Rupa Chaturvedi

Human Centered AI Institute

Founder

Vybe Snacks

Stanford University

Adjunct Lecturer (Product Design)

Miraj Sustainable Racing Club

California's first sustainable racing club

Founder & President

Reforge

Co-created the "Generative AI Products: How to get from Idea to MVP" course for product managers, design and user research leaders, consultants and founders. Understand AI by getting hands-on with this practical course taught by industry experts.

Partner

Uber

Head of Merchant & Ads Design

First Round Capital

Product & UX Design Mentor

Google

UX Design Manager

Amazon

I manage and lead a team of UX and Personality designers focused on Conversational AI within the Alexa Shopping group in Amazon. Collectively, my team and I conceptualize, deliver design and strategy to help launch customer experiences that span upper funnel, inspiration and product discovery; product evaluation and research, and post purchase needs of our customer. We are fierce advocates for our customers and leverage multiple sources of data from qualitative to quantitative to guide our intuition and measure our efficacy. The impact we have generated is a combination of customer experience vision, strategic frameworks and mental models as well as design systems for interaction with Alexa by voice and devices in the context of shopping.

Sr UX Designer, Alexa Shopping

Lead UX Designer for Augmented Reality (AR) experiences at Amazon

Sr UX Designer

Sentient Technologies

Helped launch an AI-enabled shopping product that will change the way shoppers shop online. 
Conceptualized and designed multi-channel user experiences for a breakthrough visual search technology product - redefining how consumers shop online.

Helped launch a breakthrough AI enabled online shopping product within 5 months.
Contributed from conceptualizing the UI and product strategy/features to final implementation through whiteboard sketches, wire-frames, high fidelity prototypes and design specifications.

Followed a thorough user centered design process to gather insights into shopper behavior and expectations as well as iterative design based on feedback from user testing.

Head of Design - Visual Intelligence

Head of Merchant & Ads Design at Uber, Adjunct Lecturer at Stanford University

I'm building a world-class AI education institute that puts humans at the center of the AI revolution. Our mission is to empower professionals worldwide to create AI solutions that deliver tangible value for both businesses and end users. We're committed to making AI education accessible, enabling people from all backgrounds to help shape technology's future.

Hard truth for UX designers: if your role looks the same in 2 years, that’s a red flag.

If your value is defined by producing UI artifacts (wireframes, mockups, and redlines) you are in a precarious position. AI models are already exceptionally good at pattern matching and interface generation.

But if your value is defined by system design, you have never been more necessary.

There is a shift from "designing for the user" to "designing for the system."

When an AI agent acts on behalf of a user, it doesn't need a UI. It needs:

- Behavioral Specs: What is the acceptable range of autonomy for this model?
- Adaptive Context: How does the system pivot when the user’s intent is ambiguous?
- Human-in-the-Loop Protocols: When must the human step in for oversight?

These are design responsibilities. They require moving upstream to shape what the system learns and how it decides.

This is exactly why I developed the Advanced AI & Agentic Design curriculum. We stop looking at screens and start looking at system behaviors. We focus on defining constraints, designing for non-deterministic outcomes, and building trust in autonomous flows.

The designers who survive this shift will be the ones who can define the guardrails of the systems we are building. Learn more here: https://bit.ly/3MjqTzM

Design & AI Leader | Stanford Lecturer | AI enablement for UX orgs | ex-Uber, Google, Amazon

Google's Head of Product announced a shift from "writing-first to building-first culture."

Microsoft's CPO said "prompt sets are the new PRDs."

Product management went through a transformation in the past 18 months that UX designers are just starting to feel.

When you can see a shift happening in an adjacent discipline, you have visibility others don't. The question is whether you use it strategically.

I've been mapping what the PM precedent signals for UX roles—and how designers can position themselves while the industry is still figuring out what these roles look like.

Check out my latest newsletter for more on this:

This is the AI UX Brief - my weekly newsletter on designing intelligent systems, leadership in the AI era, and navigating the messy reality of AIUX. F

Open article: Redefining UX Value: The Shift from Execution to Influence by Rupa Chaturvedi • 5 min read

Redefining UX Value: The Shift from Execution to Influence

Meta, Google, OpenAI, Anthropic - they're paying AI PMs up to $600K+.
Why? Because these PMs aren't writing PRDs anymore. They're architecting intelligent systems - designing model behavior, shaping evaluation frameworks, defining how AI thinks and decides.

The role has evolved from coordination to creation. And the market is paying accordingly.

Designers have a unique opportunity here. System thinking, behavioral specification, mental models - these are already in our DNA. Now it's about applying them to intelligence architecture.

Product's transformation is our preview. They're 12-18 months ahead on this curve, and their playbook is completely visible. We can see exactly which capabilities the market values and how to develop them.

In this week's issue, I break down what designers can learn from Product's transformation - the specific capabilities commanding these salaries and strategies for positioning themselves effectively.

Open article: The $600K Question: What AI PMs Know That UX Designers Don't (Yet) by Rupa Chaturvedi • 6 min read

The $600K Question: What AI PMs Know That UX Designers Don't (Yet)

I got a message this week from a UX Director at a FAANG company 6 weeks after completing MXDAI:

“Org changes have been constant here, and the structure is getting flatter every quarter. The expectations on designers have shifted too. My team and I are being pulled into more conversations about how the AI behaves, not just how it looks on the surface. PM and Eng expect us to have a clear point of view there, and if we don’t, we’re not really influencing the product. MXDAI helped me step into those conversations with more confidence. It’s made a noticeable difference in how I show up and how my team gets included.”

