Product Thinking

Episode 243: Embracing Visual Collaboration in the Age of AI with Elaina O’Mahoney

Product Thinking

Show Notes

In this episode of the Product Thinking Podcast, Melissa Perri sits down with Elaina O'Mahoney, the Chief Product Officer at Mural, to explore the evolving landscape of product operations, the strategic use of AI, and the essential collaboration between product and go-to-market teams. Elaina shares her insights into how organizations can streamline their product operations and effectively integrate AI to enhance user experience without losing the human touch. She also delves into the dynamics of working with go-to-market teams to ensure products are aligned with market needs from the outset. For product leaders looking to enhance their strategic approach and better align with sales and marketing, this episode provides valuable perspectives and practical advice from a seasoned expert in the field. Want to understand how to integrate AI into your products strategically and enhance your product operations? Tune in to hear Elaina's insights on building a collaborative product culture.

You'll hear us talk about: 06:01 - Visual Collaboration and Decision Making Elaina discusses the transformative role of visual collaboration tools like MURAL in product development. She highlights how these tools enable faster decision-making and efficient iteration by providing a shared visual language across teams. 20:57 - Embedding Product with Go-To-Market Teams Elaina explores the benefits of integrating product management with go-to-market strategies. She explains how involving product marketing early in the process leads to a more seamless transition from development to market, reducing friction and accelerating time-to-market. 28:27 - Future of Product Operations Elaina shares her vision for the future of product operations, emphasizing the need to streamline tools and processes. She talks about the importance of focusing on outcomes, customer needs, and metrics to avoid the trap of building features without clear purpose.

Episode resources: Mural: https://www.mural.co/ Elaina on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eomahoney/ Check out Monday dev: http://monday.com/dev Check our courses: https://productinstitute.com/

Timestamps: 00:00 Entering Mural and navigating product leadership 10:57 Enabling product creativity and outcome-driven teams 16:26 Building strong partnerships with sales and GTM teams 24:29 Balancing AI innovation with enterprise needs 30:34 Future of product leadership and final reflections

More from Product Thinking

Jun 24, 2026

In this solo episode of the Product Thinking Podcast, Melissa Perri shares the results of the State of AI in Product 2026 survey of 309 product leaders, co-published with Product Circle. The tools are everywhere, but the work has not changed. Melissa walks through five findings and what they mean for you. Adoption is nearly universal, yet only a third of leaders say AI is strengthening their operating model. Melissa explains why the bottleneck is still upstream in discovery and decisions, and why AI acts as a multiplier rather than an equalizer, helping mature organizations and exposing the cracks in everyone else. She unpacks the dataset's largest gap, between executives who think an AI strategy exists and the PMs who never see it reach their work, and what leaders and PMs should do about it. Melissa also shares some news: the podcast is taking a pause after this episode, though she is not going far.

Jun 3, 2026

What does it actually take for experimentation to stick inside a product organization? In this compilation episode of the Product Thinking Podcast, Melissa Perri brings together three perspectives on the leadership behaviors, portfolio decisions, and iteration loops that separate real experimentation from theater.

May 20, 2026

Continuous discovery sounds simple and breaks down constantly in practice. In this compilation episode of the Product Thinking Podcast, Melissa Perri brings together three perspectives on what it actually takes to build the habit and why slowing down on discovery is still the fastest path to shipping the right thing. Teresa Torres, author of Continuous Discovery Habits, breaks down the structure underneath every method: outcome, opportunity, and solution. Teams doing this right never have to stop and replan. Christina Wodtke, lecturer at Stanford and formerly at Zynga, follows with the weekly playtesting rhythm she now teaches. Julia Austin, former senior lecturer at Harvard Business School, closes the episode by pushing back on the temptation to skip discovery in the age of AI. Her 80/20 rule: spend most of your time on foundation work, because the false security AI offers cannot replace real conversations with real customers.

May 6, 2026

What does it mean for a product to actually be “done”? Not code in production, but customers buying, using, and loving it. In this compilation episode of the Product Thinking Podcast, Melissa Perri brings together three product leaders to explore the systems that make whole product launches consistent. Trisha Price, then Chief Product Officer at Pendo, argues for shifting the team's definition of done from "code complete" to "whole product complete." She reframes product marketing as a strategic voice in discovery, not a translation layer at launch, and shares how cadences keep the work moving. Kate Towsey, an independent research ops advisor with experience at BBC and Atlassian, frames organizational knowledge as water that needs a dam to stop it leaking away. Jessica Soroky, then Senior Director of Product Operations at Pendo, closes with what whole product launch and cadences look like in practice.

Jan 28, 2026

AI is moving quickly from experimentation into real products, but in regulated and high-trust environments the stakes are much higher. In this compilation episode of the Product Thinking Podcast, host Melissa Perri brings together perspectives from multiple product leaders to explore what it really takes to ship AI responsibly when accuracy, trust, and risk management matter. You will hear from Maryam Ashoori, who works at IBM and was involved in building Watsonx. She explains what AI agents actually are, why large language models hallucinate, and how guardrails and human oversight help teams manage calculated risk as systems become more autonomous. The episode also features Magda Armbruster, Head of Product at Natural Cycles, and Jessica Hall, Chief Product Officer at Just Eat Takeaway. Together they share how embedding regulation, prioritizing data privacy, and being honest about cost, governance, and capability building can turn compliance and trust into enablers rather than blockers for AI-driven products.

See all episodes →