Listen: Building AI product sense, part 2
From Lenny's Reads by Lenny Rachitsky
February 10, 2026 · 23 min
About this episode
Dr. Marily Nika discusses building AI product sense and uncovering failure modes in product management.
If you’re a premium subscriber, add the private feed to your podcast app at add.lennysreads.com Dr. Marily Nika, longtime AI PM at Google and Meta, shares a simple weekly ritual that rapidly builds AI product sense – the ability to translate probabilistic model behavior into products people can trust. In this episode, Marily walks through the framework for uncovering failure modes before users do. Listen now: YouTube | Apple | Spotify In this episode, you’ll learn • Why Meta added “Product Sense with AI” to its PM interview loop • The rituals that surface hidden failure modes • Why generative models confidently invent structure when confronted with mess • What minimum viable quality (MVQ) means and how to define three critical thresholds • Five strategic context factors that raise or lower your quality bar • Why you need to estimate your AI feature’s cost envelope early • How to design guardrails that protect users from model shortcomings • Four patterns that cover most real-world failure cases Referenced • AI PM Bootcamp & Certification • AI Product Sense & AI PM Interview prep • Dr. Marily Nika: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marilynika/ • How to build AI Product sense (Part 1) •…
People in this episode
Host: Lenny Rachitsky
Guest: Dr. Marily Nika
Topics covered
- AI product sense
- product management
- failure modes
- generative models
- quality thresholds
Keywords
- AI
- product management
- failure modes
- generative models
- quality thresholds
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Google, Meta
Books & works: AI PM Bootcamp & Certification, AI Product Sense & AI PM Interview prep, Marily’s AI Product Academy Newsletter, How to build AI Product sense (Part 1)
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