The Building Products in a Pandemic eBook features interviews with product leaders from companies such as Samsung NEXT, Butterfly Network, and more. Many thanks to our amazing hosts Nikki Ahmadi, Samantha Scott, Christina Lucey, and Thomas Daly for curating this series and to the product leaders who joined us on Product Talk. Please download and enjoy the eBook. A few excerpts are detailed below.
Download the Building Products in a Pandemic eBook.
Give Oxygen Co-Founder, Chris Higgins
For many great product folks, building products in a pandemic isn’t about making money.
“We’re trying to be a stop-gap. You know, people are trying to build these assets. Tesla’s got a ventilator jammed up and everybody’s got a ventilator now. But there will be a period of time. If this thing hits hard enough in certain places, that they just don’t have enough time to make those production-grade, medical-grade devices. So, just trying to give people a shot.”
Butterfly Network Inc. VP of Product, Matthew De Jonge
We all have product roadmaps and timelines. However, sometimes you can surprise yourself by getting a product ready for launch before you ever thought you could. In a situation like this, the response was worth it.
“We decided to accelerate the release in response to the Coronavirus pandemic. It’s been incredibly exciting to see on Twitter. Physicians are using this tool to conserve PPE to conserve their protective equipment. They’ll have one person in full PPE holding the Butterfly ultrasound machine scanning patients. Meanwhile, a group of physicians is safely in another room interpreting, guiding, collaborating over the ultrasound. So, it has been really, truly fulfilling, and exciting for the team to see this technology we envisioned to play a role in the management of this crisis. Helping physicians at the frontlines stay safe and conserve PPE.”
Marriage & Family Therapist, MA, MFT, Toni Brooks
We’re proud to share the stories of the product teams and people who have stepped up during this global pandemic. However, we also acknowledge that many great product people have lost their jobs. Here’s some advice for those people who can only wish they were building products in a pandemic right now.
“Let the people who you trust and who you know have your back, let them be there for you. Let them support you. Take pride and put it on the shelf. Allow yourself to be vulnerable and allow yourself to be seen.”
Samsung NEXT Head of Product Enablement, Danny Carvajal
Building products in a pandemic is important, but so is building product teams. Here’s how Samsung NEXT has worked to overcome the challenges of a distributed workforce.
“You’ve got to find another way to build rapport and learn about each other. Get to know each other better and build some of those personal connections and relationships and team norms. We created this session and spent the first hour basically having everybody create playing cards talking about what are their likes, their dislikes, their favorite foods. Where did they grow up? What’s their family? What cities that they lived in. Company and just all the background stuff that you would kind of get to know from taking somebody out to coffee. Those things are really critical to a high-performing team that is healthy.
We just have to find creative ways to basically recreate those moments that you would have otherwise had in person. As newly formed teams are coming online, and maybe you’re adding new team members on again, that in-person thing is tough to replicate. We’re finding ways to substitute it with a lot of these online sessions online workshops.”
Download the Building Products in a Pandemic eBook.
About the speaker
SC Moatti is a technology visionary, entrepreneur and investor. She is the founding partner of Mighty Capital, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm, and Products That Count, one of the largest communities of product managers, leaders and founders in the world. Previously, she built products that billions of people use at Facebook, Nokia and Electronic Arts. She also serves on boards of both public and private companies, including mobile technology giant Opera Software (OPERA:Oslo). An award-winning bestselling author, Moatti frequently gives keynotes on business and technology, and has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, the Harvard Business Review, and on NPR. She lectures at Stanford Graduate School of Business, where she earned her MBA and has a Master of Science in electrical engineering. Andrew Chen, one of Uber's top executives, called SC “a genius at making mobile products people love.” For more information, visit scmoatti.com.