CPO Stories: Bhavesh Vaghela - London Ma...

In this new "podcast within a podcast", I'll be speaking to executive product leaders from the UK's biggest companies as well as up-and-coming stars of the future. I'll be digging into how they approach product management within their organisations, how they approached the leap into executive product leadership and trying to get some deep insights into how they view product management practices and culture. If you're a CPO and would like to come on, drop me a line! Or, forward this episode to your CPO and tell them you want them to come on 🙂

In this episode, I speak with Bhavesh Vaghela, Chief Product & Technology Officer at London Marathon Events. Bhavesh started out working as an engineer at HP before a rich career journey through Barclays, TSB, Callsign and Collinson, before moving into the CPTO role at London Marathon Events.

We cover a lot, including:

• What London Marathon Events actually does beyond race day, and how it drives physical activity across society
• How London Marathon Events approaches Product in a hybrid digital/physical world, and why product goes far beyond apps and websites
• Balancing a seamless B2C customer experience with the hard technical demands of world-class live events
• What it means for Product and Technology planning when the date can't slip, and getting it wrong could ruin a world record attempt
• Balancing the CPO and CTO hats: how combining Product and Technology under one role can drive alignment and delivery in the right type of organisation
• Product Management at London Marathon Events: a small team of unflappable, smart people driving high impact with strong purpose
• Why domain expertise matters, but curiosity matters more, and what to do when everyone has an opinion about your product
• The importance of building a culture of learning through experimentation, humility, air cover and making it ok to fail
• Why now is a brilliant time to join London Marathon Events: purpose, opportunity, and the irresistible rise of running

Check out London Marathon Events' website: https://www.londonmarathonevents.co.uk/, or their careers page: https://www.londonmarathonevents.co.uk/london-marathon-events/careers.

You can connect with Bhavesh on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bhaveshvaghela/.