Hubert Palan is the Founder and CEO of Productboard, a product management platform designed to help teams bring products to market more efficiently by prioritizing user needs and aligning teams around a shared roadmap. More than 5,400 companies, including Zoom, UiPath, JCDecaux, and Microsoft, use the platform to gather customer insights and inform development decisions.
What inspired you to start Productboard, and how did your experience at GoodData influence its creation?
Productboard was inspired by my work as a product manager and product leader. The idea came during a flight when I was trying to manage product roadmaps across various presentations and spec sheets while on less-than-optimal airplane Wi-Fi — making it obvious how inefficient it is to try and coordinate strategic product decisions without a single, consistently-updated source of truth.
When creating Productboard, our goal was to build one platform that covers the entire product management process, solving even more PM pain points along the way. Productboard has now grown into a platform that puts customer centricity at the center of modern product management, using AI technology to champion the voice of the customer, elevating the role of the PM.
And it’s worked. Today Productboard has 6000+ customers including amazing companies like Salesforce, Autodesk, and Zoom.
What challenges did you face during the early days of Productboard, and how did you overcome them?
In the early days of Productboard, I learned about the challenges of onboarding new staff at a startup. Productboard was moving very quickly and I had a tendency to expect new hires to catch onto what we were doing almost immediately and make clear, strategic decisions right away. Since then, I’ve learned that there’s more value in taking your time with onboarding. By focusing on effective knowledge sharing and training, you can foster teams that are just as informed and passionate about the work as you are. The ROI on a thorough onboarding period is substantial.
What is the “Product Excellence Framework,” and how did you develop it as a foundational concept for Productboard?
The Product Excellence Framework is our structured approach to product management, emphasizing customer-centricity, placing big bets, and building amazing teams. It’s our product philosophy at Productboard, ensuring that we’re always focused on delivering value to our customers. We developed this framework after recognizing common challenges faced by product teams, such as the need to consolidate feedback, prioritize effectively, and align everyone around a clear roadmap. It’s a core part of our mission to help product managers navigate the complexities of building modern products, especially in the age of AI.
Productboard uses AI to analyze customer feedback at scale. What motivated you to incorporate AI into your platform, and how has it transformed product management?
Something that became clear to our team early on was a pressing need to help product teams make sense of the massive amounts of customer feedback they receive. AI was the natural solution to analyze this data at scale, identify key insights, and help prioritize what to build next. This has transformed product management by allowing teams to make quicker, more informed decisions with greater confidence. It has also elevated the PM to a position of leadership in which they can give more strategic feedback that aligns with a company’s business goals. Overall, AI in PM is about staying ahead of the curve and ensuring our customers can build products that keep up with emerging trends and truly resonate with their users.
Can you share specific examples of how AI has improved decision-making for Productboard’s customers?
Imagine a product manager wants to understand the general sentiment on a new feature. Instead of sifting through mountains of data across Salesforce, social media, the Apple Store, and who knows what else, they can just use Productboard. Productboard Pulse’s AI-powered conversational interface instantly answers questions like, “What are customers saying about the last update?” or “Is pricing a major concern for users in this sector?” This access allows PMs to quickly identify pain points and opportunities, leading to more effective product development.
Beyond Pulse, we also have an AI-powered analytics dashboard that automatically surfaces key themes and trends from customer feedback. This helps product managers prioritize features with the biggest potential impact, making it a game-changer for data-driven decision-making. We’re seeing customers use these insights to accelerate time-to-market, improve product satisfaction, and ultimately, build better products that people love.
How do you address concerns around data security and privacy when using AI to process customer insights?
We take privacy very seriously. At Productboard we use a multi-layered approach to data security and privacy, incorporating industry-standard practices and robust measures to protect sensitive information. Our commitment to security is evident in our SOC 2 Type II compliance certification and our adherence to strict data protection regulations like GDPR and CCPA.
We employ data encryption, and our platform is built on secure infrastructure. We also implement application-level security measures, including user authentication, authorization, and access controls, to prevent unauthorized access to customer data. Our customers have granular control over their data, allowing them to determine what information is collected and how it is used. For AI specifically, we employ anonymous data to analyze customer feedback, protecting individual identities while extracting valuable insights.
What trends do you foresee in the use of AI for product management, and how is Productboard preparing to lead in this space?
AI will be essential for product managers to navigate the complexities of the modern product landscape. Using AI in PM is not just about automating tasks; it’s about empowering PMs to be more strategic and customer-centric, thus elevating the impact they can have within their respective companies.
At Productboard, we’re committed to leading the way in AI-powered product management. We’re continuously enhancing our AI capabilities and delivering innovative solutions that empower our customers. Last year, we announced several iterations of our AI applications and there’s more where that came from in 2025.
Our goal is to make AI accessible and beneficial for all product teams, regardless of their size or technical expertise. We believe that by embracing AI, PMs can unlock new levels of productivity, creativity, and customer-centricity and become more integral within their organizations.
How has your leadership style evolved as Productboard has grown from a small team to an international organization with over 6,000 customers?
Early on, I adopted a very hands-on leadership style — wearing multiple hats, and figuring things out as we went along. As we expanded, I had to learn to delegate more effectively, trust my team, and empower them to take ownership.
However, even with the importance of letting go, I also learned the importance of staying connected and maintaining a founder’s mindset. I am constantly questioning, analyzing, and seeking ways to improve. Effective leadership is about balancing strategic vision with a deep understanding of the day-to-day realities of our customers and our team.
What advice would you give to aspiring product managers who want to leverage AI in their roles?
I would encourage aspiring product magnets to learn how to leverage AI effectively by following these three best practices:
- Develop Customer-Centricity: Always connect AI-driven insights back to the human needs and pain points they represent.
- Seek Mentorship and Collaboration: Connect with experienced product managers who are already leveraging AI in their roles. Learn from their successes and challenges, and ask for guidance on how to navigate the evolving landscape.
- Embrace Continuous Learning: AI is a dynamic field, so stay curious and keep learning. Explore online courses, attend workshops, and read about the industry to deepen your understanding of AI concepts and applications in product management.
What is your long-term vision for Productboard, particularly in leveraging AI to enhance customer-centric product development?
My goal for productboard now is the same as it was day one – to solve PM pain points and empower PMs to make the best products possible.
We’re committed to consistently evaluating and updating our AI offerings to ensure we’re helping PMs be more collaborative, effective, creative and strategic. As their pain points change, so will our technology. In fact, we use Productboard’s technology ourselves to make sure we’re being truly customer-centric and delivering the updates and features that our customers really need. So it’s hard to say today what we’ll do in the future, because at Productboard, it’s all about what our customers need right now. But I can promise that we’ll continue to evolve and leverage AI to provide for our customers and empower PMs to be exceptional members of their organization.
Thank you for the great interview, readers who wish to learn more should visit Productboard.
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