#16: Melissa Perri on Product Management in the Age of AI, the New Build Trap, and Opening A Restaurant

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Sep 23, 2025

Melissa Perri, a strategic adviser, author, and CEO of Produx Labs, discusses the evolving landscape of product management in the age of AI. She emphasizes the critical need for strong leadership and strategy, cautioning against the 'build trap' where output is mistaken for value. Melissa also shares insights from her diverse projects, including opening a restaurant with her sister, illustrating how hands-on work keeps her inspired. Her advice? Ignore the naysayers and focus on tangible outcomes to truly innovate.

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ADVICE

Prioritise Customer Research

Make time for user research and push back on tasks that block it.
Create a system to label priorities and protect customer-facing discovery time.

ANECDOTE

Change Lasts When Leaders Lead

Melissa shifts organizations by coaching leaders to run transformations themselves.
She focuses on enabling leaders to walk the walk rather than doing the transformation for them.

ANECDOTE

How Product Institute Started

Melissa built Product Institute by recording her in-person class and iterating with corporate feedback.
The company later purchased the training for thousands of product managers after initial trials.

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In this episode of the UX Fika podcast, I sit down with Melissa Perri, strategic adviser, author of Escaping the Build Trap, CEO of Produx Labs, and faculty member at Harvard Business School.

We talk about why product management is more critical than ever as AI accelerates how we build, test, and ship ideas, and why the difference between great product managers and average ones is about to become starkly clear.

Melissa shares why strategy, vision, and leadership can’t be automated, and how teams risk creating waste at scale if they don’t keep their focus on outcomes, and why companies still struggle to escape the build trap, even a decade after she first named it.

We also explore what it means to take risks, how writing and teaching sharpens her thinking, and why renovations, side projects, and even opening a restaurant with her sister keeps her balanced and inspired.

It’s a really lovely conversation about what it takes to build, whether that’s great products, a business, an actual restaurant, or a life in some place new.

Plus:

☕️ Why cold brew, and sometimes a flat white, is Melissa’s go-to fika

⭐ Why don’t listen to people who have never done it tell you it won’t work is her advice

What we cover:

02:12 Reconnecting and Reflecting on the Past

06:45 Starting Product Institute

10:10 The Impact of AI on Product Management

13:49 The Role of UX in Product Development

19:53 Understanding the Build Trap and Its Implications

28:57 Escaping the Build Trap: Insights and Updates

35:50 Self-Publishing: The Journey of Writing a Book

38:56 Self-publishing Compared to Having a Publisher

41:48 Iterative Learning: Feedback and Improvement

43:30 The Skillset of Writing

51:27 The Balance of Projects and Focus

56:34 Navigating Life Decisions and Business Ventures

01:02:48 Embracing Change and Community Connections

01:08:19 Advice on Overcoming Naysayers

Where you’ll find Melissa:

Where you’ll find Anna & UX Fika: