The Product Podcast

Product School
  • 4.3 (168)
  • EDUCATION
  • UPDATED BIWEEKLY

Hosted by Product School CEO Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia, The Product Podcast drills deep into the minds of Chief Product Officers from Cisco, Lovable, Perplexity, Shopify and many more.  We move beyond high-level theory to reveal how top executives actually lead in the age of AI. We dig deep into their real-world decision-making, strategic frameworks, and the operational playbooks used to build intelligent products. If you are a VP, Director, or CPO looking to drive innovation at scale, this is your essential listen.

  1. Xero CPTO on Building an Agentic AI Platform to Manage Multiple Agents | Diya Jolly | E289

    1D AGO

    Xero CPTO on Building an Agentic AI Platform to Manage Multiple Agents | Diya Jolly | E289

    In this episode, Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia, CEO at Product School, sits down with Diya Jolly, CPTO at Xero, the global accounting platform trusted by over 4 million customers. Diya shares how Xero is redefining B2B software by building JAX, an agentic AI platform that intelligently manages specialized sub-agents to streamline business operations. What you'll learn: How Xero built an agentic AI platform that orchestrates multiple agents across payroll, payments, and bank reconciliation workflows.The strategy for implementing strict guardrails to ensure accuracy in highly regulated, AI-driven accounting processes.How to design a global product that scales common services while adapting to hyper-local tax and payment requirements.The two-way door framework for accelerating product decisions and course-correcting with imperfect data.Key takeaways: Why the future of SaaS interfaces is conversational, transitioning users away from static dashboards into review and insight roles.The strategic advantage of combining product and technology leadership into a single CPTO role to drive tighter cross-functional alignment.Why deeply serving the SMB market requires specialized product design that balances consumer-grade simplicity with enterprise-grade workflow depth. Credits: Host: Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia Guest: Diya Jolly Social Links: Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

    40 min
  2. Shopify VP of Product on Transforming SaaS to AI-Native and Building $100B+ Agent-Led Commerce | Vanessa Lee | E288

    MAR 18

    Shopify VP of Product on Transforming SaaS to AI-Native and Building $100B+ Agent-Led Commerce | Vanessa Lee | E288

    In this episode, Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia, CEO at Product School, interviews Vanessa Lee, Vice President of Product at Shopify, the engine of global commerce powering over $1.1 trillion in sales. As the most senior product leader at Shopify reporting directly to the CEO, Vanessa oversees the product strategy for a platform with a $165B+ market cap and recent 30% year-over-year revenue growth. A two-time YC founder, Vanessa brings a builder’s mindset to leadership, emphasizing the need for technical fluency and courage as a service when making high-stakes decisions. What you'll learn: AI-Native Playbook: How Shopify transitioned from traditional SaaS to agent-led commerce.Internal AI Evals: How to use LLM-based judges to grade and ensure product quality.Technical Product Leadership: Why staying involved in API details and technical cohesion is critical for senior roles.The Versioning Framework: The strategy Vanessa used to successfully push back and convince her CEO to version Shopify's API.Key Takeaways: Beyond the PRD: Shifting focus from rigid specs to training AI models for non-deterministic outcomes.Courage as a Service: How to leverage deep domain expertise to find your screw it moment and drive organizational change.The Founder Mindset: Maintaining autonomy and an experimental spirit within a 10,000-person global organization.Credits: Host: Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia Guest: Vanessa Lee Social Links: Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

    47 min
  3. Google VP of Product on The Future of Search and AI Mode | Robby Stein | E287

    MAR 11

    Google VP of Product on The Future of Search and AI Mode | Robby Stein | E287

    In this episode, Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia, CEO at Product School, sits down with Robby Stein, VP of Product at Google Search. Google Search serves billions of users and holds over 90% of the global market share, acting as the engine behind Alphabet's $400 billion in annual revenue. Robby is steering the most significant shift in Search history: the transition to AI. He oversees a massive portfolio, including the new AI Mode, which has already scaled to 75 million daily active users. Drawing from his time building Stories and Reels at Instagram, Robby breaks down how to build zero-to-one products inside a tech giant and why you need high conviction to push through early bad data. What you’ll learn: Building Like a Startup: How to maintain crazy speed and focus on zero-to-one initiatives while protecting a massive core business.True Product-Market Fit: Why flat or J-curve retention in early cohorts is the only reliable indicator that a product is actually working.The Value of Colossal Disasters: The untold story of how early failures with Instagram Reels and Close Friends were necessary steps to global success.Agentic Search: How Google is moving beyond providing links to executing complex, multi-step tasks by deeply understanding personal context. Key takeaways: Start Small to Win Big: Even at Google's scale, massive AI products begin with just 500 trusted testers and a focus on solving specific user complaints.Look for the Golf Shot: When building AI, look for that rare moment when the whole system works perfectly to build the conviction needed to keep iterating.Leaders Must Co-Create: To move fast in a large org, leaders shouldn't just approve from the top; they need to form working groups and operate in the details.Credits: Host: Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia Guest: Robby Stein Social Links: Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

