This week's episode of Masters of MAX features Tom Butta interviewing Alexis Baird, the Head of Product Experience at Thumbtack. Alexis shares her journey from linguistics and computer science to product management roles at Microsoft, LinkedIn, and Lyft. At Thumbtack, she leads innovations that connect homeowners with home service professionals.

Today’s focus is all about redesigns. Alexis and the team at Thumbtack recently launched an extensive redesign to expand their offerings beyond hiring professionals to provide their users a single app for all of their home needs.

Alexis underscores the critical need for a personalized, user-centric approach, explaining how Thumbtack tailored their app to meet individual homeowner goals and house-specific needs, integrating tools like personalized guides and educational tidbits to boost user engagement. She discusses how the dev team was given a sandbox environment with a small percentage of customers and without traditional revenue targets, allowing for bold experimentation and significant advancements in user experience without the pressure of immediate financial returns.

The overarching theme of the episode revolves around executing a successful redesign. Alexis advises maintaining flexibility, refining hypotheses with careful analysis, and creating a cross-functional team encompassing design, engineering, marketing and more. By aligning a long-term vision with short-term iterative goals, and ensuring continuous feedback loops, Thumbtack was able to deliver a significantly enhanced product that better serves their customers' evolving needs.

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Guest Bio

Alexis has been working on products for the past 13 years, looking at the world through her customer's eyes, to build features that make a real impact for them. She is currently leading the customer experience and growth product teams as Head of Product Experience at Thumbtack.

Before her current role, she spent almost three years at Lyft, first as a Product Manager before she was promoted to Head of Product. In this role, she first focused on rider experience and later, Lyft Healthcare which included their concierge products.

She has also worked as a Senior and Group Product Manager at LinkedIn. She worked on the Talent Solutions, Content, Slideshare as well as LinkedIn Profiles teams. Her first product position was as a Product Manager for the Captions Metrics team at Microsoft Bing.

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Guest Quote

"One of the big misconceptions is that you do a big launch and you just kind of disappear. I've been part of redesigns in other lives, and you almost never get it right the first time or the second time or the third time. It takes a lot of iteration to get to that bar that you want for a broader launch."

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Time Stamps

*(01:18) Alexis' background

*(03:12) What is Thumbtack?

*(04:29) Why the team decided to redesign their entire offering

*(08:41) Drilling down on personalization

*(11:30) The importance of collecting user feedback

*(14:24) The results of Thumbtack's redesign

*(17:17) Lessons for others looking to make significant change

*(21:37) How to prove your hypotheses with your users

*(23:17) When is the time to put your pencils down?

*(26:15) Do you go broad? Do you go deep?

*(27:19) Rapid Fire Questions

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Links

• Connect with Alexis Baird on LinkedIn
• Check out Thumbtack
• Connect with Tom Butta on LinkedIn
• Check out the Airship Website

In this episode of Masters of MAX, host Tom Butta welcomes Zach Greenberger, the Chief Business Officer and Head of Partner Experience at Lyft. Zach provides insights into Lyft’s strategies aimed at enhancing customer experiences and building lasting trust with both drivers and riders.

Throughout their conversation, Tom and Zach discuss Lyft's focus on creating value and connectivity for both riders and drivers, such as innovative features like Women+ Connect, which increases drivers’ chances of matching with more women and nonbinary riders. These initiatives not only cater to user needs but also deepen the emotional connection with the brand by integrating new technologies and ad-tech solutions into the customer journey.

Zach also explains how the company’s understanding of first-party data allows for contextually relevant advertising, enhancing rider experiences without being interruptive. He touches on the strategic partnerships and tools Lyft employs to encourage people to get out of their homes, combating the loneliness epidemic by linking them with experiences and destinations.

Finally, Zach offers valuable advice for businesses looking to master mobile app experiences, emphasizing the importance of frictionless, user-centric design. He showcases some of Lyft's strategies for providing seamless interactions and highlights the power of live updates for real-time user engagement.

