User Experience

We're celebrating [World Product Day 2026](https://www.worldproductday.com/) by getting beyond the hype to hear 4 product people tell us how they are really using AI in their day to day work! * **Rahul:** Discovery, Rewired: From Transcripts to Production with AI - the story of how Global Dairy Trade took an idea from interviews to the real world * **Peony:** A product team of one - how a solo PM uses AI to operate in the goldilocks zone, just enough process, just enough output, moving fast enough to learn and find PMF * **Darren:** Product discovery with agents - from strategy to roadmaps * **Emilie:** AI in product design - allowing the designer to focus on the human tasks The event will start with **networking at 5.30pm**, followed by the **talk from 6pm!** **About our speakers:** **Rahul Singh** [https://www.linkedin.com/in/rahulsinghnz/](https://www.linkedin.com/in/rahulsinghnz/) Product Manager at GDT (Global Dairy Trade), building a modular SaaS platform across a global auction ecosystem. Before GDT he spent a decade shipping digital products at IAG and Roam Digital, working across insurance and enterprise SaaS. Outside the day job, Rahul runs AI PM Briefing, a weekly briefing for product managers on what's actually shipping in AI (tools, patterns, case studies), and is the author of ‘Don't Think, Change‘- a field guide to behaviour change for product teams. **Peony Pangputt** [https://www.linkedin.com/in/peonypangputt/](https://www.linkedin.com/in/peonypangputt/) Product Manager at FileInvite, a B2B SaaS platform helping US commercial lenders automate the collection of loan information faster. Peony joined at Series A and has been navigating a triple challenge: a new product, a new geography, and a new customer segment all at once. Before making the jump into the startup world, she spent her early career in rebuilding legacy replacements products at Stuff and Auckland Transport. **Darren Neo:** [https://www.linkedin.com/in/darren-neo/](https://www.linkedin.com/in/darren-neo/) Product Manager at Xplor Technologies, leading payment onboarding strategy and delivery. Darren started his career as a developer before moving into project delivery and product management, focused on building high-impact solutions that improve business growth, operational efficiency, and customer experience. His technical foundation drives his passion for bringing AI into modern product practices and delivery. He is also the Auckland Community Lead for [AI Collective New Zealand](https://www.aicollective.com/chapters/nz). **Emilie Park:** [https://www.linkedin.com/in/emiliepark/](https://www.linkedin.com/in/emiliepark/) Senior Product Designer at [Actionstep](https://www.actionstep.com?utm_source=chatgpt.com), working on enterprise legal SaaS products across practice management and legal accounting. Before joining Actionstep, she worked across enterprise platforms, operational tools and large-scale service ecosystems, contributing to products and design systems used at global enterprise and SOE (State-Owned Enterprise) scale. Formerly a front-end engineer, and before that an advertising creative working on corporate campaigns for Samsung Electronics, Samsung Electric and Samsung Mobile Display HR. Outside of her day job, Emilie leads the [Friends of Figma Auckland](https://friends.figma.com/auckland/?utm_source=chatgpt.com) design community group. Huge thanks to Auckland Transport for hosting and Pendo for sponsoring this event! You can find the Livestream here: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXglbOxVZWw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXglbOxVZWw) \- as always the livestream will kick off from just before 6pm\. This event is part of the global [Mind the Product World Product Day](https://www.worldproductday.com/) celebrations. We're a little early as World Product Day is actually on 20 May, but, y'know, timezones...

**Building a great product is one thing—building momentum behind it is another.** Join **Senior Product Manager Adam Solaiman** and **User Experience Manager Tyson Smith** for a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to turn complex ideas into scalable products inside large organizations. In this session, they’ll share how teams move from ambiguity to execution—navigating organizational complexity, aligning stakeholders, and continuously evolving products after launch. You’ll walk away with insights on how to: * Build and sustain momentum across teams * Adapt to changing priorities without losing direction * Scale products thoughtfully in complex environments Whether you're driving a new initiative or growing an existing product, this conversation will give you practical strategies to keep things moving forward. Come connect, learn, and swap stories with fellow product professionals. \-\-\- Food and drinks will be provided by Switchbox, our generous host. Free parking will be available at the front and back sides of the Switchbox Office.

