Product Rising

How do we introduce AI into high-stakes human environments without losing trust, safety, judgment, or effectiveness?This episode features a conversation with Lacey Picazo, CEO and founder of ZoCo Design, a research and design consultancy focused on helping organizations build human-centered digital products and AI experiences. Lacey, a professional product designer by trade, is a serial entrepreneur with strong opinions on the ways customer behavior interplays with AI and can change depending on the application or the environment.  With host Shannon Peavey, Lacey discusses a case study where her firm worked with mTuitive, a leader in digital pathology and cancer care, in order to illuminate the way behavioral science, workflow design, and human-centered product thinking can shape whether AI succeeds or fails in clinical environments.Rather than treating AI adoption as a purely technical challenge, this episode explores how clinicians and patients respond emotionally, cognitively, and behaviorally when AI enters decision-making processes, and why “more automation” is not always better.This is a thoughtful discussion about innovation, responsibility, understanding the rewards - as well as the risks - of a future that is reckoning with finding the right formulas for human-machine collaboration. Importantly, it also addresses the ways we can support the next generation in an AI-shaped world.Lacey is part of our exclusive new Product Rising podcast series, where host Shannon Peavey explores the world of AI Ethics, Safety & Responsibility .00:00 Intro to the topic: AI enters healthcare01:33 Why healthcare is different from other industries04:05 Consumer product thinking doesn't always work05:54 The stakeholder problem: patients, providers, payers, and more07:02 Trust is kind of a big deal08:29 Today it's easy to build, but still not easy to get adoption09:55 Tempted to skip testing? Don't.12:16 Why human behavior matters more than product features14:23 Understanding clinicians as users18:09 Where AI creates hesitation and bad friction20:09 Professional identity: "Am I the kind of person who uses this?"21:14 The mTuitive cancer care case study24:21 Challenging assumptions before building26:18 How clinician research actually works28:31 What clinicians really want from AI30:44 Will resistance to AI fade over time?32:31 Finding the balance between efficiency and safety34:23 Why some friction is actually good36:40 Are companies overestimating automation?38:35 The skill every AI product leader still needs40:05 How to build customer intimacy in the AI era42:56 Ambient listening and the unintended consequences of AI44:22 The food bank story: how fear shapes behavior45:58 Slow down: AI's hidden human costs46:55 Closing thoughts 📚Resources:ZoCo Designhttps://zocodesign.com/ZoCo Design’s mTuitive Case Study https://zocodesign.com/case-studies/mtuitive-case-studymTuitive https://www.mtuitive.com/Melissa Perri https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissajeanperri/Teresa Torres https://www.linkedin.com/in/teresatorres/Women in Product’s Podcast Episode with Teresa Torres https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/continuous-discovery-with-teresa-torres/id1584224561?i=1000672408840Shreyas Dosi’s Maven course https://maven.com/shreyas-doshi/product-sense?promoCode=MAVEN100&promoCode=MAVEN100Where to find Lacey:Lacey Picazo, ZoCo Design https://www.linkedin.com/in/laceypicazo/Where to find our hosts:Shannon Peavey https://www.linkedin.com/in/spmad/🙋🏻‍♀️Where to find Women in Product:On LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/women-in-product/posts/ Website https://womenpm.org/Join the Community https://womenpm.org/wip-community/Product Rising on Apple Podcastshttps://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/product-rising/id1584224561Product Rising on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/7bcyVhpdhw0hbiRr6O4h1UProduct Rising on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLijcNLDj_QE2ge6Wqeh0MLx_qMKwot--9

