LaunchPod | Product Management Podcast

By LogRocketBusiness Technology Careers Management

LaunchPod | Product Management Podcast episodes

October 28, 2025How Tinder Swiped Right on Customer Experience | Curtis Stevens (ex-Tinder)
Today, we’re talking with Curtis Stevens, who, until recently, was Tinder’s Director of Product Consumer Insights, and prior to that held product leadership roles at Qualtrics, Amazon, and more.
In this episode, Curtis shares:
How AI can actually be a tool for human connection
His process behind Tinder’s transformation into customer-centricity, with real, measurable results
How to balance short-term user joy with long-term product innovation and future features
And how AI is driving customer experience changes faster than research can follow, and what you can do to keep up
Links
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/curtis-b-stevens/
Chapters
00:00: Intro
03:03: Curtis Stevens' product journey
7:40: Challenges and strategies in customer experience
14:54: Curtis' journey workshops
20:41: AI's role in customer research
27:41: Conclusion
Follow LaunchPod on YouTube
We have a new YouTube page! Watch full episodes of our interviews with PM leaders and subscribe!
What does LogRocket do?
LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.
Special Guest: Curtis Stevens.
28 min
October 23, 2025The Hidden AI Revolution in Construction | Rajitha Chaparala (Procore)
On today’s episode, we’re talking with Rajitha Chaparala, VP of Product at Procore, a construction management solution and one of the most successful examples of vertical SaaS out there today.
In this episode, we discuss:
How Rajitha and her team are using LLMs to streamline complex processes like requests for information (RFIs), project revisions, and construction site walkthroughs
Why building trust and showing real, immediate value were key to getting AI buy-in from construction professionals, historically hesitant to adopt new tech
Why Rajitha believes this is construction’s moment for AI, and how the shift from skepticism to curiosity happened almost overnight
Links
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rajithachaparala/
Procore: www.procore.com
Chapters
00:00 Introduction
00:48: The complexity of construction and technology adoption
02:00: AI streamlining Requests for Information (RFIs) in construction
04:00: Why LLMs are ideal for construction's unstructured data
06:00: Building trust for AI adoption
08:00: The future of construction thanks to AI adoption
Follow LaunchPod on YouTube
We have a new YouTube page! Watch full episodes of our interviews with PM leaders and subscribe!
What does LogRocket do?
LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.
Special Guest: Rajitha Chaparala.
9 min
October 16, 2025Linear’s Secret to Building Powerful AI Products | Nan Yu, VP of Product (Linear)
Today, we’re joined again by Nan Yu, Head of Product at Linear.
In this episode, Nan shares:
Why you’re wrong to think of AI as a way to reduce costs -- and why the real value is in enabling new work that was previously impossible
The 3 must-haves he’s deduced from across the most successful AI products to produce consistently great outcomes for users
The behind-the-scenes details of Linear’s new Agent Interaction Guidelines
Links
Nan's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thenanyu/
Nan's X: https://x.com/thenanyu?lang=en
Linear: https://linear.app/
Linear's previous episode of LaunchPod: https://youtu.be/7ISWLoQtNOc?si=dNKmSdQ98eqis_JW
Resources
Linear's Agent Interaction Guidelines: https://linear.app/developers/aig
Granola.ai: https://www.granola.ai/
Cursor: https://cursor.com/
Chapters
00:00: Intro
03:24: Using AI as a harness, the systems and context layers that make AI tools repeatable and useful at scale
07:54: Scaling AI tools to ensure consistency and quality
14:14: Analyzing user interaction, tweak time, and feedback
18:29: Linear's new Agent Interaction Guidelines
22:14: How AI is changing the role of engineers
27:42: AI's impact on junior roles
30:10: Conclusion
Follow LaunchPod on YouTube
We have a new YouTube page! Watch full episodes of our interviews with PM leaders and subscribe!
What does LogRocket do?
LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.
Special Guest: Nan Yu.
30 min
October 09, 2025Reinventing SaaS: Zuora's AI Transformation | Karthik Chakkarapani and Shakir Karim (Zuora)
Today, we’re joined by Shakir Karim (Senior VP of Product) and Karthik Chakkarapani (CIO & Senior VP of Corporate Operations) from Zuora.
In this episode, Shakir and Karthik discuss:
Why they believe AI is a bigger inflection point than web, mobile, or cloud
Their internal AI agent workflow that automatically resolves thousands of service requests instantly, freeing teams to focus on strategy
How they cut a major feature deployment step from 14 days to 10 minutes using Claude Code
Why prompt-a-thons and hackathons have been vital for driving not just AI adoption but AI literacy
Links
Shakir's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shakir-karim/
Karthik's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chakraj/
