Product Rebels

What happens when your team starts running customer data through personal AI accounts, and locking it down would only push them further underground?

Heather Samarin sits down with Nilesh Singh, Head of Product at Unicity, a 40-year-old health and wellness company operating in 56 countries. When his team discovered PMs exporting distributor data to their own AI tools, they built a governed sandbox instead, with masked data and a dedicated AI governance role. Now PMs get directional answers in days instead of six weeks.

They also get into why a PM's value now comes from domain knowledge and catching edge cases, why specs are swinging back toward waterfall when the coder is an AI agent, and why the teams that capture their decisions and context will win over the next five years.

Book a free 20-minute call with Heather: https://calendly.com/hsamarin/productrebelsdiscovery

Learn about the Groundwork AI Blueprint: productrebels.com

Brian Crofts started his career in corporate finance before moving into product at Intuit, where he spent more than a decade leading product for QuickBooks and TurboTax. Today he's Chief Product Officer at BambooHR, where his team launched Bamboo AI this July.

He's the first guest in our new AI Product Leader series, where we talk with leaders who are in the thick of building AI products.

We get into how Bamboo AI started and the bet behind it: moving customers from clicking through software to bringing a problem to AI and working through it together. Brian describes SaaS UX as moving from navigation to collaboration to delegation, and he's clear that we have to meet customers where they are. One customer recently told his team, "Our AI strategy is your roadmap."

Brian is also candid about what didn't go smoothly. To move fast on the launch, the team left some of their usual process behind, and it turned into the Wild West for a while. They're bringing the fundamentals back. Since launch, they've tracked sentiment alongside usage, including a bucket for what Brian calls AI anxiety: about 10% of feedback comes from people who don't want AI in the product at all.

A big thread in our conversation is why AI makes product fundamentals more important. When building gets fast and easy, it also gets easier to build the wrong thing. Brian thinks we've hit a new definition of lazy, and that we have to recover the art of great insights. He also has a sharp take on leadership. CPOs no longer have the pattern recognition that years of experience used to give them, so their own curiosity and tinkering is how they give direction to teams who are learning too.

In this episode:

• Navigation, collaboration, and delegation in SaaS UX
• What happened when the team dropped process to ship Bamboo AI fast
• Tracking usage, sentiment, and AI anxiety after launch
• Why fast building makes customer insight more important
• How the CPO role has changed, and what Brian spends his time on now
• High curiosity plus high agency in PMs, designers, and engineers

We're back with a special host-only episode! Vidya Dinamani and Heather Samarin step out of the guest chair to unpack what they're hearing across nearly twenty AI roundtables they ran with CPOs, VPs, and product leaders across the industry.

Why the PRD is giving way to context, how the PM-to-engineer ratio is flipping, the pull toward a shared context layer, and why there's still no one-size-fits-all for AI.

If you're a product leader silently wondering whether you're behind on all this, the genuine answer from the room is that everyone is, and that should bring you some comfort.

Plus the persona skill one leader built to stop the slop.

Why do so many product transformations fail? Because leaders treat product like a science when it's mostly art.

Vidya Dinamani and Heather Samarin sit down with Chris Herring, Head of Product at Stride, the edtech company serving K-12 students through virtual public schools. Chris has been building AI products for over a decade — well before it was fashionable — including StoryStudio and MathBee, the math game that helped kids find out math doesn't suck.

From refusing to imitate what worked elsewhere, to piloting change with four teams before scaling to forty, to why trust is the currency that buys you permission to rebel, Chris shows what it takes to drive transformation from the inside.

What does it actually look like to run a one-day sprint cycle? To have agents building product overnight? To compress months of work into days — and still ship things that matter?

Kris Kaneta, Chief Product & Innovation Officer at Norstella — one of fast company's most innovative companies of 2025 — is doing it. And in this episode, he shares how with hosts Heather Samarin and Vidya Dinamani.

