Ben Clark is the Chief Technology Officer of the leading D2C mattress company Casper Sleep. As a senior tech leader of a popular D2C brand, Ben says it can be difficult to stay ahead of the curve and set trends. For him, the key to success in D2C is simple: stay curious and examine your failures. 

A lot of context switching comes with managing digital products for a physical products company. To navigate it, Ben and the Casper team embrace elegant simplicity, both in their products and strategy. 

Ben shows us that great ideas can come from anywhere. At Casper, he’s seen that true innovation involves cross-functional collaboration and open conversations.

Takeaways: 

• Tech is critical to success, even for physical product companies
• Use tech to stand out in crowded markets
• Stay curious
• Filter out the noise and focus on what will affect you
• Learn from your mistakes
• Proactively uncover problems with your product
• Maintain simplicity in your product
• Invite ideas from anywhere

Things to Listen For:

• [02:30] Ben’s experience at Wayfair and Casper
• [04:00] Tech influences the success of physical product companies
• [06:45] Managing diverse digital products
• [08:20] Staying curious about shifts in the market
• [09:00] Learning from failures
• [11:00] Detecting problems with user behavior 
• [12:00] Teamwork at Casper
• [14:00] Collaborating with physical product teams
• [18:00] Maintaining simplicity in design-driven products
• [20:00] Innovating democratically
• [22:00] Hackathons at Casper
• [23:00] Emerging stronger after the pandemic