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What does it really mean to design relationships with artificial intelligence? Jake McKee, a community strategist with over two decades of experience working with companies like Lego and Apple, brings clarity to this complex question by introducing us to AI Experience Design (AIX).

In this eye-opening conversation, Jake draws a powerful parallel between today's AI transformation and the digital transformation of the early 2000s. The key difference? Scale and speed. While the early web had natural boundaries, AI presents an almost limitless frontier advancing at breathtaking pace. This creates unique challenges for product teams caught between executive demands for AI innovation and the practical realities of implementation. Jake explains how this pressure often leads to a predictable cycle of over-reliance followed by algorithm aversion before teams eventually find balance.

Rather than viewing AI as a replacement for human capabilities, Jake advocates for seeing it as a "creative and critical partner" that enhances our thinking and processes. He shares practical examples of how product teams can thoughtfully integrate AI – from using it to test early concepts against customer data to employing it as a collaborative ideation tool. Throughout our discussion, Jake emphasizes that successful AI integration depends on maintaining human relationships at the center of product development, not pushing customers further away behind technological barriers.

Perhaps Jake's most counterintuitive yet valuable advice is simple: slow down. "Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast," he quotes from fighter pilot wisdom. By taking time to consider the deeper implications of AI implementation – from social contracts to ethical considerations to long-term impacts – teams can actually achieve better, more sustainable results than those rushing to implement AI for quarterly gains.

Ready to transform how you think about AI in your product development process? Connect with Jake through his AIX Sessions, a unique monthly event series designed for candid, senior-level conversations about community, product, and AI strategy at jakemckee.com.

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DISCOVER YOUR PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT FOCUS: UNLOCK YOUR IMPACT
Take this quick quiz to cut through the 'design fog' and discover where your greatest potential lies

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ABOUT DIANNA
Dianna Deeney is a quality advocate for product development with over 25 years of experience in manufacturing. She is president of Deeney Enterprises, LLC, which helps organizations and people improve engineering design.

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What truly matters in product design – the features you create or the benefits users experience? In this exploration of a cornerstone concept, we dive into the critical distinction between benefits and features that can make or break your product development efforts.

Benefits describe your users' experience – the positive outcomes and emotional connections that result from using your product. Features, meanwhile, are the tangible, measurable components that make your product work. Understanding this distinction isn't just academic – it transforms how you approach design challenges and communicate value to customers.

Through practical examples from my own website redesign journey, I demonstrate how focusing on benefits first guided the development of features. The episode also explores how needs differ from both benefits and features, representing the gap between what users currently have and what they want to achieve.

By starting with targeted customer benefits and working backward to determine which features and offerings will deliver them, you create products that don't just work – they deeply resonate with users.

Ready to transform your approach to product development? Visit DeeneyEnterprises.com, take the product development archetype quiz, and discover resources tailored to your specific technical, teamwork, or leadership challenges. Share your feedback and be part of validating whether the site's features truly deliver on their promised benefits!

Visit the podcast blog for this episode.

DISCOVER YOUR PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT FOCUS: UNLOCK YOUR IMPACT
Take this quick quiz to cut through the 'design fog' and discover where your greatest potential lies

BI-WEEKLY EPISODES
Subscribe to this show on your favorite provider and Give us a Rating & Review to help others find us!

NEWSLETTER
Subscribe to get updates: newsletter.deeneyenterprises.com

SELF-PACED COURSE FMEA in Practice: from Plan to Risk-Based Decision Making is enrolling students now. Join over 300 students: Click Here.

ABOUT DIANNA
Dianna Deeney is a quality advocate for product development with over 25 years of experience in manufacturing. She is president of Deeney Enterprises, LLC, which helps organizations and people improve engineering design.

Send us a text

That "fuzzy front end" of product development, where ideas should flourish, often becomes a frustrating quagmire of unfocused brainstorming sessions and competing perspectives. The truth is, traditional brainstorming doesn't work nearly as well as we've been led to believe.

Drawing from research and decades of experience, this episode reveals why teams facing blank flipcharts produce fewer and lower-quality ideas than those using structured approaches. The solution? Visual models and templates—powerful frameworks that channel creativity rather than stifling it. These tools have transformed quality improvement efforts for nearly a century, and they can revolutionize your concept development process too.

You'll discover how a telecommunications company implemented a simple template change that generated 300% more high-quality ideas in a fraction of the time. We explore why activity theory explains the effectiveness of these approaches, and how proper template design aligns team thinking toward customer-focused solutions. Visual models provide the structure teams need to collaborate effectively, maintain focus, and prevent confusion—turning abstract conversations into concrete design inputs.

Whether you're struggling with cross-functional alignment or searching for ways to improve your team's innovative output, this episode offers practical insights to transform your concept development process. The fuzzy front end doesn't have to be chaotic. With the right visual frameworks, you can guide your team toward designing products customers will love.

Ready to elevate your development process? Listen now, then visit qualityduringdesign.com for more resources to implement these approaches on your next project.

DISCOVER YOUR PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT FOCUS: UNLOCK YOUR IMPACT
Take this quick quiz to cut through the 'design fog' and discover where your greatest potential lies

BI-WEEKLY EPISODES
Subscribe to this show on your favorite provider and Give us a Rating & Review to help others find us!

NEWSLETTER
Subscribe to get updates: newsletter.deeneyenterprises.com

SELF-PACED COURSE FMEA in Practice: from Plan to Risk-Based Decision Making is enrolling students now. Join over 300 students: Click Here.

ABOUT DIANNA
Dianna Deeney is a quality advocate for product development with over 25 years of experience in manufacturing. She is president of Deeney Enterprises, LLC, which helps organizations and people improve engineering design.