Shweta Shrivastava

Senior Director of Product Management

Waymo

🎯 Product Strategy (1)🔍 User Research (1)👥 Team & Culture (1)

Key Takeaways

1.In safety-critical deep tech, the MVP bar is significantly higher; you cannot 'cut corners' on safety to iterate faster.
2.Building trust in AI requires designing 'body language' and predictability into the system, not just following traffic rules.
3.Autonomous vehicles must learn 'social norms' (unspoken rules) of driving, not just legal regulations, to feel natural.
4.Use the 'Rule of Seven' to stop endless email threads and force synchronous resolution.
5.To get promoted, focus obsessively on business impact rather than maneuvering for the title.
6.Large companies must disrupt themselves before startups do (The Innovator's Dilemma).

Methodologies(3)

Safety-Critical MVP Framework

by Shweta Shrivastava

🎯 Product Strategy

Redefining the 'Minimum' in MVP for deep tech. Instead of launching with bugs to fix later, the product must meet a 'super-human' safety benchmark before public deployment, shifting the focus from speed-to-market to rigorous simulation and validation.

Core Principles

1.Benchmark against human performance: Establish specific safety metrics (e.g., collisions per 100k miles) based on human data.
2.Zero compromise on safety: The 'Minimum' viable feature set must include full safety redundancy; no cutting corners.
3.Simulation before Real World: Extensive use of simulation tools to validate performance before physical deployment.
+1 more...

"The concept of MVP, which is so widely popular in the SaaS product management world... has a whole new meaning here at Waymo... can't really cut corners on safety."

#safety-critical#strategy#product

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The 'Social Driving' Trust Model

by Shweta Shrivastava

🔍 User Research

Building trust by programming AI to adhere to social norms, not just strict rules. This involves creating digital 'body language' to communicate intent and ensuring the ride feels natural (e.g., not overly robotic).

Core Principles

1.Digital Body Language: Use subtle movements (inching forward) to signal intent to other drivers/pedestrians.
2.Social Norm Adherence: Understand context (e.g., stopping behavior in SF vs. Phoenix) beyond legal signage.
3.Naturalness over Strict Rule Following: Adjust behavior (like speed on hills) to match human expectations of physics/comfort.
+1 more...

"If there's cars coming in that lane... the car just kind of subtly was inching its way out, communicating through this interesting body language thing."

#'social#driving'#trust

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The Rule of Seven

by Shweta Shrivastava

👥 Team & Culture

A tactical rule to prevent communication breakdown: if an email thread reaches seven replies (or ten in very large orgs) without resolution, you must switch communication channels immediately.

Core Principles

1.Monitor Thread Depth: Actively count exchanges in a thread.
2.Automatic Trigger: Reach 7 replies -> Stop typing.
3.Synchronous Resolution: Call the person, walk to their desk, or schedule a huddle to resolve live.
+1 more...

"If there have been seven emails in an email thread and you still haven't resolved the issue, just call the person or get in a room huddle."

#seven#team#culture

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