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  • AI Made the First Draft Cheap. Your Judgment Is the Difference. (with Kurt Schmidt)

    AI Made the First Draft Cheap. Your Judgment Is the Difference. (with Kurt Schmidt)
    2026/11/07

    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

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

    📩 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.
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    1 時間 12 分
  • Be the Guide, Not the Hero (with Andrew Mogendorff)

    Be the Guide, Not the Hero (with Andrew Mogendorff)
    2026/10/31

    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

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

    📩 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.
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    1 時間
  • The Day of the Non-Technical PM May Be Over (with Jason Brett)

    The Day of the Non-Technical PM May Be Over (with Jason Brett)
    2026/10/23

    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.
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    53 分
  • Am I Learning? Not "Am I Doing the Most?" (with Jackie Flake)

    Am I Learning? Not "Am I Doing the Most?" (with Jackie Flake)
    2026/10/17

    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 Atlanta product consultant, coach, and recruiter Jackie Flake to talk about showing up as a whole person in a market that keeps flattening people into resumes, from the stage, to LinkedIn, to the hiring pipeline.

    📌 Topics Covered:

    • Learning product "the hard way" and her first ProductCamp Atlanta talk on five mistakes to avoid in your product career

    • Why she pitches with a story instead of a bio, and how that changed the way her sessions land

    • Her talk on faith and layoffs, and why your identity doesn't have to be wrapped up in your career

    • Trading "am I doing the most?" for "am I learning?" when AI FOMO says the finish line keeps moving

    • Going fractional: why sales is the hard part, and consultants have to add value from day one

    • Posting for the next person who hires you instead of the algorithm, and the 60 to 90 second voice memo as a modern cover letter

    • Why ProductCamp Atlanta's morning pitch format is worth the nerves, and what The War of Art taught her about getting unstuck

    📚 Referenced:

    • The War of Art — Steven Pressfield: https://stevenpressfield.com/the-war-of-art/

    • Principles — Ray Dalio: https://www.principles.com/

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    🔗 CONNECT WITH GUEST JACKIE FLAKE:

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

    • Website: https://option1partners.com/ (Option1Partners)

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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.
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    59 分
  • Little Is Learned in Your Office (with Steve Johnson)

    Little Is Learned in Your Office (with Steve Johnson)
    2026/10/10

    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 Steve Johnson — the first instructor hired at Pragmatic Marketing and now CEO of Product Growth Leaders — to explore why AI should be a “yes, and,” not an “instead of,” for product managers. Drawing on decades of training an estimated 40,000 product people, Steve makes the case that judgment and firsthand customer experience are what will keep product managers employed, and why so much of product work drifted from solving problems to writing feature specs.

    📌 Topics Covered:

    • Steve’s path from programmer to sales engineer to top seller to product manager — and joining Pragmatic Marketing as its first instructor in the 90s

    • Why teams need a playbook

    • Training isn’t transformation

    • AI is a “yes, and,” not an “instead of”

    • How product management shifted from a business role to a delivery role

    • Who to hire into product, domain knowledge over technology, and why PMs who code still need to ask “where were you supposed to be?”

    • Why ProductCamp works: most product managers don’t work with other product managers — plus throwing your first version away and “nothing important happens in the office”, revised to “little is learned in your office”

    📚 Referenced:

    • “Strong Opinions, Loosely Held” — Marty Cagan, SVPG: https://www.svpg.com/strong-opinions-loosely-held/

    • The Challenger Sale — Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/309666/the-challenger-sale-by-matthew-dixon/

    • Manifesto for Agile Software Development: https://agilemanifesto.org/

    • The Scrum Guide: https://scrumguides.org/scrum-guide.html

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    🔗 CONNECT WITH GUEST STEVE JOHNSON:

    • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sjohnson717/

    • Website: https://pgl.fyi (Product Growth Leaders)

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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

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

    📧 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.
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    1 時間 9 分
  • Customer Interviews: How to Do It Regularly and Effectively (with Kevin Palmstein)

    Customer Interviews: How to Do It Regularly and Effectively (with Kevin Palmstein)
    2026/10/03

    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 coach and Box2Box Product founder Kevin Palmstein to unpack why talking to customers is still the non-negotiable fundamentals talk — even (especially) when every other session is about AI — and what it takes to do customer interviews regularly and effectively.

    📌 Topics Covered:

    • Kevin’s path into product: bootstrap startup generalist → CaringBridge interview with the Pragmatic Marketing placemat → consulting and coaching founders

    • Why he gave ProductCamp Twin Cities “Customer Interviews: How to Do It Regularly and Effectively” as an intentionally non-AI talk

    • The Sweden oak trees story: insular room thinking vs. looking outside your context before you decide

    • Why PMs still avoid interviews (time, fear, lack of practice, sales/CS gatekeeping) — and treating interviews as a visible product output

    • Ideal practice: one-on-one conversations, shut up and listen, no demos/system diagrams/sales pitches mid-interview

    • Users vs. buyers in B2B, shadowing on site visits, and relationship follow-through after you hang up (not gift-card transactions)

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    🔗 CONNECT WITH GUEST KEVIN PALMSTEIN:

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

    • Website: https://box2boxproduct.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.
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    1 時間 2 分
  • The Only Reason a Career Ends Is Deciding Not to Participate (with Cam Gross)

    The Only Reason a Career Ends Is Deciding Not to Participate (with Cam Gross)
    2026/09/26

    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 Cam Gross to unpack why he started Applied AI’s AI in Product Meetup from pure fear of being left on the sidelines — and what career transitions, networking, and hands-on building look like for product pros in the AI era.

    📌 Topics Covered:

    • Cam’s path from a decade-plus in sales and account management into product — and the “10-year bootcamp” of asking better questions

    • Founding Applied AI’s AI in Product Meetup (with Arun Bachu and Susan Grieve) when ChatGPT hit

    • ProductCamp Twin Cities 2025: career transitions with Beth-Alison Berggren and John DeBauche (Never Search Alone job search council)

    • Why networking beats blind LinkedIn apply — and why a real conversation matters more as AI floods hiring

    • Hungry, humble, smart as a hiring (and candidate) frame

    • Hands-on AI practice: tell the story of something you built, not just prompts you ran

    📚 Referenced:

    • Never Search Alone: The Job Seeker's Playbook (Phyl Terry) — https://www.neversearchalone.org/the-book

    • The Ideal Team Player (Patrick Lencioni) — https://www.tablegroup.com/product/ideal-team-player/

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    🔗 CONNECT WITH GUEST CAM GROSS:

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

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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.
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    57 分
  • Why Isn't Everyone Talking About Positioning? (with Erin Miska)

    Why Isn't Everyone Talking About Positioning? (with Erin Miska)
    2026/09/19

    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-turned-PMM consultant Erin Miska to unpack why positioning is still the quiet foundation of everything you ship and sell — and why product people should care as much as marketers do.

    📌 Topics Covered:

    • Erin’s path from technical writer to founding PM at Jamf to independent PMM

    • ProductCamp Twin Cities: “Why Isn’t Everyone Talking About Positioning?”

    • April Dunford’s interdependent positioning pieces — category, alternatives, differentiation

    • Who should own positioning (spoiler: not marketing alone) and how to start when you’re in-house

    • Champion-first positioning vs. later-stage objection handling across buyer roles

    • When positioning drifts — and how AI-assisted sales-call review helps you notice

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    🔗 CONNECT WITH GUEST ERIN MISKA:

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

    • Website: https://erinmiska.com

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

    🎙️ 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.
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    54 分