Product Bakery – The Product Management, UX & Design Podcast · Alex Dapunt and Christian Strunk

#113 Product Discovery Aha Moments - Esmar Mesic CPO @Trueprofile

May 11, 2023·34 min·2 clips

Esmar says the real power user is the recruitment company, not the job seeker.

A product leader lands in motion, but the episode does not rush him into neat answers. Christian and Alex frame the conversation around a guest who has moved countries, joined TrueProfile, and taken on the product organization. His first answer is refreshingly plain: the start was challenging, and the useful move was observation, not instant reinvention. That pace gives the conversation its backbone. Discovery comes across as work done inside a real company, with loose edges and competing personas, not as a workshop exercise with tidy sticky notes. The best lesson comes from a miss. The team had spent plenty of attention on the end customer, then the B2B side revealed people who may use the product more often. The host catches that and sits with it. The point is simple but easy to skip: look across the personas before deciding who the product is really for. The LinkedIn comparison helps. Everyday users may keep a platform moving, while sales navigators, recruiting, and advertisers can be where the money sits. That opens a sharper question around job seekers and whether more engagement would matter. Content comes up as one possible route, but the excerpt stays on the discovery logic rather than pretending there is a finished roadmap. Near the end, process gets practical too: fully async work, no calls, tools carrying collaboration across the team. The closing advice stays grounded. Observe, be patient, run the gap analysis, get into the trenches, then let the product earn its next move.

As heard by us

A steady reminder that product discovery starts with observation, not instant action.

The conversation tracks what product leadership looks like when someone lands in a new country, joins a new team, and has to learn the business before trying to change it.

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Why you'd press play

For when you're stepping into a new product and need to earn your footing before you move.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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