Marty Cagan joins Carmen Palmer for this episode in our monthly series, In The Lead. Marty is a renowned product executive and author, and is widely considered a thought leader in the field of Product Management. He is the founder of the Silicon Valley Product Group (SVPG), where he advises companies on how to create successful products using the practices of world-class tech organizations. Marty is the author of influential books on the topic of product management and product teams including Inspired: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love Empowered: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Products.Transformed: Moving to the Product Operating Model Recently Marty and the team at Silicon Valley Product Group (SVPG) have been exploring the use of AI LLMs as product coaches. As always Marty has strong views on the adoption of AI technology enabling true product builders, the increasing importance of true empowered product managers, and how AI Models can assist in the transition by coaching PMs and Product Leaders..In The Lead is a monthly series on Product Rising sharing thought provoking conversations with a wide range of industry leaders hosted by Carmen Palmer, CEO of Women In Product. Your AI Product Coach00:00 Reckoning for Product03:11 GenAI Changes the Stakes07:11 Feature vs Empowered Teams09:57 Build to Learn vs Earn12:18 Prototyping Tools Boom13:37 New PM Litmus Test16:05 Why Coaching Fails20:57 AI Coaching Tipping Point23:58 Prompting for Product Model27:30 Load Strategic Context28:19 Strategic Context Inputs29:23 Project Model Prompts30:52 AI Coaching Limits34:58 Why Humans Still Matter38:42 What Coaching Looks Like39:25 Building Product Sense Fast42:01 Frameworks For Real Work45:23 Adoption Curve Reality49:13 Career Advice And Wrap📚Resources:SVPG Product Coaching and AIConfiguring Your Model As Product Coach - an example of how to get started using an AI Model to provide product coaching✨Where to find Marty:On LinkedInSilicon Valley Product Group (SVPG) Website & Newsletter sign up 💫 Where to find Carmen:On LinkedIn 🙋🏻‍♀️Where to find Women in Product:On LinkedIn Website https://womenpm.org/Join the Community https://womenpm.org/wip-community/

There is a lot of debate about the state of the job market today. We definitely hear a lot about layoffs in the big tech companies and also about AI eliminating positions. But AI may be having a bigger impact in the requirements for specific roles and even perhaps new types of roles. We will be having periodic conversations with leading recruiters, hiring managers, and others about the evolving job market and what it takes to get hired/noticed. Our first conversation is with Sally Thornton, CEO & Founder of Forshay, a firm that combines Executive recruiting with interim experts across Finance, HR, and Operations, and by aligning culture and leadership development skills to optimize team performance.02:17 Forshay Firm Overview03:27 Job Market Reality Check06:09 Entry Level Pipeline Crunch07:44 Where Hiring Is Growing08:33 What Employers Want Now09:56 Proving Curiosity in Interviews11:34 Influence as a Core Skill12:38 AI Transparency and Flatter Teams14:47 Fractional Leadership Explained19:36 How Orgs Are Reshaping for AI22:43 The Rise of the AI Scout24:55 Building an AI Experiment Team25:43 Choosing Tools That Fit27:16 AI in Hiring and Resume Filters29:19 Beating the Rejection Machine31:36 Community as Career Support32:14 AI as Reflective Hiring Partner34:37 Gut Instinct Versus Data37:40 Future Proofing Through Community39:56 Give More and Experiment Often41:16 Tools That Reduce Overwork43:42 Wrap Up and Where to Follow📚Resources:To Sell is Human, Daniel Pink🌟 Where to find Sally:On LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/sallythornton/Forshay: https://forshay.com🙋🏻‍♀️Where to find Women in Product:On LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/women-in-product/posts/ Website https://womenpm.org/Join the Community https://womenpm.org/wip-community/

