Getting featured in the AI product spotlight at Google TGIF: My journey as a product manager at Google
Google TGIF. Those legendary all-hands meetings, once led by Larry and Sergei themselves, were a cornerstone of Google culture. As an intern, I never missed one, soaking up the energy, the insights, and yes, the free beer and snacks. Little did I know that 5 years later, three projects I poured my soul into would be featured on that very stage all at the same time.
A GenAI rendering of the Google TGIF presentation in July 2024 :)
Surprisingly the human generated actually bears some slight resemblance to my SVP who did the presentation.
I spent several years on the Product Incubation Product Management team within Google’s Global Business Organization (GBO). We took nascent technologies such as latest advances in AI and launched them across various Google products and business functions to solve real problems at scale for Google. It was there I had the privilege of working on several products that would fit under the ‘B2B2C’ software category. 3 of these projects were real-time machine translations, supervised auto-reply systems powered by LLMs, and AI-driven customer support chatbots.
Fast forward to July 2024. I had moved on to Google Cloud, excited to tackle new challenges in accelerating Gemini and other GenAI launches to the world in Cloud. Then as I was watching TGIF over livestream, I saw my former SVP step onto the stage to share those 3 aforementioned projects as 3 success stories of generative AI delivering real world value.
Seeing your work, the culmination of countless hours, late nights, and passionate debates, broadcast to over 100,000 Googlers across the globe is a surreal experience. Pride swelled within me, mixed with a tinge of wistfulness for no longer being in the team, and gratitude for my teammates - incredible people who made it happen. It was a good reminder than realized value is always delayed. Launch is separate from landing. Capturing real business value is separate from landing - and never guaranteed.
The path to TGIF was paved with its share of obstacles. There were technical hurdles to overcome, countless product iterations, and the ever-present challenge of aligning stakeholders on ambitious goals. But through it all, we persevered, driven by a shared belief in the transformative power of AI.
The reactions to our projects were celebratory at TGIF. But while I was a product manager defining the roadmaps, features, and strategies for these AI projects, I faced a high amount of backlash and skepticism from incumbent and competing teams – a reminder that even at Google, truly disruptive innovation is rarely met with open arms. But that’s the beauty of it. Pushing boundaries requires a willingness to challenge the status quo and embrace the unknown.
More than just a presentation, that TGIF was a powerful reminder of the impact we can have when we dare to dream big. It was a testament to the power of collaboration, the importance of perseverance, and the profound satisfaction of knowing that our work had the potential to touch millions of lives.
As I continue my journey in AI, that TGIF experience serves as a guiding light – a reminder that the pursuit of innovation is a marathon, not a sprint, and that the greatest rewards come from pushing ourselves beyond what we thought was possible.
TLDR
Google TGIF is the legendary all-hands company wide meeting Larry and Sergei used to run. I used to go to each one as an intern. They had beer and snacks. Enough said.
I worked on the Product Incubation Product Management team in Google’s Global Business Organization for several years launching AI products.
Amongst the many interesting projects I had the chance to work on, 3 were featured at Google TGIF.
The projects were presented by my Senior Vice President. I had already left the team earlier than year in January to work in Google Cloud, focusing on efforts so accelerate Gemini for Cloud.
This article is my personal reflection on what it’s like seeing my work up there on the center stage for the entire company to see - 100,000 FTEs around the world. I felt a mixture of pride, humility, accomplishment, gratitude, wistfulness, and eagerness to do more.
