The Product Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Rubrik CPO on Scaling AI, Cybersecurity & Business Model Transformation | Anneka Gupta | E274 Sep 17, 2025

Show notes

In this episode, Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia interviews Anneka Gupta, Chief Product Officer at Rubrik, a leading cybersecurity company helping over 5,000 customers, including half of the Fortune 500, protect and manage their data against cyber threats.

Under Anneka's leadership since 2021, Rubrik has undergone one of tech's most impressive product transformations, evolving from an IT backup solution into a comprehensive cybersecurity platform. This transformation has driven remarkable growth, with subscription ARR crossing $1.09 billion and the company successfully going public in 2024.

In this episode, we explore Rubrik's journey through three major transformations: shifting from perpetual licenses to a SaaS-first model, expanding from a single product to a multi-product platform (with two new product lines approaching $100M in ARR), and repositioning as a cybersecurity-first company. We'll dive deep into the challenges and strategies behind managing such significant organizational change at scale.

What you'll learn:

How to successfully transition a business model from perpetual licenses to subscription
Strategies for expanding from single-product to multi-product portfolio
Methods for structuring teams around strategic pillars rather than just product lines
Approaches to maintaining growth while managing significant organizational change
Techniques for leveraging existing customer relationships to validate new products
Frameworks for creating clear career progression during transformation

Key Takeaways👇:

Business Model Transformation
Successfully managed parallel tracks of maintaining core business while building new capabilities, growing from $100M to $1.1B ARR in 4 years.
Portfolio Expansion Strategy
Created specialized go-to-market teams for new product lines while leveraging existing customer base for validation and early adoption.
Organizational Design
Structured teams around strategic pillars (core business, public cloud, security, AI) with a dedicated platform team for cross-functional needs.
Change Management
Implemented transparent communication and clear career frameworks while setting firm deadlines for business model transition.
Customer-Centric Innovation
Used existing customer relationships to validate new product opportunities and guide portfolio expansion into cybersecurity.

This episode is essential listening for any product leader managing large-scale business transformation or considering major strategic shifts in their organization.

This episode is brought to you by Persona, the adaptable identity platform that helps businesses fight fraud, meet compliance requirements, and build trust. These days, it's easier than ever for fraudsters to steal voices, faces, and identities. That's where Persona comes in; helping leading companies to securely verify individuals and businesses worldwide, providing flexible building blocks to create tailored verification flows that maximize conversion while minimizing risks.
Whether you work at a startup or large enterprise, you can get started for free here: https://withpersona.com/productschool

Credits:
Host: Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia
Guest: Anneka Gupta

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OpenAI CTO of Application on Product Experimentation with AI and $1.1B Statsig Acquisition | Vijaye Raji | E273 Sep 12, 2025

Show notes

In this episode, Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia interviews Vijaye Raji, Co-founder and CEO of Statsig, the fast-growing product experimentation platform recently valued at $1.1 billion following a $100M Series C round—and just acquired by OpenAI in a landmark $1.1B all-equity deal.
Before the acquisition, Vijaye spent over a decade at Facebook, where he served as VP and Head of Entertainment, launching creator tools, livestreaming features, and the earliest version of Reels. That experience inspired him to build Statsig, a platform that empowers product teams to experiment, iterate, and ship with confidence—used by leading companies like Microsoft and Notion.
Now, as OpenAI’s Chief Technology Officer of Applications, Vijaye will oversee product engineering for ChatGPT and help accelerate the company’s enterprise roadmap. In this conversation, he shares the original vision behind Statsig, the tough lessons from going multi-product, and why AI-native experimentation is the future of product building.
What you’ll learn:

Vijaye’s journey from Facebook’s internal tools to OpenAI’s CTO of Applications.
How Statsig evolved from an experimentation engine into a full decision-making stack.
Why large enterprises are ditching homegrown tools for best-in-class platforms.
How AI is powering everything from feature flagging to self-healing products.

