Behind the Craft

Ben Erez, a former PM at Meta, shares insights on acing product management interviews. He reveals the current job market dynamics and the structure of product sense interviews. Learn how to build a personalized AI co-pilot that acts as a supportive interviewer. Ben discusses common mistakes candidates make and the importance of clear communication in interviews. He emphasizes using AI tools for realistic practice, likening it to sports training, as well as strategies for prioritizing user needs.

Jeremy Epling, CPO of Vanta and a former VP at GitHub, shares his insights on leveraging AI for prototyping in product management. He reveals a versatile template that transformed his team’s workflow and discusses why prototypes can surpass traditional product requirement documents. Jeremy conducts a live demo of Vanta’s AI agent and talks about the evolving roles of product managers. He emphasizes the significance of cross-disciplinary relationships and offers practical advice for navigating today's tech landscape.

Meng To, the founder of Aura, specializes in leveraging AI for innovative design, steering clear of generic outputs. He delves into effective prompting techniques and discusses the importance of blending AI with personal creativity. Listeners will learn about crafting unique landing pages, incorporating testimonials, and using animation tools like Spline. Meng emphasizes the significance of manual adjustments alongside AI automation to produce stunning, customized designs. His insights provide a roadmap for designers eager to enhance their creative processes.

Kieran Klaassen, founder of Cora, an innovative AI email assistant, shares his journey in harnessing multiple AI agents to code efficiently with Claude Code. He explains the power of 'agentic coding' over traditional methods, likening it to managing an AI team. Kieran demonstrates live how to build features in parallel, optimizing workflows using custom commands. He also discusses integrating AI for enhanced email management, making coding more accessible for non-engineers, and the importance of experimentation in tech.

Morgan Brown, VP of Product for AI at Dropbox, dives into the transformative power of AI in the workplace. He shares his top three AI workflows designed to save time and enhance productivity. Highlighting Dash, Dropbox's innovative AI agent, Morgan explains how it simplifies finding information across applications. He discusses the importance of quality data in search evaluations and offers insights into effective project management in the AI era. The conversation also touches on balancing speed with meaningful progress and the future of AI in enhancing creativity.

James Evans, Head of AI for Amplitude, explores groundbreaking AI analytics that could revolutionize product monitoring. He discusses the current shortcomings of AI data analysts and shares insights on developing 'goal-specific agents' for optimized decision-making. Evans emphasizes the significance of user feedback in crafting effective AI tools and addresses the evolving nature of AI in analytics. He also tackles concerns about AI potentially displacing jobs in data science while advocating for human creativity in decision-making.

Cameron Adams, co-founder and Chief Product Officer of Canva, dives into the transformative power of AI in design. He shares insights on moving from PRDs to hands-on prototypes, emphasizing user testing and collaboration. Cameron recounts the whimsical story behind Canva’s rubber duck easter egg, highlighting its role in user engagement. He also discusses how personalized coaching is integral to their culture, empowering all employees to enhance creativity as they scale. Plus, a bike accident story reveals the grit behind Canva's launch.

Nate Gonzalez, Head of Business Products at OpenAI, leads innovations for ChatGPT used by 92% of Fortune 500 companies. He discusses how OpenAI efficiently operates with fewer than 30 PMs managing 5,000 employees. Nate shares his favorite 10-minute AI hack that transformed his work life and addresses common barriers to AI adoption. He also reveals the traits they seek in new hires and envisions a future where AI becomes a trusted coworker, enhancing productivity while maintaining a balance between urgency and thoughtful analysis.

Matt Palmer, Head of Developer Relations at Replit and vibe coding expert, shares insights on effortlessly building a kid-friendly app in 30 minutes without coding. He emphasizes the importance of courage and curiosity for successful vibe coders. Topics include the use of Open Street Map data and AI for seamless app development, how to simplify full-stack creation using cloud tools, and the role of AI agents in enhancing coding efficiency. Palmer also discusses security measures for AI-generated code and the future potential of vibe coding.

In this discussion, Adam Loving, an AI partner engineer at Meta, shares his expertise in integrating AI into products for numerous companies. He breaks down the essentials of crafting effective AI prompts and the nuances of evaluation strategies. Adam explains the advantages of retrieval-augmented generation over fine-tuning models, demystifies vector databases, and highlights the potential of open-source AI like Meta's Llama 4. His insights are invaluable for anyone looking to enhance AI functionality in their business.