Fail Faster

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 investor-centric approach. Join us as we discover the challenges and solutions in fractionalizing high-value assets, along with the importance of compounding returns in investment. 

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 nurturing environments where everyone feels valued. Prior to her role at Reynolds Consumer Products, she played instrumental roles in transformation within the Fintech sector at Citibank and Capgemini. Leepa has a proven track record of tackling intricate challenges and delivering tangible results. Beyond her professional pursuits, Leepa finds joy in creating music. She resides in Chicago with her husband and two children.

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 Dot. Jennifer believes diversity of thought and experience make for the most innovative and inclusive products. Jennifer leads Innovation through data, research, and exploration that puts people first.

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 engineering professionals to assess against.

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. 

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 healthcare industry. Naveen enjoys meeting new people, learning about their passions, and fostering collaborative networks. During his free time, you will likely catch him at a sporting event or spending time with his family. Naveen has a master’s degree in business from the Kellogg School of Management and a master’s degree in public health from George Washington University. These experiences provide an academic complement to his professional experiences in the field.

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 is an avid Fifa player on the playstation and a passionate Chelsea football club supporter.

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 subscription-based model, using agile methodologies and user-centric approaches.

In this episode, Jaxon sheds light on the intersection of AI and product management, emphasizing the importance of curiosity in the ever-evolving tech landscape. From building teams and conducting user research to embracing the psychology of fitness, his experiences provide valuable lessons for aspiring product managers.

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 failures into opportunities.

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 through a degree in Advertising and Sociology, He continues to search for the perfect execution, which drives the most organization value internally and externally impacting employees, customers, and consumers – people and groups. In his most recent 11 years he has spent leading the sixth largest CPG and the sixth largest spirits companies globally in developing platforms of capability for over 80 household name brands. Touted as the PnL equalizer across the brands he serves – whereby leveraging large investments to create innovation and experience for consumers and then re-engineering the same capability across a portfolio of brands, his solutions have contributed to driving a double value share growth for the Manpower Group and the Campari Group.

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 and IoT. Elio's passions extend to gaming, where he enjoys RPGs, strategy games, and adventures. He's also an amateur musician, wasting time writing songs with his acoustic and electric guitars.

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 fostering innovation. His focus was on delivering cutting-edge omnichannel, e-commerce, and in-store solutions to a vast network of over four million merchants.

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 & universities and Hispanic serving institutions respectively.

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 creation, brand identity development, and user experiences for global corporations. She has proven success executing an average of 1,700 projects annually, realizing cost savings of up to $4M.

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 execution, and the importance of actionable strategies and effective communication. Preetha shares how AI is operationalized, the value of involving operational experts, and the journey from skepticism to trust. Tune in for practical insights on technology adoption and adaptation in the corporate world. This episode has some great lessons from the corporate trenches.

Nicolas Hien serves as Chief Information Officer at Dollarama where he has the supervisory responsibility over the IT function and the Project Management Office.

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 residing in the SF Bay Area, Stan has shared his insights at several notable conferences, including The Next Web and Adobe. He has also won awards from SF Design Week and TechCrunch Disrupt.

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 joining the federal government, Bryan led product management for a software firm that was strategically acquired for $250M and was an analytic consultant for IBM. He also served as an active duty Marine and Arabic linguist, with deployments to both Iraq and Afghanistan during the Global War on Terror. He routinely writes on AI, data, and society and has been featured in widely distributed Medium publications such as HumanParts, OneZero, The Generator, and DATA XD.

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 exciting developments in emerging technologies like AI and blockchain. Ashley also shares insights on handling diverse projects, the importance of continuous learning of the evolving market demands and delivering a service that is aligned with customer requirements within tight timelines.

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. Let's dive into this journey of innovation and empathy in healthcare design with Regis.