Message the show!

Is your product manager helping—or holding you hostage?

This week on WFM Unfiltered, Irina brings on Rich O’Farrell, a seasoned contact centre insider turned Product Director, to finally answer the burning question: are product managers the enemy? From call centre agent to the head of WFM product strategy at Verint, Rich has seen it all. And now he’s spilling the internal truths that most vendors hope you never find out.

This episode is a full-throttle breakdown of what really happens behind roadmap promises, AI features nobody asked for, and those “we’re listening” portals that feel more like suggestion graveyards. Rich isn’t here to play corporate nice. He’s here to tell you how product decisions get made, who actually pulls the strings, and why being ignored post-contract is just part of the game.

You’ll hear the blunt truth about why new features don’t work the way you’d expect, why legacy systems behave like confused robots, and why your urgent user feedback might sit in a queue behind some executive’s shiny new AI fantasy. And yes—we talk about forecasting, accuracy myths, headcount confusion, and why engineers sometimes build things they don’t understand (or use).

For anyone who’s ever asked “Why the hell does this tool do that?”—this episode is for you.

Subscribe to WFM Unfiltered on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/@wfmunfiltered?sub_confirmation=1

Show Links:

• RightWFM website: www.rightwfm.com
• Email: Irina@rightwfm.com
• Podcast email: WFMUnfiltered@gmail.com
• Podcast Directory: www.wfmunfiltered.buzzsprout.com/share
• Guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rich-o-farrell-ineverlookatfloor

#ProductManagement, #ForecastingFails, #AIBusted, #VendorReality, #CallCenterTech

Thanks for listening.

If you'd like to contact me about the show, you can email me HERE.

If you have questions about working with me on WFM projects and Consulting, you can find The RightWFM website HERE.

Please remember to subscribe and leave a review of you've enjoyed the show!

Message the show!

Implementations suck. You know it. We know it. Adam Saad really knows it. And he’s not here to sugar-coat a damn thing.

In this episode of WFM Unfiltered, Irina teams up with Adam—Founder of Tech Stack Advising and host of the Scaling Out Loud podcast—to dismantle the illusion of smooth software implementations. From toxic vendor relationships to overpriced consultants and ghosting sales teams, Adam exposes the patterns that derail tech rollouts before the first config screen even loads.

You'll find out why most vendors set false expectations from day one, how implementation teams show up with zero context, and why companies are still hiring junior engineers, slapping “consultant” on their email sigs, and billing like pros. Oh, and Adam’s got a few words about broken pricing models and million-dollar answers. Let’s just say this one isn’t HR-approved.

We also dive into the real fix: setting honest KPIs, hiring based on experience (not branding), and forcing vendors to prove their promises up front—not “somewhere on the roadmap.” It’s raw, it’s practical, and it might save your next rollout.

If you’ve ever suffered through an implementation that left you questioning your life choices, this episode is your therapy.

Subscribe to WFM Unfiltered on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/@wfmunfiltered?sub_confirmation=1

Show Links:

• RightWFM website: www.rightwfm.com
• Email: Irina@rightwfm.com
• Podcast email: WFMUnfiltered@gmail.com
• Podcast Directory: www.wfmunfiltered.buzzsprout.com/share
• Guest Website: https://techstackadvising.com
• Guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-saad-mba/

Thanks for listening.

If you'd like to contact me about the show, you can email me HERE.

If you have questions about working with me on WFM projects and Consulting, you can find The RightWFM website HERE.

Please remember to subscribe and leave a review of you've enjoyed the show!

Message the show!

Is your BPO partner a strategic asset—or an operational liability? In this explosive episode of WFM Unfiltered, Irina pulls no punches and brings in transformation heavyweight Dan Piper to dissect the real state of Business Process Outsourcing in today’s contact centre chaos.

Dan’s 20-year career in operations and BPOs—from team manager to Global VP of Continuous Improvement—makes him uniquely qualified to expose what works, what doesn’t, and what’s quietly killing performance behind the scenes. From scaling lies to recruitment delays, offshore horror stories to crumbling leadership pipelines—nothing is off-limits.

You’ll hear exactly why some clients unknowingly set their BPOs up to fail, and how legacy inefficiencies get baked into outsourcing relationships. We challenge the obsession with language skills, break down why flexible shift expectations are fantasy, and shine a spotlight on the industry-wide attrition crisis that no one wants to talk about.

And of course, we tackle the biggest elephant in the room—why so many ops leaders throw the mess downhill for WFM and recruitment to fix, instead of taking ownership themselves. Spoiler alert: it’s not a tech problem, it’s a leadership problem.

If you’re a senior manager, ops lead, or WFM pro working with BPOs (or thinking about it), this episode might sting—but it’s the wake-up call your strategy needs.

Subscribe to WFM Unfiltered on YouTube to get the real talk no one else will give you:
www.youtube.com/@wfmunfiltered?sub_confirmation=1

Show Links:

RightWFM website: www.rightwfm.com

Email: Irina@rightwfm.com

Podcast email: WFMUnfiltered@gmail.com

Podcast Directory: www.wfmunfiltered.buzzsprout.com/share

Guest Website: www.setekh.co.uk

Guest LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/piperdaniel

Thanks for listening.

If you'd like to contact me about the show, you can email me HERE.

If you have questions about working with me on WFM projects and Consulting, you can find The RightWFM website HERE.

Please remember to subscribe and leave a review of you've enjoyed the show!