The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch - 20 Product: Robinhood CPO on The 3 Stages of Product Management, How to Structure and Execute Great Product Reviews, The Secret to Building a World-Class Hiring Funnel in Product Team Building with Aparna Chennapragada

20 Product: Robinhood CPO on The 3 Stages of Product Management, How to Structure and Execute Great Product Reviews, The Secret to Building a World-Class Hiring Funnel in Product Team Building with Aparna Chennapragada

04/20/22 • 40 min

2 Listeners

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

Aparna Chennapragada is Chief Product Officer @ Robinhood, the company revolutionizing consumer finance with commission-free investing, and tools to help shape your financial future. As for Aparna, prior to Robinhood, she spent an incredible 12 years at Google, most recently as VP and GM for Consumer Shopping and also as the lead AR and Visual Search products. Aparna is also an active angel investor with a portfolio including Khatabook, Statsig and On Deck to name a few. If that was not enough, Aparna is also a board member at Capital One.

In Today’s Episode with Aparna Chennapragada You Will Learn:

1.) Origins in Product:

How Aparna made her way into the world of product and product management?
What were Aparna's biggest takeaways from her 12 years at Google?
What does product management mean to Arpana today?

2.) Customer Discovery: 101

What are the 3 different stages of product management?
What does great customer discovery look like?
What are the best questions to ask? How should one dig deeper?
Where do so many make mistakes in customer discovery?
What should product people take from the answers? What should they disregard?

3.) The Hiring Process:

How should founders breakdown the process of hiring for their first in product?
What does the interview process look like? How should founders structure it?
What core questions should teams ask of prospective candidates?
What are red flags when interviewing potential product hires?
What literal tests and case studies can founders do to test the quality of candidates?

4.) The Onboarding Process:

How should founders structure the onboarding process for new product hires?
What can founders do to make PMs successful in their first 30 days?
Where do many product hires make the biggest mistakes in the first 30 days?
What can product hires do to build trust with their new team?

Items Mentioned in Today's Episode with Aparna Chennapragada

Aparna's Fave Resource: Shishir's Executive Onboarding

In Today’s Episode with Aparna Chennapragada You Will Learn:

1.) Origins in Product:

How Aparna made her way into the world of product and product management?
What were Aparna's biggest takeaways from her 12 years at Google?
What does product management mean to Arpana today?

2.) Customer Discovery: 101

What are the 3 different stages of product management?
What does great customer discovery look like?
What are the best questions to ask? How should one dig deeper?
Where do so many make mistakes in customer discovery?
What should product people take from the answers? What should they disregard?

3.) The Hiring Process:

How should founders breakdown the process of hiring for their first in product?
What does the interview process look like? How should founders structure it?
What core questions should teams ask of prospective candidates?
What are red flags when interviewing potential product hires?
What literal tests and case studies can founders do to test the quality of candidates?

4.) The Onboarding Process:

How should founders structure the onboarding process for new product hires?
What can founders do to make PMs successful in their first 30 days?
Where do many product hires make the biggest mistakes in the first 30 days?
What can product hires do to build trust with their new team?

Items Mentioned in Today's Episode with Aparna Chennapragada

Aparna's Fave Resource: Shishir's Executive Onboarding

Previous Episode

undefined - 20VC: Brex's Henrique Dubugras on Advice from Evan Spiegel and Eric Schmidt on CEOship, The Biggest Hiring Mistakes When Scaling, What Everyone Gets Wrong with Product Messaging and When is the Right Time to Launch Secondary Products

20VC: Brex's Henrique Dubugras on Advice from Evan Spiegel and Eric Schmidt on CEOship, The Biggest Hiring Mistakes When Scaling, What Everyone Gets Wrong with Product Messaging and When is the Right Time to Launch Secondary Products

Henrique Dubugras is the Founder and CEO @ Brex, the company re-imagining financial systems so every growing company can realize its full potential. To date, Henrique has raised over $1.1BN for Brex from some of the best including Ribbit, Greenoaks, DST, IVP, Caffeinated Capital and Elad Gil to name a few. Henrique is also a board member at Mercado Libre. Prior to co-founding Brex, Henrique co-founded Pagar.me, there he scaled the company to $15BN in GMV and over 100 people before selling the company in 2016.

