Many companies offer a wide range of products, but only a few manage to create something that truly connects with customers—something that stands out for its quality, value, and impact. These exceptional products aren’t the result of luck. They are the outcome of thoughtful leadership—of people who truly understand what customers need and know how to turn that insight into practical results.
These leaders are instrumental in shaping the product and the entire experience around it. They guide their teams with clear direction, hands-on tools, and a deep focus on customer understanding. What makes them stand out is their ability to balance business goals with what people want and need, creating products that are useful and meaningful.
Vidya Dinamani and Heather Samarin, Founder & Partner of Product Rebels, are two such leaders who are redefining how product teams work. With deep experience in product leadership at companies like Intuit, they saw a big gap in how product training was delivered—too much theory and not enough real-world application. To fix this, they founded Product Rebels, a company that offers practical, action-focused training and coaching for product teams. Together, they developed the Product Groundwork Method™, wrote the book Groundwork: Get Better at Making Better Products, and created services like hands-on workshops, executive coaching, and a supportive learning community.
Their work is built on real experience, a strong belief in putting customers first, and a practical approach that helps teams deliver results. By embracing new trends like AI and launching tools such as the Product Leader Assessment, they’ve helped companies—from startups to Fortune 50 giants—build better products and stronger teams. Their partnership, grounded in shared values and a passion for empowering others, continues to drive the success of Product Rebels and shape the future of product leadership.
A Decade of Learning
Vidya and Heather first crossed paths at Intuit in the early 2000s, where they spent over a decade immersed in customer experience and innovation. During their time there, they held key product leadership roles and gained hands-on experience building and launching well-known products like TurboTax and QuickBooks. Working at a company recognized for its strong customer focus deeply influenced their approach to product development.
After their time at Intuit, they went on to lead product efforts at various organizations, where they encountered many of the same challenges when it came to consistent practices of learning from customers, leading product teams at scale, and bringing products to market. Through successes and setbacks, they began to see consistent patterns that often determined whether a product would thrive or fail. These insights and years of experience inspired them to create a more practical, scalable way to help others build products that truly resonate with customers.
Vision to Revolutionize Building Exceptional Products and Product Teams
Product Rebels was founded out of a strong desire to address a significant gap in the product development world. The founders noticed many teams struggling to consistently create products that genuinely met customer needs, often due to the absence of clear frameworks and practical guidance. Traditional training was typically theoretical and generic, not providing product teams with the actionable skills or mindset needed to handle the complexities of real-world product development. Product Rebels was created to offer product leaders and their teams the tools, coaching, and support needed to build customer-centric experiences that drive growth.
Complementary Leadership
Vidya and Heather bring complementary strengths to the leadership of Product Rebels. Their roles are flexible, adapting to the specific needs of each client and project, allowing them to focus on different areas of the business as required. Together, they collaborate on strategic direction, program development, and client engagement. Their responsibilities encompass thought leadership, curriculum design, coaching delivery, and business development. Their strong partnership is grounded in a shared commitment to empowering product teams and delivering practical, results-driven solutions that help clients succeed.
This commitment extends to the Product Rebels coaching team, a carefully selected group of seasoned product executives. These coaches possess deep, hands-on experience leading product teams at top-tier companies. They bring a wealth of practical knowledge and a proven ability to guide clients through complex product challenges. Their expertise spans various industries and product development methodologies, enabling them to provide tailored support and mentorship. Beyond their individual accomplishments, they are united by a shared passion for customer-centricity and a dedication to empowering product leaders to drive meaningful change within their organizations.
Identifying the Critical Gap
One of the most inspiring success stories of Product Rebels involves a product team that was approaching a launch. Initially, their engagement with the team was meant for fine-tuning. However, it quickly became clear that the team wasn’t addressing the most critical problem for their customers; instead, they were focused on a solution that was just acceptable. Showing impressive leadership, the team decided to pause the launch, reconnect with their customers, and change their approach to tackle a much larger, unmet need. This customer-focused shift resulted in a highly anticipated launch four months later, which had a significant positive impact on the business.
Another notable area of success is when addressing the challenge of scaling product management for multinational organizations with hundreds of product teams. For example, Vidya and Heather, with their team of product coaches, led an initiative at one such company to drive alignment and customer focus across their entire product organization. By teaching teams how to quickly create a product vision and align their team around this clear outcome, by showing them how to conduct scrappy research to learn fast, and by integrating the customer deeply into every product decision, they ensured that every product team was working towards the same vision and delivering measurable business and customer outcomes.
Maintaining Coaching Excellence
Product Rebels faced several challenges while establishing their company, but they navigated through them with strategic decisions and a strong commitment to their mission.
Here are the key challenges and how they were overcome:
- Identifying Skill Gaps: Initially, their broader approach to product management identified the need to focus on the core skills needed to truly understand customers. This discovery led to the development of the Product Groundwork Method™, which emphasizes foundational skills often overlooked in traditional training programs.
- Standing Out in a Crowded Market: The product management space is highly competitive, making it difficult to differentiate from others. Product Rebels overcame this challenge by positioning themselves as experts, engaging directly with other product leaders, creating valuable content, and hosting interviews with influential leaders across multiple industries on their podcast.
- Maintaining High-Quality Coaching While Scaling: As the company grew, it was essential to ensure that the quality of coaching and training remained exceptional. Product Rebels addressed this challenge by selectively bringing on executive coaches who shared their values and were passionate about customer-driven product management, ensuring the highest level of support for clients.