What resonated with me is how common this has become.

Across companies, designers are being asked to take on a level of strategic influence that isn’t written into the job description but is now core to how teams move forward. 

As orgs continue to flatten, leaders and ICs are figuring out how to stay relevant in a landscape where expectations rise even as layers disappear. The people who can bring clarity to messy AI questions and ambiguous decisions are the ones carrying a different kind of weight.

This is the work we focus on inside MXDAI.

We’re currently the number one AI design course on Maven, and now you know why.

Maven also extended the promo for one more day today, in case you’ve been considering joining the next cohort - take advantage of the 25% tuition discount - offer expires tonight/

If you’re facing similar changes or want to get ahead of what’s coming, feel free to reach out.

cc Maven

There’s been so much talk lately about PMs vibe-coding prototypes and PRDs being replaced with “just build something and show me.”
But here’s what I keep coming back to: designers need these skills just as much as PMs do, maybe more.

Our stakeholders are adopting AI tools at a pace that’s hard to ignore. The workflows between design, product and engineering are shifting fast. If designers don’t build fluency in this space, they’ll get left behind.

Vibe coding isn’t about learning to code. It’s about learning to build.

When you can build with AI tools, even scrappy prototypes, you collapse the distance between an idea and something you can actually interact with. You get to explore AI behaviors and edge cases hands-on instead of trying to explain them through diagrams and long documents.

And as you experiment with different tools, you start developing a deeper understanding of the underlying tech, the constraints, the limitations and what’s truly feasible. That knowledge changes how you design. It sharpens your instincts. It gives you language and clarity your stakeholders instantly recognize.

This is also where designers make a shift. You stop worrying about perfect wireframes and start focusing on how to validate your assumptions. You move from being the person who “hands things off” to becoming a strategic partner who brings real, testable workflows to the table.

Designers who lean into this aren’t just speeding up their process. They’re shaping how AI products come to life.

If you’re ready to invest in these skills, take a look at MXDAI: https://bit.ly/48o50YD 
We learn by doing. You’ll explore a range of AI tools, build real workflows, and leave with a portfolio-worthy project that reflects how AI design actually happens today.

NOTE: Currently, Maven is offering a flat 25% discount on the next cohort and its valid only for this. week.

Leading the Experience product development team to build a world class membership. 

With Reforge, you can do the best work of your career.

Product Lead

NerdWallet

- Led a team of 3 growth PMs (and broader Product Development organization of ~30 PMs, designers and engineers) to build personalized financial product comparison marketplaces within Mortgages, Personal Loans and Insurance verticals. 
- Owned all marketplace partner API integrations and its platform infrastructure.

I manage all end-to-end product development for each product within our lending verticals at NerdWallet, which include mortgage, student, personal, small business and auto loans.

Senior Product Manager

Product Manager, Lending Verticals

I lead business strategy and P&L, product development and user growth for NerdWallet’s student loans business. We help students and recent college grads manage their money and student loan debt through objective content and comparison tools.

Product Manager, Student Loans

Corporate product partnerships: May - November 2017

I focused on cultivating corporate-level partnerships with companies that share NerdWallet's consumer-first mission. I worked closely with NerdWallet's Product team to identify and create partnerships that integrate into our product experience. Also responsible for implementing partnerships that led to new user acquisition growth, working cross-functionally with teams across Product, Marketing, Content and Business Operations.

Education referral partnerships: August 2015 - April 2017

I led business development and partnerships for NerdWallet's Higher Education vertical. Responsibilities include setting the vertical's partnerships vision and strategy, both inbound and outbound partner outreach, end-to-end deal implementation and relationship management. Promoted January 2017.

Business Development Lead

Promoted to senior analyst in July 2015. 

Responsibilities include writing financial and career advice for college students, and leading marketing and communications efforts for NerdWallet's Higher Education vertical.

...

NerdWallet gives consumers and small businesses clarity around all of life’s financial decisions. When it comes to credit cards, bank accounts, mortgages, insurance, loans or expenses like hospital costs and medical bills, consumers make almost all their decisions in the dark. NerdWallet is changing that, helping guide consumers'​ decisions with free, accessible tools, research and expert advice.

Headquartered in San Francisco, we employ more than 400 passionate “Nerds” -- and $100 million in capital from IVP, RRE Ventures, iGlobe Partners and Silicon Valley Bank -- to disrupt the personal finance industry. Named one of the Bay Area News Group’s Best Places to Work, we offer: a world-class benefits package; flexible vacation; and amazing perks, from catered meals to a dog-friendly office and dedicated time for volunteering.

We’re growing rapidly. If you’re interested in joining an amazing team made up of leaders from Box, JPMorgan, LinkedIn, Trulia, Visa, Zynga, among others, please visit http://www.nerdwallet.com/careers

Sr. Marketing Analyst, Student Loans

UCLA

Facilitated a two-credit UCLA Community Health Science course in Intergroup Dialogue. Created custom designed two-hour dialogue workshops aimed at leadership training and diversity awareness. 
I also supervised and trained a team of 10 student facilitators to promote leadership and civic engagement and initiated partnerships between various campus organizations.

Intergroup Relations Program Analyst

Passionate lead product manager and previous business development leader with 8 years experience working in the consumer services and Fin-Tech industries. Skilled in cultivating strategic partnerships to build both the supply and demand sides of a business, developing consumer product experiences along with go-to-market strategies focused on hyper-growth, scale, and new market expansion. I have a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Philosophy from UCLA.

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