The Core Elements of Products that Connect People with Yasmin Kothari, Director of Product at Bumble

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, Tolik is joined by Yasmin Kothari, Director of Product at Bumble, an online platform for connecting with people. Yasmin talks about the demand growth for online friendships and sheds light on making products that build consumer trust and make connecting a seamless process. She also shares her insight on how she fosters professional growth in her team.
Topics we discuss:

• Yasmin’s professional journey till now
• The need for building products to connect people
• The art and science of designing products that connect people
• How to foster the growth of your teams

Hot Takes and Key Highlights:Why is it Important to Build Products that Connect People?Three clear trends post the pandemic drive the need for these products. The first is WFH, which provides flexibility and convenience on the one hand but leads to a sense of isolation due to a lack of face-to-face interactions. Next is the need for socializing, and here, millennials and Gen Z lead the demand as the loneliest generation. Lastly, how we seek to be a part of a community is shifting to making online friends.“It’s critical right now to build products that help connect people”The Art and Science of Building Products that Connect People Yasmin highlights three critical areas while building any customer-facing product. The first is setting the right norms to deliver a consistent experience. Next, creating a suite of robust security features in your products is essential to build trust and provide security when the consumer uses your product. Next is to make interactions as seamless as possible.“There are three important aspects to designing a customer-facing product in the B2C space”Fostering and Mentoring Growth in Product TeamsYasmin follows a three-point action plan when mentoring and catering to the growth of her team members. She likens professional development to climbing a wall where you sometimes need to move sideways before moving up. Yasmin asks the “how” questions to determine what motivates the person. Next, she analyzes the person's current skillset and what they need to add to their toolkit to function at the next level and provides a training map to upskill the person. As a last step, she looks for internal opportunities to help the person grow.“ This process can be scaled up over months and years, or it can also be scaled down to like a fifteen-minute thought exercise to figure out what you're gonna do this week”
Guest at a Glance:Yasmin is a Harvard Business School graduate, and she describes herself as a driven product leader, public speaker, product leadership coach, and angel investor. I am passionate about building high-functioning teams and products that people love. I love coaching PMs for increased impact on their products, companies, and themselves. Yasmin Kothari on LinkedInBumble WebsiteHosts 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 LinkedInFireart Studio WebsiteTolik 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 LinkedInFireart Studio WebsiteProduct Leaders Podcast is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so