From the premium on clarity in an AI-led pdlc, to the difference between building to learn and building to earn, to why ai is exposing — not hiding — weak product thinking, Kris gives one of the most operationally grounded views of AI-first product leadership we've heard.

What happens when product leaders stop talking about AI theory and start sharing what’s actually working?

In this special Product Rebels episode, Vidya Dinamani and Heather Samarin unpack insights from four AI roundtables with CPOs, VPs, and product leaders.

They explore AI slop, ROI challenges, role anxiety, rapid prototyping, and why judgment, customer insight, and product fundamentals matter more than ever in an AI-driven world. The future of product management may be changing, but its core purpose remains the same.

What does it take to turn a struggling edtech platform into a mission-driven product powerhouse — in under a year?

Vidya Dinamani and Heather Samarin sit down with Jared Harless, Chief Product and Technology Officer at BookNook, as he talks about his early days bootstrapping digital products inside a billion-dollar publishing company, to leading a turnaround that grew revenue 25% year over year and pulled customer retention from 27% to 70%...but the work is far from over.

Jared gets real about the kind of conviction it takes to build before you have permission — and how going straight to the market before writing a line of code is still the most powerful move a product leader can make.

Hey there Product Rebels! If you're a product leader right now, chances are someone in your org has asked you some version of "what's our AI strategy?" in the last month. And chances are, the answer is still murky. We're hearing this from product leaders constantly — there's pressure to ship AI features, but not a lot of clarity on how to move from boardroom excitement to actual product impact.

That's why we're resurfacing this conversation with Ravi Mehta. His Inspire, Validate, Structure, and Ship framework is one of the most practical takes we've heard on turning AI ambition into real outcomes. If anything, it's more relevant now than when we first aired it. Enjoy the re-listen.

Hey there Product Rebels! We've had a lot of conversations with product leaders lately, and one thing that keeps coming up is how much financial guesswork is involved in incorporating AI into their product orgs.

From forecasting costs to proving ROI, it's a challenge that really comes down to something more fundamental — do PMs actually understand the economics of the products they're building?

That's exactly what Nat Kunes digs into in this episode. While the conversation isn't specifically about AI, the financial fluency he talks about is the exact muscle product leaders need right now. Enjoy the re-listen.

In this episode, Heather Samarin and Vidya Dinamani sit down with Nat Kunes, Chief Product Officer at Ontra. He shares his insights on redefining pricing strategies, replacing assumptions with validated hypotheses, and the impactful strategy he uses to empower his team to balance goals with true user value.

Nat digs into financial fluency for PMs, market validation practices, and shifting org culture to view product as an asset, not a liability.

What does it mean to be a true product rebel in the age of AI?

Heather Samarin and Vidya Dinamani sit down with Raviv Levi, former Chief Product & Technology Officer at Sift, as they unpack how product leaders can stay focused on what really matters—amid constant noise, data overload, and accelerating change.

From building alignment across competing teams to rethinking experimentation in an AI-first world, this conversation explores how faster prototyping, sharper problem focus, and stronger conviction are redefining product leadership.

What happens when product leaders prioritize profit over long-term value?

In this episode, Michael Nierstedt shares lessons from more than a decade building payroll and HR technology across companies like Gusto and Paylocity. He explains why product investment drives competitive advantage, why product managers must think like sellers inside their organizations, and how real influence comes from delivering value in production.

The conversation also explores customer research, the realities of building AI-driven products, and why the next generation of product leaders must learn to delegate, coach, and empower their teams.

Overthinking isn't a liability — it might just be your greatest edge as a product leader.

In celebration of women's history month, Vidya Dinamani and Heather Samarin sit down with Carmen Palmer, CEO of Women in Product and a veteran CPO with 20 years in the industry.

Carmen makes the case for why women's "overthinking" is a competitive edge, argues product management isn't going anywhere, and issues a sharp call to action: get in on AI now, before the gap widens.

She also unpacks the power of the personal board and what Women in Product has planned for 2026.