Key Takeaways 👇

From Startup to OpenAI: Why StatSig’s platform and customer base made it one of OpenAI’s largest acquisitions yet.
AI as an Operating Layer: How Vijaye is thinking about AI-native observability, prompt evaluation, and synthetic user data.
Scaling with Product-Led Growth: Lessons in going enterprise while keeping experimentation at the core.

Credits:
Host: Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia
Guest: Vijaye Raji

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Twilio CPO on Integrating AI into Product Strategy to Grow Revenue | Inbal Shani | E272 Aug 27, 2025

Show notes

In this episode, Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia interviews Inbal Shani, Chief Product Officer at Twilio, the $18B customer engagement powerhouse trusted by over 320,000 businesses worldwide.

Inbal is a trailblazer in AI-first product development. Before joining Twilio, she led the launch of GitHub Copilot—one of the most transformative AI tools for developers, reshaping how engineers write code. Now at Twilio, she’s steering a product portfolio that infuses AI into the heart of customer communications, helping companies unlock smarter, more personalized digital experiences at scale.
In this conversation, Inbal shares why successful AI adoption goes far beyond adding models to features—it requires a rethinking of product strategy itself. She also dives into how Twilio measures real business impact from AI, why PMs need technical fluency more than ever, and what it takes to lead a product org into the AI-native future.
What you’ll learn:

How GitHub Copilot shaped Inbal’s approach to building AI-native products.
Why AI adoption alone is not a product strategy—and what to focus on instead.
The metrics Twilio uses to evaluate AI’s business impact.
The evolving technical skill set required for PMs in the age of AI.

Key Takeaways👇:

Beyond the Hype: Inbal’s perspective on what truly makes AI transformative for end users.
AI as Strategy, Not Feature: How to align AI capabilities with customer outcomes.
PMs in the AI Era: The must-have technical skills that will define tomorrow’s product leaders.

Credits:
Host: Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia
Guest: Inbal Shani

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Grammarly CPO on Product Expansion through Acquisitions | Noam Lovinsky | E271 Aug 20, 2025

Show notes

In this episode, Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia interviews Noam Lovinsky, Chief Product Officer at Grammarly, the AI-native productivity platform with over 40 million daily active users and $700 million in annual revenue.

Grammarly began as a trusted writing assistant, but it’s now redefining productivity at scale. With the recent acquisitions of Superhuman, the lightning-fast AI-powered email client ($825M), and Coda, the flexible doc-based workspace tool, Grammarly is evolving into a full-stack AI productivity platform. This expansion signals a bold product vision—one that positions Grammarly at the center of modern knowledge work.

Noam leads Grammarly’s product organization with a focus on combining human expertise with AI agents to unlock next-level collaboration. In this episode, he unpacks the strategy behind Grammarly’s product evolution, how they’re designing extensible systems for third-party developers, and why the future of work is not just AI-assisted—but AI-augmented. He also shares how his teams balance speed and scale, and what it takes to build high-performing product orgs around a radically expanding vision.
What you’ll learn:

Why Grammarly is moving beyond writing to become a full AI-native productivity suite.
The product rationale behind acquiring Superhuman and Coda—and what’s next.
How Grammarly’s extensibility strategy is creating a powerful product moat.
Noam’s approach to building teams that combine human judgment with AI agents.

Key Takeaways 👇

AI-Native Productivity: How Grammarly is leveraging agents and integrations to expand beyond writing into email, docs, and more.
Product Strategy in Action: Noam’s thinking behind major acquisitions and platform expansion.
Scaling Great Teams: Why high-impact teams need both principled thinking and flexible systems to thrive in fast-moving environments.

