Stop Waiting for Lightning To Strike with Lexy Franklin and Surbhi Gupta

Visibility is a superpower for leaders—but building it authentically can feel challenging. On this episode, Surbhi Gupta, host of The Visibility Equation and seasoned product leader, sits down with Lexy Franklin, CEO & Founder of Sidebar, to explore how leaders can own their narrative, amplify their impact, and connect with their authentic selves.Lexy shares practical strategies on building visibility, overcoming public speaking anxiety, nurturing relationships, and navigating the leadership journey. Together, they dive into inspiring stories, actionable insights, and the realities behind professional growth at leadership levels🎧 Episode Highlights:02:28 Key Skills for Success and Visibility03:26 The Importance of Learning and Mentorship05:16 Embracing Failure as a Path to Success08:17 The Power of Asking for Help18:22 Owning Your Story and Wins27:00 The Necessity of Visibility30:52 Embracing Uncertainty and Positive Energy31:50 The Art of Decision Making36:56 Building Blocks of Visibility42:24 The Power of Books and Personal Growth52:42 Celebrating Success and Leadership53:55 Final Thoughts and Book RecommendationsResources• 🌟 Where to find Surbhi On LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/surbhi7/• 💫 Where to find Lexy On LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/lexyfranklin/During the conversation Lexy mentioned the following booksCrossing the Unknown Sea, David WhyteLet My People Go Surfing, Yvon Chouinard• 🙋‍♀️ Where to find Women in Product:On LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/women-in-product/posts/Website https://womenpm.org/Join the Community https://womenpm.org/wip-community/

The Visibility Equation is a weekly podcast series that demystifies the art of professional visibility. It is designed to empower ambitious product leaders (and leaders across tech) to own their narratives and amplify their impact. Through in-depth conversations with accomplished leaders in product management, design, and engineering, we'll delve into practical strategies, inspiring stories, and actionable insights to help listeners build visibility without falling into the “humble brag” trap.This episode is a conversation with Shyvee Shi, Principal Product Manager at Microsoft. Shyvee shares her experience at LinkedIn where she built a large and engaged product community of over 100,000 followers and the more focused building of an AI community at Microsoft.  She shares her insight and experience of sharing and building in public, and building spaces for others to share. She touches on how to get started sharing, building visibility inside and outside of your current role, and her passion for learning, sharing with others and supporting people’s learning and growth.In this episode she shares insight 01:58 Taking Risks02:09 Overcoming Cultural Barriers02:49 Career Transition During COVID03:03 Building a Public Presence07:20 Choosing the Right Platforms09:46 Starting the Visibility Journey18:29 Misconceptions About Professional Visibility22:25 Nurturing Relationships and Community27:07 The Myth of Overnight Success27:19 The Modern Approach to Launching27:59 Building and Testing Your Ideas29:09 The Role of a Future of Work Product Builder30:49 Overcoming Public Speaking Anxiety32:51 The BRAVE Framework for Public Speaking38:22 Handling Criticism and Negative Feedback44:18 Future Plans and Career Reflections45:40 Advice for Building Professional Visibility50:15 Conclusion and Final ThoughtsResources• 🌟 Where to find Surbhi On LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/surbhi7/• 💫 Where to find Shyvee On LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/shyveeshi/During the conversation Shyvee mentioned a website that she used early in her journey called, Visualize Value, you can find it here - https://visualizevalue.comShyvee also wanted to share a talk from her former VP at Maven on building a personal brand. You can find it here - Lighthouse Lessons on MavenShyvee also shared a deep-dive interview she did with a fellow career coach on how we can leverage AI to communicate better: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-To9KdJ9RI8 • 🙋‍♀️ Where to find Women in Product:On LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/women-in-product/posts/Website https://womenpm.org/Join the Community https://womenpm.org/wip-community/

The Visibility Equation is a weekly podcast series that demystifies the art of professional visibility. It is designed to empower ambitious product leaders (and leaders across tech) to own their narratives and amplify their impact. Through in-depth conversations with accomplished leaders in product management, design, and engineering, we'll delve into practical strategies, inspiring stories, and actionable insights to help listeners build visibility without falling into the “humble brag” trap.00:00 Introduction to The Visibility Equation01:25 The Importance of Visibility02:59 Surbhi's Personal Journey06:59 Strategies for Building Visibility11:25 Why Visibility Matters Now14:55 About the Interviews18:20 First Episode PreviewResources• 🌟 Where to find Elizabeth:On LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabethames/• 💫 Where to find Surbhi On LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/surbhi7/• 🙋‍♀️ Where to find Women in Product:On LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/women-in-product/posts/• - Website https://womenpm.org/• - Join the Community https://womenpm.org/wip-community/

