The Product Un(censored) Show with Colin Pal

We're back from our Q1 break! In the first episode of our podcast in 2024, we talk to Protik Roychowdhury about mental health startups in Southeast Asia, from a product perspective of course! Protik is the VP of Product at Intellect, a mental health startup based in Singapore. They secured their Series A USD$20m funding round in 2022, the largest amount raised by a mental health startup in Asia. He has previously worked in hyper growth startups such as OLA in India and Grab in Singapore prior to joining Intellect.

Nat Wongtosrad is a product leader who honed her craft in tech companies such Spotify, Agoda and NocNoc. It was insightful to hear her actual, personal experience with the Spotify model as one who worked there, discuss being a product led company at NocNoc, and the product inspirations she takes into her startup R'ket.

In Episode #41, we have Tatiana Palhares, the CPO of Daraz on the show. We discuss being a product leader in one of the leading e-commerce platforms in South Asia with over 10,000 staff and a product team of more than 60, building a product function from scratch and how to product manage a distributed team.

How does a product leader who has worked at Grab and Meta in Singapore end up in Nairobi in Kenya? In the 40th episode of the Product Un(censored) Show, our host Colin Pal sits down with Mateus Kratz, to talk about his product management journey and experiences that culminates with him becoming the CPO at Kapu in the Silicon Savannah in Africa!

In the 39th episode of our show, we have Azwandi Aris, Executive Director Product Management at ServiceRocket talking about how he has managed to succeed as a product manager and product leader as an introvert. We also talk about longevity in his career (he's spent 15 years at ServiceRocket so he knows a thing or two about it!)

It’s Episode #38 and we have Pramodh Rai, Co-Founder of Cyber Sierra to discuss an area that doesn’t get enough attention: Cybersecurity. We also cover how startups can balance the need for speed without sacrificing too much security. Prior to co-founding Cyber Sierra, Pramodh was previously the Chief Product Officer at Funding Societies and also the former Chief Technology of Hmlet.

The Product Un(censored) Show is back with Episode #37. We've got Fabian Lua, CPO of LINE MAN Wongnai talking about his take on product led vs founder led organisations, working in high growth, high competition tech companies Shopee and Grab and how to drive for alignment when building a regional product across multiple countries. He also shares his reason for choosing "Hip hop saved my life" by Lupe Fiasco.

This is Episode #36 and we had Eric Wang in the hot seat recounting his product management journey from waterfall fueled product management to being Director of Product Management at Ninja Van, counting the culture and collaboration cost of hiring teams as far as Palestine, product snobbery and caring for the mental health and well being of his team members. We conclude with talking about his song choice of "Chelsea Smile" by Bring Me The Horizon.

We are back with Episode #35 and we've got Sani Gouw, Head of Product for TruTrip joining Colin Pal on the show to talk about all things product, from differences about doing product management in a digital agency vs tech startups, building remote teams and why enticed him join a travel startup in a time of covid. We end the show discussing why the Jay-Z / Linkin Park collaboration song "Numb/Encore" so aptly reflects the product journey for product managers.

It's Ep.34, and in the hot seat is Gaurav Sachdeva, CPO of Singapore Press Holdings. Gaurav regales us with stories about his experience building out Adobe's Creative Suite, jumping in the deep end of startup with Grab and his reasons for taking up a CPO role at a traditional media organisation. We also discuss his vocal prowess as a classic rocker and his reason for choosing "Sweet Child O' Mine" by Guns N' Roses as a song of choice.

In Ep.32, we have the Chief Product Officer of Ascend Bit, Brian Clark, giving us the lowdown on all things product management. He tells us what he looks for when hiring product managers, how to build your team of product managers, and his amazing experience of witnessing firsthand product management at Facebook / Meta. We end with why Sublime's "What I've Got" is his song of choice.

Ep.31 is first episode of 2022, and it's a great pleasure to have Alfonso Fiore, the Chief Product Officer of HappyFresh as a guest on the show. We really deep dived into his CPO role, trying to understand how he prepared for the role, what changes he made after joining and how his career failures spurred him to the success that he has achieved to day. We also talk about product and growth before ending with Alfonso telling us why Eminem's "Lose Yourself" is his song of choice.  

In Episode #19, Rajesh Nerlikar, Co-Author of the book "Build What Matters" and Chief Product Advisor at Prodify, tells me his journey from product management to product leadership to product coaching, why write a book, vision led product management, and why "Glorious" by Macklemore featuring Skylar Grey is his song of choice.

We are at Episode #18, and Ekrut's CPO, Niko Questera joins me on the  show to talk about his love for vehicles that ultimately led him to  Tesla, the decision to move back to Indonesia, jumping into a CPO role  with no product experience and why "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" by  Israel "IZ" Kamakawiwoʻole is his song of choice.

