LaunchPod | Product Management Podcast

On today’s episode, we’re talking with Rajitha Chaparala, VP of Product at Procore, a construction management solution and one of the most successful examples of vertical SaaS out there today. In this episode, we discuss: How Rajitha and her team are using LLMs to streamline complex processes like requests for information (RFIs), project revisions, and construction site walkthroughs Why building trust and showing real, immediate value were key to getting AI buy-in from construction professionals, historically hesitant to adopt new tech Why Rajitha believes this is construction’s moment for AI, and how the shift from skepticism to curiosity happened almost overnight Links LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rajithachaparala/ Procore: www.procore.com Chapters 00:00 Introduction 00:48: The complexity of construction and technology adoption 02:00: AI streamlining Requests for Information (RFIs) in construction 04:00: Why LLMs are ideal for construction's unstructured data 06:00: Building trust for AI adoption 08:00: The future of construction thanks to AI adoption Follow LaunchPod on YouTube We have a new YouTube page! Watch full episodes of our interviews with PM leaders and subscribe! What does LogRocket do? LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.Special Guest: Rajitha Chaparala.

Today, we’re joined again by Nan Yu, Head of Product at Linear. In this episode, Nan shares: Why you’re wrong to think of AI as a way to reduce costs -- and why the real value is in enabling new work that was previously impossible The 3 must-haves he’s deduced from across the most successful AI products to produce consistently great outcomes for users The behind-the-scenes details of Linear’s new Agent Interaction Guidelines Links Nan's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thenanyu/ Nan's X: https://x.com/thenanyu?lang=en Linear: https://linear.app/ Linear's previous episode of LaunchPod: https://youtu.be/7ISWLoQtNOc?si=dNKmSdQ98eqis_JW Resources Linear's Agent Interaction Guidelines: https://linear.app/developers/aig Granola.ai: https://www.granola.ai/ Cursor: https://cursor.com/ Chapters 00:00: Intro 03:24: Using AI as a harness, the systems and context layers that make AI tools repeatable and useful at scale 07:54: Scaling AI tools to ensure consistency and quality 14:14: Analyzing user interaction, tweak time, and feedback 18:29: Linear's new Agent Interaction Guidelines 22:14: How AI is changing the role of engineers 27:42: AI's impact on junior roles 30:10: Conclusion Follow LaunchPod on YouTube We have a new YouTube page! Watch full episodes of our interviews with PM leaders and subscribe! What does LogRocket do? LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.Special Guest: Nan Yu.

Today, we’re joined by Shakir Karim (Senior VP of Product) and Karthik Chakkarapani (CIO & Senior VP of Corporate Operations) from Zuora. In this episode, Shakir and Karthik discuss: Why they believe AI is a bigger inflection point than web, mobile, or cloud Their internal AI agent workflow that automatically resolves thousands of service requests instantly, freeing teams to focus on strategy How they cut a major feature deployment step from 14 days to 10 minutes using Claude Code Why prompt-a-thons and hackathons have been vital for driving not just AI adoption but AI literacy Links Shakir's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shakir-karim/ Karthik's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chakraj/ Zuora: https://www.zuora.com/ Resources Trupeer: https://www.trupeer.ai/ Gemini Storybook: https://gemini.google/overview/storybook/ NotebookLM: https://notebooklm.google/ Chapters 00:00: Intro 02:15: Zuora's 10x initiative 07:00: Zuora's internal AI agent 10:00: Accelerating content creation using Trupeer 12:00: Cutting video content creation down from 4 weeks to 5 hours 17:00: AI in practical workflow 22:00: Scaling AI innovation and literacy internally 28:32: AI prompathons and hackathons 29:54: Conclusion Follow LaunchPod on YouTube We have a new YouTube page! Watch full episodes of our interviews with PM leaders and subscribe! What does LogRocket do? LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.Special Guests: Karthik Chakkarapani and Shakir Karim.