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Guest Bio

Zach Greenberger is the Chief Business Officer at Lyft, where he leads efforts on Lyft's growth partnership strategies and delivering value to the end-to-end supply chain. Zach has not only brought a strong procurement background to the role, but he's also always had a passion for emerging technologies and a customer-centric approach.

Prior to joining Lyft, Zach was integral to the Global Supply Management and Operations team at the Tesla Corporation and before that, he spent 3 years at IBM as a Strategic Sourcing Consultant.

With an impressive list of over 20 technology patents under his belt, Zach stays committed to driving loyalty to Lyft's customer base while continuing the company's mission to improve people's lives with the world's best transportation.

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Guest Quote

"The less clicks, the less taps, the easier to navigate, the better. In order to create real value, things need to be super easy to navigate and understand. And that is really complex, especially when you're working to come together with a partner to create an experience for a user. It has to be done in a way that is easily digestible, easily navigatable, and easy to understand." – Zach Greenberger

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Time Stamps

*(01:43) Lyft's authentic obsession with their customers

*(03:10) Why trust is critical to success

*(06:54) What is Lyft's biggest competitor?

*(09:25) How ads can uplift the user experience

*(13:13) Incentivizing users to experience the world around them

*(18:49) Zach's advice for others out there

*(21:18) Rapid Fire Questions

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Links

• Connect with Zach Greenberger on LinkedIn
• Check out Lyft
• Connect with Tom Butta on LinkedIn
• Check out the Airship website

In this episode of Masters of Max, host Tom Butta welcomes Julie Ask, a renowned expert in consumer digital experiences and former Principal VP analyst at Forrester Research, Inc.. Julie's extensive background as a futurist and digital product strategist sets the stage for a great discussion on the challenges brands face in orchestrating seamless digital experiences.

During the interview, Julie highlights the evolving landscape of consumer digital experiences, emphasizing the importance of immersive interfaces on mobile devices and the growing trend towards “invisible” experiences that anticipate and fulfill consumer needs. While in the past, most consumers would actively pull information from brands when desired, Julie emphasizes that now consumers expect brands to push relevant offerings to them.

As the discussion progresses, Tom and Julie explore the impact of AI on digital experiences, touching on the complexities of using generative AI and the need for brand authenticity and control. They address the critical importance of trust in gaining customers willing to provide information to brands as well as the challenges organizations face in stitching together data silos to orchestratie cross-channel interactions spanning different business functions. Julie underscores the need to break down organizational silos to deliver cohesive interactions because ultimately: “the customer doesn't want to see functions within your brand, the customer wants to see your brand.”

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Guest Bio

Julie Ask is a technology futurist and digital product strategist who has advised hundreds of global brands on how to design effective consumer engagement strategies to drive business outcomes. Her work defines the evolution of consumer digital experiences and inspires brands to take action.

During her 20+ years as an industry analyst at Forrester, she researched, developed insights, and wrote hundreds of pieces of research on consumer mobile and digital experiences; delivered dozens of speeches and webinars; appeared regularly on Bloomberg TV; and co-authored a book, The Mobile Mind Shift.

Her most impactful work included: visions of future digital experiences, realistic assessments of emerging technologies and their capabilities, decision frameworks, consumer behavior models, maturity assessments, technology portfolio recommendations, consumer mobile engagement strategies, and operational- and design best practices.

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Guest Quote

"There is going to be more of a demand for orchestration, not just across marketing, but for operations and customer care service as well. Orchestration is probably one of the most difficult challenges that brands are facing as we look at the future of consumer digital experiences. Marketers are going to need to play a very important role in helping solve that problem because they tend to own the outbound messaging channels. Whether it's email, push, SMS, or otherwise. It's a really hard problem to solve.” – Julie Ask

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Time Stamps

*(01:10) Who is Julie Ask?

*(02:04) What is changing in the world of digital experience?