We are at Episode #17, and Christine Sou, the Product Lead at Transferwise chats with me about why she left the finance world and into the cauldron of product management, how she learnt the ropes at Sony, deciding to move to Singapore in a month, building a product for Hong Kong, why her passion led her to Transferwise and why "Dancing in the Moonlight" by Toploader is her musical choice.

In Episode #16, we have the Co-founder of Radical Product Thinking, Radhika Dutt on the show with us to talk about startups, the disease of growth at all costs, frameworks (RPT, agile, the lean startup, OKRs), and also why "Sweet Dreams Are Made of This" by Eurythmics is her musical choice. 

It's Episode #15, and we're shaking things up. This time, we talk to Randy Silver, author of the book "What Do We Do Now: A Product Manager's Guide to Strategy in the time of Covid-19", one half of The Product Experience Podcast, and product consultant. We deep dive into product management in a time of covid-19, user behaviours, the new normal vs anomaly and more!

This is Episode #14, and we are honoured to have yet another female product leader on the show! Dian Rosanti, SVP of Product Management at GOJEK joins us on the show and dig into being design driven vs data driven, working remotely, adapting to working and cultural differences in GOJEK / Indonesia and lots more!

We're back with Episode #13, and Mudah.my's Head of Product, Prateek Roy, joins us on The Product Un(censored) Show. Based out of Malaysia, we talk about roadmaps, building trust as a product manager, bringing change as a product leader and the product scene in Malaysia / SEA from the perspective of a non-native. 

It's Episode #12, and we have Mike D, the CPO of Brankas, in the hot seat! We talk about the fintech scene in Southeast Asia, building a product team when you're the first product hire in an early stage startup, handling a product team in multiple locations, how he ended up in Singapore, how his childhood would come to influence some of his career decisions and he tells us the absolute best story about his song choice we've had on the show!

Our guest for Episode #11 of the Product Un(censored) Show is Graham Kennedy, a Canadian who now calls Singapore home. The COO of MyDoc, I talk to Graham about his experience working in China and Singapore, Product Marketing vs Marketing, the messy side of Product Management, transitioning from product leadership to COO and why Pearl Jam rocks his socks off amongst our many topics of conversation.

Once again, our show breaks new ground by having our first guest from Dubai. A Malaysian who has since become a global citizen, Yi-Wei Ang is the Chief Product Officer at Talabat (Delivery Hero). We sit down to talk product in enterprise vs startup, strategy vs execution, getting product management to work better with design, and why Pink Martini is great music to work to!

A Brazilian who works in Thailand, managing a product from China. I sit down with Renato Silva from Tencent Thailand, discussing the importance of an MBA for product managers, handling a top down culture, working together with the PMO and adapting to the Asian culture while building a product team.

How does a UK product manager make the decision to move to Hong Kong? How does she cope with cultural and company changes? How can men help women in product? Why Madonna's Like A Prayer? Find out all of that and more as I engage in conversation with Sharon Anne Kean, the former Director of Product at SEEK Asia in Hong Kong.

On today's episode, we speak to our first guest from Indonesia, Hendro Riyadi (VP of Product, Bukalapak). This topic packed conversation covers everything from handling product at Indonesia's fourth unicorn, Hendro's journey from an introverted software engineer to product leader, building a career in Silicon Valley and then leaving it all to return to Indonesia.

This Product Un(censored) show is back with another special episode! Vincent Chan (Director of Product Management, GOGOVAN) is our first guest from Hong Kong and he shares his experience growing a product team, instituting company wide change to a product culture and his dreams of entrepreneurship.

In this fifth installment of the Product Un(censored) show, I put Andrius Baranauskas and his product career under the microscope. Andrius talks candidly about being fired from his first product job, the difference between PROJECT and PRODUCT management, his product journey at Carousell and what it takes to stand out as a product manager.

It's our fourth show, and Jonathan Wong (Director of Product, ONE Championship) talks about his late start to Product Management, his experience implementing the Spotify model at Rakuten Viki, being a Director of Product while also being an individual contributor, knowing when to move on from an organisation, leading Product Management in a Mixed Martial Arts organisation and more...

Our first female guest on the show, Silvia Thom (CTO Zalora) finds herself in the hot seat talking about her product journey from Germany to Singapore, female leadership and discrimination, being a non-technical product leader and also how to break into product management if you're from a non-technical background.

For the second episode, I had the privilege of having a chat with Ken Chin, the former Chief Product Officer (CPO) for SEEK Asia and amongst many topics, we talk about digital transformation, OKRs, introverted product managers and advice for product managers who want to start their product journeys in Southeast Asia.

For our maiden show, I sit down with Ridzwan to talk about his product journey that started in Singapore and has taken him to South Korea, asian culture in SEA product, DeLoreans, time machines, Elon Musk and more....