Sumedha Mehta

What happens when AI, culture, and creativity collide? 🚀 At NY Tech Week, I joined a high-energy conversation led by Ian Goldstein Fenwick & West with Andrew Chen from a16z speedrun and Gaurav Misra from Captions. The topic: AI Meets Culture—What’s Next for Consumer & Entertainment? Here’s what stood out: 1️⃣ AI Tech Is Moving Faster Than Adoption 🚄 AI is evolving at warp speed, but most users and workplaces are still catching up. For users, this means the need to learn and adapt fast. For AI companies, it’s about making tools simple, useful, and accessible, so people can actually use what’s being built. 2️⃣ Creatives Have the Upper Hand 🎨 If you’re a graphic artist, you can now become a video editor, animator, or audio creator with AI-powered tools. Platforms like Runway, Midjourney, and Captions make it possible for anyone to expand their creative toolkit and reach new audiences. The barrier to entry for creative work has never been lower. 3️⃣ Taste Is Everything ✨ AI can generate endless options, but real impact comes from having taste—the ability to know what works and what feels right. If you’re a creator, your point of view is your superpower. AI will amplify your work, but only if you lead with strong vision and standards from the start. Bottom line: Early adopters, you’re not alone and you’re definitely not behind. Bringing bold ideas to life is only more powerful with AI as part of your toolkit. #NYTechWeek #AI #Culture #Creativity #ConsumerTech #Entertainment #GenerativeAI #Innovation #Tastemakers #a16z #CaptionsAI

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In just five days, Boston will become the hub for startup leaders, investors, and operators at TechCrunch All Stage 2025. What stands out about this event is its relentless focus on execution—no fluff, just practical sessions designed to help founders navigate today's tough fundraising and scaling environment. With breakout talks on AI-driven product development, cap table strategy, and market readiness, attendees get real-world tools rather than buzzwords. One insight that really caught my attention is how pivotal operator-led startups are becoming, a shift that Jon McNeill from DVx Ventures highlights as essential for the next wave of disruptors. This goes beyond having a great idea—it's about founders who deeply understand the operational challenges from day one. Combine that with interactive roundtables and live pitch feedback, and the event promises to be a rare opportunity for founders to sharpen their storytelling and market approach while building meaningful connections. As funding landscapes tighten and competition grows, how are you ensuring your leadership and operational strategies adapt to maintain momentum ahead of your next scale-up? Would love to hear how others are balancing visionary thinking with day-to-day execution in today’s startup climate. #TechCrunchAllStage #StartupGrowth #FounderLeadership #ScaleUpStrategies

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🚀 Step-Up Challenge: Product Discovery Reflection Last week’s Product Discovery session was a game-changer—it wasn’t just a class, it was a mindset shift. I walked away with this one powerful realization: 🔑 Key Takeaway: Great Product Managers don’t just build features, they build experiences that resonate—especially when no one’s watching. If someone opens your app at 2 AM and it makes them feel good, that’s true success - wisely said by Rohit V. sir. 🧠 Concept Breakdown: Quantitative & Qualitative Research: We explored how numbers give us patterns, but real stories give us purpose. Both are essential to define user needs. Double Diamond Framework: This structured approach of divergent (exploring problems) and convergent (focusing on solutions) thinking helped map the journey from chaos to clarity. Designing for Diverse Users: Through real-world prompts, we were challenged to think like PMs—how would a feature change if built for teenagers vs. working moms? Empathy-First Thinking: We didn’t just analyze users—we stepped into their shoes. PMs must see through the customer’s eye, always. 💡 Application in Real Life: Whether building a new onboarding flow or refining an existing feature, I’ll begin with why the user needs it—not what we want to build. This approach ensures that decisions are rooted in reality, not assumptions. A scenario? If a user drops off mid-journey, instead of fixing the UI, I’ll first dig into why—what emotion or friction caused that? Open Question: How do you strike the right balance between data-driven insights and intuition when designing for a niche audience? Tagging my peer cohort members Mamidi Ratan kumar , Aditi Sati , Omkar Gharat , Pranav Joshi ,Kashish Bhatnagar AYUSH JAIN Brita Shah Saransh Jindal Anusha Pakki Adarsh Panchpuri Tushar Saraswat Taranpreet Singh Kalra Aniket Kale and mentors Akhil Yash Tiwari sir , Rohit V. sir who made this experience incredible. Thanks Product Space for making learning this immersive! #ProductManagement #UserResearch #ProductDiscovery #DesignThinking

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Thrilled to finally share my final single project for Altschool! I wrote a detailed Product Management Case Study diving into the strategy behind X (formerly Twitter), and how it successfully mastered the landscape of real-time, global conversations. This article breaks down the core product decisions and features from the strategic use of Quote Tweets and the power of Trends, to the role of Communities that made the platform a culturally dominant "habit." The ultimate product lesson? Speed and simplicity are the keys to cultural dominance. Check out the full analysis below and let me know your thoughts on the PM strategy: https://lnkd.in/dmGBG9KW #ProductManagement #PMCaseStudy #Altschool #X #Twitter #TechAnalysis #ProductStrategy

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Alex, a colleague of mine from fiveonefour just wrote a super interesting blog post about designing user interfaces with agents first. 🔗 https://lnkd.in/gba3WEHT On abstracting for cyborgs (users who use agents): > Agentic UX (AX), or designing for AI agents that act on behalf of users, isn’t really new anymore — it’s quickly becoming a standard. > This doesn’t mean humans are out of the picture — it means they’re operating at a new level of abstraction. On Agentic design: > Things are more conversational and automated than before. And that means evolving principles, tools, and intuition. > Agentic Design isn’t just a trend. It’s the beginning of a new practice. One where UX doesn’t just serve the user — it provides agents with what they need to serve well. It’s a leap, sure, but it’s one we’re excited to take — and we’re building the foundation now, so probably best to grab yourself a shovel. #agents #ai #design