Real-World Impact
Product Rebels stands out because of its focus on practical application and real-world experience.
The company’s approach is unique for several reasons:
- Grounded in Experience: Built on the founders’ extensive product leadership experience, not just theory.
- Team of Tenured Executives: every coach on the Product Rebels’ team has extensive product experience
- Focus on Customer-Centricity: Emphasizes understanding customer needs for successful product development.
- Actionable Framework: The Product Groundwork Method™ provides a clear, repeatable process for immediate use.
Hands-on Coaching: Offers personalized coaching from experienced product executives alongside training.
This blend of practical frameworks, real-world experience, and personalized coaching distinguishes them from traditional training programs.
Supporting Startups to Fortune50 Companies
Since its inception, Product Rebels has evolved from a training and coaching company into a provider of more comprehensive solutions for product teams.
Product Rebels has achieved several significant milestones, including:
- Developing the Product Groundwork Method™: A customer-centric product development framework that optimizes existing product management and development practices
- Authoring Groundwork: Get Better at Making Better Products: A book that reinforced thought leadership and expanded reach.
- Serving 200+ clients: Partnering with companies from startups to Fortune 50, showcasing approach adaptability.
- Integrated AI into Groundwork: Launching a community of practice, product leader assessment, and workshops on AI, product-led, and customer-first thinking.
- Launched Product Team Assessment: quickly highlights and prioritizes the biggest opportunities for coaching and training.
- 3 years of hosting podcast, Product Rebels: Hosting a podcast and speaking at global product conferences.
Above all, Product Rebels is proud of its reputation for delivering practical, results-driven training that empowers product teams to create successful products.
Adapting to Emerging Trends
Product Rebels stays relevant and impactful through several key strategies. The team closely monitors emerging trends and technologies. For example, with the growing focus on AI, they guide product teams to look beyond simply adding AI features and rethink the entire customer experience. Their approach ensures that teams stay customer-first, rather than being driven only by rapid development or any one technology. They also emphasize the importance of practical application, tailoring their work to meet the specific needs of clients rather than relying on theoretical case studies.
This allows them to grow and adapt alongside their clients. Additionally, Product Rebels is actively involved in global product industry events and is excited to launch its Product Manager Summit in June in San Diego. This continuous engagement helps them stay at the forefront of the field and informs their approach.
Prioritizing Needs and Voice of the Customer
The key values at Product Rebels are centered around customer obsession, a strong commitment to understanding and advocating for the customer. They emphasize practicality by providing actionable advice and tools that can be immediately put into use. Empowerment is also a core value, ensuring that teams are equipped with the skills and confidence needed to drive success. Collaboration plays a crucial role, fostering teamwork and bringing people together to make informed product decisions. Finally, they are results-driven, focused on achieving tangible outcomes and measurable impact for their clients.
Personalization, Continuous Learning, and AI Integration
Product Rebels recognizes several key trends that are shaping the future of professional training and coaching, and they are actively evolving their offerings to stay ahead:
- Continuous Learning & Ongoing Support: Product Rebels supports ongoing learning through its Community of Practice, offering monthly “Product Power Hours” and real-time expert support to drive continuous team growth.
- Personalized, Contextualized Programs: Their Groundwork program is tailored to each client’s product, ensuring training is practical, relevant, and directly applicable.
- Integrating Emerging Technologies (AI): Product Rebels is leveraging AI to deepen personalization and streamline training, enhancing impact and efficiency for clients.
Practical Tools for Actionable Results
Vidya and Heather with their executive coaching team bring deep industry expertise to their work, drawing from years of experience as product leaders at top companies. Their strong customer-centric mindset is at the heart of everything they do, always focusing on understanding and solving real customer problems. As a collaborative team, they combine their complementary skills to work effectively and deliver greater impact. They are committed to providing clients with practical tools and strategies that lead to real, actionable results. Above all, they are passionate about empowering product teams and leaders to grow, succeed, and build better products.
Consistently Exceed Client Expectations
Vidya and Heather believe that to succeed in the training and coaching sector, it is essential to develop deep expertise and consistently deliver high-quality, valuable content. They emphasize the importance of identifying a clear market need and tailoring services to effectively address it. According to them, building a strong network and nurturing relationships with potential clients and industry leaders is also key. Their client-centered approach focuses on measurable outcomes and return on investment, which helps build trust and lasting impact. They also encourage staying open to new technologies and delivery methods to enhance the learning experience and foster long-term partnerships.
Expanding Horizons
Product Rebels has some exciting plans for the future, including the recent launch of the Product Leader Assessment. This tool is designed to provide product leaders with a comprehensive understanding of their team’s strengths and areas for growth, helping guide their development. Looking forward, the company is focused on expanding its international reach to better serve multinational clients. Additionally, Product Rebels is set to launch the integration of AI into their programs to support product teams in building a stronger foundation and creating more effective, customer-focused products.
5 Business Lessons from Vidya Dinamani & Heather Samarin
- Prioritize Practical Learning: hands-on application beats theory every time
- Know your Customer Inside out: deep insights are the only way to build what truly matters
- Align on Values: shared principles drive consistent excellence
- Adapt or get left behind: tools, needs and markets move fast, and so should you
- Empower others: give your people the tools and trust to lead
