Mar 17
93. Building for resilience with Justas Petronis
The new season of Productized podcast has already started! In this season called The Future of the Cities, we are talking about potential development of cities, as if they were products.
In the first episode of the podcast, André spoke with Justas Petronis, the lead product manager at TransferGo. Justas holds a degree in Analytic Philosophy and studied at the University of Leuven and Vytautas Magnus University. He also regularly lectures about Marketing and Epistemology. He used to teach Philosophy of Mind & Theory of Artificial Intelligence at the Kaunas University of Technology. Additionally, Justas calls himself a walkability and public transit advocate.
Main topics covered:
🧐 Where product management and philosophy converge.
💪🏼 How to build for resilience, not only efficiency.
📜 Why is it important to learn history?
🧭 Product management while facing crisis.
Time notes:
Welocome [0:30]
Guest introduction [1:00]
Justas tells about he change in his daily life in face of RU-UA war [1:45]
Is there a peaceful way out of war [4:30]
How did Justas start in product management? [7:40]
“There is a direct line between philosophy and product management.” -JP
Epistemology: what does it mean to know? [10:40]
“To know means to justify through belief.” “Truth is not dependent on your opinion.” — JP
“Every product manager needs to be a philosopher in a way.” — AM
How PM happened in Justas life as a philosophy student | Talk with a modern philosophy lecturer over a drink leads to career decisions [13:10]
Fascination about technology helps to find UX design [15:45]
“I am more interested in unpacking problems rather than developing solutions”
“Unpacking problems rather than developing solutions — that’s what product management is.” — JP
Justas role in TransferGo, competitors of the company. How can money transfers be juxtaposed with bus drivers? [17:00]
Helping people who don’t have access to banks. [22:35]
Aspects of the work which Justas is the most passionate about. [24:20]
“I believe in the mantra of building things that don’t scale.” — JP
“Building certainty in the complete environment of uncertainty is what I am mostly passionate about.” — JP
What would Justas learn in 3 months if he had to choose? [26:00]
“I would rather spend 3 month learning about the history of the Middle East than on artificial intelligence.” — JP
Clashes of different civilizations. [28:30]
Product experience at Trafi. How did Justas start caring about mobility issues? Fixing traffic jams by fixing public schools. [32:30]
Vilnius City Mayor Remigijus Šimašius. Metric based thinking in Vilnius. [37:50]
Building for resilience — What is the right way to start building product-driven cultures in cities? [40:00]
“The more efficient you are — the less resilient you are.” — JP
“Optimizing for efficiency you will be in the situation where you leave people behind.” — JP
Running a city is like running a family. [44:20]
Experience at Trafi in Berlin during Covid-19. [47:15]
Is it possible to engineer / design / productize for unexpected events? [52:10]
- Instead of building for a large audience, zoom in on a smaller number of people. That will help to understand who you are.
- Based on “The fifth risk” — Michael Lewis (book): Two metrics — likelihood and cost.
* First — high likelihood and high cost.
* Second — high likelihood and low cost.
And go down the list. Have these metrics ready and then productize accordingly.
“I hate moving fast and breaking things.” — JP
What impacts current political events have on businesses in Lithuania? How have the governments in Lithuania adjusted to the situation? [59:30]
Advice for younger self, wanna-be philosopher / product manager. [1:03:15]
- It’s gonna be ok.
- Read more.
Book recommendation [1:04:20]
“The only reason why we live together is because we share resources.”
Justas recommends:
📕 Vaclav Smil “Energy and civilization history”
📕 Mark Galeotti “A Short History of Russia”
📕 Michael Lewis “The fifth risk”
PRODUCTION
This podcast was hosted by André Marquet, with research done by Evelina Bogdiun and sound edited by Miguel Sousa.
The Productized Podcast is a series of interviews with product innovators, successful makers, and entrepreneurs. We hope to inspire the listeners of this show to be courageous and productize!
Do you want to become a part of the Productized community? Sign up for our Academy HERE
