AI that Delivers: How Simpson Strong-Tie Boosted PM Output by 10x with Productside

Success StoriesBy Suhail Vawda 11/05/2025

Executive Summary What happens when a market leader decides “less AI hype, more AI habits”? Earlier this year, Simpson Strong-Tie brought in Productside to level up their digital PMs with our AI for Product Managers course. This was part of their larger initiative to modernize their Product Management practices for more efficiency and effectiveness. In 16 instructor-led hours, 19 Product Managers learned practical playbooks (not magic…

Product Organization Design That Actually Drives Impact

BlogBy Suhail Vawda 10/22/2025

When I think back on the dozens of product teams I’ve worked with (from scrappy startups to global enterprises), there’s one pattern I can’t ignore: when outcomes stall, the first instinct is almost always the same. Someone says, “We need a reorg.” Suddenly, boxes start moving on a slide deck. Reporting lines change. A few weeks later, everyone’s sitting in different meetings—but the same frustrations remain. That’s because structure doesn’t fix misalignment. Strategy…

Persistence and Product-Led Growth Strategy: Lessons from Pinky Panjwani’s Journey

BlogBy Suhail Vawda 10/20/2025

When you’ve spent more than two decades in product management, your playbook evolves — not just your products. During my recent conversation in Trailblazing Women in Product with Pinky Panjwani, Director of Product Management at Miles IT and leader of the team behind Striven, I was reminded that building a great product-led growth strategy isn’t about tactics alone. It’s about mindset: persistence,…

How to Succeed in Platform Product Management: Advice from Data Platform PM Aindra Misra

BlogBy Suhail Vawda 10/15/2025

Platform product management sits at the intersection of complexity and scale. Unlike traditional B2B or B2C products, platform PMs don’t ship features directly to end users—they build the foundation other teams rely on. That means their customers are internal teams, their roadmaps are horizontal, and their success is measured in leverage, not launches. Few people understand this better than Aindra Misra,…

Product Manager vs Product Owner: From Friction to Forward Motion

BlogBy Suhail Vawda 10/13/2025

Every product organization has wrestled with it: the Product Manager vs Product Owner dynamic that starts as a subtle friction and spirals into full-blown frustration. The Product Manager walks into stand-up, frustrated that the team’s still dealing with legacy bugs while her roadmap priorities gather dust. Across the table, the Product Owner is equally exasperated: juggling technical debt, sprint velocity,…

The Product Discovery Process That Built Amex’s Award-Winning App

BlogBy Suhail Vawda 10/07/2025

When Jose Quesada joined American Express, the world of mobile banking—and the product discovery process driving it—looked very different. The iPhone was still young, the App Store barely existed, and “digital transformation” was mostly a buzzword echoing through boardrooms. Fast-forward to today: the Amex mobile app stands among the world’s most-loved financial products—a benchmark for usability, reliability, and customer experience. That evolution didn’t happen because…

From Lab Bench to Product Bench: Experimentation in Product Development

BlogBy Suhail Vawda 10/02/2025

When you picture experimentation in product development, you probably don’t think of pipettes, enzymes, or Petri dishes. But as Dr. Christina Agapakis reminds us in the kickoff to Season 4 of Productside Stories, product teams and scientists aren’t as different as we might think. Christina—a synthetic biologist turned brand builder (Oscillator founder, former SVP of Creative & Marketing at Ginkgo Bioworks)—has lived both…

Predictive Analytics for Product Managers in 2025 and Beyond

BlogBy Suhail Vawda 10/01/2025

Generative AI hogs the headlines, but let’s be real: predictive analytics for product managers is the quiet workhorse that’s been shaping your life for years. Every time Netflix guesses your next binge, PayPal blocks a fraudulent transaction, or Uber surge pricing rescues your New Year’s Eve ride home. That’s predictive analytics in action. Now it’s product management’s…

Next-Gen Product-Led Growth: How AI, Community, and Design Choices Will Win 2025

BlogBy Suhail Vawda 09/18/2025

Freemium and viral loops still work. What’s new in next-gen product-led growth is how AI, community, and real-time telemetry amplify them: from onboarding that adapts in the moment to feedback loops that build momentum and PQL signals that Sales trusts. If you’re still shipping “we’ll see” features and calling it PLG, this is your friendly…

How to Communicate Product Strategy to Stakeholders

BlogBy Suhail Vawda 09/03/2025

Ever unveil a “brilliant” plan and watch the room blink back at you like a herd of deer in KPI headlights? You’re not alone. Learning how to communicate product strategy to stakeholders is a craft. With a little structure and some executive-friendly storytelling, you can turn quiet Zoom tiles into nodding heads and green-lit product…