attempt to address that backlog. And the more I talked to Jack, the more I realized that the theme of his entire career is - "be a builder." As someone who started and worked at many startups, he sure knows first-hand how to do that well and in a way that is sustainable. Today, we talk about his work at Vimeo, what it means to collaborate with others, and how to build a network of folks that are there when you need them most.
#35 - From Pre-Med To Product Management, with Janine Co
June 6, 2021
I often hear about folks moving from engineering to product management and back. Others make the transition from marketing and sales to product management. In a first for this show, today I talk to Janine Co, a product manager who recently joined the Microsoft Teams team, who also happened to switch from following a pre-med path to one in product. What things did she consider when making the switch? What did Janine do to build a network from scratch? It's all in this episode.
#32 - Camille Fournier on Engineering Management Paths
May 9, 2021
Setting your sights high for a career in engineering management might be an appealing endeavor, but it also means that you will be making a lot of assumptions about future roles without really knowing what those roles are truly about. In this episode, I sit down with Camille Fournier - a veteran CTO, speaker, and entrepreneur, to learn more about ways to map out the path to becoming a CTO (or not).