93. The Future of Cities E01: Building for Resilience w/ Justas Petronis

​​Host André Marquet speaks with Justas Petrónis. Justas is 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. In this podcast, we reason why every product manager needs to be a philosopher, the mantra of building things that don’t scale, and building certainty in the complete environment of uncertainty. And why the best way to reduce traffic jams by 30% is to fix public schools. Because optimizing for efficiency you will be in a situation where you leave people behind. Timestamps: 0:30 welcome 1:00 guest introduction 1:45 Justas tells about the change in his daily life in face of the RU-UA war 4:30 Is there a peaceful way out of war 7:40 How did Justas start in product management? 10:40 Epistemology: what does it mean to know? 13:10 How product happened in Justas life as a philosophy student | Talk with a modern philosophy lecturer over a drink leads to career decisions 15:45 Fascination about technology helps to find UX design 17:00 Justas's role in TransferGo, competitors of the company. How can money transfers be juxtaposed with bus drivers? 22:35 Helping people who don’t have access to banks. 24:20 Aspects of the work which Justas is the most passionate about 26:00 What would Justas learn in 3 months if he had to choose? 28:30 Clashes of different civilizations 29:50 “Short history of Russia” by Mark Galeotti 32:30 Product experience at Trafi. How did Justas start caring about mobility issues? Fixing traffic jams by fixing public schools. 37:50 Vilnius City Mayor Remigijus Šimašius. Metric-based thinking in Vilnius. 40:00 Building for resilience - What is the right way to start building product-driven cultures in cities? 44:20 Running a city is like running a family. 47:15 Experience at Trafi in Berlin during Covid-19. 52:10 Is it possible to productize for unexpected events? 59:30 What impacts do current political events have on businesses in Lithuania? How have the governments in Lithuania adjusted to the situation? 1:03:15 Advice for younger self, wanna-be philosopher/product manager. 📚Book recommendations: [1] “Energy and civilization history”, by Vaclav Smil - https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/energy-and-civilization [2]The fifth risk” by Michael Lewis - https://www.bookdepository.com/The-Fifth-Risk-Michael-Lewis/9780393357455 [3] “Short history of Russia” by Mark Galeotti https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/111/1119330/a-short-history-of-russia/9781529106381.html [4] Clash of Civilizations by Samuel P. Huntington ​​🎙 The Productized Podcast is produced by Productized - a series of interviews with product innovators, successful makers, and entrepreneurs. We hope those who listen to the ideas on this show are inspired to productize. For show notes and additional resources related to the Productized Podcast visit medium.com/@Productized. PRODUCTION This podcast was hosted by André Marquet, with research by Evelina Bogdiun and sound editing by Miguel Sousa.