Episodes
Welcome to Fail Faster! In this episode, we are excited to have Brad Power, Senior Director Digital Product & User Experience at Kendra Scott. Brad is an experienced leader responsible for defining global vision and strategy, in support of business and technology goals. He's built high-performing, cross-disciplined teams responsible for supply chain, in store and online experiences, product management, analytics, e-commerce, social and customer care. He is an Internal evangelist for...
Published 04/09/24
Published 04/09/24
Welcome to Fail Faster! Today, we are thrilled to introduce our guest, Syed Bilal Ali, affectionately known as Syed Ali. With a rich background spanning over two decades in the Information Technology field, Syed brings a wealth of experience and insights to our discussion. Born and raised in Karachi, Pakistan, Syed's journey in technology leadership began early, fueled by his passion for innovation and community impact. He has spent significant time in management roles, collaborating with...
Published 04/04/24
Welcome to Fail Faster! In today's episode, we are excited to have Stephen Sturdevant as our special guest. With over two decades of experience in the technology sector, Stephen's journey began on an IT help desk and progressed through various roles in IT process management, ServiceNow development, architecture, and leadership. His extensive experience spans across diverse industries such as financial services, building products, packaging, video gaming, consulting, and cybersecurity. A...
Published 04/03/24
In this episode, we sit down with Alan Snyder, Managing General Partner at Shinnecock Partners and the founder and CEO of aShareX, an alternative investment auction platform. From pioneering the Discover Card to founding an investment boutique, Alan shares invaluable insights into fractionalization in finance and introduces aShareX, an innovative auction exchange platform. We explore the revolutionary concept of fractional bidding for high-end assets and learn more about Alan's...
Published 03/12/24
Leepa Mohanty serves as the Director of Program Strategy at the Business Transformation Office of Reynolds Consumer Products. Her overarching goal is to steer the organization towards success, leveraging her expertise in leadership, strategy, and program management. Leading a high-performing team, Leepa spearheads crucial transformation initiatives, enhancing revenue streams and optimizing business operations. Driven by a fervor for cultivating inclusive workplaces, Leepa is committed to...
Published 03/04/24
Jennifer Rött (pronounced “wrote”) is a strategic Product, User Experience, and Design leader specializing in human-centered products and platforms. Jennifer has 20 years of experience sustainably scaling and growing people, teams, products, cloud, SaaS, and enterprise platforms through empathy and collaboration. Jennifer has pioneered innovations across social, entertainment, and media technology - winning over two dozen awards in the last 2 years for Innovation and Design, including a Red...
Published 03/01/24
In this episode, our guest is Kinshuk Mishra, a seasoned leader in the tech and healthcare space, who is currently Chief Technology Officer for healthcare financial engagement platform, Cedar. Kinshuk takes us through his career journey, reflecting on pivotal moments, including both successes and failures. From the importance of trusting your instincts to the complexities of behavioral change within organizations, Kinshuk shares valuable insights for technology leaders and aspiring...
Published 01/25/24
Ricardo Lattore, VP Group Experience Design Director at Razorfish, born in Colombia, South America in the 80's, somehow survived the Rad BMX era only to find himself pushing the limits of any free generative AI account. 
Published 01/19/24
Naveen Chadalavada brings his operational mindset and experience leading teams to business problems at hand. While he is currently leading a team at Phreesia who grows and nurtures partnerships, he has had a variety of experience both in and out of the classroom across the provider healthcare space. From his days in consulting to his time in the technology space, Naveen has focused much of his professional career on building a foundational toolkit to help him set up to be a leader in the...
Published 01/19/24
Shazil is a seasoned product leader with over 14 years of experience in multiple industries across 14 countries. As a product professional Shazil has worked to launch 0-1 and 0-n products and has created, coached and led teams to offer immense outputs during his career. Currently Shazil lives in Toronto Canada with his wife and works for Scotiabank as a director of product management for the payments team. In his free time Shazil likes to explore hiking trails and Toronto in general and also...
Published 01/19/24
Join us on the "Fail Faster" podcast as we dive into the fascinating world of product management and innovation with our special guest, Jaxon Merrill, VP, of Digital Product & Digital Product Design at Beautycounter. With a unique background in both audio and product management, Jaxon shares insights from his transformative projects, including a deep dive into the Beachbody streaming service. Discover how he navigated the challenges of shifting from physical DVD sales to a...
Published 01/16/24
Join us on the Fail Faster podcast as Kristy Tupper, Vice President of Product Management at RxSense, shares her inspiring journey in and around the healthcare IT industry. From navigating various facets of the business to her impactful role in prescription benefits, Christy discusses leadership principles, overcoming setbacks, and the importance of maintaining a user-centered focus. Tune in for insights into industry trends, the power of networking, and the wisdom gained from turning...