In this special episode of Product Rebels, Vidya Dinamani and Heather Samarin revisit highlights from their recent webinar, AI as a Force Multiplier for Product Discipline, featuring product and AI leader Elena Luneva. After the live session sparked a wave of thoughtful audience questions, they sit down to tackle some of the most pressing ones—from how AI is reshaping product work to why strong product fundamentals matter more than ever.

Note: As Product Rebels journeys deeper into supporting teams navigating AI, we're resharing this episode featuring Kene Anoliefo who shared some great insights. We hope you enjoy!

How is AI reshaping product management?

Vidya Dinamani and Heather Samarin sit down with Kene Anoliefo, Co-founder of HEARD by Elis, to explore how AI is accelerating product development, streamlining research, and transforming how teams build and iterate.

Kene shares insights on leveraging AI for rapid experimentation, the risks of low-quality product output, and why AI-driven tools are redefining how product teams operate.

What does great product leadership look like when you’re asked to go along with a big initiative you don’t believe in?

In this episode, former CPO at Everway, Timothy Alvis, talks about the tough calls product leaders face when conviction clashes with consensus.

From telling better stories, to embracing problem obsession over solution fixation, Tim shares hard-earned wisdom from leading at scale and navigating complex orgs. We also hear how he’s now applying AI to rethink product work itself. Whether you’re an aspiring CPO or in the trenches today, this episode offers plenty of gold.

What happens when you challenge long-held assumptions—and let real data and user behavior lead?

In this episode, Vidya Dinamani and Heather Samarin sit down with Harish Pandian, CPO at Gravity, to talk about driving product transformation in industries resistant to change.

From building gamified safety tools to rapid-fire prototype testing on job sites, Harish shares how deep customer empathy, hard data, and cross-functional trust unlock real adoption and lasting impact.

What does it really mean to make AI practical in product teams?

In this special year-end episode, Vidya Dinamani and Heather Samarin are sharing highlights from a recent Product Rebels live webinar focused on how product leaders can apply AI in meaningful, responsible ways.

Joined by Polly Allen, former Principal Product Manager at Alexa AI, they explore grounding AI in real customer problems, aligning AI efforts to business strategy, and why leaders can’t afford to stay hands-off.

This is a candid, experience-driven conversation about judgment, risk, and leadership in an AI-powered product world.

What happens when a product leader enters a company and rewrites the strategy playbook—not with a megaphone, but with a matchstick and a campfire?

Vidya Dinamani and Heather Samarin sit down with Raji Bedi, CPO at Lob, as he shares his analogies-packed approach to aligning teams, building product culture, and moving from "roadmap blur" to clarity and execution. From transforming product managers into organizational "locals", to advocating for faster cadence and fuller buckets, Raji offers a masterclass in practical product leadership.

Tune in for a memorable and energizing conversation on curiosity, collaboration, and leading with intent.

This special episode of Product Rebels brings you highlights from a recent webinar hosted by Heather Samarin and Vidya Dinamani, and featuring product veteran Ravi Mehta. With AI hype reaching fever pitch, many product teams are being pushed to “do AI”—without clear strategy or outcomes.

In this candid conversation, we break down what’s really working in teams today. Learn the Inspire, Validate, Structure, and Ship framework designed to move your team from idea to impact with clarity. If you’re a product leader navigating how to integrate AI meaningfully, this episode offers practical steps, real examples, and a refreshing no-fluff approach.

What does it really mean to be a product rebel?

Heather Samarin and Vidya Dinamani sit down with Saurabh Sharma, CPO at You.com, as he shares how asking the tough questions can shift an entire company's trajectory.

From tackling NFT theft at OpenSea to transforming product leadership with resilience, Saurabh brings real-world insight on thinking systemically, building partnerships, and elevating PM influence.

Learn how he uses "relentless subtraction" to stay focused, why RQ matters just as much as IQ, and how understanding your stakeholder's language can unlock big wins.