Podcast
The Product Podcast
Hosted by Product School · EN
Hosted by Product School CEO Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia, The Product Podcast drills deep into the minds of Chief Product Officers from Cisco, Lovable, Perplexity, Shopify and many more.
We move beyond high-level theory to reveal how top executives actually lead in the age of AI. We dig deep into their real-world decision-making, strategic frameworks, and the operational playbooks used to build intelligent products.
If you are a VP, Director, or CPO looking to drive innovation at scale, this is your essential listen.
32episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
The Lean Startup Author on New Book Incorruptible: Why Good Companies Go Bad and How Great Companies Stay Great | Eric Ries | E297
1w ago00:54:39Tap to summarizeEric Ries wrote The Lean Startup — a book that has sold over 2 million copies and reshaped how a generation of founders and product teams build products. Fifteen years later, he's back with a new book, Incorruptible, and a harder question: not how to build a great company, but how to keep it that way.What you'll learn:Why the forces destroying great companies are structural, not moral — and what that means for how you buildHow Saul Price built FedMart, and Costco's Jim Sinegal each solved half the problem, and why you need both halvesHow Anthropic used a purpose trust structure, the Long-Term Benefit Trust, to protect its safety mission from investor pressureWhy values on the wall fail and what the Johnson & Johnson asbestos scandal reveals about how incentives quietly overwrite principlesHow builders at any level of an organization can start influencing governance without a title or authorityKey takeaways:Success makes you a target: the more valuable your company becomes, the more pressure it faces to betray the mission that made it valuableEthos is the real moat: the intangible system of principles that makes a company trustworthy is harder to copy than any product or contractGovernance is not a legal formality; it is the active, ongoing practice of protecting what you built from the forces that will try to extract itCredits:Host: Carlos Gonzalez de VillaumbrosiaGuest: Eric RiesSocial Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here
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Snowflake VP of AI on Why Enterprises Hide Behind Governance to Avoid Real AI Transformation | Baris Gultekin | E296
3w ago00:26:32Tap to summarizeSnowflake is the AI Data Cloud behind some of the world's largest enterprises — $4.68 billion in annual revenue, 29% year-over-year growth, and over 760 Forbes Global 2000 companies as customers. Baris Gultekin, VP of AI at Snowflake, leads the product efforts that sit at the center of how those enterprises actually operationalize AI. Before Snowflake, he co-founded Google Assistant and scaled it from 10 million to 500 million monthly users.What you'll learn:Why our data isn't clean enough is a delay tactic — and the scoped approach to move past itWhat the semantic layer is and how it lets AI answer business questions accurately, not just fluentlyWhy running AI next to data (instead of sending data to models) makes governance dramatically easierHow Snowflake deployed AI internally: a CEO-level non-optional mandate combined with bottom-up access to their own Cortex coding agentWhy context — not just data — is what agents need to operate reliably at enterprise scaleKey takeaways:Start with one scoped use case, build the semantic model around it, layer governance — don't wait for perfect dataContext is a shared reality for agents: unified data + business semantics + codified workflowsAI adoption compounds when leadership sets a hard mandate and simultaneously gives everyone a tool to experiment withCredits:Host: Carlos Gonzalez de VillaumbrosiaGuest: Baris GultekinSocial Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here
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Superhuman Mail CEO on Rediscovering Product-Market Fit in the Age of AI, Renaming Post-Grammarly Acquisition & Competing against Google Workspace | Rahul Vohra | E295
4w ago00:50:27Tap to summarizeSuperhuman Mail users respond to 72% more emails per hour and save an average of four hours every week — numbers backed by a case study from one of the Big Three strategy consulting firms. Rahul Vohra, CEO at Superhuman Mail, built the world's fastest email engine over three years without launching, held the line until the product was ready, and then productized product-market fit into a repeatable, measurable science. Following Superhuman's acquisition by Grammarly in 2025, Rahul is now steering the company toward a unified AI-native productivity suite spanning email, calendar, tasks, and agents.What you'll learn:The 5-step PMF Engine: how to survey, segment, analyze, implement, and track your way to product-market fit with a numerical scoreWhy you should ignore the not disappointed and most somewhat disappointed users — and which signals actually tell you who to build forHow to use the High Expectation Customer (HXC) framework to narrow your market without changing your productWhy PMF is a moving target and how to defend it against commoditization and copy-cat competitionHow Rahul operates as the editor of the product — using 20 verbatim quotes to push PMs and designers to sharper decisionsKey takeaways:If more than 40% of your users would be very disappointed without your product, you have an initial PMF — and you can measure your way thereChanging your market is faster than changing your product — segmentation alone can jump your PMF score 10 points overnightBuilding for your highest-expectation customer is not the same as building for your ICP — confuse the two, and you'll optimize for the wrong signalCredits:Host: Carlos Gonzalez de VillaumbrosiaGuest: Rahul VohraSocial Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here
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GoFundMe CPTO on Building Marketplaces Across StubHub, TheRealReal & GoFundMe | Arnie Katz | E294
