Make the C-Suite Think Like a Startup (Without Getting Fired) | West Stringfellow, VP Product (ex-Target, Blackhawk)

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LaunchPod | Product Management Podcast

LogRocket

104 episodes

1 week ago

LaunchPod is a product management podcast hosted by LogRocket's CEO, Matt Arbesfeld, and VP of Marketing, Jeff Wharton, where they talk to product leaders about the issues they faced in their careers, how they found solutions to those issues, and how you can apply these solutions in your own day-to-day product role.

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Make the C-Suite Think Like a Startup (Without Getting Fired) | West Stringfellow, VP Product (ex-Target, Blackhawk)

LaunchPod | Product Management Podcast

32 minutes 25 seconds

4 weeks ago

Make the C-Suite Think Like a Startup (Without Getting Fired) | West Stringfellow, VP Product (ex-Target, Blackhawk)

Today, we’re joined by West Stringfellow, currently VP of Product at Blackhawk Network and former VP of Innovation at Target.

In this episode, West shares:

How he went from stealth startups to leading innovation at a company with over $77 billion in annual sales
The methods he uses to manage up and influence leadership in order to achieve the outcomes necessary to create successful organizations time and time again
The bold move that accelerated his Target career, which included hand-delivering over 300 copies of his innovation proposal to every executive at their Minneapolis HQ, even catching the attention of Target’s CEO
An inside look at how Blackhawk is thinking about AI and digital transformation by cultivating “culture carriers” to champion AI

Links

West’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/weststringfellow/
Blackhawk Network: https://blackhawknetwork.com/
HowDo: https://howdo.com/about/

Chapters

00:00: Introduction
01:17: West's career journey
02:08: Project Goldfish and West's startup background
05:43: Making product and strategy decisions at Target
06:25: West building a Techstars Startup Accelerator
08:39: How West's work at Target inspired his startup, HowDo
09:44: How did West "manage up" at Target?
17:05: An introduction to Blackhawk
21:02: Digital transformation with gift cards
23:44: How Blackhawk is using AI
30:29: Big AI wins
33:09: Conclusion

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LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.

Special Guest: West Stringfellow.