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Ryan J. Salva

VP of Product

GitHub

🎯 Product Strategy (1)🔍 User Research (1)⚡ Execution (1)

Key Takeaways

  • 1.Innovation often requires separating R&D (GitHub Next) from Engineering/Product to protect creativity from operational constraints.
  • 2.The 'Transfer Protocol' from R&D to Production requires researchers to embed with the product team until they can be replaced by a full-time hire.
  • 3.For AI coding tools, the latency sweet spot is around 200ms to maintain developer flow.
  • 4.Treating AI as a 'Persona' (e.g., a Pair Programmer) helps define ethical boundaries and user experience expectations.
  • 5.A healthy product portfolio allocation is ~60% incremental progress, 25-30% operations, and 5-10% bold bets.

Methodologies(3)

🎯 Product Strategy

A structured approach to graduating projects from an innovation lab (GitHub Next) to the core product organization (EPD). It focuses on rigorous personnel management and roadmap ownership transfer to ensure continuity and operational excellence.

Core Principles

  • 1.Ring-fence the R&D team: Protect researchers from uptime/security constraints initially to foster creativity.
  • 2.Embed Researchers: Move key researchers into the product squad temporarily during the transition.
  • 3.Replacement-in-Seat Rule: Researchers cannot return to the lab until a permanent engineer/PM has learned the domain and replaced them.
  • +1 more...

"The criteria for moving researchers back into their R&D team... can't be based on a calendar. It needs to be based on a replacement in seat."

#r&d-to-production#transfer#protocol
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The AI Persona Framework

by Ryan J. Salva

🔍 User Research

By assigning a human metaphor (Persona) to the AI, product teams can establish intuitive guidelines for behavior, ethics, and user expectations. This helps in decision-making regarding content filtering and interaction design.

Core Principles

  • 1.Define the Metaphor: Identify the human equivalent role (e.g., 'Pair Programmer').
  • 2.Apply Human Standards: If a human colleague did X (e.g., shouted slurs), would it be acceptable? If not, the AI shouldn't do it either.
  • 3.Graduated Filters: Start with crude blocks (blocklists) and evolve to nuanced AI sentiment models.
  • +1 more...

"If Copilot is your AI pair programmer and they're whispering crazy stuff into your ear... you're probably not going to be able to focus on your work."

#persona#research#users
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⚡ Execution

A resource management heuristic for product leaders to ensure immediate business needs are met while securing the company's long-term future through high-risk bets.

Core Principles

  • 1.60% Incremental Progress: Iterative improvements on in-market products (Horizon 1).
  • 2.25-30% Operations: Maintenance, reliability, security, and 'keeping the lights on'.
  • 3.5-10% Moonshots: Bold, audacious bets with high uncertainty (Horizon 2 & 3).

"I certainly try to make sure that we're always reserving some capacity for bold, audacious experimental research projects."

#60-30-10#portfolio#allocation
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