Today, we’re joined by Zac Hays, CPO at Luxury Presence, a fast-growing real estate tech platform that made a huge bet on AI adoption across the company.. In this episode, we discuss: Luxury Presence's 30x Value Principle and how they rethought goals and projects to have exponential-level impact The AI design sprint process that allowed the company to 20x product velocity How their mandatory AI bug triage policy has cut resolution time by 80% Links LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zacthepm/ Zac's AI-Powered Design Print Playbook: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/ai-powered-design-sprint-playbook-v01-zac-hays-iu1dc/ Luxury Presence: https://www.luxurypresence.com/ AirOps: https://www.airops.com/ Userbrain: https://www.userbrain.com/en/ Chapters 00:00: Intro 03:31: How Luxury Presence started tinkering with AI 08:15: Automating bug fixes (the 80% reduction) 10:50: Zac's "AI Design Sprint" process 14:00: Using AI to tackle tech debt and codebase rewrites 19:04: Building an "autonomous" AI marketing team 22:22: Conclusion Follow LaunchPod on YouTube We have a new YouTube page! Watch full episodes of our interviews with PM leaders and subscribe! What does LogRocket do? LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.Special Guest: Zac Hays.

Today, we’re joined by Phil Lakin, Head of Enterprise Innovation at Zapier. In this episode, we discuss: How Phil built No-Code Ops into a thriving community and SaaS product - and what led to its acquisition by Zapier Why Phil ended up leading the initiative on Zapier’s first solution-based product, and the decision process behind making it Lead Router How Zapier is driving AI transformation across both their org and others with hands-on bootcamps, agent workflows, and a 97% AI literacy rate among employees Links LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philip-lakin/ Zapier: https://zapier.com/ NoCodeOps: https://www.nocodeops.com/ Chapters 00:00: Intro 01:30: How Phil built the No-Code Ops community and why Zapier acquired it 05:45: Building Lead Router and how it shaped Zapier's roadmap 10:20: Building with Zapier Primitives 15:10: How Zapier achieved 97% AI literacy 20:25: AI agents and workflow automation 26:40: Tactics for bringing employees on board with new AI tools 32:55: What other companies can learn from Zapier’s AI transformation 39:15: Where Phil sees AI, no-code, and automation heading next. 44:00: Conclusion Follow LaunchPod on YouTube We have a new YouTube page! Watch full episodes of our interviews with PM leaders and subscribe! What does LogRocket do? LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.Special Guest: Phil Lakin.

How is Optimizely reshaping experimentation with AI? Cory Liebgott, VP of Product at Optimizely, joins LaunchPod to share how her team is using AI into both customer-facing solutions and their own product workflows. Cory shares how her team: Uses Copilot and Claude for everything from PRD writing and meeting recaps to translating technical language into accessible insights Developed OptiGPT, an internal AI assistant that surfaces customer data, product knowledge, and HR policies in seconds Built a customer-facing AI query tool that also became a surprise hit internally for measuring customer health and engagement Encourages a culture of experimentation where PMs demo and share AI tools, turning emergent use cases into productivity boosts across teams Links LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cliebgott/ Optimizely: https://www.optimizely.com/ Chapters 00:38 Exploring AI tools as a team 01:43 Real-world AI productivity wins 03:16 Inside OptiGPT: Optimizely’s AI assistant 04:08 Using AI for research and prototyping 05:10 When AI surprises: Emergent capabilities 06:22 Lessons learned: Sharing and experimenting Follow LaunchPod on YouTube We have a new YouTube page! Watch full episodes of our interviews with PM leaders and subscribe! What does LogRocket do? LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.Special Guest: Cory Liebgott.

Today, we’re joined by Michael Krafft, CPO at FoundersCard, a membership community for entrepreneurs and executives offering exclusive perks and VIP treatment. Previously, Michael worked in investment banking, led product teams at American Express, and played a key role in turning around Alight, an HR-tech firm, ahead of its IPO. In this episode, we discuss: How Michael uses AI to be a 1-person Product team at a profitable startup with more than 250K members His AI-driven discovery engine that automates interviews, segments users, and turns feedback into roadmap-shaping insights Why working as both a leader and IC lets him move from idea to prototype to product in record time with tools like V-Zero and Lovable The simple test that boosted paid conversions by 50%—and how he runs growth experiments far beyond his team’s size Links LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-krafft/ FoundersCard: https://founderscard.com/ Chapters 00:00 Intro 03:04 How AI Drove Down CAC and Fueled Growth 06:06 Using AI to Analyze Customer Interviews 09:10 Turning Feedback Into Roadmap Insights 12:13 AI-Powered Discovery Engine for PMs 15:17 One-Person Product Team With AI Tools 18:20 Scaling Insights Beyond Human Bandwidth 21:23 Automating PRDs With AI 24:25 From Idea to Prototype in an Afternoon 27:28 Running Growth Experiments With AI 30:31 Conversions, Retention, and AI Testing 33:33 Customer Insights That Shape the Roadmap 36:36 Paid Conversion Boosts With AI 39:37 Final Takeaways for Product Leaders Follow LaunchPod on YouTube We have a new YouTube page! Watch full episodes of our interviews with PM leaders and subscribe! What does LogRocket do? LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.Special Guest: Michael Krafft.