Customer identity resolution becomes increasingly complex as organizations scale across multiple systems, regions, and data formats. Traditional rule-based approaches often fail to keep up with data variability, require constant manual tuning, and struggle with real-time processing needs. This session presents a practical approach to building a scalable identity resolution pipeline using AWS services and modern AI techniques. The architecture combines data ingestion through Amazon S3 and AWS Glue, transformation pipelines using Spark on EMR, and machine learning models deployed via SageMaker for entity matching and standardization. Graph-based relationship modeling is implemented using Amazon Neptune to improve resolution accuracy by incorporating household and shared attribute context. We will walk through how machine learning models can be used for name and address normalization, how intelligent blocking strategies improve matching efficiency, and how feedback loops can be introduced to continuously improve accuracy. The session also highlights how serverless components such as AWS Lambda can be used for orchestration and real-time processing. **SPEAKER BIO** Mosaic Syed is a Senior Data Engineering and Cloud Solutions Architect with over 20 years of experience designing and delivering scalable, secure, and high-performance data solutions across global enterprise environments. https://www.linkedin.com/in/mosaic-basha-syed-92300856 **CALL FOR SPEAKERS** Learn more: [https://www.awscolumbus.com/get-involved/](https://www.awscolumbus.com/get-involved/) **THANK YOU** *VEEAM* for hosting our meetup! To learn more about *Veeam*, please visit their website: [https://www.veeam.com/](https://www.veeam.com/) **DIRECTIONS** 8800 Lyra Dr #450 · Columbus, OH go to 4th floor. **Want to sponsor the pizza and/or bar tab?** Please contact me if you would like to sponsor this meetup's pizza and/or bar tab: angelo@mandato.com

Let’s meet and wander the galleries! General admission on Sundays is free.

This meetup is a beginner-friendly session introducing version control for Unity projects, with a look at three common tools: Git, Perforce, and Unity Version Control. The goal is to help you understand what version control is, why it matters for Unity development, and what options are out there. The format will likely be presentation-style, with live demos and time for questions throughout. You'll see each tool in action and learn how they fit into a Unity workflow. What to Expect: * An introduction to version control and why it's essential for Unity projects * An overview of Git, Perforce, and Unity Version Control * Demos of each tool in a Unity workflow * Tips for getting started * No prior version control experience required * Resources for continued learning All experience levels are welcome. Whether you're new to version control or already using one of these tools, this session will help you understand what each one offers. Food and drinks provided. Join us to learn more about version control options for Unity.

Join the Columbus AI community for our quarterly gathering — a casual, community-focused evening where everyone has a chance to share, learn, and connect. These open mic–style events give anyone in the community up to **5 minutes** to present a project, share a tool, pose a question, or offer a perspective on the evolving AI space. No slides required — just a welcoming space to exchange ideas and keep the local AI conversation moving. If you’d like to take the stage, message \*\*Chris (the organizer)\*\*with a **title and short description** of what you’d like to share. Whether you’re deep in the field or just getting curious, come connect with others building and exploring AI in Columbus. Sponsored by [Transform Labs](https://www.linkedin.com/company/transformlabs/) Sign up also accessible via [Transform Labs Luma](https://luma.com/transformlabshq)

**Welcome to Drunken Philosophy** a casual, curious social discussion **Optional topic for this meetup: What's up with all the AI hate?** A recent survey found that 74% of Americans have a negative view of AI, and I want to know why. Come out and debate whether AI is good or bad. My hot take: a labor-saving tool that could potentially help cure cancer gets called dangerous because it might raise unemployment or cause a speculative investment bubble, that tells you a lot more about capitalism and the economic system we live under than it does about the tool itself. As a computer programmer, I think AI is a wonderful tool that has increased my productivity by at least an order of magnitude. I'd go so far as to say Claude Code is the best tool I have ever used. Debate me and name a better one. Is AI potentially dangerous? Yes, but so are a lot of tools. Chainsaws. Steam engines (early ones would occasionally explode and kill everyone in the room). Do you think cavemen sat around debating whether fire could be used as a weapon or for self-harm, and decided not to discover it? I have two friends who hate AI for opposite reasons: one thinks it's a fad and not useful, and the other thinks it's going to take over everything and cause human extinction. Come out tonight, have a friendly debate, and make some friends. No lectures. Friendly crowd. Drop in for one drink and stay if it's fun.