*(05:24) Where does AI fit into the equation?

*(07:49) The challenges brands are facing today

*(10:02) It always comes back to data

*(15:31) Why trust is critical to unlocking consumer engagement

*(17:55) What tools marketers can employ to set themselves up for success

*(20:40) Moments vs. Experiences

*(24:17) Who is responsible for the brand // customer relationship

*(25:15) Overcoming silos

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Links

• Connect with Julie Ask on LinkedIn
• Connect with Tom Butta on LinkedIn
• Check out the Airship website

In this episode of Masters of MAX, host Tom Butta welcomes Christie Hefner, the esteemed former chairman and CEO of Playboy Enterprises. As the longest serving female CEO of a U.S. publicly traded company, Christie led Playboy’s expansion from print to cable TV to online, mobile and ecommerce, massively growing revenue including global retail sales reaching nearly a billion dollars in her last year at the helm.

Throughout the interview, Christie discusses the importance of embracing change and innovation, highlighting the need for businesses to adapt in a dynamic and unpredictable market. She emphasizes the value of a diverse leadership team, sharing examples of how varied perspectives can drive creativity and problem-solving.

Christie also stresses the significance of maintaining a direct relationship with consumers in an ever-evolving marketplace, urging companies to prioritize consumer data ownership to create their own strategic advantage.

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Guest Bio

Christie Hefner is a seasoned professional with more than thirty years’ experience at executive levels in both public and private companies, as well as multiple company directorships. Presently, her portfolio includes advisory work for Newlight Technologies which patented a technology to convert methane into ocean biodegradable plastic and Public Good, an AI-driven digital platform that scalably engages consumers in a brand’s purpose. She also serves on the Advisory Board of the Offutt Companies, a multi-billion-dollar agricultural conglomerate.

Previously, Christie served as Chairman and CEO of Playboy Enterprises for 20 years making her the longest serving female CEO of a U.S. publicly traded company. She was widely credited with developing and leading strategies that repositioned the company from its legacy domestic magazine business to a global multi-media and lifestyle company, massively growing revenue and its brand internationally.. She was on the Fortune 100 Most Powerful Women list for three years.

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Guest Quote

"There is so much research that shows companies outperform when they have diverse leadership. But it doesn't just happen. And if the only people that are working to identify talent are white men, then you're likely to play in that lane because people refer the people they know or they have an unconscious bias towards someone who seems more like them. If you're intentional about it, you'll build a diverse team, and then the question is about making sure all those voices are heard." – Christie Hefner

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Time Stamps

*(01:10) Christie's Legacy

*(04:40) Leading massive change

*(07:49) The power of diverse leadership

*(13:19) Balancing innovation and discipline

*(15:15) Playing to your strengths as a brand

*(20:17) Maintaining your consumer relationships

*(23:29) How Christie generated nearly $1B in global retail for Playboy in one year

*(25:18) The need for more women executives

*(27:56) What Christie is excited for next

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Links

• Check out Playboy
• Connect with Tom Butta on LinkedIn
• Check out the Airship Website

In this week’s episode of Masters of Max, Tom Butta welcomes Harry Parkes, VP of Product at OVO, a major energy supplier based in Bristol, England. Harry brings a wealth of experience from the product and design fields, and is at the forefront of boosting consumer engagement and facilitating the transition towards sustainable energy use at OVO. Founded over a decade ago, OVO emerged as a challenger in the UK energy sector and now boasts 4M customers.

The conversation dives deep into the philosophical and practical aspects of product design and management. Harry underscores the importance of understanding the user’s context when designing a product or service, drawing parallels between product management and the design field. Both disciplines, he argues, revolve around problem-solving within the situational context of users.