Apr 2900:40:39Tap to summarizeGoFundMe has facilitated over $40 billion in help since 2010, powering a community of more than 200 million people across 20 countries. Arnie Katz is the Chief Product and Technology Officer there — and a three-time CPTO, having previously led product and engineering at StubHub and TheRealReal. In this episode, he brings the rare perspective of someone who has built and scaled marketplaces at every stage, across multiple industries.What you'll learn:The three failure modes every marketplace must solve — cold start, imbalance failure, and false positive growth — and how to fix each oneHow GoFundMe is using AI agents to reduce friction for fundraisers, resulting in an expected $125 million in additional funds raisedWhy AI is driving revenue growth at GoFundMe, not just developer productivity — and how they sequenced that deliberatelyThe real trade-offs of the CPTO model: what you gain in speed, and what you have to mitigate through hiringHow GoFundMe is building demand-side and matching mechanisms to grow donation volume beyond viral sharingKey takeaways:Marketplace liquidity isn't just about having enough supply — it's about designing the right matching and demand mechanisms at every stage of scaleAI unlocks revenue opportunities that were previously uneconomical to pursue, especially when the customer is already in a vulnerable, high-friction stateThe CPTO structure enables faster decision-making, but requires consciously strong functional leaders underneath to offset the natural lean toward one sideCredits:Host: Carlos Gonzalez de VillaumbrosiaGuest: Arnie KatzSocial Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here
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Robinhood VP of Product on Prediction Markets, AI-Native Investing Tools, and Social Trading for the Next Generation | Abhishek Fatehpuria | E293
Apr 2200:37:38Tap to summarizeRobinhood posted $4.5 billion in revenue in 2025, up 52% year-over-year, while growing its Gold subscriber base 58% to 4.2 million paid members. Abhishek Fatehpuria, VP of Product at Robinhood, joined the platform as an intern in 2016 and has built the brokerage business from a single-product equities app into a multi-product financial platform. This episode is a detailed look at how Robinhood structures product thinking at scale — without sacrificing the UX moat that made it win in the first place.What you'll learn:How Robinhood uses two leading indicators, net deposits and Gold subscriptions, to measure long-term customer commitment before revenue shows upWhy treating legal and compliance partners as product owners, not blockers, is the unlock for shipping fast in a regulated marketThe "barbell strategy" for UX: design for the newest user and the most advanced user simultaneously, and let the middle take care of itselfHow the early-stage ideation sprint has compressed from 4–5 weeks to 2–3 days with AI toolsWhy Robinhood Social is built on verified identity and real trades — and what that unlocks for the future of retail investor relationsKey takeaways:Paid subscriptions aren't just a revenue line — they're the connective tissue that drives multi-product adoption across a platformPride is a scalable quality standard: when teams enforce it themselves, quality and speed stop being in conflictAI embedded into workflows moves faster than AI bolted on as a standalone featureCredits:Host: Carlos Gonzalez de VillaumbrosiaGuest: Abhishek FatehpuriaSocial Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here
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Zoom CPO on Rebuilding the Future of Work Collaboration with Agentic AI — From Meeting Transcripts and Recordings to a System of Action | Jeff Smith | E292
Apr 1500:35:30Tap to summarizeZoom generates $4.87B in annual revenue and powers modern work for hundreds of millions of users worldwide. In this episode, Carlos González de Villaumbrosia, CEO at Product School, sits down with Jeff Smith, Chief Product Officer at Zoom.Jeff joined Zoom in 2019 and has led product through three distinct eras — COVID hypergrowth, multi-product expansion, and the current agentic AI shift. In this conversation, he breaks down what actually changes when AI becomes core infrastructure for how teams work.What you'll learn:How Zoom tripled headcount in under a year during COVID and what breaks at that scaleWhy expanding into mail, calendar, and documents was never about copying Google or Microsoft — it was about owning the full work lifecycle around meetingsHow AI Companion 3.0 performs agentic retrieval across first- and third-party tools to surface insights and produce work product from a single promptWhy MCP and open integrations are non-negotiable when you can't afford to be siloedHow to move from personal AI productivity gains to real, measurable business outcomesKey takeaways:When engineering velocity is abundant, strategic direction becomes the scarce resourceThe right engagement metric isn't more meetings — it's whether users produced something valuable as a resultAgentic AI is the first real opportunity to disrupt entrenched productivity tools that switching costs have protected for decadesCredits:Host: Carlos Gonzalez de VillaumbrosiaGuest: Jeff SmithSocial Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here
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TikTok VP of Product on Turning Video-First Feeds into a Full E-Commerce Platform | David Kaufman | E291
