Google VP of Product on The Future of Search and AI Mode | Robby Stein | E287

In this episode, Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia, CEO at Product School, sits down with Robby Stein, VP of Product at Google Search. Google Search serves billions of users and holds over 90% of the global market share, acting as the engine behind Alphabet's $400 billion in annual revenue.

Robby is steering the most significant shift in Search history: the transition to AI. He oversees a massive portfolio, including the new AI Mode, which has already scaled to 75 million daily active users. Drawing from his time building Stories and Reels at Instagram, Robby breaks down how to build zero-to-one products inside a tech giant and why you need high conviction to push through early bad data.

What you’ll learn:

• Building Like a Startup: How to maintain crazy speed and focus on zero-to-one initiatives while protecting a massive core business.
• True Product-Market Fit: Why flat or J-curve retention in early cohorts is the only reliable indicator that a product is actually working.
• The Value of Colossal Disasters: The untold story of how early failures with Instagram Reels and Close Friends were necessary steps to global success.
• Agentic Search: How Google is moving beyond providing links to executing complex, multi-step tasks by deeply understanding personal context.

Key takeaways:

• Start Small to Win Big: Even at Google's scale, massive AI products begin with just 500 trusted testers and a focus on solving specific user complaints.
• Look for the Golf Shot: When building AI, look for that rare moment when the whole system works perfectly to build the conviction needed to keep iterating.
• Leaders Must Co-Create: To move fast in a large org, leaders shouldn't just approve from the top; they need to form working groups and operate in the details.

Credits:
Host: Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia
Guest: Robby Stein

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