“How to Become the Center of Influence By Advancing Women In Product” with Nancy Wang of the Master Of Product Podcast
As part of my series of interviews about “How to Become the Center of Influence Through Podcasting”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Nancy Wang. She is an experienced enterprise software product manager and VC, currently the Head of Product for Amazon Web Services’ Data Protection product line. She is a passionate advocate for diversity and is an avid supporter of women empowerment in STEM through founding and leading Advancing Women in Product, a 501(c)(3) non-profit dedicated to fostering more female leadership in product and tech.
AWIP’s podcast series, “Masters of Product”, aims to spotlight fearless leaders in product and leverage their experiences to inspire the broader AWIP community. Along with David Cheng, AWIP’s Director of Content Strategy and Vice President at DCM Ventures, and Kirtana Rajan, AWIP’s Podcast Lead and Engineering Program Manager at Apple, they have produced 3 episodes to date: featuring Tatyana Mamut, Chief Product Officer at Nextdoor; Arum Kang, Co-founder of Coffee Meets Bagel; and Vanessa Larco, Investment Partner at NEA and former Director of Product at Box.
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Can you tell us the “backstory” about why or how you got started as a podcaster?
Our team at AWIP began a podcast after realizing that over 30 percent of our now 10,000+ member population is remote, or live outside our existing chapters in SF, Seattle, Boston, and Paris. While we had a monthly recurring workshop in our existing markets, we received much feedback from our remote members in places such as Australia or China, for content that they could access over the internet or via video. We wanted to provide the same quality of content as we did in our monthly events. So thus began “Masters of Product”, a monthly podcast, where AWIP Ambassadors including VCs, product leaders, or founders, could join us to share their experiences and best practices for aspiring women leaders in product.
Can you share a story about the most interesting thing that has happened to you since you started podcasting?
Being a podcast host gives you an intimate view into your guests’ lives. Even though it’s ultimately a conversation that will be broadcasted to thousands upon thousands of listeners, because of the intimate setting — a few of our illustrious guests so far have been very open with us about their struggles, hopes and fears. You’ll have to hear our podcast, Masters of Product to find out!
Can you share a story about the biggest or funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
We were complete newbies to the business before starting Masters of Product. David, Kirtana, and I all have our full-time jobs (venture capital, Apple, and Amazon — respectively) outside of AWIP. Therefore unsurprisingly, for our first episode, we spent a full hour troubleshooting sound and connectivity. We almost missed the window for our guest. It turned out though that our guest was traveling through a tunnel at that time! We learned our lesson and ever since, it’s a must-do to test sound and connectivity the night before the recording!
How long have you been podcasting and how many shows have you aired?
“Masters of Product” is currently on a monthly schedule for releasing new podcasts. Since launch in late February, we’ve introduced 3 episodes: (1) “Good Product Managers and Bad Product Managers” with Arum Kang, Co-founder of Coffee Meets Bagel, (2) “Knowing When to Make Career Moves” with Vanessa Larco, Investment Partner at NEA and former Director of Product at Box, and (3) “The Founding of AWIP” with Tatyana Mamut, PhD, Chief Product Officer at Nextdoor and Executive Advisor to AWIP. We are in the process of releasing our exciting 4th and 5th episodes with female founders. Check out our site to find out in the coming weeks!
What are the main takeaways or lessons you want your listeners to walk away with?
According to our podcast leader, David Cheng (AWIP’s Director of Content Strategy and Vice President at DCM Ventures) thought that it was really important to start a podcast not only to tell the stories of female leaders in product but also go over the tactics and strategies they used to succeed in their careers. Additionally, spotlighting a lot of these leaders serves as a signal to other aspiring product managers that there are examples of successful people who look like them.
Check out the full interview in Tracy Hazzard’s Authority Magazine article about Nancy Wang!
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Podcaster Influencer, Nancy Wang of the Master Of Product Podcast shares the best ways to:
1) Book Great Guests. Folks with great backgrounds and who are great storytellers make for great guests!
2) Increase Listeners. For us, it was helpful to have AWIP as the foundational organization for Masters of Product. This way, we already had a large community and audience demand for our episodes. When an episode comes out, we simply tweet it or share it with our community!
3) Produce in a Professional Way. Zencastr has been a great tool for producing our podcasts. It’s easy to use both for the producer as well as guest!
4) Encourage Engagement. AWIP members are the best! We’ve had overwhelming engagement with our podcasts. Thousands of listeners have already provided their feedback. It’s a great way to encourage more leaders with interesting backgrounds to sign up to speak on our podcasts!
5) Monetize. We’re a bit different in this regard, since AWIP is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. However, we have started talking about leveraging podcasts as a way to showcase our sponsors, who through their financial contributions to AWIP, since they help us further our mission.
What makes your podcast binge-listenable? What do you think makes your podcast unique from the others in your category? What do you think is special about you as a host, your guests, or the content itself?
Check out the full interview in Tracy Hazzard’s Authority Magazine article about Nancy Wang!
