How GenAI has improved GoDaddy's product experience - Laka Sriram (VP Generative AI, GoDaddy)
Jan 8, 2025
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Laka Sriram, VP of Generative AI at GoDaddy, previously worked on Alexa at Amazon. She discusses how GoDaddy is utilizing AI to streamline business setups for entrepreneurs. The conversation covers the vital role of customer-centric design and the need to upskill teams. Laka also highlights the ethical implications of AI, particularly in creative fields, and how it should empower rather than replace human talent. Lastly, she emphasizes fostering a culture of experimentation to drive innovation and learn from every endeavor.
Generative AI in GoDaddy's Aero product simplifies the entrepreneurial journey by automating essential services for small business owners.
Aero's development emphasizes customer feedback and ethical AI usage, ensuring user-centric tools and a seamless technology integration experience.
Deep dives
Lekha Shriram's Background and Expertise
Lekha Shriram, the VP of Generative AI at GoDaddy, has extensive experience in the software industry, having worked at notable companies including Amazon. His role at GoDaddy involves leading the Aero product experience, which is focused on leveraging AI technology to streamline services for new businesses. Shriram's time at Amazon, particularly with the Alexa project, was marked by significant growth and innovation, where he contributed to various aspects such as improving response speed and geolocation functionalities. This diverse background has shaped his approach to product development, emphasizing customer impact and rapid delivery.
The Emergence of Aero
Aero is designed to deliver a cohesive set of tools that simplify the entrepreneurial journey for small business owners, starting from the crucial step of purchasing a domain. Upon inputting their business idea, users receive automatically generated content that includes a website, logos, email accounts, and marketing materials tailored to their vision. By integrating generative AI, Aero addresses the common challenges faced by small business owners, notably time constraints, thus allowing them to focus on their core operations while establishing their online presence. The tool embodies GoDaddy's commitment to supporting entrepreneurs beyond just domain registration.
Strategic Decision-Making in Developing Aero
The decision to invest in Aero stemmed from a company-wide initiative to explore the effective use of generative AI in enhancing customer value and efficiency. Leadership across GoDaddy recognized the need for a focused strategy to leverage emerging technologies, leading to an agile collaboration among various teams. Shriram emphasized the importance of aligning goals with customer needs and eliminating internal roadblocks, facilitating a rapid development process. This proactive approach enabled the team to experiment and refine the features of Aero, ensuring they meet customer expectations effectively.
AI Implementation and Customer Engagement
The use of AI within Aero is designed to be seamless for users, allowing them to benefit from automated features without being overwhelmed by the technology behind it. Data shows a growing engagement among small business owners with AI tools, highlighting increased productivity and the adoption of auto-generated features. Customer feedback plays a critical role in the iterative process, ensuring that all outputs align with user expectations while maintaining high quality. The commitment to ethical AI usage remains paramount, as customer control and choice are preserved throughout their journey with the product.
In this week's podcast episode, we speak to Laka Sriram, VP of Generative AI at GoDaddy, discussing leveraging generative AI to streamline the business setup process for entrepreneurs. We explore Laka's background, the development process of GenAI, customer engagement strategies, the ethical considerations of AI, and the importance of fostering a culture of experimentation within product teams.
Our Hosts Lily Smith enjoys working as a consultant product manager with early-stage and growing startups and as a mentor to other product managers. She’s currently Chief Product Officer at BBC Maestro, and has spent 13 years in the tech industry working with startups in the SaaS and mobile space. She’s worked on a diverse range of products – leading the product teams through discovery, prototyping, testing and delivery. Lily also founded ProductTank Bristol and runs ProductCamp in Bristol and Bath.
Randy Silver is a Leadership & Product Coach and Consultant. He gets teams unstuck, helping you to supercharge your results. Randy's held interim CPO and Leadership roles at scale-ups and SMEs, advised start-ups, and been Head of Product at HSBC and Sainsbury’s. He participated in Silicon Valley Product Group’s Coaching the Coaches forum, and speaks frequently at conferences and events. You can join one of communities he runs for CPOs (CPO Circles), Product Managers (Product In the {A}ether) and Product Coaches. He’s the author of What Do We Do Now? A Product Manager’s Guide to Strategy in the Time of COVID-19. A recovering music journalist and editor, Randy also launched Amazon’s music stores in the US & UK.
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