Unlock the future of product management with AI. In this episode of LaunchPod, we dive into the top 4 AI workflows every product manager needs, from automating user research to building smarter prototypes and running faster experiments. Hear real stories from product leaders who are already using AI to: *Turn hours of customer interviews into actionable insights *Prototype and test new features in record time *Automate PRDs and documentation without losing quality *Drive data-backed decisions that accelerate growth Chapters 00:00 Why AI is changing product management 00:30 Avoiding missteps with AI-powered customer insights 02:00 Prototyping and testing faster with AI tools 04:00 Automating PRDs and product documentation 06:30 Using AI for smarter data analysis and decision making 09:00 Balancing AI with product intuition and strategy 11:00 The future of AI in product workflows Follow LaunchPod on YouTube We have a new YouTube page! Watch full episodes of our interviews with PM leaders and subscribe! What does LogRocket do? LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.Special Guests: Derek Pharr, Neha Monga, Roman Gun, and Sierra Hahn-Ventrell.

How is Optimizely reshaping experimentation with AI? Cory Liebgott, VP of Product at Optimizely, joins LaunchPod to share how her team is building agentic AI tools that put customer trust at the center. Cory shares how her team: Pivoted away from risky benchmarking AI to focus on agentic AI tailored to each customer’s brand and data Launched Opal, Optimizely’s AI suite built on Google Gemini, with strict governance to keep customer data secure Developed experimentation agents that suggest test ideas, run experiments, and summarize results Built internal AI tools like OptiGPT to streamline workflows, from PRDs to customer research, boosting productivity across teams Links LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cliebgott/ Optimizely: https://www.optimizely.com/ Chapters 00:00 Introduction 01:52 Implementing Agentic AI at Optimizely 04:58 The Importance of Customer Feedback 06:27 Using AI Tools Internally at Optimizely 15:30 DocuSign and the Squeaky Wheel Problem 30:36 Conclusion Follow LaunchPod on YouTube We have a new YouTube page! Watch full episodes of our interviews with PM leaders and subscribe! What does LogRocket do? LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.Special Guest: Cory Liebgott.

How is AI changing the game for sports betting? Marty Styles, VP of Product at Pro Football Focus (PFF), visits LaunchPod to share how his team is bringing pro-grade football analytics, trusted by every NFL team, to everyday bettors. Marty shares how his team: Built Key Insights, an AI-powered feature that simplifies 200+ data points per play into actionable betting takeaways Designed the Player Prop Tool, which combines PFF’s grades with market odds to reveal hidden betting edges Used Play Finder and AI-driven film study to transform raw data into instant, searchable insights Positioned PFF as the “Bloomberg Terminal of sports betting”, giving bettors the same edge NFL teams rely on Links LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marty-styles/ PFF: https://www.pff.com/ Chapters 00:00 Introduction 01:46 The Value of PFF's Data 02:14 Transitioning from B2B to B2C 03:17 Understanding the Sports Betting Market 04:38 The Role of AI in PFF's Products 09:00 Simplifying Complex Data for Consumers 10:32 Key Insights and AI Integration 14:20 Ensuring Accuracy and Trust in AI Outputs 17:20 Introducing the Player Prop Tool 19:36 Targeting Intermediate Bettors 22:12 Product Marketing Strategy 25:53 AI and Data Analysis in Betting 29:32 Future of AI in Sports Analytics 33:23 Conclusion Follow LaunchPod on YouTube We have a new YouTube page! Watch full episodes of our interviews with PM leaders and subscribe! What does LogRocket do? LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.Special Guest: Marty Styles.