Show Notes
We built the internet. We championed social media. We're now building AI. But what if, looking back, we made things worse?
In this candid and wide-ranging conversation, Teresa and Petra wrestle with a question that's hard to ask from inside tech: is the industry we've dedicated our careers to actually net positive for the world? From a chance comment by a non-tech family member to jarring observations about human isolation in San Francisco, this episode doesn't shy away from the discomfort.
They explore the role of greed in how technology has evolved, what the "tech bro" narrative is costing us in human terms, the loneliness epidemic, and why speaking to people outside our industry echo chambers might be one of the most important things we can do. But they don't stop at critique — they also cast a genuinely hopeful vision for what responsible, community-centered technology could look like, including the idea of "mom and pop tech" that serves neighborhoods, not shareholders.
If you work in tech and you've ever had a nagging feeling that something's gone wrong — this one is for you.
More from All Things Product with Teresa and Petra
Team events are making a comeback. After years of remote work and tight budgets, companies are bringing people together again, and many are looking for experiences that go beyond the usual offsite. So should companies deliberately send their people somewhere strange, uncomfortable, and awe-inspiring, and what actually happens to a team when they do?
You've got twelve people and one hour booked at next week's offsite. Can someone teach your team to do continuous discovery in that hour? Teresa Torres's answer is a flat no — and this episode is about why.
We now record almost everything — every meeting has an AI note-taker, and some people wear glasses that capture every word. So what does that do to our relationships when nothing is forgotten and everything can be fact-checked?
Is innovation the goal — or just a byproduct of solving customer problems well? In this episode of All Things Product, Petra Wille and Teresa Torres unpack one of the most misused words in product: "innovation." Teresa makes the case that chasing novelty for its own sake pushes teams toward complex solutions that don't actually serve customers better, while Petra argues that simplicity and reduction can be their own kind of innovation.
What if the ideas you throw away tell you more about the health of your product process than the ones you ship?