Credits:
Host: Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia
Guest: Noam Lovinsky

Social Links:

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Gamma Co-Founder on Building Profitable AI-First Products at Scale I 270 Jul 16, 2025

Show notes

Join us for an insightful episode of The Product Podcast with Jon Noronha, Co-founder of Gamma, an AI-first platform revolutionizing how people create presentations, documents, and websites.
Starting in 2020 during the height of shelter-in-place, Gamma has achieved remarkable growth, reaching over 50 million users with a lean team of just 30 people. Most impressively, they went from less than a year of runway to cash-flow positive in just 3 months after pivoting to AI, with 80% of their revenue coming from outside the U.S. - all without a sales team.
In this episode, Jon breaks down Gamma's unconventional approach to building AI products, challenging traditional notions of team structure and go-to-market strategy. He shares insights on why they prioritize UX designers over PMs, how they achieved rapid international growth without localization, and their strategic decision to focus on the application layer rather than building their own AI models.
What you'll learn:
- How Gamma evolved from a presentation tool into a full-blown AI content platform
- Why they bet on a design-first team structure with 7 UX designers and no traditional PMs
- The technology behind their AI implementation and multi-model approach
- How they achieved profitability in 3 months through pure product-led growth
- Their strategy for reaching 50M+ users with a team of just 30 people
Key Takeaways 👇:
Design-First Organization
Jon challenges traditional tech company structure by prioritizing designers over PMs, demonstrating how a design-led organization can drive rapid product innovation and growth.
Pure Product-Led Growth
Through extensive A/B testing and a focus on user experience, Gamma achieved profitability in just 3 months after their AI pivot, with a $20/month price point that resonated globally.
Strategic AI Implementation
Rather than building their own AI models, Gamma focused on the application layer, creating value through superior user experience and interface design while leveraging existing AI infrastructure.
This episode is filled with contrarian insights about building AI products, from team structure to go-to-market strategy, making it a must-listen for product leaders looking to challenge conventional wisdom in tech.

Credits:
Host: Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia
Guest: Jon Noronha

Social Links:

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Shopify VP of Product on How to Build AI-First Products | Glen Coates | E269 Jun 25, 2025

Show notes

In this episode, Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia interviews Glen Coates, Vice President of Product at Shopify.

Shopify is one of the world’s leading commerce platforms, powering millions of businesses and helping entrepreneurs sell online and offline with ease. Since launching in 2006, it has become a global e-commerce giant and the second-largest online retailer in the U.S., with over $8 billion in annual revenue and 8,000+ employees working fully remotely.

Glen leads Shopify’s Core Product organization, overseeing the storefront, checkout, back office, marketing, analytics tools, and the core developer platform. He also drives Shopify’s thriving partner ecosystem, which offers merchants access to over 10,000 apps. From video game developer to B2B ecommerce founder to product leader at scale, Glen brings a rare blend of technical depth and entrepreneurial vision.

In this episode, he shares how his unconventional path shaped his approach to product leadership, the principles behind Shopify’s fast-moving strategy, and how the company stays ahead with AI and deep product focus. He also explains his org design for scale, why every product leader must “know everything down to the details,” and how the team keeps the experience polished with the “Boring Edition.”
What you’ll learn:
-Glen’s journey from game development to leading Shopify’s core platform.
- How Shopify’s viral “AI memo” raised the bar for PMs and engineers to build faster.
- The Outcomes, Assumptions & Principles framework behind better product decisions.
- Why focusing on fundamentals keeps Shopify nimble and merchants competitive.
Key Takeaways 👇
- Entrepreneurial Product Leadership: How building Handshake prepared Glen to tackle real commerce pain points at Shopify.
-Future-Proof Commerce: How Shopify uses its rich data and AI to help millions of merchants grow.
-Decision-Making at Scale: Glen’s practical frameworks for aligning thousands of people to deliver seamless, high-quality products.

Credits:
Host: Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia
Guest: Glen Coates

Social Links:

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Warner Music President on Transforming Tech from Cost Center to Revenue Generator | Ariel Bardin | E268 Jun 04, 2025

