What do product leaders need to consider when building inclusive products and empowering users? In this episode of the CPO Rising series hosted by Products That Count Resident CPO Renee Niemi, Pinterest CPO Sabrina Ellis discusses her philosophy around building inclusive products that empower all users. She shares how Pinterest is using technology like computer vision to showcase more diverse representations of hair, skin tones, and body types. Sabrina also talks about engaging Gen Z users on the platform and understanding their needs and motivations. The discussion provides insights for product leaders on their social responsibility to consider inclusivity, as well as tips on prioritizing projects and balancing short and long-term goals.
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Show Notes:
- Pinterest aims to inspire people and help them bring ideas to life through visual search and discovery.
- Launching Pixel phone changed expectations for smartphone photography.
- Product leaders should connect technology and people to improve lives.
- Priorities should align with goals for the next 6-12 months.
- Balance urgent and strategic projects, and give exploratory work room to explore.
- Match personalities to project types for best outcomes.
- Learn from past mistakes like the global Yahoo Mail outage.
- Product leaders have responsibility for inclusive, widely adopted products.
- Features like diverse body types increase user engagement.
- More diverse content is still needed from media and advertisers.
- AI can empower product managers by unlocking new ideas and filtering data.
- AI requires human input, judgment, and perspective for great experiences.
- Gen Z is intentionally choosing and engaging with Pinterest.
- Pinterest helps users bring inspiration to life through tools and purchases.
- Younger users feel seen through inclusive features that represent them.
- Set criteria to focus teams on the most important goals.
- Balance executing well with exploring new opportunities.
- Match the right people to projects based on personality and skills.
- Learn from mistakes by understanding what didn’t work and why.
- The human element of product management cannot be replaced by AI.
About the speaker
Sabrina Ellis joined Pinterest as Chief Product Officer in 2023. She leads the company’s product management, product marketing, and design teams. Previously, she was Vice President of Product Management at Google, where she led work on Google Pixel and helped define strategy and vision for the smartphone. Prior to that, she served as Vice President of Product Management at Kosmix, and previously spent 8 years at Yahoo! in a number of leadership roles, including as Vice President of Messenger, Voice and Chat. Sabrina currently serves as a Board Member of Asurion, a leading technology protection company. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and Masters in Business Administration, both from Stanford University.