Mihika Kapoor

Leading zero-to-one AI initiatives requires a 'keeper of the flame' mentality to maintain momentum through the ambiguity of early development.

"I think that the key to being successful at zero-to-one is to honestly have optimism that borders on delusion. You need to be insane, almost like reality distortion field where you don't hear the word..."

Structured personal sharing rituals like 'Hot Seat' build the deep interpersonal trust necessary for high-stakes collaboration.

"Hot seat is this game where you go around the table and each person gets two minutes on the clock and everyone else at the table can ask them anything... I think that being able to understand what mot..."

Investing in team culture builds the emotional connection necessary for a team to remain durable during inevitable product pivots.

"I think culture is important in that it establishes trust between groups of people... I think that roadmaps change, products change, but feeling a connection to the folks that you're working with make..."

Opening a difficult feedback session by asking for feedback first creates a more balanced and receptive environment.

"If you have feedback to give someone else, I think you can start by asking, 'Hey, do you have feedback from me?' And kind of taking the feedback first so then that person feels like, 'Okay, maybe I ha..."

Proposing a specific, even flawed, hypothesis is more effective at generating momentum and high-quality feedback than starting from a blank slate.

"I think that putting out an idea, even if it's totally wrong, is a much better catalyst for getting to a good solution because people are much more likely to react to an idea than to nothing."

Effective product hype is rooted in emotional connection and making the user feel that a feature was built specifically for their delight.

"I think that hype as well is really tied to emotion. So to the extent that a person using a product can feel like, 'Oh, this thing that is built in the product was built for me not to advance the comp..."

A strong vision acts as a necessary anchor that transforms chaotic pivots and setbacks into meaningful forward progress.

"My take is that vision is everything. It is really important to create a vision that you believe in, that your team believes in and that your company believes in. Because the reality of the product de..."

Creating a single, unified artifact for a vision sprint ensures the entire cross-functional team owns the insights equally.

"I think that when you're actually presenting a vision, one of the most important things is that there is a single artifact that the team is creating together... you want for everyone to feel incredibl..."

Interviewing non-users provides critical insights into market perceptions and barriers to adoption that current users cannot provide.

"Something that I find incredibly useful is to not just ask users of your product what they think about your product, but to ask non-users about your product, why they're not using your product. And ac..."

Extensive internal dogfooding turns colleagues into stakeholders who help refine the product and build internal advocacy before launch.

"I just think about putting things early on staging and getting people involved in the cycle as opening up the doors to the product development process, and hopefully, that just elevates the quality of..."