Zuora: https://www.zuora.com/
Resources
Trupeer: https://www.trupeer.ai/
Gemini Storybook: https://gemini.google/overview/storybook/
NotebookLM: https://notebooklm.google/
Chapters
00:00: Intro
02:15: Zuora's 10x initiative
07:00: Zuora's internal AI agent
10:00: Accelerating content creation using Trupeer
12:00: Cutting video content creation down from 4 weeks to 5 hours
17:00: AI in practical workflow
22:00: Scaling AI innovation and literacy internally
28:32: AI prompathons and hackathons
29:54: Conclusion
Follow LaunchPod on YouTube
We have a new YouTube page! Watch full episodes of our interviews with PM leaders and subscribe!
What does LogRocket do?
LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.
Special Guests: Karthik Chakkarapani and Shakir Karim.
32 min
October 07, 2025The Secrets Behind a 30x AI Product Team | Zac Hays, CPO (Luxury Presence)
Today, we’re joined by Zac Hays, CPO at Luxury Presence, a fast-growing real estate tech platform that made a huge bet on AI adoption across the company..
In this episode, we discuss:
Luxury Presence's 30x Value Principle and how they rethought goals and projects to have exponential-level impact
The AI design sprint process that allowed the company to 20x product velocity
How their mandatory AI bug triage policy has cut resolution time by 80%
Links
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zacthepm/
Zac's AI-Powered Design Print Playbook: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/ai-powered-design-sprint-playbook-v01-zac-hays-iu1dc/
Luxury Presence: https://www.luxurypresence.com/
AirOps: https://www.airops.com/
Userbrain: https://www.userbrain.com/en/
Chapters
00:00: Intro
03:31: How Luxury Presence started tinkering with AI
08:15: Automating bug fixes (the 80% reduction)
10:50: Zac's "AI Design Sprint" process
14:00: Using AI to tackle tech debt and codebase rewrites
19:04: Building an "autonomous" AI marketing team
22:22: Conclusion
Follow LaunchPod on YouTube
We have a new YouTube page! Watch full episodes of our interviews with PM leaders and subscribe!
What does LogRocket do?
LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.
Special Guest: Zac Hays.
24 min
September 30, 2025Zapier’s AI Transformation Playbook with Phil Lakin (Zapier)
Today, we’re joined by Phil Lakin, Head of Enterprise Innovation at Zapier.
In this episode, we discuss:
How Phil built No-Code Ops into a thriving community and SaaS product - and what led to its acquisition by Zapier
Why Phil ended up leading the initiative on Zapier’s first solution-based product, and the decision process behind making it Lead Router
How Zapier is driving AI transformation across both their org and others with hands-on bootcamps, agent workflows, and a 97% AI literacy rate among employees
Links
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/philip-lakin/
Zapier: https://zapier.com/
NoCodeOps: https://www.nocodeops.com/
Chapters
00:00: Intro
01:30: How Phil built the No-Code Ops community and why Zapier acquired it
05:45: Building Lead Router and how it shaped Zapier's roadmap
10:20: Building with Zapier Primitives
15:10: How Zapier achieved 97% AI literacy
20:25: AI agents and workflow automation
26:40: Tactics for bringing employees on board with new AI tools
32:55: What other companies can learn from Zapier’s AI transformation
39:15: Where Phil sees AI, no-code, and automation heading next.
44:00: Conclusion
Follow LaunchPod on YouTube
We have a new YouTube page! Watch full episodes of our interviews with PM leaders and subscribe!
What does LogRocket do?
LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.
Special Guest: Phil Lakin.
33 min
September 25, 2025Copilot, Claude, & OptiGPT: The AI Stack Driving Optimizely
How is Optimizely reshaping experimentation with AI? Cory Liebgott, VP of Product at Optimizely, joins LaunchPod to share how her team is using AI into both customer-facing solutions and their own product workflows.
Cory shares how her team:
Uses Copilot and Claude for everything from PRD writing and meeting recaps to translating technical language into accessible insights
Developed OptiGPT, an internal AI assistant that surfaces customer data, product knowledge, and HR policies in seconds
Built a customer-facing AI query tool that also became a surprise hit internally for measuring customer health and engagement
Encourages a culture of experimentation where PMs demo and share AI tools, turning emergent use cases into productivity boosts across teams
Links
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cliebgott/
Optimizely: https://www.optimizely.com/
Chapters
00:38 Exploring AI tools as a team
01:43 Real-world AI productivity wins
03:16 Inside OptiGPT: Optimizely’s AI assistant
04:08 Using AI for research and prototyping
05:10 When AI surprises: Emergent capabilities
06:22 Lessons learned: Sharing and experimenting
Follow LaunchPod on YouTube
We have a new YouTube page! Watch full episodes of our interviews with PM leaders and subscribe!
What does LogRocket do?
LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.
Special Guest: Cory Liebgott.
