In this episode, Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia interviews Nicholas Daniel, Chief Product Officer at Etsy — the world's largest marketplace for unique and handmade items. Founded in 2005, Etsy has grown into a global platform connecting over 6 million sellers with 90 million buyers worldwide, featuring more than 130 million unique items.
Nicholas leads Etsy's product organization, overseeing 30+ product squads that drive innovation across the marketplace. His 11-year tenure at Etsy has been instrumental in transforming the platform from a web-centric marketplace to a multi-platform powerhouse while staying true to its core mission of "keeping commerce human."

We explore how Etsy manages its massive scale of unique inventory, leverages AI for better discovery, and maintains the delicate balance between growth and marketplace identity. Nicholas shares insights on structuring product teams around business challenges, measuring seller success, and fostering innovation through features like "Spaces" that enhance browsing experiences.

What you'll learn:
How Etsy structures its product organization to tackle marketplace challenges
Strategies for managing and categorizing millions of unique items
Key metrics for measuring seller success and platform health
Approaches to balancing automation with maintaining human connections
The role of AI in understanding and surfacing unique inventory

(00:00) Intro and Etsy's Evolution
(05:00) Managing Scale in a Unique Marketplace
(15:00) Product Organization Structure
(25:00) Measuring Seller Success
(35:00) AI and Innovation in Discovery
(45:00) Future Vision and Challenges

Key Takeaways👇:
- Nicholas reveals how Etsy's 30+ product squads are organized around business challenges rather than traditional product lines, maintaining a ratio of 1 PM to 6 engineers for optimal efficiency.
- Managing 130M unique items (expanding to 2B+ with variations) requires sophisticated AI/ML approaches, as traditional e-commerce categorization doesn't work for handmade items.
- Focus on seller success as a leading indicator, with key metrics including time to first sale, product assortment updates, and platform tool adoption.
- Etsy's approach to innovation, including features like "Spaces," demonstrates how to enhance discovery while maintaining the human element that defines their marketplace.
- Strong emphasis on "keeping commerce human" while scaling, showing how to maintain marketplace identity and quality during growth.

This episode is brought to you by Persona, the adaptable identity platform that helps businesses fight fraud, meet compliance requirements, and build trust. These days, it's easier than ever for fraudsters to steal voices, faces, and identities. That's where Persona comes in; helping leading companies to securely verify individuals and businesses worldwide, providing flexible building blocks to create tailored verification flows that maximize conversion while minimizing risks.
Whether you work at a startup or large enterprise, you can get started for free here: https://withpersona.com/productschool

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ABOUT US:
Product School (https://prdct.school/3DYNwmd) is the global leader in Product training with a community of over two million product professionals.

All of our instructors are Product Leaders working at top Silicon Valley companies including Google, Meta, Netflix, Airbnb, Uber, and Amazon.

Designed to fit into your work schedule, all certifications are taught live online in small cohorts.

In this episode of The Product Podcast, Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia interviews Tricia Maia, Head of Product at TED, the 40-year-old nonprofit organization renowned for its influential talks that have garnered billions of views since launching online in 2006.

As Head of Product at TED, Tricia leads the product organization overseeing ted.com, mobile apps, events products, and backend platforms. Her team manages a complex ecosystem that delivers TED's mission of spreading ideas across borders and languages, with content translated into over 100 languages and distributed across multiple platforms.

We explore how TED balances being both a legacy institution and a startup-like organization, diving deep into their approach to AI implementation, content distribution strategy, and measuring success in a mission-driven environment. We'll discuss how TED leverages technology to make its content more accessible globally while maintaining its high standards and editorial vision.

