The Product Podcast

TikTok has officially crossed 200 million monthly active users in the US — but the real story is what they've built underneath the surface.
In this episode, Carlos González de Villaumbrosia, CEO at Product School, sits down with David Kaufman, Vice President of Product at TikTok, to go deep on the platform's transformation into a full end-to-end commerce engine. David breaks down how TikTok is using AI to automate everything from creative generation to affiliate-based promotion — so merchants can upload a catalog and let the platform handle the rest.
If you want to understand where social commerce is heading, this one is essential listening.

What you'll learn:
Why removing steps from the purchase funnel is the single biggest growth lever for modern product teams.
How TikTok's generative AI tools allow merchants to produce high-performing video creative at scale without a production team.
The shift from spontaneous live streams to scheduled commercial events driving $1M per hour in sales.
How TikTok balances feed, commerce, search, and messaging as four distinct monetization pillars.
Key takeaways:
The most successful products in the AI era put the user directly at the point of transaction.
Organic creator content consistently outperforms traditional high-production advertising.
A long-tail creator ecosystem can promote a 100,000-item catalog automatically through affiliate-based commission.
Credits:
Host: Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia
Guest: David Kaufman
Social Links:
Find out more about Product School here
Follow our Podcast on TikTok here
Follow Product School on LinkedIn here

AI is collapsing the silos between design and engineering. In this episode, Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia, CEO at Product School, sits down with Ed Bayes (Design Lead, OpenAI) and Matt Colyer (Product Director, Figma) to discuss their groundbreaking integration that enables a seamless round-trip workflow from code to canvas.

Matt Colyer walks us through a step-by-step demo of the new code to canvas and right to Figma capabilities. You’ll see exactly how OpenAI’s Codex and Figma’s Plugin API allow builders to move fluidly between development and design environments, using AI agents to update design systems and iterate faster than ever before.

What you'll learn:
Step-by-step demo: Moving from a code component in Codex to a live Figma design.
How the round-trip workflow eliminates lossy handoffs between designers and devs.
Strategies for using AI agents to update design libraries autonomously.
The impact of Model Context Protocol (MCP) on product team interoperability.
Key takeaways:
Velocity as a Moat: How AI-native tools are accelerating the speed of prototyping.
The Evolving PM Role: Why curiosity is now more critical than technical hurdles.
Human Judgment: Why AI increases the premium on high-level design taste.
Credits:
Host: Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia
Guests: Ed Bayes and Matt Colyer
Social Links:
Find out more about Product School here
Follow our Podcast on TikTok here
Follow Product School on LinkedIn here

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 here
Follow our Podcast on TikTok here
Follow Product School on LinkedIn here

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 here
Follow our Podcast on TikTok here
Follow Product School on LinkedIn here

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 here
Follow our Podcast on TikTok here
Follow Product School on LinkedIn here