The key to longevity in today’s ever-changing tech landscape? Yes, you’ve heard it before: maintaining a positive outlook and a growth mindset so you can remain as versatile as possible. Easier said than done? Perhaps. But this week’s guest, Japna Sethi, absolutely embodies this. Japna runs the Jira product group at Atlassian, and has turned her origins in physics and materials science into a career that spans hardware design, software development, growth product management, advising, angel investing, even real estate. Hear about her path and be inspired by her advice on networking, lifelong learning, and doubling down on your strengths. Japna encourages us to get to know our authentic selves better, and to engage in regular, healthy bouts of self-reflection. 00:00 Introduction 01:48 An unusual path to product management06:08 The scientific method works for product, too09:15 Always be learning10:13 Double down on your strengths12:45 Leverage network effects13:38 How to think about angel investing15:30 The “Get Sh*t Done” framework21:00 Why we should be excited about AI22:50 Save time to explore24:45 Where to learn more about Japna📚Resources:Atlassianhttps://www.atlassian.com/“Get Shit Done” by Jeffrey GitomerAvailable on Amazon, Kindle, B&N, and bookstores nationwideCalendlyhttps://www.calendly.com/Product Boardhttps://productboard.com/Loopshttps://www.getloops.ai/Otter.ai

We all want real advice on how to grow a career, right? Meet this week’s guest, Laura Schaffer, Vice President of Growth at DigitalOcean. Laura got her start in sales, and now leads a cross-functional team that includes Growth R&D and Marketing. Prior to DigitalOcean, she built Growth and Product teams at companies like Twilio, Amplitude, and Bandwidth, bringing a depth of experience in product-led growth and experimentation. In conversation with host Shannon Peavey, Laura offers her perspective on making your mark as a product manager, and talks about the power of spending time on validation and fast-fail experimentation. 00:00 Introduction and Sponsor Message01:48 How a sales job lead to a growth career06:50 North Star metrics for the win09:03 How PLG work WITH, not INSTEAD of sales10:00 Bringing sales “snacks” to yield a “buffet”18:34 Validation doesn’t have to mean A/B testing24:00 Experiment fast - and often27:00 Big wins can come from small changes30:00 How is product management changing?33:00 Make time for AI📚Resources:Reforgehttps://www.reforge.com/DigitalOceanhttps://www.digitalocean.com/Amplitudehttps://amplitude.com/Bandwidthhttps://www.bandwidth.com/Twiliohttps://www.twilio.com/en-us🌟 Where to find Laura:On LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauraschaffer/🙋🏻‍♀️Where to find Women in Product:On LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/women-in-product/posts/ Website https://womenpm.org/Join the Community https://womenpm.org/wip-community/

In this episode, Pendo’s senior vice president of product and u/x Nichole Mace talks with host Shannon Peavey about the growth mindset that infiltrates her company’s culture. She illuminates the differences between core product work and product growth work and shares her tips on ways companies can cultivate a collaborative environment, where the spirit of experimentation becomes contagious. Chapters:4:05 Why growth needs to be prioritized6:19  Organizing your mind for pursuing multiple goals7:50 Cultivating team spirit9:30 Knowing when the time is right for a growth push10:50 Why experimentation can be contagious13:40 Nichole’s path into growth15:45 Skills for great growth leaders18:50 How pivots happen: the ZipCar example21:00 Growth loops are golden23:00 Nichole’s 6 Core Product Growth Principles 31:00 What’s AI’s impact?32:15 Life in balanceWhere to find Nichole:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nichole-mace-44bb65/Nichole Mace’s PLG websitehttps://www.nicholemace.com/Resources:Pendo https://www.pendo.io/Constant Contact https://www.constantcontact.com/LastPass https://www.lastpass.com/BevSpot https://bevspot.com/ZipCar https://www.zipcar.com/

