No-Code vs Code First: Why Visual Builders Often Lead to Integration Dead Ends
Between Product and Partnerships · 2026-01-28 · 37 min
Episode notes
Integrations look deceptively simple until they become the backbone of your business. In this episode of Between Product and Partnerships , Pandium CEO Cristina Flaschen sits down with Scott Lavery, Senior Product Manager at Arkestro. They unpack what really happens when integrations shift from a "nice to have" feature to something the company can't function without. Scott shares hard-earned lessons from a decade in B2B SaaS, covering sectors from martech to procurement. He discusses the headache of inheriting messy stacks and why iPaaS tools often hide long-term costs. The conversation also explores how integration work fundamentally changes what it means to be a product manager. Together, they dig into common failure modes and the tough tradeoffs junior PMs face when they’re "volun-told" to own integrations. Who we sat down with Scott Lavery is a Senior Product Manager at Arkestro. With over ten years of experience in B2B SaaS, he has repeatedly found himself responsible for integrations, often without ever intending to specialize in them. Scott brings expertise in: Unwinding complex iPaaS-driven environments.
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