A big shoutout to all product leaders. Welcome to the Product Leaders Podcast by Fireart with your hosts, Dima Venglinski and Tolik Nguyen. Every episode is a deep dive into different aspects of product leadership to enhance the end-user experience. 

In this episode, Dima is joined by Alejandro Carrillo, Senior Product Manager at Oyster. Alejandro shares his insights on a wide range of topics, including the importance of customer-led growth, intuitive vs structured decision-making, and the current environment for startups. 

Let’s say you’re thinking about solving a problem for your customers. The intuitive way would be to think of the solution that would solve the problem and then build your product accordingly. The structured way to solve the same problem is to go through a discovery process and collect and analyze data to arrive at a solution. The basis of your decision-making is different in both use cases. 

Generally speaking, intuitive decisions work well when dealing with less-developed products with more uncertainty. An example is when you want to develop features that differentiate your products. While structured decision-making works well when the product is well developed and less uncertain, for instance, Amazon, Meta, and Google. 

Companies that are driven by a vision and mission tend to focus on more than just revenue and profitability; they aim to make a difference in people's lives. Alejandro gives the example of Oyster, a company that helps hire off-shore resources. Their pricing policies vary with geographies and the economic development of the country. The company prices its products below cost in some geographic locations to provide employment and make a difference. Mission-driven companies generally have more motivated teams.

“If you put money in someone's pocket in those countries, you will generate a positive economic loop in that geography”.  

The current economic environment is characterized by slower growth, tighter money supply, and a flatter customer demand curve. This trend will play out for 2023 and the first half of 2024. The conventional wisdom is that this is the wrong time to start a business venture, but the fact remains that some of the biggest startup stories have happened in a tempered business environment. If the idea is validated, investors will be ready to fund it.

Alejandro describes himself as a product manager who launches and scales startups globally. He has over five years of experience in product leadership roles across a wide spectrum of companies and industries, including at startups. 

Alejandro Carrillo on LinkedIn

Oyster on LinkedIn

Hosts at a Glance:

Dima Venglinski: Dima is the CEO of Fireart Studio, a boutique design and software development company committed to innovation and technology. His client portfolio ranges from startups to established global brands like Rolls Royce, Google, and Atlassian. 

Connect with Dima on LinkedIn

Fireart Studio Website

Tolik Nguyen: Tolik is the CSO and Partner at Fireart Studio and leads the strategy team while solving the company’s end-user issues from an early idea stage. 

Connect with Tolik on LinkedIn

Fireart Studio Website