Shobhit Chugh

Stop asking for “2-3yrs product experience” for APM roles. APM roles help grads become product managers. Or give them a path to becoming one. But now I keep seeing “2-3yrs product experience needed”. Companies need to stop asking for this. And start calling the role the right title: Product Manager.

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Premiering now on the Digital Health Heavyweights Podcast I have a conversation with the co founder and CEO of Bonfire Analytics Vinay Nagaraj! One great moment was when Vinay says that while business moves at the speed of trust, so does sales. I could not agree more. It requires a huge level of authenticity, being able to connect with a person, as a person. Building deeper relationships. There is a lot to learn on this weeks episode. Vinay shares his journey from biomedical engineering to healthcare sales, discussing the challenges and successes he faced while scaling revenue at Roundtrip. He emphasizes the importance of authentic relationships in sales, the role of data in healthcare, and the key traits he looks for in salespeople. Vinay also discusses the inspiration behind Bonfire Analytics, its mission to accelerate healthcare technology adoption, and the common mistakes healthcare companies make in sales. He provides insights into market opportunities, the importance of making data actionable, and offers advice for founders seeking funding. I always love asking my guests the 3 things they look for when hiring for sales roles, Vinay shares three traits he likes to seek out: 1. Hunger to LEARN, someone always focusing on learning, growing, improving themselves personally, and professionally. 2. Taking Initiative- startups are all the hats, building the plane while you're flying it. So if you see a process that needs fixing, fix it. 3. Strong Communicators- communications that is clear, direct, and easy to understand. I would add radical transparency to this list, but I did only give him 3 traits to distill. Check in to learn if you're a vitamin, or a pain killer, emerging markets, and of course all about Bonfire's impact, and goals, and more! Check out our key takeaways: 🎯 Salespeople should focus on understanding customer pain points to be effective. 📊 Bonfire Analytics aims to provide actionable insights to healthcare companies to improve sales efficiency. 🌍 Vinay's global upbringing fostered adaptability and resilience, essential traits for a startup founder. 🏥 Healthcare companies often make the mistake of relying too heavily on large health systems for sales. 🔑 Data must be actionable; Bonfire helps clients leverage data effectively for their sales strategies. Check it all out here: https://lnkd.in/dnvucCrF

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We are in the midst of finalizing our 2026 strategic bets for Reforge. I keep coming back to Company strategy vs Product Strategy. There is a difference and they get confused. Ravi Mehta defined this in a Reforge block post called “The Strategy Stack” Company strategy defines things like: Target Audience Differentiation Defensibility Core Value Prop Company Level Bets Company Goals These are things that cross-cut across Product Strategy, Marketing Strategy, Technical Strategy, Sales Strategy, etc. It’s the job of each function like product, marketing, etc to deliver the company strategy in their respective areas. Product Strategy eloquently defined by Fareed Mosavat and Casey Winters defines your portfolio of product bets to bring the company strategy to life: Product Market Fit Work Core Feature Work Growth Work Scaling Work Product Market Fit Expansion The portfolio mix needs to shift depending on your company’s strategic initiatives and competitive environment. Each of the bets should have a measure of success that captures their progress. In the past year, we saw many companies shift a larger part of their portfolio to PMF Expansion to try and capture some of the leverage and opportunity that AI has provided. You’ve seen this as the product portfolios of many companies expanded dramatically. Reforge itself launched four (!) new products in the span of 9 months with a pretty small team: 💡 Reforge Insights - aggregates, analyzes, and helps act on fragmented customer feedback. 🎤 Reforge Research - captures new product insights w/ AI interviews and surveys. 👷 Reforge Build - AI prototyping that starts from your product vs scratch. 🚀 Reforge Launch - Launch, manage, and analyze AI features. Does the PMF Expansion blitz continue? Or do teams shift the portfolio to the other areas to fill in the PMF Expansion they landed in the past year? As I think through 2026 for Reforge, a principle that is ringing in my ears is something Shaun Clowes said earlier this year on Unsolicited Feedback. “You're constantly trying to get ahead. You're trying to find the angle, the question that has not yet been asked that gives you an insight that is not being actioned by other people. Remember, it doesn't just have to be an insight, it has to be an insight that others are not acting on. Because if you find that insight and others are not actioning it, that's your competitive advantage.” In other words, where are others likely to head? And what’s the opposite of that? This is where “alpha” is found. Tough to find in this market. Even tougher to action. How are you thinking through 2026?

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Melissa Perri taught product management at Harvard Business School. She's consulted for Capital One, Vanguard, and Walmart. She wrote "Escaping the Build Trap" and built Product Institute to 15k+ students. And also...she's an angel investor. Here's why that makes sense: Product leaders already do half the work of angel investing without realizing it. Evaluate opportunities. Assess market size. Pressure-test solutions. Identify founder-market fit. Decide where to place bets with limited resources. Sound familiar? That's literally what angel investors do. The difference is the financial lens. Product people know how to spot great products, but most never learned how to evaluate companies through an investment framework. When you combine product instincts with investor fundamentals, you become dangerous (in the best way). You can spot the gap between what founders say and what the data shows. You understand unit economics. You know if founders are building for a real problem or just in love with their own idea. And product leaders can actually help the companies they invest in. You're not just writing a check. You're bringing years of expertise in building products and scaling teams. As Melissa told me: "Being in the seat of an angel investor has given me exposure to product strategy discussions from founders, and that's helped me in my day-to-day work too." It goes both ways. Investing makes you a better product leader. Leading products makes you a better investor. If you're a product person and you've never considered angel investing, ask yourself: why not? Come to our virtual event this Thursday to hear Melissa share more: RSVP for the recording: https://luma.com/wje7wfw4

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🎙️ From Square to Mercury: How Rohini Pandhi became one of fintech’s top product leaders—and how velocity of learning at high slope companies shaped everything. Rohini dropped so many gems in our first episode of First Builders: 💎 Generalist → Specialist: In her early career, she was a generalist and tried everything. This led her to critical discoveries. She specialized in product and fintech when the “time was right” 💎 Follow the Engineers and Designers: Square was a high slope environment for Rohini, packed with talent density and learnings. She finds high slope environments by studying where smart engineers and designers are going. 💎 Fake News about PMs: PMs don’t just “move fast and break things.” Her team runs 30-50 customer interviews per quarter, providing rigor behind every decision. 💎 It’s Usually Too Early to Hire a PM: A top question she gets from founders is whether they should hire a PM. She usually says: “it’s too early.” 💎 Hiring a World Class Team is Like Tennis: When finding a tennis partner, you want someone a little better than you who can challenge you to improve your game. Give us a listen and leave a review on your favorite podcast location (see comments for links)! #FirstBuilders #StartupPodcast #ProductLeadership #TechCareers #Leadership

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Etch this into your product brain: time allocation != capacity allocation. Points (or even "flow") allocation != capacity allocation. Both comparisons feel logical, yet are deeply flawed. I run into this every day when chatting with customers and prospects at Dotwork. The intent is good....but there's a fundamental gap in terms of how the system is being perceived.

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