AMA: PayPal VP, Product, Clara Lee on Building 0-1 Products

My assumption when reading this question is that you're being asked for "an AI roadmap" or to more quickly ship customer experiences "with AI". If I got that right, welcome to the boat! The first step is to unpack why you’re being asked this. Most likely, the company and your leaders are wanting to send a signal to the board or to investors. If you're privy to contributing or reviewing the executive presentations, you'll likely see a narrative of change, where AI is positioned as an accelerator ...Read More

This is a tough one! While we all want to launch products with iPhone-level perfection every time, the reality in most companies – and especially for 0 to 1 products – is that customer feedback is useful sooner rather than later. In these situations, I would: Go through a risk assessment with your team: Play out what could happen – good or bad – as a result of putting something imperfect out there. Once these risks have been articulated, it becomes a tangible thing that the team can plan against ...Read More

The most successful products I've worked on – and especially 0 to 1 products – have come out of a close Product-Design relationship, from start to finish. Instead of feeling that you have to have a full-fledged layout to hand over to your Design partner (per the question subtext), why not bring them into your mind space and design it together? Manage your own defensiveness. Allow biases to be challenged, gaps to be identified, and conceptual pressure testing from a different functional perspecti ...Read More

An approach that has worked for me, treading in 0 to 1 spaces: Use in-depth interviews (IDIs) to understand deeply understand your target users' psyche. You don't have to do a ton of them, but be sure to select participants who can clearly articulate their thought process. Book enough time with each (at least 60 minutes) to get deep into mental models, barriers, etc. Develop starter prototypes. Start with moderated walkthroughs in the first round. A few rounds later, when you have more confidenc ...Read More

Time and time again, I've seen Customer Service be the lever that counters pricing. Depending on the product and the target demographic, that could mean different things: Some demographics will pay – and stay – for human service. Being able to call a human and work through an issue live is hugely important to them. This might be appealing for less tech-savvy users. Some demographics will pay – and stay – for easy self-service. More tech-savvy audiences may have a strong preference to engage in d ...Read More