We are reckoning with truths that are a bit uncomfortable. AI is not just a tool, but something people are relating to - personally. For kids and teens, we’re finding that that can be extremely dangerous.In this episode, Shannon Peavey speaks with Tracy Pizzo Frey, a veteran technology leader including 11 years at Google where she oversaw Responsible AI for Google Cloud. As a consultant, she worked with Common Sense Media to develop a system for assessing the risks of large language models and AGI, with a particular focus on kids and teens.Tracy brings deep technical experience and knowledge of how technology shapes behavior. Drawing on lessons from social media and emerging research, she explores what feels different about AI.For young people who are still developing social and emotional skills, these interactions may have unique implications. AI systems are responsive and engaging, but they do not challenge users or help them navigate real-world complexity in the same way humans do. Over time, that difference may influence how teens build coping skills, relationships, and a sense of self.Through her work with Common Sense Media, Tracy has evaluated leading AI systems and reached some important conclusions. Today’s models are not designed to serve as mental health companions for kids or teens, even though many young people are already engaging with them in ways that resemble emotional support.Tracy shares how these assessments were created, what they measure, and what they reveal about the current state of AI safety. She offers a grounded perspective on building & using these technologies responsibly, especially when younger users are already deeply involved..00:20 AI’s effect on kids 02:07 Why harms are specific to kids & teens 04:50 AI is not a search engine07:27 Kids & teachers are often earliest adopters 08:06 Tech companies know more than they let on 09:15 Common Sense Media’s risk assessment project09:57 Let’s not repeat mistakes 11:24 Tracy's involvement13:11 Set your charter 14:50 Bring diverse, multi-disciplinary teams 16:25 Why psychological safety is important 17:38 Distilling masses of information into risk assessments18:48 Why hype matters20:30 How the team looked at social media 23:20 Early assessment of potential harms25:10 Character.ai as precursor to interaction with LLMs26:00 ‘Everything in the whole wide world’27:13 Why kids are different32:18 The danger of so-called frictionless relationships33:02 The best way to test36:50 Some surprising findings39:08 How tech can reshape a worldview41:02 There are good people, but - business models43:30 Know the tradeoffs45:07 The fact-to-fiction scale46:30 Some positivity48:00 Books, lawsuits, and resources📚Resources:Common Sense Media (CSM) AI Overview https://www.commonsense.org/aiCSM’s Parents’ Guide https://www.commonsensemedia.org/articles/parents-ultimate-guide-to-generative-aiCSM’s Parents’ guide to AI Companions & Relationships https://www.commonsensemedia.org/articles/parents-ultimate-guide-to-ai-companions-and-relationshipsGoogle’s AI Principles https://ai.google/principles/Social Media’s Harmful Effects on Children https://www.yalemedicine.org/news/social-media-teen-mental-health-a-parents-guideAI & Everything in the Whole Wide World benchmark study https://sites.rutgers.edu/critical-ai/wp-content/uploads/sites/586/2022/01/Bender_AI-and-Everything-in-the-Whole-Wide-World-Benchmark.pdfShannon Vallor’s research https://edwebprofiles.ed.ac.uk/profile/shannon-vallorEmpire of AI by Karen Hao https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/743569/empire-of-ai-by-karen-hao/Where to find Tracy:Tracy Pizzo Frey, Restorative AI https://www.linkedin.com/in/tracy-frey/Where to find our host:Shannon Peavey https://www.linkedin.com/in/spmad/🙋🏻‍♀️Where to find Women in Product:On LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/women-in-product/posts/ Website https://womenpm.org/Join the Community https://womenpm.org/wip-community/

Gyanda joins Carmen Palmer for this episode in our monthly series, In The Lead. Gyanda Sachdeva is VP of Product Management at LinkedIn where she currently leads the Consumer Experience team. She has over 15 years of product experience across a wide variety of domains including advertising, subscriptions, marketplaces and payments. In this episode Gyanda shares her insights into managing product teams through the transition to AI and the changing role of PM. She also shares her personal career journey and the challenges of growing from an APM through individual contributor, group manager, director and now VP.In The Lead is a monthly series on Product Rising sharing thought provoking conversations with a wide range of industry leaders hosted by Carmen Palmer, CEO of Women In Product. Leading the Transition to AI in Product00:00 Meet Gyanda at LinkedIn02:34 Career Journey to Product05:01 Long Tenure Lessons08:11 Unlearning as a Leader11:02 AI Shift Moment14:35 