Apr 800:40:54Tap to summarizeTikTok has officially crossed 200 million monthly active users in the US — but the real story is what they've built underneath the surface.In this episode, Carlos González de Villaumbrosia, CEO at Product School, sits down with David Kaufman, Vice President of Product at TikTok, to go deep on the platform's transformation into a full end-to-end commerce engine. David breaks down how TikTok is using AI to automate everything from creative generation to affiliate-based promotion — so merchants can upload a catalog and let the platform handle the rest.If you want to understand where social commerce is heading, this one is essential listening.What you'll learn:Why removing steps from the purchase funnel is the single biggest growth lever for modern product teams.How TikTok's generative AI tools allow merchants to produce high-performing video creative at scale without a production team.The shift from spontaneous live streams to scheduled commercial events driving $1M per hour in sales.How TikTok balances feed, commerce, search, and messaging as four distinct monetization pillars.Key takeaways:The most successful products in the AI era put the user directly at the point of transaction.Organic creator content consistently outperforms traditional high-production advertising.A long-tail creator ecosystem can promote a 100,000-item catalog automatically through affiliate-based commission.Credits:Host: Carlos Gonzalez de VillaumbrosiaGuest: David KaufmanSocial Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here
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OpenAI & Figma Product Builders on Killing the Design-to-Code Handoff and Vice Versa | Ed Bayes & Matt Colyer | E290
Apr 100:33:07Tap to summarizeAI is collapsing the silos between design and engineering. In this episode, Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia, CEO at Product School, sits down with Ed Bayes (Design Lead, OpenAI) and Matt Colyer (Product Director, Figma) to discuss their groundbreaking integration that enables a seamless round-trip workflow from code to canvas.Matt Colyer walks us through a step-by-step demo of the new code to canvas and right to Figma capabilities. You’ll see exactly how OpenAI’s Codex and Figma’s Plugin API allow builders to move fluidly between development and design environments, using AI agents to update design systems and iterate faster than ever before.What you'll learn:Step-by-step demo: Moving from a code component in Codex to a live Figma design.How the round-trip workflow eliminates lossy handoffs between designers and devs.Strategies for using AI agents to update design libraries autonomously.The impact of Model Context Protocol (MCP) on product team interoperability.Key takeaways:Velocity as a Moat: How AI-native tools are accelerating the speed of prototyping.The Evolving PM Role: Why curiosity is now more critical than technical hurdles.Human Judgment: Why AI increases the premium on high-level design taste.Credits:Host: Carlos Gonzalez de VillaumbrosiaGuests: Ed Bayes and Matt ColyerSocial Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here
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Xero CPTO on Building an Agentic AI Platform to Manage Multiple Agents | Diya Jolly | E289
Mar 2500:40:26Tap to summarizeIn this episode, Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia, CEO at Product School, sits down with Diya Jolly, CPTO at Xero, the global accounting platform trusted by over 4 million customers. Diya shares how Xero is redefining B2B software by building JAX, an agentic AI platform that intelligently manages specialized sub-agents to streamline business operations.What you'll learn:How Xero built an agentic AI platform that orchestrates multiple agents across payroll, payments, and bank reconciliation workflows.The strategy for implementing strict guardrails to ensure accuracy in highly regulated, AI-driven accounting processes.How to design a global product that scales common services while adapting to hyper-local tax and payment requirements.The two-way door framework for accelerating product decisions and course-correcting with imperfect data.Key takeaways:Why the future of SaaS interfaces is conversational, transitioning users away from static dashboards into review and insight roles.The strategic advantage of combining product and technology leadership into a single CPTO role to drive tighter cross-functional alignment.Why deeply serving the SMB market requires specialized product design that balances consumer-grade simplicity with enterprise-grade workflow depth.Credits:Host: Carlos Gonzalez de VillaumbrosiaGuest: Diya JollySocial Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here
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Shopify VP of Product on Transforming SaaS to AI-Native and Building $100B+ Agent-Led Commerce | Vanessa Lee | E288
Mar 1800:46:49Tap to summarizeIn this episode, Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia, CEO at Product School, interviews Vanessa Lee, Vice President of Product at Shopify, the engine of global commerce powering over $1.1 trillion in sales. As the most senior product leader at Shopify reporting directly to the CEO, Vanessa oversees the product strategy for a platform with a $165B+ market cap and recent 30% year-over-year revenue growth. A two-time YC founder, Vanessa brings a builder’s mindset to leadership, emphasizing the need for technical fluency and courage as a service when making high-stakes decisions.What you'll learn:AI-Native Playbook: How Shopify transitioned from traditional SaaS to agent-led commerce.Internal AI Evals: How to use LLM-based judges to grade and ensure product quality.Technical Product Leadership: Why staying involved in API details and technical cohesion is critical for senior roles.The Versioning Framework: The strategy Vanessa used to successfully push back and convince her CEO to version Shopify's API.Key Takeaways:Beyond the PRD: Shifting focus from rigid specs to training AI models for non-deterministic outcomes.Courage as a Service: How to leverage deep domain expertise to find your screw it moment and drive organizational change.The Founder Mindset: Maintaining autonomy and an experimental spirit within a 10,000-person global organization.Credits:Host: Carlos Gonzalez de VillaumbrosiaGuest: Vanessa LeeSocial Links:Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here
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