Show notes

In this episode, Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia sits down with Ariel Ban, President of Technology at Warner Music Group, live from the ProductCon stage. Warner Music Group, home to some of the world’s most iconic artists, is undergoing a bold transformation under Ariel’s leadership. A former Google and YouTube executive, Ariel brings a startup mindset to a 900-person organization within one of the most tradition-rich industries: music.
In this conversation, Ariel shares his unfiltered approach to digital transformation—from replacing bloated MVP culture with his “Minimum Proud Product” philosophy to building real-time dashboards that empower artists with actionable data. He also dives into the infamous “3-sh***ts” framework he uses to evaluate product managers, and how he’s instilling a culture of trust, ownership, and creativity across a global tech org.
What you’ll learn:
- Ariel’s journey from big tech to the music industry and his unique take on what transformation really looks like.
- Why MVPs are a “disease” and how to build products artists and fans are proud of.
- The strategy behind launching artist-facing tools like real-time revenue dashboards.
- How Warner Music is leveraging AI to unlock value in a highly creative, fast-changing space.

Key Takeaways👇:
- Redefining Digital Transformation: Ariel argues that real change starts with culture, not tech—and shares how to lead with clarity at scale.
- Artist-Centric Product Thinking: Empowering creators through data requires more than just tools; it requires trust, transparency, and a proud product experience.
- From MVP to MPP: His “Minimum Proud Product” philosophy offers a sharp critique of default startup practices and a new way to drive quality and impact.

Credits:
Host: Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia
Guest: Ariel Bardin

Social Links:

Find out more about Product School here
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Roblox CPO on 10 Counterintuitive Principles for Building Software Products | Manuel Bronstein | E267 May 14, 2025

Show notes

In this episode, Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia interviews Manuel Bronstein, Chief Product Officer at Roblox. Roblox is not just a video game—it's a platform that enables people to play, create, and build businesses in immersive virtual worlds. With over 85 million daily active users growing at 20% year-over-year, Roblox has paid out more than $923 million to its creator community in 2024 alone.
Manuel brings extensive experience from leading roles at major tech platforms including Xbox, Zynga, YouTube, and Google Assistant. As Roblox's CPO, he oversees the platform's product strategy and development, focusing on creating tools and systems that empower creators while maintaining trust and safety at scale.
In this episode, we'll explore:
- The evolution of Roblox from gaming platform to virtual economy
- How Roblox manages its creator marketplace and virtual economy
- Manuel's product leadership principles and frameworks
- Strategies for maintaining startup culture while scaling
- The future of virtual worlds and immersive platforms
Chapters:
(00:00) 🎮 Introduction and Career Journey
(05:25) 🚀 From Gaming to Platforms: Leadership Lessons
(15:30) 💰 Building and Managing Virtual Economies
(25:45) 🛠️ Product Development at Scale
(35:20) 🔮 The Future of Virtual Worlds
(45:10) 💡 Leadership Principles and Team Building
Key Takeaways 👇:

Virtual Economy Management: Manuel emphasizes the importance of building systems that can scale while maintaining trust and safety, particularly in managing a virtual economy with real monetary value.
Leadership Principles: Focus on building fast and learning faster, using first principles thinking, and implementing radical simplification to solve complex problems.
Platform Dynamics: Understanding the unique challenges of managing a platform that serves both creators and users, requiring different approaches to engagement and monetization.
Scaling Culture: Manuel shares strategies for maintaining startup-like innovation and execution speed while growing into a major platform.
Systems Thinking: The importance of designing scalable systems from the start, particularly when dealing with user-generated content and virtual economies.

Credits:
Host: Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia
Guest: Manuel Bronstein

Social Links:

Find out more about Product School here
Follow our Podcast on TikTok here
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Samsara CPO on Building a $20B Tech Giant by Digitizing Non-Tech Industries | Kiren Sekar | E266 Apr 30, 2025

Show notes

In this episode, Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia interviews Kiren Sekar, Chief Product Officer at Samsara, a $20+ billion company revolutionizing physical operations technology. Since its founding about 10 years ago, Samsara has become a leader in IoT and AI solutions for industries like transportation, manufacturing, and construction.
As CPO, Kiren leads Samsara's product strategy and development, overseeing a team of ~700 people in R&D. Under his leadership, Samsara has successfully built an integrated platform that combines hardware sensors and cameras with sophisticated software solutions, collecting over 10 trillion data points annually to help businesses improve safety, efficiency, and sustainability.
we explore how Samsara balances hardware and software development, uses their 70/20/10 framework for product roadmap prioritization, and leverages AI to enhance driver safety and operational efficiency. Kiren also shares insights on building and scaling product teams in a rapidly growing enterprise environment.

