Product Thought Leadership with Timothy Alvis

Innovation and the Digital Enterprise

Timothy Alvis is the Chief Product Officer at SPINS and has over 20 years of experience marrying product, consumer needs, and business outcomes. He joined the podcast today to offer his tips for product teams and why they should focus on understanding problems rather than coming up with solutions.

Having started his career as the founder of multiple gaming companies, Tim also discusses the creativity involved with popular video games like Minecraft and Roblox. Tune in for his insights.

• (01:18) - Providing shaped retail insights
• (03:51) - The eras of the gaming industry
• (10:07) - Practicing team dynamics
• (16:47) - Bad/lucky vs. good/unlucky
• (20:42) - How to get truthful feedback
• (25:15) - Finding the “why” in product leadership
• (30:35) - Being problem-focused
• (37:00) - Driving toward your destination
• (38:23) - Shifting mentors

Timothy Alvis is the EVP of Product Innovation at SPINS, a leading provider of retail, consumer insights, and analytics for the natural, organic and specialty products industry. As EVP of Product Innovation. He is responsible for the technology and product strategy and leads the data governance, engineering, product management, product design, and development operations team.

Before becoming the EVP of Product Innovation. Tim held numerous other positions at SPINS, including president of retail operations and vice-president of product. Prior to SPINS, Timothy held positions at Microsoft, Right Point, and Amazon. He launched his first software startup at the age of 20 and has co-founded another five companies.

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.

Podcast episode production by Dante32.