Nomiki Petrolla Is A Fractional Head Of Product For Software Startups Building Complete User Experiences That Combine Product, Design, And Strategy

Nomiki is a fractional Head of Product for software startups building complete user experiences that combine product, design, and strategy. She works with early stage businesses building solutions in FemTech, Machine Learning, eComm, and FinTech (+ more!) and has created products that has served millions of customers and processed billions in revenue. As a creator and innovator, Nomiki is on her mission to lead the next generation of founders in bringing their software ideas to life at the PDS Lab through a hands-on training program. 

What motivated you to become an entrepreneur? Is having your own business something you always wanted?

If you want the honest answer – I got to the point in my career where I was tired of building other people’s ideas instead of using all of that knowledge and growth into building my own business. It took me 12 years of learning and 4 kids to be able to say “it’s my time” and now I’m using all of that knowledge, experience, and wisdom of being a product leader for startups and showing other founders how to do it, too. It’s the ultimate dream job for me to put everything in my career into a product offering. I’m one of the lucky ones that truly loves what I do, and am constantly energized by innovation and learning so I’m incredibly proud and happy with my journey as an entrepreneur. 

What is the most important when it comes to goal setting? Do you have any goal setting hacks?

Every year, instead of a new year’s resolution, I start off with a BIG goal and I focus every month around the tactics that will fuel the steps to reach that goal. It’s not enough to say you’re going achieve something but you have to make it a part of your lifestyle in order to achieve those things. That could mean that I calendar block every week to focus on my projects or it could be attending startup conferences to network. Ultimately, we have to hold ourselves accountable and my “hack” is forced action by dreaming big… really big!

If we had to burn all the books in the world, but keep just 3… Which ones should we keep and why?

Ahh! Well first the absolute best gold mine of a resource for me in the past few years hasn’t been a book but a podcast called In Depth, by First Round Capital - I recommend this to everyone that asks. It’s golden bars of knowledge.

The second is The Lean Startup - it’s an oldie but a goodie by Eric Ries teaching how to build a startup. 

And the last one is The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick - it’s an incredible fast read and it teaches you how to talk to customers and learn from them to help build your products. Anyone that is building software needs to read this. 

CLICK HERE TO CONNECT WITH NOMIKI ON INSTAGRAM AND HERE TO VISIT THE WEBSITE