David Kaganovsky, Global Head of Product, WPP: The Problem Behind the Problem

From People Solve Problems by Jamie Flinchbaugh

April 29, 2026 · 24 min

About this episode

David Kaganovsky discusses the importance of understanding the underlying motivations behind customer needs in problem-solving.

David Kaganovsky, Global Head of Product, Brand at WPP, brings a career spent at the intersection of brand strategy, technology, and applied AI to this conversation on People Solve Problems. His perspective on problem-solving is shaped by experiences at some of the world's most recognized organizations, from PWC and EY to Landor, Wavemaker, and GroupM, and sharpened by time at a startup where there was, as he puts it, no safety net. That startup, Go, set out to reinvent how people get a car. Not just the purchase process, but the entire experience of acquiring, using, and returning a vehicle. David describes the breakthrough moment not as a technical one, but as a conceptual one. The team kept failing when they approached the problem through the lens of traditional automotive retail. They only began to succeed when they stopped thinking about selling cars and started thinking about what customers actually wanted: the same frictionless, phone-in-hand experience they had come to expect from every other transaction in their lives. That insight, focusing on the problem behind the problem, is the thread that runs through everything David shares in this episode. Understanding what…

People in this episode

Host: Jamie Flinchbaugh

Guest: David Kaganovsky

Topics covered

problem-solving
brand strategy
technology
applied AI
customer experience
automotive retail

Keywords

problem behind the problem
customer experience
frictionless transactions
brand strategy
applied AI
automotive retail
startup insights

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: WPP, PWC, EY, Landor, Wavemaker, GroupM, Go