    46 min
  4. Zapier VP of Product on Orchestrating 800+ AI Agents to Manage Everything | Chris Geoghegan | E286

    MAR 4

    Zapier VP of Product on Orchestrating 800+ AI Agents to Manage Everything | Chris Geoghegan | E286

    In this episode, Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia interviews Chris Geoghegan, VP of Product at Zapier. As the company’s first-ever Product Manager, Chris has spent nearly a decade scaling Zapier into a $5 billion automation giant that serves over 3.4 million businesses and 69% of the Fortune 1000. Zapier is not just building AI tools; they are powering their entire company with them. Chris reveals that his team currently runs over 800 active AI agents internally to manage everything from calendar prep to engineering triage. He breaks down the Code Red moment that shifted their strategy and how they are defining the future of Agentic Workflows. What you’ll learn: Agentic vs. Deterministic: Why standard workflows follow a set path, while agents can reason, access knowledge, and change course to solve problems.The Orchestration Layer: How to hire and onboard AI agents using Context Engineering and Model Context Protocols (MCPs).Adoption vs. Transformation: Why adoption is just doing old tasks faster, while transformation unlocks business models that were previously impossible.Building a Moat: How Zapier uses its vast data on user intent to stay ahead of commodity LLM features.Key takeaways: Treat Agents Like Employees: You can't just deploy an agent; you must onboard it with specific context and tools to be effective.Lead by Building: Transformation fails if leaders don't use the tools. Zapier’s execs do show-and-tell sessions to prove they are hands-on.AI Governance is Key: To move up-market to the enterprise, you must solve for Observability (who sent what data) and Access Control.Credits: Host: Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia Guest: Chris Geoghegan  Social Links: Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

    33 min
  5. Walmart CPO on Scaling AI-Powered Localization Across Hundreds of Stores Worldwide | Tim Simmons | E285

    FEB 18

    Walmart CPO on Scaling AI-Powered Localization Across Hundreds of Stores Worldwide | Tim Simmons | E285

    In this episode, Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia, Founder & CEO at Product School, interviews Tim Simmons, Chief Product Officer at Walmart International, the retail giant serving 255 million customers weekly across 18 countries. Tim is leading a massive transformation to move from decentralized tech stacks to global platforms that empower local innovation. Tim explains why complexity is actually a competitive advantage when training AI. He dives deep into Agentic AI and the concept of Orchestrators—systems that manage workflows between agents to automate tasks like user story generation with 88% accuracy. He also shares the strategy behind the Walmart Translation Platform (WTP), which has cut translation costs by 99% while increasing speed and trust. What you'll learn: The Orchestrator Strategy: How to build AI systems where project manager agents coordinate tasks for maximum efficiency.Global vs. Local: A framework for building core platforms that scale while allowing for hyper-local customization.The ROI of AI: How Walmart tracks adoption and accuracy, not just productivity.Human in the Loop: Why keeping humans involved in AI workflows actually makes the models smarter over time. Key takeaways: Complexity is Data: The more you expose AI to your organization's complexity, the more resilient and accurate it becomes.Trust Through Nuance: Successful localization isn't just word-for-word translation; it's about capturing intent to build customer trust.Platform Discipline: Moving from bespoke builds to multi-tenant codebases is essential for scaling innovation globally.Credits: Host: Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia Guest: Tim Simmons Social Links: Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

    28 min
  6. Vercel SVP of Product on How Real AI-Native Products Operate and Ship Faster | Aparna Sinha | E284

    FEB 4

    Vercel SVP of Product on How Real AI-Native Products Operate and Ship Faster | Aparna Sinha | E284

