Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!

In this episode of ProductCamp Conversations, Allison Herbert and Dave Mathias sit down with author, consultant, and Schmidt List host Kurt Schmidt to explore what makes product people impossible to overlook when AI makes the first draft cheap. From a dream-crushing BMX encounter to translating company vision into everyday decisions, Kurt makes the case that communication, judgment, and relationships—not another feature checklist—are where the value lives. We talk about putting your name behind the final result, building community instead of collecting contacts

📌 Topics Covered:

• The greatest insult Kurt ever received—and how focusing on the next challenge helped him become a professional BMX rider

• Why product managers need to ship communication, build trust, and define what good looks like

• Cheap first drafts versus valuable final judgment: standing out in an AI-driven world

• Community-building over networking, Kurt’s three books, and his 10-10-10 approach: ten-year goals, ten-month milestones, and ten weeks of trial and error

📚 Referenced:

• Atomic Habits — James Clear: https://jamesclear.com/atomic-habits

• How to Win Friends and Influence People — Dale Carnegie: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Win_Friends_and_Influence_People

• The Little Book of Networking — Kurt Schmidt: https://www.schmidtconsulting.group/books/the-little-book-of-networking/

• The TEN-TEN-TEN Blueprint — Kurt Schmidt: https://www.schmidtconsulting.group/books/the-ten-ten-ten-blueprint/

• The Attraction Agency — Kurt Schmidt: https://www.schmidtconsulting.group/books/the-attraction-agency/

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🔗 CONNECT WITH GUEST KURT SCHMIDT:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/-kurtschmidt/

• Website: https://schmidtconsulting.group

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🎙️ CONNECT WITH THE HOSTS:

• Allison Herbert:

- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aherbert42

- Website: https://allisonherbert.com

• Dave Mathias:

- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davemathias1

- Website: https://gobeyondthedata.com

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📩 GET IN TOUCH:

Have thoughts on this episode or want to suggest a topic/guest?

Drop a comment below or reach out at productcampconversations@gmail.com!

👍 Like, subscribe, and hit the bell for more conversations on the human side of product management.

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!

In this episode of ProductCamp Conversations, Allison Herbert and Dave Mathias sit down with Twin Cities product leader Andrew Mogendorff, founder of the Twin Cities Product Leaders meetup and now leading digital transformation at Portico Benefit Services, to explore why the best product people act as the guide, not the hero. Drawing on years at Target, his time leading product and UX at Northmarq, and his ProductCamp Twin Cities talk "Product Thinking for Non-Product People," Andrew shares how plain language, patience, and "show and tell" help an organization mature its product practice one step at a time.

📌 Topics Covered:

• From "really terrible developer" to tester to product leader, and helping Target move from project and waterfall to product and agile

• Learning a new domain (commercial real estate, then benefits) by asking the dumb questions out loud, because someone else in the room has the same question

• ProductCamp Twin Cities "Product Thinking for Non-Product People" (co-presented with Mike Lindberg): a step-by-step roadmap, meeting people where they are, and being the guide instead of the hero

• "Here's what we heard, here's what we're planning to do, and here's why": plain-language quarterly planning and outcome scorecards built on efficiency, effectiveness, user happiness, and tech efficiency

• Bringing engineers closer to customers through developer-led demos and on-site story mapping, including the ColdFusion rewrite where one developer saved two months with "that's one story"

• AI pilot teams at Portico that pair a technical person with a business person, small teams with "role softness," and why to start with retros (and act on what you hear)

• How a lunch with a mentor became the Twin Cities Product Leaders meetup: no agenda, no sales pitches, nearly 160 people in Slack, and first Wednesdays at Bear Cave Brewing

• Rapid fire: why "anything waterfall is bad" no longer holds, and the best feedback he got from Andy Cerio: "stop, draw the story map"

📚 Referenced:

• The Phoenix Project — Gene Kim, Kevin Behr, and George Spafford: https://itrevolution.com/product/the-phoenix-project/

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🔗 CONNECT WITH GUEST ANDREW MOGENDORFF:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewmogendorff/

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🎙️ CONNECT WITH THE HOSTS:

• Allison Herbert:

- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aherbert42

- Website: https://allisonherbert.com

• Dave Mathias:

- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davemathias1

- X / Twitter: https://x.com/davemathias

- Website: https://gobeyondthedata.com

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📩 GET IN TOUCH:

Have thoughts on this episode or want to suggest a topic/guest?

Drop a comment below or reach out at productcampconversations@gmail.com!

👍 Like, subscribe, and hit the bell for more conversations on the human side of product management.

Got something to say to this podcast? Send a voicemail, and you might hear yourself on the next episode!

In this episode of ProductCamp Conversations, Allison Herbert and Dave Mathias sit down with ProductCamp Atlanta founder and Product Coffee host Jason Brett to trace how one tweet drafted him into running an unconference he had never attended, and what has kept that community going through a pandemic, a shifting sponsor landscape, and the AI era.

📌 Topics Covered:

• From computer sales trainer to self-taught developer to SaaS founder, and discovering at BellSouth that the work he loved had a name: product management

• "You dance with the one that brung ya": how loyalty to early clients turned a web agency into a product

• Getting voluntold into ProductCamp Atlanta, the first-morning crowd of 40 volunteers at the door, and why Paul Young is the godfather of ProductCamp

• How Product Coffee started on Zoom during lockdown and grew from "whenever I got around to it" to weekly

• Measuring a free community event: dropping NPS in favor of return rate, early session proposals, and leftover food

• Sponsorship shifts, Friends of ProductCamp and Scholars tickets, and this year's experiment: camp is free, lunch is not

• Why case studies make the best sessions, and why the day of the non-technical PM may be over

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🔗 CONNECT WITH GUEST JASON BRETT:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ijasonbrett

• Product Coffee: https://productcoffee.com

• ProductCamp Atlanta: https://pcampatl.com

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🎙️ CONNECT WITH THE HOSTS:

• Allison Herbert:

- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aherbert42

- Website: https://allisonherbert.com

• Dave Mathias:

- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davemathias1

- X / Twitter: https://x.com/davemathias

- Website: https://gobeyondthedata.com

--------------------------------------------------

📩 GET IN TOUCH:

Have thoughts on this episode or want to suggest a topic/guest?

Drop a comment below or reach out at productcampconversations@gmail.com!

👍 Like, subscribe, and hit the bell for more conversations on the human side of product management.