How is Product Management different, when working with Machine Learning (ML) projects and applied science teams? What are the best ways to learn about the field, break into product roles in ML or even vet and propose projects for your current employer?

Polly Allen spent the last 3 years as a Principal PM at Alexa AI, where she led the launch of Alexa's first machine-generated responses in 2020 (using models like those underlying GPT-3 and ChatGPT). In this presentation she'll outline how machine learning is changing the product management role, and how to stay up to date, illustrating with stories from her time at Alexa.

Bio: Polly Allen has worked in tech for over 20 years, and has worn many hats at companies of all sizes - from software engineer at a 5-person startup to Director of Product at a $10B company. She holds a B.Sc. and M.Sc in Computer Science from UVic and MIT, and an MBA from UBC. In 2022 she left her role at Amazon to found www.aicareerboost.com, an AI-focused career accelerator for women, with the goal of increasing diversity in business leadership in tech and AI.