Real Stories for Product Managers
Productly Speaking is where product management gets real.
While many podcasts focus on frameworks, systems, and strategy, Productly Speaking explores the human side of product work. We focus on the messy moments, quiet failures, and hard‑won lessons that surface when uncertainty grows and execution is no longer the hardest part of the job.
Hosted by Karl Abbott, each episode features candid, story‑first conversations with experienced product managers and builders who have been in the trenches. These are the conversations that rarely make it into playbooks or conference talks. They are about judgment, trust, listening, burnout, responsibility, and how people actually work together when things get complicated.
This is not a podcast about theory or optimization. It is a space to reflect on what really happens when real people try to build meaningful products in an uncertain world.
Recent Episodes
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July 28, 2026
S6E4: Zero Budget, Six Figures Later with Razy Shah
When execution stops being hard, what becomes visible? For Razy Shah, it was a three-hour meeting with a restaurateur who had no budget. He went in planning to spend an hour. He left energized but uncertain. Years later, that meeting turned into a six-figure contract. This isn't a story about networking strategy or playing the long game. It's about what we choose when nothing is forcing our hand. As AI takes over more execution, the space between what we can do and what we should do gets wider.
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July 21, 2026
S6E3: What Listening Actually Costs with Stan Slovin
Have you ever walked out of a meeting convinced everyone was aligned, only to discover weeks later that half the team heard something completely different? Stan Slovin has spent years working with leaders who thought they were listening, until the silence, the turnover, and the failed projects proved otherwise. In this conversation, we dig into the small tells that reveal when someone has stopped hearing you, the moment a CEO's dinner table question changed his relationship with his daughter, an
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July 14, 2026
S6E2: When the To-Do List Is the Identity with Alex Adamopoulos II
Have you ever sat through yet another transformation announcement and quietly thought, "here we go again"? Alex Adamopolous II has lived through enough of those moments to know the truth: organizations don't struggle with new processes. They struggle with the humans trying to figure them out. In this conversation, Alex shares what 45% of workers won't tell you in surveys about burnout, the wardrobe app startup that failed because they asked all the wrong questions, and why AI is creating the
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July 7, 2026
S6E1: Nobody Said No with Richard Abi Chahla
What happens when you spend eight months building something impressive, only to discover the people who promised to use it actually don't want it? Richard Abi Chahla knows that moment. The deflation. The walk back to the team. The hard conversation about wasted months and sweat equity. In this conversation, Richard shares what he learned from that 2016 failure and how he now uses AI not to build faster, but to learn faster. We dig into the messy reality of validating your riskiest assumptions fi
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May 5, 2026
S5E4: Authenticity Over 'Fake It': Lessons in Leadership and Life with Reese Gifford
At some point in your career, you have to decide who you’re going to be when things are uncomfortable. In this episode of Productly Speaking, returning guest Reese Gifford joins Karl Abbott to talk about authenticity and humility, not as polished leadership traits, but as choices made under pressure. The kind that cost you something in the moment and only make sense later. Reese reflects on entering tech in the late 90s as a young woman with no roadmap, learning early that preparation wasn
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April 28, 2026
S5E3: Navigating the Complexity of Product Leadership with Rick Lewis
What if the moment everything tilts sideways at work could actually make you better at your job? In this episode, Rick Lewis sits down to talk about the messy middle of change, the kind that knocks the wind out of a team long before it becomes one of those polished “growth stories.” Rick brings stories from big reorganizations, mergers that paired frenemies into one team, and the kind of customer feedback loops that only surface after months of digging. He talks about the small, painfully hum
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