The Product Podcast

Product School

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. 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: Follow our Podcast on Tik Tok here Follow Product School on LinkedIn here Join Product School's free events here Find out more about Product School here

    33 min
  2. Webflow CPO on How Product Leaders at AI-Native Companies Act as Individual Contributors | Rachel Wolan | E281

    12/23/2025

    Webflow CPO on How Product Leaders at AI-Native Companies Act as Individual Contributors | Rachel Wolan | E281

    In this episode, Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia speaks with Rachel Wolan, CPO at Webflow, the visual development platform valued at $4 billion that empowers over 3.5 million designers worldwide. Rachel discusses Webflow’s bold strategy to evolve into an AI-native experience platform with the launch of AppGen, a tool bridging the critical gap between AI prototyping and true production for enterprises like The New York Times and Spotify. What you'll learn: The ICCPO Framework: Why modern leaders must remain patient zero and use their own tools to understand the systems they build.From SEO to AEO: Why Product Managers must now own Answer Engine Optimization as a primary distribution channel.AppGen Strategy: How to move beyond simple wrappers to generate full-stack, on-brand web apps directly from prompts.Key Takeaways👇: Build Your Own Leverage: How Rachel built her own Chief of Staff AI agents to automate research and scale her output.Production-Ready AI: Why the real opportunity lies in making AI outputs secure and brand-consistent for enterprise use.New Distribution: Adapting product strategy for a world where discovery happens through AI agents, not just search engines.Credits: Host: Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia Guest: Rachel Wolan Social Links: Follow our Podcast on Tik Tok here Follow Product School on LinkedIn here Join Product School's free events here Find out more about Product School here

    45 min
  3. Vercel V0 GM on Transforming Developer Workflows to Ship Faster | Zeb Hermann | E280

    12/10/2025

    Vercel V0 GM on Transforming Developer Workflows to Ship Faster | Zeb Hermann | E280

    In this episode, Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia interviews Zeb Hermann, General Manager, v0 at Vercel, the AI cloud platform recently valued at $9.3 billion. Zeb oversees v0, which has grown to 3.5 million unique users by fundamentally changing how developers and PMs build software. Zeb dives into the operational shifts required to transform developer workflows and increase velocity. He explains why Vercel prioritizes a "vetoe-based" culture over approvals and how AI tools are enabling a new era of "full-stack" designers and PMs who contribute directly to the codebase. What you'll learn: Speed as a Principle: How to move from an approvals-based culture to a "vetoes-based" culture.The "Full Stack" Team: Why the most effective teams have designers and PMs who ship their own PRs.Prototype to Production: Strategies for closing the gap between AI prototypes and production-ready applications.Key takeaways👇 Impact Over Hours: Why the "996" culture is wrong and how to measure true team impact.Eliminating Handoffs: How to reduce coordination costs by empowering individuals to make product decisions.Broadening Literacy: Why the future of workflows is about more people understanding code, not just using client-side overrides.Credits: Host: Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia Guest: Zeb Hermann Social Links: Follow our Podcast on Tik Tok here Follow Product School on LinkedIn here Join Product School's free events here Find out more about Product School here

    47 min
  4. Lovable Head of Growth on The New AI-Native Growth Playbook | Elena Verna | E279

