How do you build AI into your platform in a way that delivers real business outcomes? In this session hosted by Denise Hemke, Flowspace Chief Product Officer Karen Chao shares how her team scoped, validated, and launched FlowspaceAI by transforming an early prototype into a scalable platform capability that drives customer value and meaningful business impact. She’ll break down how they secured stakeholder buy-in, navigated platform trade-offs, and built a feedback loop to ensure the investment paid off. Ideal for product leaders and execs seeking a practical playbook for launching innovative platform solutions that create lasting customer and business value.
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Show Notes:
- Start small but foundational when building AI capabilities, as your first use cases set the tone for future development.
- AI innovation is about solving real customer problems, not just building shiny features.
- Customer obsession is critical – deeply understand their needs beyond surface-level requests.
- Continuously experiment and tinker with new technologies to understand their true potential.
- Prioritize AI use cases based on feasibility, value, and effort.
- Secure stakeholder buy-in by clearly articulating the business case and potential ROI.
- Launch quickly and iterate based on real-world feedback, rather than trying to build a perfect solution.
- Create a robust feedback loop to monitor AI performance and usage.
- Be prepared to tune prompts and adjust AI models continuously.
- Design AI experiences with transparency, showing users not just results but the logic behind them.
- Consider AI adoption across different user groups and workflows.
- Track productivity improvements through both quantitative metrics and qualitative insights.
- Recognize that AI adoption varies across customer cohorts and experience levels.
- Build flexibility into your AI architecture to easily swap models and adapt to technological changes.
- Use AI internally to improve operational efficiency before customer-facing rollouts.
- Implement human-in-the-loop approaches, especially in regulated industries.
- Leverage AI tools to enhance product management workflows, like AI-assisted coding platforms.
- Stay curious and maintain a learning mindset when exploring new technologies.
- Focus on creating AI solutions that drive meaningful business outcomes.
- Prepare for the evolution of AI from simple output generation to more autonomous, agentic systems.
About the speaker
Karen Chao is a customer-centric product executive with over two decades of experience driving growth, operational excellence, and meaningful innovation across multiple industries. Prior to her most recent role as Chief Product Officer at Flowspace, Karen held leadership positions at Apple and several high-growth startups, where she built and scaled products from 0-to-1 to scale. A recognized authority in leveraging AI to modernize traditional industries, Karen is passionate about solving real customer problems and empowering teams to deliver outcomes that matter. Outside of work, she’s an active voice on LinkedIn, sharing candid insights on product leadership, innovation, and company culture.
About the host
As the Chief Product Officer at NEOGOV, Denise leads the strategy for public sector HR and Public Safety software, driving innovation, customer satisfaction, and excellence. Her experience at Checkr as Chief Product Officer saw her delivering customer-focused products and promoting a fairer future. Denise’s notable career spans over two decades, with significant roles including GM for Analytics at Workday, where she launched new products and grew the business to over $200 million in ARR. Her background includes leadership positions at Platfora, Salesforce, HSBC, and AT&T, showcasing her expertise in enterprise product development and a commitment to technological advancement and customer success.