9 min
September 23, 2025How 1 CPO Uses AI to Deliver Like a Full Product Team | Michael Krafft, CPO (FoundersCard)
Today, we’re joined by Michael Krafft, CPO at FoundersCard, a membership community for entrepreneurs and executives offering exclusive perks and VIP treatment.
Previously, Michael worked in investment banking, led product teams at American Express, and played a key role in turning around Alight, an HR-tech firm, ahead of its IPO.
In this episode, we discuss:
How Michael uses AI to be a 1-person Product team at a profitable startup with more than 250K members
His AI-driven discovery engine that automates interviews, segments users, and turns feedback into roadmap-shaping insights
Why working as both a leader and IC lets him move from idea to prototype to product in record time with tools like V-Zero and Lovable
The simple test that boosted paid conversions by 50%—and how he runs growth experiments far beyond his team’s size
Links
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-krafft/
FoundersCard: https://founderscard.com/
Chapters
00:00 Intro
03:04 How AI Drove Down CAC and Fueled Growth
06:06 Using AI to Analyze Customer Interviews
09:10 Turning Feedback Into Roadmap Insights
12:13 AI-Powered Discovery Engine for PMs
15:17 One-Person Product Team With AI Tools
18:20 Scaling Insights Beyond Human Bandwidth
21:23 Automating PRDs With AI
24:25 From Idea to Prototype in an Afternoon
27:28 Running Growth Experiments With AI
30:31 Conversions, Retention, and AI Testing
33:33 Customer Insights That Shape the Roadmap
36:36 Paid Conversion Boosts With AI
39:37 Final Takeaways for Product Leaders
Follow LaunchPod on YouTube
We have a new YouTube page! Watch full episodes of our interviews with PM leaders and subscribe!
What does LogRocket do?
LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.
Special Guest: Michael Krafft.
36 min
September 18, 2025 Top 4 AI Workflows Every PM Leader Should Know
Unlock the future of product management with AI. In this episode of LaunchPod, we dive into the top 4 AI workflows every product manager needs, from automating user research to building smarter prototypes and running faster experiments.
Hear real stories from product leaders who are already using AI to:
*Turn hours of customer interviews into actionable insights
*Prototype and test new features in record time
*Automate PRDs and documentation without losing quality
*Drive data-backed decisions that accelerate growth
Chapters
00:00 Why AI is changing product management
00:30 Avoiding missteps with AI-powered customer insights
02:00 Prototyping and testing faster with AI tools
04:00 Automating PRDs and product documentation
06:30 Using AI for smarter data analysis and decision making
09:00 Balancing AI with product intuition and strategy
11:00 The future of AI in product workflows
Follow LaunchPod on YouTube
We have a new YouTube page! Watch full episodes of our interviews with PM leaders and subscribe!
What does LogRocket do?
LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.
Special Guests: Derek Pharr, Neha Monga, Roman Gun, and Sierra Hahn-Ventrell.
27 min
September 16, 2025Why Optimizely is Betting on Agentic AI | Cory Liebgott, VP of Product (Optimizely)
How is Optimizely reshaping experimentation with AI? Cory Liebgott, VP of Product at Optimizely, joins LaunchPod to share how her team is building agentic AI tools that put customer trust at the center.
Cory shares how her team:
Pivoted away from risky benchmarking AI to focus on agentic AI tailored to each customer’s brand and data
Launched Opal, Optimizely’s AI suite built on Google Gemini, with strict governance to keep customer data secure
Developed experimentation agents that suggest test ideas, run experiments, and summarize results
Built internal AI tools like OptiGPT to streamline workflows, from PRDs to customer research, boosting productivity across teams
Links
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cliebgott/
Optimizely: https://www.optimizely.com/
Chapters
00:00 Introduction
01:52 Implementing Agentic AI at Optimizely
04:58 The Importance of Customer Feedback
06:27 Using AI Tools Internally at Optimizely
15:30 DocuSign and the Squeaky Wheel Problem
30:36 Conclusion
Follow LaunchPod on YouTube
We have a new YouTube page! Watch full episodes of our interviews with PM leaders and subscribe!
What does LogRocket do?
LogRocket's Galileo AI watches user sessions for you and surfaces the technical and usability issues holding back your web and mobile apps. Understand where your users are struggling by trying it for free at LogRocket.com.
Special Guest: Cory Liebgott.
32 min

About LaunchPod | Product Management Podcast

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LaunchPod is a product management podcast hosted by LogRocket's CEO, Matt Arbesfeld, and VP of Marketing, Jeff Wharton, where they talk to product leaders about the issues they faced in their careers,…

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LaunchPod | Product Management Podcast

LaunchPod | Product Management Podcast episodes

About LaunchPod | Product Management Podcast