Building the Future: AI, Product Strategy, and Leadership with Rakesh Anigundi

Sheikh Shuvo: Hi, everyone. Welcome back to Humans of AI, where we learn about the people who are building the tech that's changing our world. My name is Sheikh, and today I'm joined by a very special guest. Thank you for joining us. Would you mind introducing yourself?

Rakesh Anigundi: Hi, everyone. I'm Rakesh Anigundi. I'm a director of product management here at AMD. It's been two and a half years with AMD in Austin. I lead our AI product management and our client business unit for AMD, which is basically the PC desktop market.

Sheikh Shuvo: Awesome. Well, Rakesh, most of the world knows about all the cool things that AMD is doing, and obviously AI is core to so much of your work, but if you had to take a step back and describe what you do day to day to a five-year-old, how would you describe your role?

Rakesh Anigundi: Very interesting. I'm in product management. I have an eight-year-old. Perfect. He can do pretty charts and numbers on Excel. He says, "I don't know why your company pays you that. I can do stuff in Excel and slides." But, that aside. You know, how I would explain it to a five-year-old is, five-year-olds are smart these days, right? They learn differently, they play differently, they're also using devices. So most of the work that I do tries to make the devices and everything that you're interacting with smarter, like if you're playing a game, you can make the game smarter. If you're watching an app, you learn something. It's going to make your application smarter and your experience smarter. That's how I describe it to mine.

Sheikh Shuvo: Yeah, I'm there with you. I have two girls. They're six years old and eight years old too. And one of the questions I always grapple with is, you know, how and when to introduce them to different aspects of the tech world. Is there a way you've been working with your child on different parts of tech?

Rakesh Anigundi: Yeah, that was interesting. Just before I was with AMD, I was with a startup called Aspercy, and before that, I was working on a product which was very interesting for me. It was a smartwatch for kids. Especially in China, smartwatches seem like a security device for parents. You know, parents put a smartwatch on their kid, and the kids go out. From a kid's perspective, it's on a small screen, they're not used to the screen. So, you know, it tends to count your steps, helps you to be more active, and stuff. It was a very interesting product because my son was close to four years old. The product I was building, I could actually test with him. So, then you're putting a lot of effort into how to make some pretty smiley faces so that we encourage kids to charge. So what we found out is kids are going to buy it, parents are going to be excited, they're going to charge it for the next few weeks, and if the kids don't charge, the watch just goes away in the drawer. So, my product manager came to me, "Hey, we need to do X, Y, Z to make the charge better." I was like, "Who cares about it?" Right. But then I took the watch to my son. It was a smiley face that used to come on the watch. He was so excited. It made him charge more, look at all the smiling faces that came in and there was an important lesson about whether you're in AI and product management, it's very important to connect at a human level, right? You need to be connected to your user, you know, product management or AI. Yes, you need to be technically capable, but you need to be connected to the user who you are designing for. Use your personal experience to make the product better.

Sheikh Shuvo: Yeah, well, it's good that you have a customer base at home already built in. Yeah, sometimes. Yeah, well, tell us more broadly about your career arc and how you became a product management leader.

Rakesh Anigundi: Yeah, so I started off as an engineer. I graduated in the peak of the recession in 2008. I just came to America and got my master's in electrical engineering, and there was a small group in North Carolina inside Qualcomm. I had an opportunity with that group and I had an opportunity with a bigger company, and I took a chance to interview with this group, I liked the people, and I took a chance to go to the smaller group, even though the bigger company was a smaller group, we went on to design the first map that I taught, I don't know if the listeners are familiar or not, it's like a very popular processor in the mobile smartphone. I started out as an engineer, then transitioned into being a more architect kind of a role. Then I realized, you know, engineering was great, but what I was doing was probably one-dimensional in the sense that I was more focused on design, engineering design, that made me go out and get an MBA. And the group that I was with at Qualcomm was extremely helpful, and supportive of my standard education. Then I transitioned to be a product manager inside Qualcomm. That's where I started doing the smartwatch for kids product. And since then, it's been five to six years in product management, and I would say, even though I've been with a company for 10 years, I've always made an effort to make sure that I'm challenged. It's good to be comfortable in your job, you know, it's great to be comfortable because you just go through the motion, but I've also realized that you happen to stagnate a little bit. So I've made a conscious effort to be uncomfortable in the different roles I've been seeking out more learning opportunities. And that's what has helped me in doing my job well as a product manager.

Sheikh Shuvo: Yeah. It seems like going to business school was very much a career reset for you as you figured out what was important to you. Thinking back to your time getting your MBA, are there any particular classes or things you learned in your MBA program that you come back to frequently in your day-to-day work?

Rakesh Anigundi: Yeah, more than classes, it was actually the people. You know, we always talk about getting diverse perspectives, working with different kinds of people and stuff. When I was an engineer, I was working with great people, but we all had the same pedigree. But in my MBA class, I was sitting with someone in finance. In my group, I had someone in sales in the culinary industry. Given the same problem, it was fascinating how differently we all approached it. That's an active quality that I see when I'm leading a team or in a team discussion about trying to get different perspectives to solve a problem and not being one-sided about it. I think that's been a great learning. Apart from that, there were classes like product strategy, which are more tactical, like how you enter the market, what are the different aspects you need to consider. As a product manager, having some good background and working knowledge of finance, about how to balance and make your product more profitable, is important. But those are all very approachable. In my mind, you don't need an MBA to actually teach you all of that. It's more about working with different kinds of people and the personal relationships, the soft skills that you gain.

