Product Pals

About Product Pals

Welcome to Product Pals. This is a space where product people come together to talk honestly about the work, the challenges, and everything in between. We share stories from our own journeys and from others in the product world. The moments that felt uncertain, the lessons that stuck, and the shifts that changed how we think and build. Product Pals is also a community. A place to feel supported, to learn from each other, and to remember that you are not navigating this alone. Whether you are experienced, just getting started, or somewhere in the middle, you are very welcome here. ☕️🍵🧋

Publisher

Charlotte Bian, Kiet Truong

Category

business

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

25 Oct 2024

Latest episode

14 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

29 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   14 Oct 2026

   PM Spotlight: Deepika Pandhi (Oracle) — Technical PMs, AI & the Future of Product Management

   Do Product Managers still need to know how to code? And with AI changing the way we work, what skills will actually matter in the next few years? In this episode of Product Pals, Kiet and Charlotte are joined by Deepika Pandhi, Principal Product Manager at Oracle, joining us from Silicon Valley. With nearly 18 years in tech, Deepika's career has taken her from software development to customer engineering, and eventually into product management. Today, she works on cloud database platforms supporting some of the world's most critical systems. We chat about her career journey, what being a technical PM actually looks like, and how AI is changing her everyday work. One of the more interesting parts of our conversation was how Deepika uses AI to build working prototypes in hours rather than days. She also shares why she treats AI like a junior PM — incredibly useful, but still needing plenty of context, guidance and validation! We also get into what it's like growing into a Principal PM role, influencing without authority, managing competing priorities, and why staying close to customers is still one of the most important things a PM can do. And of course, we ask the big question: Is product management still a good career to pursue in the age of AI? Whether you're looking to break into product, progress in your career, or figure out how AI fits into your workflow, we hope you enjoy this conversation! Connect with Deepika Deepika Pandhi — Principal Product Manager at Oracle LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dpandhi/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/dpandhi/) Resources & Recommendations Deepika shared a few of her favourite learning resources and some additional recommendations for our listeners: Product Management & AI Courses Marily Nika — AI Product Management https://maven.com/marily-nika (https://maven.com/marily-nika) Shreyas Doshi — Product Sense https://maven.com/shreyas-doshi/product-sense (https://maven.com/shreyas-doshi/product-sense) Lenny's Newsletter — Product Management & Growth https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/ (https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/) AI Podcasts & Channels Andrej Karpathy https://www.youtube.com/andrejkarpathy (https://www.youtube.com/andrejkarpathy) Dwarkesh Podcast https://www.dwarkesh.com/ (https://www.dwarkesh.com/) NVIDIA AI Podcast https://blogs.nvidia.com/ai-podcast/ (https://blogs.nvidia.com/ai-podcast/) Personal Finance Recommendations A few personal finance videos Deepika recommended: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoeQUNASmTU (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoeQUNASmTU) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFhlibQJvYM (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFhlibQJvYM) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TsjAaFZG20 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TsjAaFZG20) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPe-d8oKGoc (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPe-d8oKGoc) Product Pals — Where Product People Get Real. Hosted by Kiet Truong and Charlotte Bian, Product Pals is a podcast and community for Product Managers, aspiring PMs, and anyone involved in building digital products. Through our PM Spotlight and Beyond the Build series, we share real conversations about career journeys, challenges, lessons learned, and life in product. Thanks for listening! If you enjoyed the episode, follow Product Pals on Spotify and share it with a fellow product person.

2. 

   31 Aug 2026

   Innovation, AI and Experimentation in Government with Adam Reitsma | Product Pals Live @ Signal-Not-Noise Conference Sydney 2026

   What does innovation really look like inside a huge government organisation? In this episode of Product Pals Live at Signal Not Noise 2026, we sit down with Adam Reitsma, former Senior Manager of Innovation and Capability at Transport for NSW. Adam shares how a five-person team worked across AI, VR, experimentation and organisational capability to create impact at scale — often without a large budget or a traditional delivery team. We talk about what makes a proof of concept actually useful, how GitHub Copilot grew to more than 500 active users across Transport for NSW, why good innovation is often about reducing risk rather than chasing novelty, and how internal communities can help great ideas spread across a massive organisation. Adam also reflects on more sensitive innovation work, including at-risk behaviour detection and suicide prevention, and what changes when the stakes are much higher. A practical conversation about constraints, experimentation, scaling, and one simple definition of innovation: Any change that creates value. 🎙️ Recorded live at Signal Not Noise 2026. Content note: This episode includes a discussion about suicide prevention, at-risk behaviour on the transport network, and the impact of these incidents on individuals, families and frontline staff. Links & resources mentioned in this episode: • TrackSAFE Foundation — rail safety, suicide prevention and employee wellbeing • Black Dog Institute — mental health and suicide prevention research and resources • TrackSAFE Suicide Awareness Training — free training for the rail workforce

3. 

   28 Aug 2026

   Product Pals: Beyond the Build with Heshan Jayavardhana - Enterprise, startups, and building toward freedom

   Heshan Jayavardhana shares how 15-plus years across enterprise, scale-ups, startups, and platform products shaped the way he thinks about product management, innovation, and entrepreneurship. The conversation centers on the changing role of product managers in an AI-assisted world, plus the lessons behind his current venture, PyFi, and his broader “Project Freedom” mindset. projectfreedom.xyz (https://www.linkedin.com/safety/go/?url=www.projectfreedom.xyz&urlhash=1a09&mt=ZE0UePALf5r98XjBJOpOomhD3Fn0eupaora7qTqJpgw_ewl7WG6MIAKJOAgFmUdw9xHvcJBcZ9mLyLm5JNgGPWjFPw&isSdui=true&lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_profile_view_base_contact_details%3BBjxcvPMGRf2LNFhU3N6oFA%3D%3D) https://pifiproperty.com https://linktr.ee/productpalspodcast

Who has been a guest on Product Pals

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Dipa Rao
• Diane Aung
• Paru Madhavan
• Ting Ting Hu
• Cheryl Saw

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

YouTube views

42

Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025

Spotify

5.0 / 5

5 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 37 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

36

Social presence

0

YouTube

63

Engagement

32

Contact Product Pals

Guest appearances

Does not typically book guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

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