What you'll learn:
• What it’s like to be a product leader at a nonprofit with global digital reach
• How TED uses AI to improve accessibility—including voice-cloned dubbing and translation workflows
• How Tricia balances mission-driven goals with the need for sustainable revenue
• How TED is evolving content formats beyond the classic 18-minute talk and maintains high-quality content while scaling across platforms
• How data-driven personalization is blended with editorial curation
• The key metrics TED focuses on—including engagement, retention, and impact
• How Tricia structures her team and prioritizes projects to drive maximum impact

Key Takeaways 👇:
Tricia emphasizes how being mission-driven shapes every product decision while maintaining business sustainability. The organization's unique hybrid model demonstrates how to balance innovation with established brand value.
TED's careful implementation of AI technology, particularly in translation and dubbing, shows how to introduce innovative solutions while preserving valuable human contributions and maintaining quality standards.
The combination of traditional KPIs with mission impact metrics provides a comprehensive framework for measuring success in a mission-driven organization, balancing quantitative metrics with qualitative impact assessment.
TED's effective use of functional teams combined with squad-based execution demonstrates how to maintain expertise while enabling rapid project delivery and focused business objectives.

Social Links:
- Follow our Podcast on Tik Tok here
- Follow Product School on LinkedIn here
- Join Product School's free events here
- Find out more about Product School here

Brought to you by:
This episode is brought to you by Persona, the adaptable identity platform that helps businesses fight fraud, meet compliance requirements, and build trust.
These days, it's easier than ever for fraudsters to steal voices, faces, and identities. That's where Persona comes in; helping leading companies to securely verify individuals and businesses worldwide, providing flexible building blocks to create tailored verification flows that maximize conversion while minimizing risks.
Whether you work at a startup or large enterprise, you can get started for free: withpersona.com/productschool

Credits:
Host: Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia
Guest: Tricia Maia

In this episode, Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia interviews Philipp Kandal, Chief Product Officer at Grab, Southeast Asia's leading super app serving over 40 million monthly active users across eight countries.

Originally launched as a taxi-hailing service in Malaysia, Grab has evolved into a comprehensive platform offering ride-hailing, food delivery, financial services, and more. After acquiring Uber's Southeast Asia operations in 2018, Grab went public in 2021 and is now valued at approximately $20 billion, generating $2.8 billion in revenue with 19% year-over-year growth.

We explore Grab's transformation from a single-service app to a super app powerhouse, diving into their hyperlocal approach to product development, organizational structure, and how they leverage technology to solve unique challenges in Southeast Asia.

What you'll learn:

• How Grab evolved from a taxi-hailing service to a super app by following user needs
• Strategies for competing with global players through hyperlocal solutions
• How to structure product teams for both platform and business innovation
• The role of user immersion in improving driver and consumer experiences
• Ways to balance growth with profitability in emerging markets

Episode Chapters:
(00:00) Introduction and Grab's Evolution
(10:00) Building Product Teams at Scale
(20:00) Hyperlocal Strategy in Southeast Asia
(30:00) Product Development Through User Understanding
(40:00) Balancing Growth and Profitability
(50:00) Technical Innovation and Challenges

Key Takeaways👇:

• Super App Evolution: Success came from following user needs rather than copying global models, expanding naturally from transport to food delivery to financial services
• Organizational Structure: "Tech families" structure splits teams between platform infrastructure and business verticals, enabling both innovation and efficiency
• Hyperlocal Focus: Custom solutions like GrabMaps and cash payment systems were developed specifically for Southeast Asian market needs
• User Understanding: Direct field experience through "shadow shifts" leads to better product decisions and feature development
• Technical Innovation: Built custom solutions to address unique challenges like multiple languages, poor connectivity, and diverse payment systems

This episode is brought to you by Persona, the adaptable identity platform that helps businesses fight fraud, meet compliance requirements, and build trust.
These days, it's easier than ever for fraudsters to steal voices, faces, and identities. That's where Persona comes in; helping leading companies to securely verify individuals and businesses worldwide, providing flexible building blocks to create tailored verification flows that maximize conversion while minimizing risks.
Whether you work at a startup or large enterprise, you can get started for free here: withpersona.com/productschool

Social Links:
- Follow our Podcast on Tik Tok here
- Follow Product School on LinkedIn here
- Join Product School's free events here
- Find out more about Product School here

Credits:
Host: Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia
Guest: Philipp Kandal