In Today’s Episode with Henrique Dubugras You Will Learn:

1.) The Founding of Brex:

What was the founding a-ha moment for Henrique and Pedro with Brex?
What advice did Evan Spiegel give Henrique when it comes to being a great CEO?

2.) Hiring: The Trials and Tribulations

What have been Henrique's biggest hiring mistakes?
How do founders know when they are ready to bring in the seasoned exec vs the younger jack of all trades candidate?
What have been Henrique's biggest lessons in what it takes to hire true A* talent?
Where does Henrique see other founders make big hiring mistakes?

3.) Product Expansion and Marketing:

How does Henrique assess when is the right time to release a second product?
What have been Henrique's biggest mistakes and lessons when it comes to product marketing?
How can one retain the simplicity of product messaging with scaling the product?
Brex expanded the product too far, too fast. How did they walk it back so successfully?

4.) Henrique: The Leader

How does Henrique approach his own relationship to money today? How has it changed over time?
What luxury expenditure has Henrique made over the last 12 months that he feels is worth it?
How does Henrique think about ego management? What does he do to keep his in check?

Item’s Mentioned In Today’s Episode with Henrique Dubugras

Henrique’s Favourite Book: The Innovator's Solution: Creating and Sustaining Successful Growth

Next Episode

undefined - 20VC: How Today's Market Changes How Companies Should Approach Burn and Runway, Are Financing Markets Closing? How To Know When To Pay Up vs Stay Price Disciplined & Why The Most Important Thing in Venture is Generating Positive Selection with Bill Cilluf

20VC: How Today's Market Changes How Companies Should Approach Burn and Runway, Are Financing Markets Closing? How To Know When To Pay Up vs Stay Price Disciplined & Why The Most Important Thing in Venture is Generating Positive Selection with Bill Cilluf

Bill Cillufo is Partner and Head of International Investments at QED, one of the leading fintech venture firms today with a portfolio including Nubank, Kavak, Klarna, Quinto Andar and Bitso to name a few. As for Bill, he has led investments in Nubank, Loft, Wagestream and Creditas among others. Prior to joining QED, he spent nearly 20 years at Capital One, spanning several roles and leading several businesses. During Bill’s last 3 years at Capital One, he led its Co-Brand and Private Label credit card business, building the business nearly from scratch to one of the top few players in the US market.

In Today’s Episode with Bill Cillufo You Will Learn:

1.) Origins into Venture:

How Bill made his way from 20 years at Capital One to becoming a Partner @ QED?
How did Capital One inform his mindset around unit economics?
Having seen booms and busts firsthand with Capital One, how did that impact his investing mindset today?

2.) The Landscape: What is Happening?

Where does Bill believe the biggest crunch in funding markets is today?
Does Bill believe this will trickle down to the early stage?
How does Bill advise his portfolio companies on runway and burn given the environment?
What does Bill believe that many have not seen that is coming?

3.) Bill Cillufo: The Investor

How does Bill analyse his own relationship to price and price sensitivity?
How has Bill changed as an investor over the last 5 years? What caused the changes?
How does Bill reflect on reserves management given the new landscape we are in?

4.) QED: The Expansion

Does Bill believe that expanding geographically has become easier with time?
What has become harder about expanding into new geographies?
How important does Bill believe partnering with local firms is when VCs enter new territories?

Item’s Mentioned In Today’s Episode with Bill Cillufo

Bill’s Favourite Book: Tom Clancy: The Hunt for Red October

Bill’s Most Recent Investment: Refyne