Feb 04, 2021 | 3 min read

Product Manager Mindset with Dustin Kirkland

By: Patrick Emmons

Product Manager Mindset with Dustin Kirkland

Product managers are visionaries. They are uniquely able to marry engineering knowledge with customer useability in mind. Dustin Kirkland, Chief Product Officer at Apex Clearing, has been in the product space for more than 20 years. During that time, he has developed a deep knowledge of technical processes paired with a desire to help customers achieve the outcome they want.

Dustin joined Patrick and Shelli to discuss what it takes to develop a product manager mindset, why he wishes he would have stuck with controversial ideas early in his career, and the current landscape of product design in IT. Tune in for his story and wisdom.

  • (01:48) - What is Apex Clearing?
  • (02:52) - Fractional share offerings
  • (06:49) - Disruptive fintech tools
  • (10:51) - True to the vision
  • (13:40) - Sphere of influence
  • (19:04) - Project-to-product mentality
  • (21:33) - Getting involved in product management
  • (26:58) - Leaders are learners

Dustin Kirkland is the Chief Product Officer at Apex Clearing. As CPO, Dustin is responsible for defining the vision and evolving the strategy of Apex’s product portfolio. With 20 years of experience in the software and technology industry, Dustin has worked for some of the largest technology firms—Google and IBM, along with innovative startups—Gazzang, acquired by Cloudera, and Canonical, which is the company behind Ubuntu. His team of product managers interface with Apex customers and Apex engineers on a daily basis, ensuring quality, excellence, completeness, and timely delivery of the product release cycles.

If you’d like to receive new episodes as they’re published, please subscribe to Innovation and the Digital Enterprise in Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a review in Apple Podcasts. It really helps others find the show.

Subscribe on Your Favorite Podcast Platform
Innovation and the Digital Enterprise
Listen on Apple PodcastsListen on Google PodcastsListen on Spotify Podcasts

Podcast episode production by Dante32.

About Patrick Emmons

If you can’t appreciate a good sports analogy, movie quote, or military reference, you may not want to work with him, but if you value honesty, integrity, and commitment to improvement, Patrick can certainly help take your business or your career to the next level. “Good enough,” is simply not in his vernacular. Pat’s passion is for relentlessly pushing himself and others to achieve full potential. Patrick Emmons is a graduate of St. Norbert College with a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science and Mathematics. Patrick co-founded Adage Technologies in 2001 and in 2015, founded DragonSpears as a spin-off dedicated to developing custom applications that improve speed, compliance and scalability of clients’ internal and customer-facing workflow processes. When he is not learning about new technology, running a better business, or becoming a stronger leader, he can be found coaching his kids’ (FIVE of them) baseball and lacrosse teams and praising his ever-so-patient wife for all her support.

Recent Episodes

We interview leaders from early-stage start-ups to billion-dollar enterprises who distill their lessons from their victories and their failures. Learn how these high-performing leaders organize their teams, establish a growth-minded culture, and leverage new technologies such as DevOps and Cloud.