Published 01/04/24
Chad Niemuth is the Global Vice President of Marketing and Sales Technology within the IT organization at the Campari Group. For the past 24 years of his career he has led single and multi-brand organizations in developing technology solutions and platforms, grounded in process, data, integration, and tangible KPIs and reporting. This stems from an unrelenting passion for technology, but grounded in the impact it has in connecting people. Building upon a foundation developed in university...
Published 01/04/24
Elio Damaggio is a product leader with over 15 years of experience in cloud computing, IoT, and AI. Currently serving as the Head of Product for AWS in the Next Generation Developer Experience organization, he is building new ways to empower software developer teams with AI. Elio began his tech journey as a product manager at Microsoft, where he worked on Azure Mobile, IoT, and big data services. At Microsoft, he amassed an impressive portfolio of 11 patents, all related to cloud technologies...
Published 12/06/23
Peter Papaioannou, the inaugural Vice President of Product at Everyware, is a seasoned professional in the fintech and payments sector. With a wealth of experience collaborating with renowned global organizations, Peter has excelled in high-growth environments, showcasing his proficiency in strategic visioning and pioneering product innovation. In his previous role as the Vice President of Global Product at Global Payments, Papaioannou played a pivotal role in shaping the strategic vision and...
Published 11/30/23
Kevin Washington is the Director of Product Management for Experimentation & Customer Feedback Experiences at Best Buy and has a broad background of experience at omnichannel retailers. He is also an Adjunct Professor at Morehouse College where he teaches Product Management to Business and CS students. Kevin’s passions are deeply rooted in creating equitable opportunities for students and that has led him to sit on the board of two annual hackathons that target historically Black colleges...
Published 11/30/23
Mandy Janicki has spent her career fully in-house for the past 18 years for companies based in Michigan, California and Chicago. In her current role, Mandy founded the Creative Studio in 2015 to serve as UL Solutions' first in-house agency—an innovative solution that greatly reduced UL Solutions' dependence on external agencies and strengthened the quality of marketing collateral and brand messaging. Mandy leads a global team of writers, designers and UX experts spearheading digital content...
Published 11/29/23
Preetha Sekharan, VP, Digital Incubator, Applied AI & Transformation joins us as we delve into the challenges and successes of establishing a digital strategy practice in a well-established company, along with insights on AI implementation in the insurance industry. In this episode you will learn how strategies are tailored, technology readiness is assessed, and what kind of leadership mindset goes into successful digital transformations. We also dipped into the gap between strategy and...
Published 11/29/23
Nicolas Hien serves as Chief Information Officer at Dollarama where he has the supervisory responsibility over the IT function and the Project Management Office.
Published 11/22/23
Meet Stan Rapp, a name in the design world who transitioned from being a self-taught designer to leading Enterprise Design at Asana. Before his current role, Stan shaped product design at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. On top of his design expertise, he's a certified coach and a recent graduate of UPenn's Executive Design Leadership program. Specializing in design strategy and co-creation, he's particularly interested in designing for emotions and behavior change. A native of Ukraine, now...
Published 11/21/23
Bryan Lane is a writer, speaker, and technology advisor focused on using data and AI for the public good. He is currently serving as the chief of business intelligence at the FDIC. Prior to that, he co-founded the government-wide AI Center of Excellence at GSA, where he supported organizations like the DoD Joint AI Center. While in government service, he has developed nearly $1B in AI and data-related contracts and deployed enterprise-wide capabilities to hybrid cloud platforms. Prior to...
Published 11/08/23
Ashley Nelson, VP Innovation - Mastercard Foundry, joins us as we delve into the professional journey of an innovation and new product development expert. From experiences at Citi and MasterCard to driving innovation in various global landscapes, the discussion unfolds the challenges and triumphs faced in a regulated industry. The conversation covers topics such as successful product stories, meeting market demands, gaining stakeholder trust, decision points for product decommissioning, and...
Published 11/01/23
In this episode, we sit down with Regis Becarte, Head of UX Design and Research at Natera, a biotech company specializing in non-invasive prenatal testing and women's health. Join us as we delve into the fascinating world of healthcare design and explore the challenges and successes of building a design team in a clinical tech company. Let's learn how the intersection of physical and digital experiences can transform patient care and how AI-powered chatbots are enhancing patient support....
Published 10/31/23
Join us on the Fail Faster podcast as we delve into the world of high-impact, high-visibility e-commerce strategies with Hailong Shen, Director of eCommerce Technology at Royal Caribbean. He shares insights from his extensive career in the travel industry, touching on his experiences at American Airlines and Royal Caribbean Group. Discover how Heilong's fail-fast mentality and focus on customer-centric innovation have contributed to the success of these industry giants. From streamlining...
Published 10/20/23