In this episode, product growth leader Sandhya Ganesh talks with host Shannon Peavey about the way Tinder builds product-led growth into its culture and its business strategy. She defines common acronyms for measuring success and shares details of her unique path from engineer to product manager. Sandhya offers advice on developing the right mindset to cultivate explosive success.Chapters:1:08: Sandy defines “growth product” and “product-led growth”5:22  Acronym soup10:08 Stickiness metrics11:02 The marketing-product growth partnership14:14 Sandy’s journey from engineer to growth product manager19:06 Critical skills and mindset for product growth21:54 How approaches differ in B2B vs. B2C26:00 Strengthening relationships with your teammates28:33 How Tinder tested rewards programs30:45 The importance of secondary and counter-metrics33:00 Why to hypothesize when experimenting34:15 Why failure needs to be part of the cultureWhere to find Sandhya:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandhya-ganesh/Resources:Deloitte Consulting https://www.deloitte.com/Tinder https://tinder.com/Lending Club https://www.lendingclub.com/

In this episode, host Shannon Peavey welcomes the one and only Elena Verna. But wait, it’s not the illustrious, highly sought-after growth expert herself, but her AI agent, powered by SuperMe. “She” shares deep knowledge from her expansive body of work in growth from Miro to Amplitude to Loveable and shares why company stage matters when thinking through a growth strategy.Chapters:1:50: Elena defines PLG3:45  Skills for aspiring growth PMs 4:20  Choosing the right success metrics 5:58  Why company stage matters to growth strategy7:10  How companies can get started with growth8:12  Stories from SurveyMonkey, Miro and Amplitude10:15 Hitting the ground running at Lovable11:20 Refining the ICP13:00 Collaborating cross-team14:00 Personal reflectionsWhere to find Elena Verna:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elenaverna/Elena’s SuperMe AI Agent: https://www.superme.ai/elenaResources:Elena Verna’s Substack: https://www.elenaverna.com/SuperMe https://www.superme.ai/Lovable https://lovable.dev/Miro https://miro.com/SurveyMonkey https://www.surveymonkey.com/Amplitude https://amplitude.com/Sanity.io https://www.sanity.io/MongoDB https://www.mongodb.com/

Adobe’s Head of Product-Led Growth shares the joys, challenges and opportunities that come with managing growth efforts at an iconic company. She talks about the power of leveraging a unique customer community and being ready to embrace constant evolution. She lets us in on what she sees as the 3 most valuable skills for product growth managers - and her list may surprise you.Chapters:4:05 Adobe’s proprietary onboarding layer5:40  Aligning with organizational goals7:13 Wrangling data across a vast ecosystem 9:48 Critical partnerships: leadership and data science12:10 How to apply correlation analysis13:40 Identifying user habits that signal success15:15 A broad set of funnels21:30 Deepti’s path to PLG24:15 Her number-one skill for growth product managers26:44 AI helps us get to the “so what” faster31:00 Thinking through the ways your customers want to consume AI32:40 How product management itself is evolvingWhere to find Deepti:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deeptipradeep/Resources:Adobe https://www.adobe.com/Box https://www.box.com/homeLitmus https://litmus.io/Deloitte https://www.deloitte.com/in/en.htmlAppCues https://www.appcues.com/

Everyone’s talking about GenAI. But adding it to your product isn’t just about chasing what’s new, it’s about making sure it actually makes sense for your users and your long-term strategy.In this episode, Carmen Palmer, CEO of Women In Product talks with Suba Vasudevan, COO, Mozilla.org and SVP, Mozilla Corp take a look at integrating GenAI into your product roadmap without letting hype override clarity or purpose. Whether you're facing internal pressure to “do something AI,” or you’re genuinely excited by its potential, this conversation will help you avoid common traps like over-scoping, misaligned use cases, or “GenAI theater”, and instead chart a path that’s grounded, scalable, and aligned with your mission.Suba will be a main stage speaker at the 2025 Women In Product Conference.00:00 Introduction to Suba Vasudevan02:08 Early Career Journey and Unique Path04:07 Pivotal Career Moments and Personal Life07:45 Dual Role at Mozilla and Strategic Vision10:49 Incorporating Gen AI into Strategy and Operations19:15 Thought Leadership and Organizational Transformation21:44 Practical Advice for Product Leaders26:44 Challenges and Pitfalls in AI Adoption35:14 Rapid Fire Questions and Personal Insights40:28 Conclusion and Final Thoughts🌟 Where to find Suba:On LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/subavasudevan/💫 Where to find Carmen:On LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/carmengpalmer/🙋🏻‍♀️Where to find Women in Product:On LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/women-in-product/posts/ Website https://womenpm.org/Join the Community https://womenpm.org/wip-community/