Hubert Palan is the Founder and CEO of Productboard, a product administration platform designed to assist groups convey merchandise to market extra effectively by prioritizing person wants and aligning groups round a shared roadmap. Greater than 5,400 corporations, together with Zoom, UiPath, JCDecaux, and Microsoft, use the platform to collect buyer insights and inform improvement choices.
What impressed you to begin Productboard, and the way did your expertise at GoodData affect its creation?
Productboard was impressed by my work as a product supervisor and product chief. The thought got here throughout a flight once I was attempting to handle product roadmaps throughout varied displays and spec sheets whereas on less-than-optimal airplane Wi-Fi — making it apparent how inefficient it’s to attempt to coordinate strategic product choices with no single, consistently-updated supply of reality.
When creating Productboard, our objective was to construct one platform that covers your complete product administration course of, fixing much more PM ache factors alongside the way in which. Productboard has now grown right into a platform that places buyer centricity on the heart of contemporary product administration, utilizing AI expertise to champion the voice of the client, elevating the position of the PM.
And it’s labored. As we speak Productboard has 6000+ clients together with superb corporations like Salesforce, Autodesk, and Zoom.
What challenges did you face throughout the early days of Productboard, and the way did you overcome them?
Within the early days of Productboard, I realized in regards to the challenges of onboarding new employees at a startup. Productboard was shifting in a short time and I had an inclination to count on new hires to catch onto what we have been doing nearly instantly and clarify, strategic choices immediately. Since then, I’ve realized that there’s extra worth in taking your time with onboarding. By specializing in efficient information sharing and coaching, you’ll be able to foster groups which are simply as knowledgeable and passionate in regards to the work as you’re. The ROI on an intensive onboarding interval is substantial.
What’s the “Product Excellence Framework,” and the way did you develop it as a foundational idea for Productboard?
The Product Excellence Framework is our structured method to product administration, emphasizing customer-centricity, putting huge bets, and constructing superb groups. It is our product philosophy at Productboard, guaranteeing that we’re at all times centered on delivering worth to our clients. We developed this framework after recognizing frequent challenges confronted by product groups, similar to the necessity to consolidate suggestions, prioritize successfully, and align everybody round a transparent roadmap. It is a core a part of our mission to assist product managers navigate the complexities of constructing fashionable merchandise, particularly within the age of AI.
Productboard makes use of AI to research buyer suggestions at scale. What motivated you to include AI into your platform, and the way has it reworked product administration?
One thing that grew to become clear to our group early on was a urgent want to assist product groups make sense of the huge quantities of buyer suggestions they obtain. AI was the pure resolution to research this information at scale, establish key insights, and assist prioritize what to construct subsequent. This has reworked product administration by permitting groups to make faster, extra knowledgeable choices with higher confidence. It has additionally elevated the PM to a place of management through which they may give extra strategic suggestions that aligns with an organization’s enterprise targets. Total, AI in PM is about staying forward of the curve and guaranteeing our clients can construct merchandise that sustain with rising traits and really resonate with their customers.
Are you able to share particular examples of how AI has improved decision-making for Productboard’s clients?
Think about a product supervisor needs to know the overall sentiment on a brand new function. As a substitute of sifting by mountains of information throughout Salesforce, social media, the Apple Retailer, and who is aware of what else, they will simply use Productboard. Productboard Pulse’s AI-powered conversational interface immediately solutions questions like, “What are clients saying in regards to the final replace?” or “Is pricing a significant concern for customers on this sector?” This entry permits PMs to shortly establish ache factors and alternatives, resulting in simpler product improvement.
Past Pulse, we even have an AI-powered analytics dashboard that robotically surfaces key themes and traits from buyer suggestions. This helps product managers prioritize options with the largest potential impression, making it a game-changer for data-driven decision-making. We’re seeing clients use these insights to speed up time-to-market, enhance product satisfaction, and finally, construct higher merchandise that individuals love.
How do you deal with issues round information safety and privateness when utilizing AI to course of buyer insights?
We take privateness very significantly. At Productboard we use a multi-layered method to information safety and privateness, incorporating industry-standard practices and sturdy measures to guard delicate info. Our dedication to safety is clear in our SOC 2 Kind II compliance certification and our adherence to strict information safety rules like GDPR and CCPA.
We make use of information encryption, and our platform is constructed on safe infrastructure. We additionally implement application-level safety measures, together with person authentication, authorization, and entry controls, to forestall unauthorized entry to buyer information. Our clients have granular management over their information, permitting them to find out what info is collected and the way it’s used. For AI particularly, we make use of nameless information to research buyer suggestions, defending particular person identities whereas extracting worthwhile insights.
What traits do you foresee in using AI for product administration, and the way is Productboard getting ready to guide on this house?
AI will probably be important for product managers to navigate the complexities of the trendy product panorama. Utilizing AI in PM is not only about automating duties; it is about empowering PMs to be extra strategic and customer-centric, thus elevating the impression they will have inside their respective corporations.
At Productboard, we’re dedicated to main the way in which in AI-powered product administration. We’re repeatedly enhancing our AI capabilities and delivering modern options that empower our clients. Final yr, we introduced a number of iterations of our AI functions and there’s extra the place that got here from in 2025.
Our objective is to make AI accessible and useful for all product groups, no matter their measurement or technical experience. We consider that by embracing AI, PMs can unlock new ranges of productiveness, creativity, and customer-centricity and grow to be extra integral inside their organizations.
How has your management type advanced as Productboard has grown from a small group to a global group with over 6,000 clients?
Early on, I adopted a really hands-on management type — sporting a number of hats, and figuring issues out as we went alongside. As we expanded, I needed to be taught to delegate extra successfully, belief my group, and empower them to take possession.
Nonetheless, even with the significance of letting go, I additionally realized the significance of staying related and sustaining a founder’s mindset. I’m always questioning, analyzing, and searching for methods to enhance. Efficient management is about balancing strategic imaginative and prescient with a deep understanding of the day-to-day realities of our clients and our group.
What recommendation would you give to aspiring product managers who need to leverage AI of their roles?
I might encourage aspiring product magnets to learn to leverage AI successfully by following these three finest practices:
- Develop Buyer-Centricity: All the time join AI-driven insights again to the human wants and ache factors they signify.
- Search Mentorship and Collaboration: Join with skilled product managers who’re already leveraging AI of their roles. Be taught from their successes and challenges, and ask for steerage on methods to navigate the evolving panorama.
- Embrace Steady Studying: AI is a dynamic area, so keep curious and continue to learn. Discover on-line programs, attend workshops, and skim in regards to the {industry} to deepen your understanding of AI ideas and functions in product administration.
What’s your long-term imaginative and prescient for Productboard, notably in leveraging AI to boost customer-centric product improvement?
My objective for productboard now is similar because it was day one – to resolve PM ache factors and empower PMs to make one of the best merchandise potential.
We’re dedicated to constantly evaluating and updating our AI choices to make sure we’re serving to PMs be extra collaborative, efficient, inventive and strategic. As their ache factors change, so will our expertise. The truth is, we use Productboard’s expertise ourselves to ensure we’re being really customer-centric and delivering the updates and options that our clients really want. So it’s arduous to say right now what we’ll do sooner or later, as a result of at Productboard, it’s all about what our clients want proper now. However I can promise that we’ll proceed to evolve and leverage AI to supply for our clients and empower PMs to be distinctive members of their group.
Thanks for the nice interview, readers who want to be taught extra ought to go to Productboard.