Slow Down to Speed Up: Jake McKee's Guide to AI Innovation (A Chat with Cross-Functional Experts)

What does it really mean to design relationships with artificial intelligence? Jake McKee, a community strategist with over two decades of experience working with companies like Lego and Apple, brings clarity to this complex question by introducing us to AI Experience Design (AIX).

In this eye-opening conversation, Jake draws a powerful parallel between today's AI transformation and the digital transformation of the early 2000s. The key difference? Scale and speed. While the early web had natural boundaries, AI presents an almost limitless frontier advancing at breathtaking pace. This creates unique challenges for product teams caught between executive demands for AI innovation and the practical realities of implementation. Jake explains how this pressure often leads to a predictable cycle of over-reliance followed by algorithm aversion before teams eventually find balance.

Rather than viewing AI as a replacement for human capabilities, Jake advocates for seeing it as a "creative and critical partner" that enhances our thinking and processes. He shares practical examples of how product teams can thoughtfully integrate AI – from using it to test early concepts against customer data to employing it as a collaborative ideation tool. Throughout our discussion, Jake emphasizes that successful AI integration depends on maintaining human relationships at the center of product development, not pushing customers further away behind technological barriers.

Perhaps Jake's most counterintuitive yet valuable advice is simple: slow down. "Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast," he quotes from fighter pilot wisdom. By taking time to consider the deeper implications of AI implementation – from social contracts to ethical considerations to long-term impacts – teams can actually achieve better, more sustainable results than those rushing to implement AI for quarterly gains.

Ready to transform how you think about AI in your product development process? Connect with Jake through his AIX Sessions, a unique monthly event series designed for candid, senior-level conversations about community, product, and AI strategy at jakemckee.com.

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ABOUT DIANNA
Dianna Deeney is a quality advocate for product development with over 25 years of experience in manufacturing. She is president of Deeney Enterprises, LLC, which helps organizations and people improve engineering design.