The Platform Playbook: Secrets to Agility, Ecosystems, and Growth Artwork

The Intentional Product Manager Podcast

Are you a high-performing product manager looking to reach the next level of success in your product career?

Shobhit Chugh will show you how.

Shobhit left a full-time roll at Google to help ambitious product managers position themselves to become product leaders, so they can raise their income as much as 50%, command the respect their hard work deserves, and make an impact they can truly be proud of.

To learn more about how to take your product management career talk to us at https://www.intentionalproductmanager.com/apply

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The Intentional Product Manager Podcast

The Platform Playbook: Secrets to Agility, Ecosystems, and Growth

September 17, 2025 • Shobhit Chugh • Season 1 • Episode 37

What does it take to build a platform that scales, delights customers, and powers entire ecosystems?

In this episode of the Intentional Product Manager Podcast, Shobhit sits down with Dilip Poluru, a seasoned platform product leader with experience at Informatica and ActiveCampaign, to unpack the strategies behind successful platform management.

Dilip shares actionable insights on:

Turning deep customer insights into platform strategy
Designing for extensibility and co-innovation
Crafting billing models (like consumption-based and freemium) that fuel growth
Balancing agility vs. stability in complex ecosystems
Building impactful first-party apps that attract and empower partners

Along the way, Dilip reflects on his own career journey and offers personal growth lessons for aspiring and experienced product managers alike.

Timestamps
00:00 – Introduction
00:29 – Meet Dru: From ActiveCampaign to Informatica
00:46 – What Defines a Platform?
01:21 – Lessons Learned at ActiveCampaign
01:47 – Insights from Building at Informatica
02:14 – Crafting a Platform Playbook
05:52 – Customer Success Stories
06:25 – Metrics & Monitoring Platforms
07:11 – Co-Innovation and Extensibility
09:48 – Balancing Stability with Agility
12:40 – API Management & Policy Design
15:34 – Billing Models: Consumption & Freemium
18:23 – The First “Aha” Moment with Free Offerings
27:30 – Career Growth Lessons for PMs
28:28 – Lightning Round + Closing

Connect with Shobhit at https://www.linkedin.com/in/shobhitchugh/

Connect with Dilip at https://www.linkedin.com/in/dilippoluru/