    11/26/2025

    Lovable Head of Growth on The New AI-Native Growth Playbook | Elena Verna | E279

    In this episode, Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia interviews Elena Verna, Head of Growth at Lovable—the fastest-growing AI startup to ever surpass $100M in ARR, hitting the milestone in just eight months. With a proven track record leading growth at Miro, Amplitude, Superhuman, and Dropbox, Elena brings unparalleled expertise in driving sustainable, product-led growth across both hyper-growth and turnaround environments. Elena shares how building in the fast-moving “vibe coding” category requires a radical shift in how we define product-market fit, structure growth teams, and measure success. From product-led monetization loops to redefining brand as a product responsibility, Elena outlines a bold vision for what growth looks like in the age of AI-native products. What you’ll learn: How Lovable ships at record speed, with daily product updates and a 3-tier launch model.How AI-native products redefine activation, retention, and monetization.Why product teams must now own brand experience—not just featuresHow Elena designs feedback, education, and referral loops that turn users into growth engines.The evolving role of activation, retention, and monetization in AI-native PLG.Key Takeaways 👇 Velocity as a Moat: Why rapid shipping is a survival strategy in AI-first companies.Always-Evolving PMF: How Lovable redefines product-market fit weekly in a category shaped by fast-moving LLMs.Product-Led Brand: Why every product touchpoint must be “lovable”—and how that standard powers word-of-mouth loops.Credits: Host: Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia Guest: Elena Verna  Social Links: Follow our Podcast on Tik Tok here Follow Product School on LinkedIn here Join Product School's free events here Find out more about Product School here

    43 min
  5. Hims & Hers CPO on Building Delightful Products in Regulated Markets | Dheerja Kaur | E278

    11/14/2025

    Hims & Hers CPO on Building Delightful Products in Regulated Markets | Dheerja Kaur | E278

    In this episode, Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia interviews Dheerja Kaur, Chief Product Officer at Hims & Hers, the publicly traded health and wellness platform with a market cap of over $10 billion and more than 3 million active users across its Hims and Hers consumer brands. At Hims & Hers, Dheerja is building the future of preventative care by combining diagnostics, clinical guidance, and personalized treatments—all delivered through a consumer-grade digital experience. From healthcare to fintech, Dheerja breaks down how PMs can master regulatory nuance without sacrificing speed or UX, why pairing product with clinical and compliance experts is a superpower, and how to turn constraints into differentiation through org design, platform thinking, and data.  What you’ll learn: Why product leadership in regulated industries requires a different kind of PM muscle.How Hims & Hers is expanding from transactional treatments to full-stack preventative care.The rationale behind maintaining two separate apps—and how that unlocks personalization at scale.How AI is powering internal tools, treatment plans, and personalized health journeys. Key Takeaways 👇  Building for Impact, Not Just Efficiency: Why Dheerja prefers mission-driven industries that improve lives over “fun” products.Product Meets Clinical: How Hims & Hers pairs PMs with in-house physicians to co-create treatment and diagnostic experiences.From Health Stack to Health Loop: Why continuous testing, personalized treatments, and AI-powered insights are the future of digital health.Credits: Host: Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia Guest: Dheerja Kaur Social Links: Follow our Podcast on Tik Tok here Follow Product School on LinkedIn here Join Product School's free events here Find out more about Product School here

    42 min
  6. Cisco President & CPO on Building Security-by-Design in AI Products | Jeetu Patel | E277

    10/29/2025

    Cisco President & CPO on Building Security-by-Design in AI Products | Jeetu Patel | E277

    In this episode, Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia interviews Jeetu Patel, Chief Product Officer at Cisco, as he explores the critical intersection of AI, cybersecurity, and collaboration. Jeetu shares how Cisco is designing next-generation security products to protect enterprise systems in an AI-driven world. He discusses the balancing act between speed and safety, and how the rapid pace of AI adoption is reshaping both cybersecurity and enterprise software. Jeetu dives into the frameworks Cisco uses to innovate securely at scale and why trust, privacy, and responsible AI design are central to their approach. What you’ll learn: How AI is transforming the cybersecurity landscape and the enterprise software industry.Frameworks for balancing innovation and security at scale.The role of trust, privacy, and responsible AI design in product development. Key Takeaways 👇 AI in Cybersecurity: How Cisco is leveraging AI to build next-gen security products that adapt to emerging threats.Building Secure Innovation: Practical approaches for ensuring scalable, secure innovation in a rapidly changing landscape.The Future of Responsible AI: Why Jeetu believes privacy and ethical AI practices are critical for maintaining trust in an AI-powered world.Credits: Host: Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia Guest: Jeetu Patel Social Links: Follow our Podcast on Tik Tok here Follow Product School on LinkedIn here Join Product School's free events here Find out more about Product School here

    30 min
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.

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