Innovation and Product Management

In the episode 10 of the Unleashed Academy podcast, Dylan talks about innovation and product management with Matt O’Grady, Product Manager from Unleashed. Matt details the evolution of the SaaS industry, key trends in the industry and rise of Amazon and AI and their impact on software development at Unleashed.

Matt has been part of the Unleashed Software team since 2011, joining the team as a Customer Support Consultant. As the team at Unleashed expanded, Matt has progressed to take on the role of Product Manager, where he now responsible for the strategy, road map and features developed within the Unleashed product.

6:35 The Evolution of SaaS

Matt discuss how SaaS has evolved over the last 6 years. There is now a great adoption of SaaS based products due to an increasing prevalence of them in day to day life. The barriers to entry have also dramatically reduced for businesses in adopting software as SaaS reduces the costs of implementing solutions.

11:44 The rise of Amazon

Matt discusses the rise of Amazon and its influence on the Unleashed product.

15:40 The Product Release Cycle

Matt discusses the process by which features are released at Unleashed. This includes using beta release phases for the release of major features and the regular weekly release cycle for small changes. Matt covers the process of QA and automated testing that is undertaken to ensure the feature is tested prior to release.

18:55 Key Trends in the SaaS industry

Automation has become a key trend in the industry to reduce costs. Reducing the human element in software production dramatically improves costs.

27:04 AI and tool development

Matt discusses how AI will be used in the future to drive the customers interaction with software.

34:15 Top tips for New Developers

The key for new developers is to get involved with the customers that you are working with. It helps to understand what you are trying to help your customers do with the product you are developing. It is also key to work closely with peers, there is often a lot of expertise and experience that can be shared in the development community over common problems.