    In this episode, Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia, CEO & Founder at Product School, interviews Aparna Sinha, SVP of Product at Vercel, the cloud platform recently valued at $9.3 billion following a $300 million Series F. Aparna joins us to discuss how Vercel is powering the next generation of AI-native applications. Drawing from her experience at Google Kubernetes and Pear VC, Aparna reveals how Vercel empowers Teams of One to ship faster than ever. She explores the cultural shift required to build in the AI era—moving from rigid planning to rapid experimentation and iterating to greatness. What you'll learn: How Vercel’s Team of One philosophy maximizes developer leverage.Why shipping imperfect products early is crucial for AI strategy.The mechanics of Hybrid Pricing to balance AI costs and value.How to use internal dogfooding to accelerate product quality. Key takeaways: Speed is Survival: In the AI era, waiting for perfection means falling behind.Agency over Hierarchy: Small, autonomous teams outperform large structures.Price for Value: Align AI pricing with user outcomes, not just compute costs.Credits: Host: Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia Guest: Aparna Sinha Social Links: Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

    38 min
  7. Rippling GM on Running a $16B+ Company Like a Product at Scale | Anique Drumright | E283

    JAN 21

    Rippling GM on Running a $16B+ Company Like a Product at Scale | Anique Drumright | E283

    In this episode, Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia, CEO & Founder at Product School, interviews Anique Drumright, General Manager and VP of Product at Rippling, the workforce management platform valued at $16.8 billion with over $570 million in ARR. Anique is a product veteran who has shaped high-growth teams at Uber, TripActions, and Loom. Now at Rippling, she helps lead a workforce of over 4,000 employees, including 100 former founders, to maintain the speed and ownership typically lost at scale. In this conversation, Anique breaks down how Rippling successfully operates as a compound startup and why product leaders must evolve into General Managers. What you’ll learn: How to pivot from managing a backlog to owning a P&L as a GM.The Compound Startup framework for consolidating enterprise categories.How to build high-performing teams by hiring for "founder-level" curiosity.Strategies for proving ROI to enterprise customers to drive platform adoption. Key takeaways: Go and See: Why leaders must personally investigate customer issues to set the bar for quality.Singular Obsession: How to organize teams to maintain focus and velocity as you scale.Automating ROI: How Rippling uses product efficiency to justify headcount reduction for clients.Credits: Host: Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia Guest: Anique Drumright Social Links: Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

    33 min
  8. Miro CEO on Leading AI Product Expansion Without Losing Focus | Andrey Khusid | E282

    JAN 7

    Miro CEO on Leading AI Product Expansion Without Losing Focus | Andrey Khusid | E282

    In this episode, Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia interviews Andrey Khusid, Co-founder and CEO of Miro, the visual collaboration platform valued at an estimated $17 billion with over 100 million users. Andrey reveals how Miro transformed from a simple browser whiteboard into a central hub for innovation, serving 250,000 customers worldwide. He discusses the critical shift from best-of-breed tools to platform suites and how Miro is aggressively integrating AI to support agentic workflows. What you'll learn: How to apply day one thinking to constantly reinvent your product strategy.Why speed of learning is the only true competitive moat in the AI era.How to navigate the tension between market consolidation and AI experimentation.The role of acquisitions in scaling a product team to 1,600 people. Key Takeaways: Reinvention is Mandatory: Why you must risk short-term revenue to secure long-term relevance.AI as a Teammate: Moving beyond features to humans and AI working together to solve problems.Fast Fashion Software: How to build a Lovemark brand to survive rapid commoditization. Credits: Host: Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia Guest: Andrey Khusid  Social Links: Find out more about Product School hereFollow our Podcast on TikTok hereFollow Product School on LinkedIn here

    28 min
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4.3
out of 5
168 Ratings

About

Hosted by Product School CEO Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia, The Product Podcast drills deep into the minds of Chief Product Officers from Cisco, Lovable, Perplexity, Shopify and many more.  We move beyond high-level theory to reveal how top executives actually lead in the age of AI. We dig deep into their real-world decision-making, strategic frameworks, and the operational playbooks used to build intelligent products. If you are a VP, Director, or CPO looking to drive innovation at scale, this is your essential listen.

Information

  • Creator
    Product School
  • Years Active
    2017 - 2026
  • Episodes
    829
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 640108
  • Show Website
    The Product Podcast

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