Sheikh Shuvo: Awesome. That's great to hear. Now, you've worked on very different types of technology throughout your career. In choosing to work in the AI space, do you think there's anything fundamentally different about being a PM on an AI product versus something else?

Rakesh Anigundi: Yes, it is different. The first thing is, we all don't understand what AI is, right? It's growing so fast, and it's very hard to keep pace. Specifically, the product I'm working on is on-device AI, like how to make AI work more locally in your laptop or PCs. How can all these AI algorithms and applications run more efficiently on your PC? One of the biggest challenges in the hardware and semiconductor industry is not just building hardware. The hardware needs to be built now and be able to run all these great applications which might come two, three, or four years later. That's a unique challenge we face. But with AI, things are changing so much faster. All the software is built, applications are built, and it's changing rapidly. As a project manager, you need to have an oversight about where things are going three years from now and bring it back to see how we're going to design the product today. That's the main thing.

Sheikh Shuvo: Yeah. It seems you very much have to be able to predict the future as well as meet current needs there. Given the rapid pace of updates and innovation across the industry, it seems like there are five new major breakthroughs every single week. What are the ways that you're staying on top of the latest academic and industry research and choosing to incorporate that? Are there any mechanisms that you and your team have built out that allow you to stay on top of things?

Rakesh Anigundi: Yeah, I wish I could build a more articulate mechanism for myself, but I generally say, for people working on this program, we spend time at work, the majority of the time, so associating with different groups inside the work itself is important. I work with my research group to understand what they are doing. When I talk to them, it gives me insight into what's happening two or three years from now. Customers and partners bring in a new perspective by talking and listening to them within your peer group itself. There was a very interesting suggestion I heard from another product manager at their company. They actually have 3D spiders focused on AI who come together to talk about random topics on how AI can improve their lives. So, as product managers, I think that's an interesting idea. We don't do that yet, but that's one way internally that we can seek out and keep updated about different things happening. And, you know, if you use social media in the right amount, LinkedIn has been a very good platform for me. I keep up with folks who have similar interests as mine in my field, and that means my LinkedIn feed is probably well-curated, and I go off of this stuff. Then, you know, I have 30 minutes of travel each day. I have my own favorite podcasts that I listen to. So, you just need to make it work. Everybody has a busy life.

Sheikh Shuvo: What are some of those podcasts that you listen to during your drive?

Rakesh Anigundi: Yeah, my favorite podcast, probably most specific to my industry, is the Six Five podcast. What's interesting is that it takes six topics, five minutes on each topic, and you'll be able to listen to each of them. It's more focused on tech, hardware, industries, and stuff like that. And then I have a list of different AI podcasts that I listen to. And, you know, interestingly, YouTube is also my friend. You know, it knows me more now. It's a good five to ten minutes video that I get hooked onto.

Sheikh Shuvo: What about in-person events, like conferences and meetups? Are there any that you can recommend? Maybe something you're going to in the next couple of months?

Rakesh Anigundi: Yeah, so, there was a hardware summit that was excellent, covering a lot of future topics. I'm in the Austin area, and there are a couple of generative AI and MLOps conferences that happen here. I'm trying to work out my schedule to see if I can attend, but I haven't narrowed down on specific conferences yet. In general, in-person conferences can be very beneficial if the topics are of interest to you and the speakers are something you want to listen to.

Sheikh Shuvo: Shifting gears a bit, you're in a leadership role managing a product management team. Outside of technical skills, what are some of the other skills that you look for as you build your team?

Rakesh Anigundi: In general, things at AMD have a very core-based culture. Technical skills are a great thing, especially in my industry, and most candidates have a basic level of technical knowledge. I would say product sense is important, like the ability to step out and think about the bigger picture before diving into the details. The ability to work with different groups is also crucial. Often, you'll be talking to cross-functional teams like architecture, legal, finance, and sales. The ability to converse with these different groups and calibrate yourself accordingly is very important. When you're talking to an engineering team, you bring the business insight. When you're talking to a business team, you're bringing the internal workings. So, the ability to adapt to these different views and articulate them well is important. Communication skills become extremely important.

Sheikh Shuvo: Interesting. The last question I have for you is, let's say you're fresh out of school and thinking about getting into the world of product management. You have offers from different startups and big companies on the table. What are some of the questions I should be asking myself to find the best type of product management culture for me early in my career?

Rakesh Anigundi: Yeah, you know, the amount of risk we're willing to take often decreases as the number of years of experience increases. So, my one piece of advice for people coming in is to take risks. Having a good understanding of what excites you and what you want to do is important. I wouldn't stress too much about compensation, especially during the first four to five years. The focus should be on whether it's an exciting company, if it's a product you are really excited to work on. Your first boss or your first mentor is going to shape and influence you in many ways, so thinking about if a product is exciting enough is crucial. Also, consider the company. Young people should consider joining a startup or a company that might not have a great balance sheet but has an exciting product. Get to know the team you're about to join, especially your bosses or mentors. See what you can learn from them, their attitude towards you, and any leading questions you can ask to understand that better.

Sheikh Shuvo: Well, that's all great advice. I'm thinking about the ways I can increase my risk tolerance, but having kids definitely brings that down a notch. Good job, Rakesh. Thank you so much for taking time on Sunday. This has been great to learn more about your world. If any listeners want to reach out to you, what's the best way to generally connect with you online?

Rakesh Anigundi: LinkedIn is probably the best source. So, go on LinkedIn, and I'm happy to join and connect there.

Sheikh Shuvo: Okay, Rakesh. Well, thank you very much and enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Rakesh Anigundi: Thank you. Bye.