The Product Pivot: Real conversations with product people.
The Product Pivot is a podcast by Prodfolio that goes beyond the surface of product management.
Through candid conversations with PMs, leaders, and hiring managers, we explore what it actually takes to grow, lead, and navigate the product world — from breaking in to shaping what comes next.
Each episode brings honest stories, practical insights, and perspectives you won't find in a textbook. Whether you're early in your PM journey or deep in the craft, there's something here for you.
Follow for new episodes, guest announcements, and insights to support your growth in product.
https://prodfolio.io/podcast
Episodes
30 episodes
The Title Did What Skills Couldn't with John Fontenot, Founder of Path2Product
John Fontenot sent out more than a hundred product applications and heard nothing. Then his title changed, and recruiters started calling within two weeks.He's the founder of Path2Product and a Principal Product Manager who pivot interna...
Vibe Coding Won't Get You Hired as a PM with Aaron Kesler
Aaron Kesler, co-founder and Head of Product at Rozie Synopsis, has sat across from a lot of candidates in 2026. His take: most of them skip the one thing he's actually trying ...
Building Your Way Into Product with David Nduka, Founder of Navim AI
David Nduka had one week left in Canada when a single mistake on his work permit caught up with him. What he did in the four days that followed became a company.David is the founder of
How Product Managers Actually Get Hired with Andres Tenias, Senior Talent Acquisition Specialist at Lantern
Everyone has advice about getting hired in product. Andres Tenias has insights from a technical recruiter perspective. As a recruiter for close to a decade and now Senior Ta...
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The PM Skill AI Can't Replace, with Steve Johnson, CEO of Product Growth Leaders
Steve Johnson asked a training room full of product managers how many had spoken to a customer in the past year. Most hands stayed down. One person admitted they'd been at the company thr...
From IC to Executive: What Actually Changes with Aaron Kesler, VP of Product at RozieAI
What if AI could handle the hard part of being a boss for you like telling someone they're not getting the promotion, weighing empathy against the P&L, or being the bad guy?Aaron K...
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Product Marketing Is a Partnership, Not a Takeover - with Zach O'Neal
Zach O'Neal spent five years running the subscriber experience as a Product Marketing Manager across Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+. He now leads the same function at a B2B SaaS startup, at a fract...
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The Dark Side of Product Management Nobody Posts About - with Alyx Priestley
Most PM content is the highlight reel. This episode is what gets said after the camera turns off.Alyx Priestley is a Product Director who came up running her own creative agency be...
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Breaking Into Product Without The Title with Kartikeya Shah, Project Manager II at RozieAI
He has a spreadsheet. 350+ contacts and still emails 30–40 of them every couple months.It didn't land him a PM job. What it did was keep him in motion long enough to take the advice that actually worked: stop waiting for the title.
From Publisher to Product Manager: An Accidental PM's Take on AI
She'd been doing the job for nine years before she found out it had a name.Riëtte Verster spent the first chapter of her career as a "publisher" at Pearson ...
Product Manager or Problem Manager? - Steve Johnson, Product Growth Leaders
A company fired its entire product team because nobody could explain what they did.Three months later, they called every one of them back.Steve Johnson has been coaching produ...
The Product Pivot | From BDR to Associate PM: Christina Aragon's Non-Linear Path into Product
Most PM careers don't go in a straight line. Christina Aragon's went through civil engineering, software, sales, and a seven-month job search before she landed her first associate PM...
The Product Pivot | You're the Product. Your Career Is Too. - Heidi Ram, The Product Recruiter
We brought Heidi Ram back, and she came with receipts.Heidi is the Practice Lead of The Product Recruiter and has spent 25 years placing product leaders across North America. She's seen every version of this market: the boom years, the l...
The Product Pivot | Season 3 Kickoff with Santi and Meagan
The best PMs don't wait for perfect conditions. They build anyway.In Season 3's opener, Meagan and Santi get honest about the past year — gestational diabetes, a toddler, a day job, and somehow still shipping Prodfolio and recording a fu...
The Product Pivot | Why AI Should Be Boring — And That’s a Good Thing
Everyone’s hyping AI like it’s a magic trick.Aaron Kesler sees it differently — it’s just really good at boring stuff.Now VP of Product at RozieAI, Aaron’s focused on solving the unglamorous problems that make real b...
The Product Pivot | The Power of Saying Yes (and Figuring It Out Later)
Some pivots don’t start with a master plan, they start with saying yes and figuring it out along the way.In this episode, Eduardo (Eddie) Rosenfeld, VP of Applied AI at Lavender 💜🔮, shares how studying philosophy a...
The Product Pivot | From Incubator to Product Management: Nikhil’s Journey
Not every career pivot starts with a master plan. Sometimes it starts with curiosity or even a lemonade stand.In this episode, Nikhil Punjabi (PM at Dash Social) shares how working with founders at an incubator sparked his shift i...
The Product Pivot | The Power of Storytelling in Hiring
Santi and Meagan sit down with Heidi Ram, a seasoned product recruiter, to uncover what hiring managers really look for in product candidates. Heidi breaks down:Why storytelling sets great PMs apartHow to optimize LinkedIn ...
The Evolution of Product Ops: A Deep Dive with Graham Reed
When’s the right time to hire Product Ops?In this episode of The Product Pivot, hosts Santi and Meagan sit down with Graham Reed, Head of Product Operations at Helios, to unpack the rise of Product Ops and wha...
The Product Pivot | From 8 Rejections to Google
Join hosts Santi and Meagan as they dive into the world of product management with Gabor. Discover Gabor's unique journey from a programmer to a product manager, his experiences with major tech companies, and his insights on the evolving role o...
The Product Pivot | Season 2 Kickoff & More!
We’re back with Season 2 of The Product Pivot and this time, it’s bigger than just product management.This kickoff episode is part reflection, part roadmap. We look back at what worked in Season 1, what surprised us, and where we’...
The Product Pivot | Fractional PM Unpacked
In this episode of The Product Pivot, we chat with Trevor Acy—a fractional product manager and coach—about his journey from marketing into product, how he broke in without the title, and what real product thinking looks like inside companies.
From Newsrooms to Roadmaps: Olympia's Journey
Olympia Bardis, Product Manager at CNBC, joins us to share how she made an unexpected pivot from journalism into product management. From managing content at Fox News to building investment tools for retail users, Olympia’s story is a mastercla...
The Product Pivot | Is Product Management Evolving or Disappearing
In this episode of The Product Pivot, we sit down with Brody Clemmer, Lead Product Manager at Little Otter, to discuss the future of product management and how the role is evolving.We cover:• How Brody landed in product without a de...
The Product Pivot | Big Tech Myths - A PM’s Journey to Microsoft
In this episode of The Product Pivot, Santi and Meagan sit down with Varsh, a Senior Product Manager at Microsoft, to discuss her journey from solutions engineering to building Gen AI products like Copilot.She debunks myths about breakin...