A significant part of the interview highlights OVO's innovative approach to engaging customers through its mobile app offerings. With the energy sector’s shifting landscape, OVO has benefitted from their customers’ newly sparked interest in conserving energy. The company has invested in app features that allow users to check their energy usage, understand how energy flows through their homes, and offer insights to reduce their carbon footprint and save money. The app plays a critical role in getting customers to engage with their energy and start thinking about where it comes from, fostering an ongoing relationship to advance the decarbonization agenda.

For businesses looking to enhance their mobile engagement and app offerings, Harry provides valuable insights. Emphasizing the significance of understanding customer behaviors, perceptions and profiles, as well as using AI to add real value to customers’ experiences. Harry also highlights OVO’s focused approach to becoming net zero by 2035.

In this week's episode of Masters of Max, host Tom Butta welcomes Vernesa Ćutuk, a CRM specialist, to the podcast. Vernesa has a diverse career background, working with various industries such as telcos, pharmaceuticals, startups, and mobile apps. Most recently, Vernesa was the CRM Marketing manager for Sleep Cycle, the sleep tracking app with over 300,000 monthly downloads. Now, Vernesa consults independently, sharing her expertise in understanding the user journey and promoting a user-centric approach within companies.

During their conversation, Tom emphasizes that simply having a CRM platform doesn’t make your brand automatically customer focused and that you need to actively engage users effectively across different channels. Vernesa also highlights the need to understand user behavior and segmentation to personalize interactions and optimize engagement.

You’ll also hear Vernesa talk about the concept of being a "T-shaped marketer,” the significance of balancing depth in specialization with breadth in decision-making to address varying customer need, and how brands can foster seamless customer experiences across different touchpoints—physical stores, websites, and mobile apps.

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Guest Bio

Vernesa Ćutuk is a CRM marketing consultant who helps businesses in unlocking the true value of their CRM by providing a holistic view of the user lifecycle journey.

Primarily focusing on B2C, Vernesa works with both large and small companies, providing strategic guidance and hands-on support at every step of the journey using various CRM tools.

With extensive experience in large corporations, medium-sized companies, and startups across industries such as telecommunications, pharmaceuticals, gaming, publishing, and healthcare.

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Guest Quote

“From the CRM perspective, as soon as we get their email address, they are entering the loop of onboarding emails, where we show them what we got, try to engage them in a correct way, different product features, et cetera. So not too much, not too little. It's always this balance. We want to check so many things, we want to personalize so many things, we want to ask them so many questions, and this is the perfect timing to ask them because they are new, they are interested.” – Vernesa Ćutuk

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Time Stamps

*(02:00) Vernesa's background in the industry

*(05:01) Simply having a CRM System doesn't make you customer-centric

*(06:56) How to be a T-Shaped Marketer

*(11:30) Drive 4x the value from your customers

*(13:06) The app lifecycle

*(17:13) Curating a "cozy" onboarding experience

*(20:58) Advice for creating a unified user experience

*(28:46) Rapid Fire Questions

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Links

• Connect with Vernesa Ćutuk on LinkedIn
• Connect with Tom Butta on LinkedIn
• Check out the Airship Website

In this episode of Masters of Max, host Tom Butta welcomes Jonathan Azouri, the CEO of CatchCorner by Sports Illustrated, North America’s top destination for booking sports facilities and activities. Jonathan shares his entrepreneurial journey and passion for innovation, highlighting the importance of keeping a human perspective in business. He emphasizes the impact of every interaction on user experience and the value of hands-on leadership in building successful teams.

Today, you’ll hear Jonathan talk about what inspired him to start CatchCorner by SI, emphasizing accessibility and seamless user experience. And while you may be familiar with similar booking apps made for restaurant reservations, Jonathan addresses the technical complexities and unique requirements involved in sports facility rentals, highlighting the importance of e-signatures and customer safety.

As the conversation progresses, Tom delves into the dual focus of CatchCorner by SI as both a B2B company and a consumer-facing platform. Jonathan explains the company's structured approach, with dedicated teams overseeing facility onboarding and operations, ensuring a cohesive user experience. The partnership with Sports Illustrated further validates Jonathan’s mission of making sports spaces accessible to all.