Experimentation Over Roadmaps19:36 Full Stack Building Culture22:50 Trust Guardrails and Agents24:44 Associate Product Builder Program25:48 Early Adopters Drive ROI26:20 Mentorship and Product University28:26 Leaders Get Everyone In30:42 Scaling AI Enablement34:13 Keeping Up With Velocity37:27 Diversity Access and Role Models40:25 Three Day AI Jumpstart43:30 Product Launch Gone Wrong46:26 Daily Tools and Language Barriers48:12 Embrace the Skill Shift📚Resources:Statistics on job skills change by 2030: https://economicgraph.linkedin.com/research/work-change-reportA guide for new grads on job trends: https://news.linkedin.com/2026/Grads-Guide-2026 ✨Where to find Gyanda:On LinkedIn💫 Where to find Carmen:On LinkedIn 🙋🏻‍♀️Where to find Women in Product:On LinkedIn Website https://womenpm.org/Join the Community https://womenpm.org/wip-community/

In this episode, host Shannon Peavey speaks with Professor Rebecca Hinds, PhD, a Stanford-trained organizational behavior expert and author of Your Best Meeting Ever. Rebecca, who runs the Glean Work AI Institute, explains why the future of AI at work is not about squeezing more productivity out of individuals, but about strengthening organizations as a whole. She shares her system for applying design principles to create effective meetings and illuminates the ways these can help leaders decide when technology enhances collaboration and when it risks undermining human trust, creativity, and emotion. She also highlights a growing body of research on how AI can expand access to insight and make work more effective – though today, she says, many organizations are getting it wrong. Instead of imposing AI from the top down, she argues that companies should empower employees to experiment, and that they should tolerate and even celebrate failure. Importantly, she says, organizations need to establish thoughtful guardrails that allow people to discover how these tools can truly help teams become more effective.01:56 First things first, the bad news on AI and meeting culture03:12 The good news on AI and meeting culture05:29 Why leaders need to think about meetings holistically07:10 Seven design principles to appy to meeting design10:16 The “Four-D, CEO” test for meetings13:41 Where AI can excel18:02 Thinking differently about human roles19:18 Why we should worry about “digital twins”20:45 Keeping human emotions in mind23:05 What can happen if you deprioritize people23:30 Psychological safety at work, and with AI at work26:09 The critical need to have AI policies 28:30 Enabling employees to find the value in AI30:54 Tolerating, even celebrating failure33:48 Collaboration with AI: an individual experience36:36 The future is managing agents37:38 Hope for a future of unparalleled insights40:26 Using AI to help the organization, rather than the individual42:48 Sharing resources and research📚Resources:Rebecca Hinds https://www.rebeccahinds.com/Stanford University http://www.stanford.eduThe Glean Work AI Institute https://www.workai.instituteRebecca’s book, “Your Best Meeting Ever” https://www.rebeccahinds.com/bookOrganizational psychologist Bob Sutton https://bobsutton.net/about-bob/Harvard Business School professor Amy Edmonsonhttps://amycedmondson.com/about/Wharton School of Business Professor Ethan Mollick https://x.com/emollick?lang=enCharter newsletterhttps://www.charterworks.com/🌟 Where to find Rebecca:On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebecca-hinds/🙋🏻‍♀️Where to find Women in Product:On LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/women-in-product/posts/ Website https://womenpm.org/Join the Community https://womenpm.org/wip-community/

In 2017, before generative AI became a household term, Jen Gennai drafted Google’s original AI Principles. She was part of the effort to define what responsible AI should mean inside one of the most influential technology companies in the world. Now, years later, she is asking a more uncomfortable question. While companies race to deploy AI and governments work toward regulatory frameworks, who is seriously grappling with what this technology is doing to people and how they think, learn, and communicate?  