What AI means for your product strategy | Paul Adams (CPO of Intercom)

**Paul Adams** (0:00)
This is a meteor coming towards you. This is going to radically transform society.
And I think if people don't explore AI properly, it will leave them behind. I'd start with the thing your product does. What's the core premise behind it? Why do people use it? You know, what problem does it solve for them? That kind of thing. So go back to basics and then ask, can AI do that? And for a lot, the answer is going to be yes, it can. For some, it might be, it can partially do it. And then maybe for others, it didn't, you know, it can't do that, at least not yet. And then for some of it, it'll be like kind of replacement. AI will replace, it'll just do it. And then, you know, in other places it'll be augmentation. It'll augment, it'll help people. But yeah, I think that you got to map your product and what AI can do and what it will be able to do. And then ask yourself, okay, what are we going to do?

**Lenny Rachitsky** (0:51)
Today, my guest is Paul Adams. Paul is Chief Product Officer at Intercom, a role that he's held for over 10 years, prior to this role, he was Global Head of Brand Design at Facebook, a User Researcher at Google, a Product Designer at Dyson, and his first job was an Automotive Interior Designer. In our conversation, Paul shares some amazing stories of failure, including the story of him giving a huge presentation where he froze on stage and had to walk off and what he learned from these experiences of failure. We then get deep into how to think about AI as a part of your product strategy, including a ton of great examples from Intercom's experience going all in on AI. Paul also shares some of his favorite frameworks and product lessons and so much more. This is the first recording I've ever done not from my home studio, instead from a hotel room. So this is a fun experiment for us all. With that, I bring you Paul Adams after a short word from our sponsors.
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Paul, thank you so much for being here, and welcome to the podcast.

**Paul Adams** (4:13)
Thanks, Annie. Nice to be here.

**Lenny Rachitsky** (4:15)
It's nice to have you here. I've heard so many good things about you from so many different people, so I'm really happy that we're finally doing this.
Also, you have an Irish accent, which is always a boost for ratings in my experience. So thank you for bringing that with you here.