The Stages of Startups – Georgie Smallwood on The Product Experience

Startups are often talked about as if they're all the same, as if experience in one is directly transferable to another.  Georgie Smallwood, Chief Product Officer at Tier Mobility, joined us on the podcast to chat about the differences in working for earlier stage companies and those that are scaling up. She covers why she enjoys working for the latter, and what it takes for a product person to succeed at each stage. 

In this episode, sponsored by Pendo, listen to learn about:

• Product Management in transport tech
• The different stages of tech companies
• The sustainability of technology consumption

Quote of the Episode

Consumers are changing at a faster rate than they ever have, and of course we’re feeding that by instant everything. Technology potentially can keep up, but humans can’t. So what’s really interesting is that we’re trying to operate at a pace which is not sustainable.

Links mentioned in this episode

• Follow Georgie on LinkedIn and Twitter
• Tier
• Sustainable Technology piece at ByteAnt
• Georgie's 'Product Culture, Leadership and Fintech' feature at Mind The Product

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Our Hosts

The Product Experience is hosted by Lily Smith and Randy Silver.

Lily enjoys working as a consultant product manager with early-stage and growing startups and as a mentor to other product managers. She's currently Head of Innovation at Go Compare and has spent 13 years in the tech industry working with startups in the SaaS and mobile space. She's worked on a diverse range of products – leading the product teams through discovery, prototyping, testing and delivery. Lily also founded ProductTank Bristol (which now has 800+ members!) and runs ProductCamp in Bristol and Bath.

Randy is a product consultant and coach who has been working as an interactive producer and product manager across the US and UK for nearly 20 years. A recovering music journalist and editor, he launched Amazon’s music stores in the US and UK, and has worked across sectors including museums and arts groups, online education, media and entertainment, retail and financial services. He’s held Head of Product roles at HSBC and Sainsbury’s, where he also directed their 100+-person product community. Randy's book, What Do We Do Now? A Product Manager's Guide to Strategy in the Time of COVID-19 is out now, with all profits going to COVID-19 relief efforts.