Jen argues that we are making progress on global rules and regulations. But we may NOT be moving fast enough on the human consequences. As an AI responsibility expert and consultant, she spends her time training leaders not just to adopt AI, but to build resilient cultures, to capture gains without eroding human capacities that make those gains meaningful.02:29 How Google’s original AI Principles came about07:13 Working cross-industry to up-level the market08:02 History may not repeat, but it rhymes09:35 Regulation: rules versus principles13:08 How federal law could solve some problems18:18 AI’s “harm categories”24:03 Why we need to think more about human impact26:49 Skills for the future: Resilience, analytics, communication, creative problem-solving31:38 Why we need more focus on training programs38:30 Should you say your business is AI-first? Maybe not.40:43 Defining what “good” looks like42:20 Leading means building psychological safety📚Resources:T3 https://t3-consultants.com/Google AI Safety Principles https://ai.google/principles/NIST AI Risk Management Framework https://www.nist.gov/itl/ai-risk-management-frameworkEU AI Act https://artificialintelligenceact.eu/Latanya Sweeney’s 2016 keynote at the Grace Hopper Celebration https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBzP0NouiGoArticle describing Latanya Sweeney’s findings on racism in Google ads https://racismandtechnology.center/wp-content/uploads/latanya-sweeney-discrimination-in-online-ad-delivery.pdfThe U.S. Government’s AI Literacy Framework https://www.dol.gov/newsroom/releases/eta/eta20260213MIT’s Technology Review https://www.technologyreview.com/HBR https://hbr.org/🌟 Where to find Jen:On LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/jen-gennai-b333933/🙋🏻‍♀️Where to find Women in Product:On LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/women-in-product/posts/ Website https://womenpm.org/Join the Community https://womenpm.org/wip-community/

What does it actually mean to build ethical, safe, and responsible AI inside a real company with real deadlines, revenue pressure, and competing priorities? In this episode, Shannon Peavey sits down with Angel Evan, AI Ethicist and Practice Lead at AG Consulting Partners. Angel works directly with Fortune 500 companies and major technology organizations to operationalize AI ethics inside product development teams. His focus is not on abstract principles, rather, it’s process, execution and decision-making under pressure.Together, Shannon and Angel explore:Why AI ethics cannot live only in policy documents or philosophical debatesHow organizations can establish common starting points even when morality is subjectiveThe role of product managers, engineers, and leaders in translating values into shipping decisionsWhat it looks like to embed ethical thinking into roadmaps, governance, and release cyclesWhy learning together across teams is more powerful than waiting for perfect consensusAngel brings deep knowledge of philosophy and ethical theory, but his work is grounded in practical application. How do you turn abstract frameworks into something that actually guides a sprint? How do you navigate competing incentives? How do you move from aspiration to implementation? If you are a product leader, technologist, or executive trying to build AI responsibly without slowing innovation to a halt, this conversation offers a candid look at what it takes to move from ideas to impact.00:00 Introduction 01:59 AI Ethics, Responsibility, Safety: Focusing on the human condition02:50 Turning baseline principles into real products04:13 What is fairness?05:50 The path from data science 06:50 How we calibrate “right” and “wrong” in organizations09:20 Finding a common starting point12:14 Find the threshold between risk and productivity15:42 What is AI literacy?17:05 Building your “ethical reasoning” muscles22:30 Cautious optimism📚Resources:AG Consulting https://agconsultingpartners.com/The Stanford University Human-centered AI (HAI) Index https://hai.stanford.edu/ai-indexAngel Evan’s Machines & Meaning podcast https://angelevan.com/podcast/The U.S. Government’s AI Literacy Framework https://www.dol.gov/newsroom/releases/eta/eta20260213University of Edinburgh https://www.ed.ac.uk/🌟 Where to find Angel:On LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/angel-evan/🙋🏻‍♀️Where to find Women in Product:On LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/women-in-product/posts/ Website https://womenpm.org/Join the Community https://womenpm.org/wip-community/

