How Arize found product-market fit amidst the AI wave: Aman Khan (Head of Product)

In this episode of Product Unplugged, host Mike Belsito sits down with Aman Khan, Head of Product at Arize, to unpack what it really takes to build AI-native products from the ground up. From zero-to-one experiments to reaching product-market fit, Aman shares the pivotal moments, bets made, and the messy middle that defines modern product development in the generative AI space.

Key takeaways

• Product managers must evolve: “I think PRDs are probably dead in the next couple years… PMs will show up with clickable prototypes instead.”
• Don’t build in a vacuum: Customer interviews (even via LinkedIn cold DMs) were critical in shaping Arize’s early product direction.
• Product-market fit isn’t loud: “You know you have something when people just start using it… and telling their friends—without you trying.”
• Dashboards won the day: Arize’s most-used feature wasn’t what they expected—it was basic dashboards.
• Betting on GenAI was non-consensus: Their early call to shift focus to LLM evaluation was considered bold—but it paid off.
• Speed + learning = edge: Early MVPs helped them ship fast, gather feedback, and rapidly iterate—even if the first version didn’t land.
• Founders should ask: “Once you ship something… do you actually know if it’s working the way you expect it to?”

Chapters

• 00:00 – Intro & Meet Aman Khan

• 01:45 – Aman’s background: from self-driving cars to GenAI

• 04:40 – The pivot moment: ChatGPT enters the chat

• 08:30 – Early bet: Will PhDs use chatbots to build models?

• 10:00 – Starting from scratch: Zero-to-one product development

• 13:30 – MVP mistakes & learnings from v1

• 16:00 – Messaging matters: Selling the value, not just the tech

• 18:30 – What product-market fit actually feels like

• 22:00 – Unexpected insight: dashboards became the killer feature

• 24:00 – Advice for aspiring GenAI builders

• 27:00 – The last word: do you really understand your product’s impact?