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From idea to impact, this week I learned what really drives a product’s journey. Week 2 at the Women Techsters Fellowship has been another eye opener in my product management journey. We unpacked some powerful concepts that shape how products succeed (or fail): ✨ Product Lifecycle – products pass through development → introduction → growth → maturity → decline, and leaders must adapt their strategy at every stage. ✨ Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) – the backbone of building apps, websites, and platforms. From planning and design to coding, testing, deployment, and maintenance, it’s what keeps products reliable and scalable. ✨ Adoption Curve – why timing matters. Users come in waves: innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, laggards. ✨ Business Models – choosing the right model is everything. We explored subscription, freemium, and advertising models, each shaping sustainability in different ways. ✨ AI in Forecasting – how AI helps predict product trends, while adding new layers of complexity. 💡 Every session so far has made me look at technology and leadership differently, not just as concepts, but as skills I’ll apply in real-world product management. 👉 I’d love to hear from you: Which of these do you think is the most critical for building products that last? #WomenTechsters #ProductManagement #TechForGood #LearningJourney

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Excited to share a recent conversation I had with Ankit Jain, a community leader in the Developer Experience space and Co-founder/CEO of Aviator, where we dug into what it's like being a PM in the DevEx space. We covered some key themes: 🛠️ Why internal developers deserve the same care and empathy as external customers 🧠 How core product principles—like understanding the problem deeply—still drive success, even in highly technical spaces 📊 What meaningful impact looks like in DevEx If you're curious about building for builders or just want to hear how DevEx works behind the scenes at scale, give it a listen: 🎧 https://lnkd.in/gUpm4-Np #DevEx #ProductManagement #DeveloperExperience #podcast

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Let's talk about influencing user behavior in product development - but using a psychotherapy lens. So this past week was my first week at Spring Health, and it was an incredible experience. I had the privilege to join their annual retreat in LA where we discussed product strategy, showcased launches and of course for me, met so many people in what felt like a very, very long round of speed-dating. I'm still thinking about a couple of conversations I had with my new team around how we might ensure the swift, robust adoption of features we launch. This is something that we as #productmanagers think a lot about. It is simply not enough to launch a shiny new feature - the landing is everything. The truth is, behavioral change is difficult and not surprisingly, #psychotherapy has a lot to say about this. Here's where product development and psychotherapy really go hand-in-hand. As a therapist, one clinical framework I frequently use is the Transtheoretical Model - you may have heard of Motivational Interviewing, which uses this model at its core. The Transtheoretical Model posits that behavioral change is a gradual process that progresses through several stages, reflecting the client's increasing level of awareness, readiness and desire for change. For example, in the second stage called 'Contemplation', the client is aware that there is a problem but feels ambivalent about resolving it. In the fourth stage called 'Action', the client is intiaiting steps towards behavioral change but is at risk of relapsing. I've included a diagram of this below (from FutureLearn.com). Understanding user behavior through this clinical lens is highly beneficial because it tells us how we might graduate cohorts of users from one stage to the next. Moving a user cohort from Contemplation to Preparation is all about resolving their ambivalence, e.g. clearly defining and articulating value proposition & alignment with their goals. Moving a user cohort from Action to Maintenance is all about sustaining new behavioral changes, e.g. through timely, accountable follow-ups and anticipating triggers that might derail new behavior. It isn't enough to hope that users simply pick up our new feature or product and use it. With the Transtheoretical Model (and others too...stay tuned), we have a clinically-informed framework to build on-ramps and guardrails in our product that empower our end users and spark sustained behavioral change. #therapistsintech #clinicalcare #mentalhealth #mentalhealthtech #product #productstrategy #leadership

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Experimentation isn’t the hard part. Knowing which decisions are reversible—and which aren’t—is. In the latest episode of Pendo.io’s Hard Calls podcast, Trisha Price and Jeff Lash break down how thinking in one-way vs. two-way doors helps product teams move faster without creating long-term drag. Give it a listen! #ProductLeadership #ProductManagement #DigitalAdoption #HardCalls

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Attended a webinar on "Cursor for Product Managers" by Jacob Witt, Emily Gavrilenko, and Zoë Barnswell, and it reinforced something I’ve been using the AI tools for. PMs aren’t just writing docs anymore - they’re increasingly shipping. Here’s how 𝗣𝗠𝘀 𝗮𝘁 Cursor are using it in practice: • Connecting Cursor to different MCPs like Databricks to run SQL queries and check metrics such as 𝗪𝗔𝗨𝘀 across segments and geographies • Rapid prototyping using pre-loaded HTML templates • Making lightweight changes themselves - website updates, help docs, copy tweaks (without touching core logic) • Running small experiments and A/B tests independently They spoke about Cursor's IDE-first approach, with Composer, Auto mode, cloud agents, and intelligent model switching with a user-friendly UI, making this especially accessible for PMs, far beyond CLI-only setups. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗮𝘄𝗮𝘆: Tools like Cursor aren’t about turning PMs into engineers. They’re about reducing friction, upleveling manual work, and helping PMs operate with higher leverage. #ProductManagement #AIForPMs #Cursor #ProductTools #BuildingInPublic

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Excited to share my first blog post on what I've been working on for the past couple years at Infinitus Systems, Inc.! In today's world, where seemingly any transaction can be completed through an app, healthcare is mostly stuck in exchanging information over the phone between different entities to coordinate care for patients, often leading to treatment delays. This post sheds some light into root cause and challenges within the healthcare ecosystem, and explores how we are eliminating phone calls with our digital AI agents to accelerate decision making.

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