Three product lessons from INDUSTRY that changed how we build products

It's only a few months until our flagship North American conference, INDUSTRY. We thought it would be timely to take a trip down memory lane to look back on some of our favourite talks that have changed the way we build great products. 

Customer obsession pays

Few talks have better captured the spirit of experimentation and customer-first thinking than Gibson Biddle, Former VP of Product at Netflix, who delivered an engaging INDUSTRY 2018 keynote.

Gibson unpacked the Netflix journey in his deep dive keynote. We learned how DVD-by-mail turned into streaming dominance through a systematic, scientific approach to delighting users in “hard-to-copy, margin-enhancing ways.” Every A/B test, every algorithm tweak, every design choice was framed through the lens of building long-term trust and brand value with Netflix's customers.

For product managers, the talk educated us on balancing delight with revenue and using data to test assumptions. It reminds us that innovation is all about finding ways to ask better questions and listening closely to every kind of answer.

Check out Gibson’s full talk here. 

The problem with MVPs

In one of INDUSTRY’s most practical talks, Ash Maurya, Founder of LEANSTACK, challenged product leaders to dig deeper into building poor MVPs. 

Maurya pointed to a common pitfall: MVPs built on poor foundations. If you begin with the wrong problem, or worse, invent one to match your favourite feature, you won’t get meaningful feedback, he explained. Customers won’t even stick around long enough to tell you it’s not working.

Instead, Maurya advocated for a more disciplined approach to idea discovery. His method? Don’t start with the solution. Start with the job customers are trying to get done. Uncover real problems by observing existing behaviours and identifying frictions. 

People don’t just wake up wanting to change; they’re nudged by specific moments or breakdowns in their status quo. The smartest product people, he argued, learn to spot those triggers early and act before the competition does.

Product managers need tools to surface better ideas, not just validate existing ones. If you missed this talk back in the day, it’s well worth revisiting.

Check out the full keynote here. 

How to manage a product that thinks for itself

If building traditional software is like assembling a machine, managing AI products is more like parenting a precocious child. That was the analogy Bloomberg’s Zane Van Dusen leaned into during his INDUSTRY talk: AI products don’t behave the way you expect. And they’re not supposed to.

Zane unpacked what it really takes to manage AI-powered tools, especially for product leaders just beginning their journey. Most teams fixate on models and features, but the heart of successful AI is the data. 

Understanding what data matters, how it's structured, and what biases it carries is where product managers should focus their time.

He offered a trio of use cases where AI excels, such as prediction, classification, and information retrieval. He then explored where generative AI fits (and where it still needs to prove itself). But the most useful lessons were organisational. For example, you can’t manage an AI system the way you manage a rules-based one. Instead, think of yourself as a coach or mentor: you won’t know exactly what it will do, but you can shape its environment to help it succeed.

It was almost impossible to sum up his talk into a few paragraphs, so we strongly suggest watching the full talk here.

With INDUSTRY North America fast approaching, we’ll be sharing more gems like this in the coming weeks! Get your tickets here.