PM Awards Series: Clearspeed Product Manager on Customers Over KPIs

How can PMs strike a balance between prioritizing customers and KPIs to ensure long-term success and growth? In this episode of the Product Awards series with Ticketmaster Fmr VP of Product Andrew Zavattero, Clearspeed PM Justin Fowler speaks on prioritizing customers over KPIs and shares his journey from business owner to product manager. Discover the importance of building essential solutions, how ClearSpeed uses AI for vetting, and their groundbreaking Voice Analytics technology. Justin emphasizes the value of responsible AI deployment, human oversight, and the role of AI as an early warning system. Learn about his accidental path to product management and valuable insights for success, including effective communication and collaboration.

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Show Notes

1. Justin shares his journey from business owner to product manager, highlighting the challenges he faced and his passion for the field.
2. Challenges in vetting people for security clearances in the military include the risk of “green on blue attacks.”
3. Clearspeed uses AI to speed up and improve the vetting process with high accuracy.
4. The product is compared to a horse and buggy vs. a Tesla, highlighting differences in purpose and method.
5. Responsible deployment is stressed, not just focusing on outcomes but also appropriate responses to alerts.
6. They discuss the challenges of building something new without a template or standard.
7. AI is an enabler to speed up processes, not the primary focus of the product.
8. AI can automate manual tasks like scoring or adjudication for increased efficiency.
9. Clearspeed uses AI to analyze voice patterns and detect deception with a focus on ground truth and continuous improvement.
10. Universal truths emerge from the technology, such as indicators of lying or truthfulness.
11. AI is more effective as an early warning system or identification tool, not a sole adjudication method.
12. Justin’s journey to product management was accidental, with a mix of on-the-job training and formal education.
13. He adapted quickly to new problems and challenges in fast-paced environments.
14. He advises becoming part of product management communities to learn and build camaraderie.
15. He emphasizes the importance of consuming and contributing to content and reaching out to other product managers for support.
16. Intellectual curiosity and self-awareness are necessary in product management.
17. Effective visualization and communication of ideas are time-savers in product management.
18. Being a good middleman, understanding the problem, and finding solutions by building upon existing work.
19. Collaboration and quickly creating low-fi prototypes are important in product.
20. Balance compromise and patience when working with stakeholders.