Marty Cagan joins Carmen Palmer for this episode in our monthly series, In The Lead. Marty is a renowned product executive and author, and is widely considered a thought leader in the field of Product Management. He is the founder of the Silicon Valley Product Group (SVPG), where he advises companies on how to create successful products using the practices of world-class tech organizations. Marty is the author of influential books on the topic of product management and product teams including Inspired: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love Empowered: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Products.Transformed: Moving to the Product Operating Model Recently Marty and the team at Silicon Valley Product Group (SVPG) have been exploring the use of AI LLMs as product coaches. As always Marty has strong views on the adoption of AI technology enabling true product builders, the increasing importance of true empowered product managers, and how AI Models can assist in the transition by coaching PMs and Product Leaders..In The Lead is a monthly series on Product Rising sharing thought provoking conversations with a wide range of industry leaders hosted by Carmen Palmer, CEO of Women In Product. Your AI Product Coach00:00 Reckoning for Product03:11 GenAI Changes the Stakes07:11 Feature vs Empowered Teams09:57 Build to Learn vs Earn12:18 Prototyping Tools Boom13:37 New PM Litmus Test16:05 Why Coaching Fails20:57 AI Coaching Tipping Point23:58 Prompting for Product Model27:30 Load Strategic Context28:19 Strategic Context Inputs29:23 Project Model Prompts30:52 AI Coaching Limits34:58 Why Humans Still Matter38:42 What Coaching Looks Like39:25 Building Product Sense Fast42:01 Frameworks For Real Work45:23 Adoption Curve Reality49:13 Career Advice And Wrap📚Resources:SVPG Product Coaching and AIConfiguring Your Model As Product Coach - an example of how to get started using an AI Model to provide product coaching✨Where to find Marty:On LinkedInSilicon Valley Product Group (SVPG) Website & Newsletter sign up 💫 Where to find Carmen:On LinkedIn 🙋🏻‍♀️Where to find Women in Product:On LinkedIn Website https://womenpm.org/Join the Community https://womenpm.org/wip-community/

In this episode of Women in Product, host Shannon Peavey sits down with Tonia Osadebe, AI Safety Lead at OpenAI, for a candid and practical conversation about what it really means to build responsibly in fast moving AI environments. Tonia shares her path into AI Safety, from her early work on AI Agents and machine learning fairness to stepping into a role focused squarely on evaluating and mitigating risk in frontier systems. She reflects on her time at Google, including being part of the team navigating the widely discussed “Glue on Pizza” AI search result moment, and what those high visibility incidents teach teams about iteration, accountability, and resilience. At the heart of this conversation is a simple but powerful idea: safety work is collaborative. Tonia explains how cross functional teams come together to define acceptable risk, make principled tradeoffs, and agree to improve systems over time rather than striving for perfection before launch. 02:29 Where does safety start in a project?03:50 We’re mitigating - not eliminating - risk08:14 Trying not to break everything09:26 Let’s talk about glue on pizza11:34 What we don’t know YET14:06 How teams collaborate 19:02 We are not the “fun police”21:35 Tension is expected22:15 Measure where you can24:05 Sharing ownership25:15 Reflecting the real world 29:00 Access will change the way we dream32:50 Building safety into roadmap📚Resources:OpenAI - https://openai.com/Google AI Safety Principles - https://ai.google/safety/Google’s Pizza-Glue Scandal https://www.wired.com/story/google-cut-back-ai-overviews-before-pizza-glue/The U.S. Government’s AI Literacy Framework https://www.dol.gov/newsroom/releases/eta/eta20260213🌟 Where to find Tonia:On LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/tonia-osadebe-a9b1a014/Where to find our host:Shannon Peavey - https://www.linkedin.com/in/spmad/🙋🏻‍♀️Where to find Women in Product:On LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/women-in-product/posts/ Website - https://womenpm.org/Join the Community - https://womenpm.org/wip-community/