What you'll learn:
- How to implement a 70/20/10 framework for product roadmap prioritization
- Strategies for building and scaling R&D teams across hardware and software
- Methods for creating effective customer feedback loops combining data and field visits
- Approaches to balancing customer requests with innovation initiatives
Key Takeaways 👇:
- Product Strategy Framework
- Uses 70/20/10 model to balance core product development, growth initiatives, and innovation
- Focuses on horizontal solutions that work across multiple industries
- Emphasizes three main themes: safety, efficiency, and sustainability
This episode is brought to you by Persona, the adaptable identity platform that helps businesses fight fraud, meet compliance requirements, and build trust. These days, it's easier than ever for fraudsters to steal voices, faces, and identities. That's where Persona comes in; helping leading companies to securely verify individuals and businesses worldwide, providing flexible building blocks to create tailored verification flows that maximize conversion while minimizing risks.
Whether you work at a startup or large enterprise, you can get started for free here: https://withpersona.com/productschool
Credits:
Host: Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia
Guest: Kiren Sekar

Social Links:

Find out more about Product School here
Follow our Podcast on TikTok here
Follow Product School on LinkedIn here

Etsy CPO on Scaling a Profitable Marketplace with AI While Keeping Commerce Human | Nicholas Daniel | E265 Apr 23, 2025

Show notes

In this episode, Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia interviews Nicholas Daniel, Chief Product Officer at Etsy — the world's largest marketplace for unique and handmade items. Founded in 2005, Etsy has grown into a global platform connecting over 6 million sellers with 90 million buyers worldwide, featuring more than 130 million unique items.
Nicholas leads Etsy's product organization, overseeing 30+ product squads that drive innovation across the marketplace. His 11-year tenure at Etsy has been instrumental in transforming the platform from a web-centric marketplace to a multi-platform powerhouse while staying true to its core mission of "keeping commerce human."
We explore how Etsy manages its massive scale of unique inventory, leverages AI for better discovery, and maintains the delicate balance between growth and marketplace identity. Nicholas shares insights on structuring product teams around business challenges, measuring seller success, and fostering innovation through features like "Spaces" that enhance browsing experiences.
What you'll learn:
How Etsy structures its product organization to tackle marketplace challenges
Strategies for managing and categorizing millions of unique items
Key metrics for measuring seller success and platform health
Approaches to balancing automation with maintaining human connections
The role of AI in understanding and surfacing unique inventory
Key Takeaways👇:
- Nicholas reveals how Etsy's 30+ product squads are organized around business challenges rather than traditional product lines, maintaining a ratio of 1 PM to 6 engineers for optimal efficiency.
- Managing 130M unique items (expanding to 2B+ with variations) requires sophisticated AI/ML approaches, as traditional e-commerce categorization doesn't work for handmade items.
- Focus on seller success as a leading indicator, with key metrics including time to first sale, product assortment updates, and platform tool adoption.
- Etsy's approach to innovation, including features like "Spaces," demonstrates how to enhance discovery while maintaining the human element that defines their marketplace.
- Strong emphasis on "keeping commerce human" while scaling, showing how to maintain marketplace identity and quality during growth.
This episode is brought to you by Persona, the adaptable identity platform that helps businesses fight fraud, meet compliance requirements, and build trust. These days, it's easier than ever for fraudsters to steal voices, faces, and identities. That's where Persona comes in; helping leading companies to securely verify individuals and businesses worldwide, providing flexible building blocks to create tailored verification flows that maximize conversion while minimizing risks.
Whether you work at a startup or large enterprise, you can get started for free here: https://withpersona.com/productschool

Social Links:

Find out more about Product School here
Follow our Podcast on TikTok here
Follow Product School on LinkedIn here

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