Jonathan's advice for aspiring app developers centers on meticulous planning, user-centric design, and continuous iteration before coding. He underscores the significance of maintaining quality standards and a strong foundation while scaling a business.

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Guest Bio

Jonathan Azouri, a Canadian entrepreneur, serves as the co-founder and CEO of CatchCorner by Sports Illustrated. His dynamic career took a significant leap in 2023 when he earned a well-deserved spot on Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list.

Jonathan studied at McGill University, graduating in 2016 on the Dean’s Honor List with a Bachelor of Commerce. His profound enthusiasm for both sports and technology has seamlessly converged to form the nexus behind his growing company.

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Guest Quote

"There's real people behind every single transaction or action being taken. A lot of the times, especially when you are scaling, you kind of just see these numbers but don't think that that's an actual human being. If you don't keep that perspective, as simple as it may sound, then you kind of lose touch. And when you lose touch, that's when the experience really goes down. So, each interaction with each different screen is going to impact how they felt and how they actually enjoyed your product.” – Jonathan Azouri

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Time Stamps

*(01:26) Jonathan's Background

*(04:12) What is CatchCorner by Sports Illustrated?

*(06:57) Expanding accessibility

*(07:48) Serving both sides of the business successfully

*(10:40) Matching your users' last great experience

*(14:15) The growth Jonathan & CatchCorner by SI have experienced

*(17:42) Jonathan's advice for other app builders

*(20:10) Rapid Fire Questions

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Links

• Connect with Jonathan Azouri on LinkedIn
• Check out CatchCorner by SI
• Connect with Tom Butta on LinkedIn
• Check out the Airship Website

Welcome to this week's episode of Masters of Max with host Tom Butta. Today, Tom is joined by John Gregory, a seasoned professional with a diverse background spanning retail, media, and digital. John has worked with renowned brands like Macy's, Bloomingdale's, AOL, Pandora, and Spotify.

Throughout the conversation, John emphasizes the importance of brand continuity and delivering a remarkable and consistent customer experience across all touchpoints. He highlights the value of personalization and leveraging listener data in mobile app experiences to create engaging and relevant interactions. John also discusses the significance of balancing performance-oriented marketing with brand marketing to attract new audiences.

He advises companies to focus on innovation, experimentation, and staying flexible in the ever-changing digital landscape. Overall, this interview provides universal insights and advice for any brand seeking to improve their mobile engagement and app offerings. John's extensive experience makes this interview a must-listen for any company looking to navigate the ever-changing digital landscape.

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Guest Bio

John Gregory joined Spotify in April 2020 as Global Retail Category Development Officer to lead the retail vertical that supports efforts with key strategic partners in this industry sector. His role advocates Spotify’s platform capabilities to the retail industry, collaborating with internal teams to ensure the best solutions for retail clients are in development and also advising the selling organization on how best to address the needs of all sub-categories within the industry.

Earlier in his career, John was VP-Retail Head of Industry at Pandora, Retail Category Development Officer at AOL, and Group VP of National Marketing Strategy and Campaign Planning for Macy’s Inc.

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Guest Quote

"It all comes down to having a continuity between all the expressions of your brand, whether it be a mobile app or in store or even the advertising you may see throughout your daily life. There has to be a common thread of brand continuity to make it make the most sense and keep that experience with the consumer.” – John Gregory

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Time Stamps

*(01:16) John's Background

*(05:01) Proving the value of your users

*(08:08) Curating the experience for each unique consumer

*(10:16) Evolving your physical brand to the digital world

*(12:07) All about experience

*(16:59) Spotify’s “The Stage Experience”

*(19:24) Advice for digital native brands

*(22:34) Rapid Fire Questions

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Links

• Connect with John Gregory on LinkedIn
• Connect with Tom Butta on LinkedIn
• Check out the Airship Website