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Moments That Changed Us - All Things Product Podcast with Teresa Torres & Petra Wille

Moments That Changed Us - All Things Product Podcast with Teresa Torres & Petra Wille

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In this episode of All Things Product, Teresa Torres and Petra Wille swap the stories that shaped their careers. From navigating the fallout of the 2008 recession as a startup CEO, to realizing the company won’t love you back no matter how loyal you are, to the first user interviews that cracked open a new way of seeing product work—these are the pivotal (and sometimes funny) moments that changed everything.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

  • Why hitting the limits of your own capacity can reshape how you prioritize
  • The moment Teresa realized no one has the “right answer” in hard times—and how that unlocked - her agency as a leader
  • Petra’s hard-earned lesson about loyalty, burnout, and setting healthy boundaries
  • How early user interviews (and a nudge from Marty Cagan) transformed Petra’s product practice
  • The humbling reminders that you are not your user

Key Moments:

  • [02:30] Teresa’s crash course as a startup CEO during the 2008 recession
  • [11:20] Realizing prioritization is survival, not just a backlog exercise
  • [18:45] “No one knows the answer” — the leadership shift that gave Teresa agency
  • [29:10] Petra’s story: why the company doesn’t love you back
  • [42:05] The pay raise that came too late
  • [50:15] Marty Cagan and Petra’s first user interviews at Starbucks
  • [01:02:00] Funny user research fails: “close the window” taken literally

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