Apple

Amazon

T-Mobile

Warner Bros. Discovery

Best Buy

Leslie Grandy

Author & first-to-market product exec; ex-Apple, ex-Amazon; ex-T-Mobile; Lead Exec in Residence

The Product Guild

Cohort 1

Cohort 2

Spring 2026

Most resumes fail by listing job duties. By identifying your unique "Golden Thread", that is, the consistent pattern of impact and specific problems you solved, you shift from "Generic Candidate" to "Strategic Hire" thriving in specific environments.&nbsp; I should know, I have reviewed hundreds of resumes over the last 25 years. Bulleted lists of skills and responsibilities may get you past the ATS screening, but they won't get a hiring manager's attention. This infographic offers visual cues to help you think about the story you want your resume to tell.

Does Your Resume Tell The Story You Intend it To?

Before you commit to a decision, pressure test it. This AI-assisted worksheet helps you uncover hidden assumptions, challenge your own thinking, and surface risks you might not see. Using structured “What if” prompts, you’ll explore failure paths, identify what truly matters, and pre-decide smarter responses—so your decisions are more resilient, intentional, and built to hold under pressure.

AI-Assisted Decision Stress Test 

Download the roadmap for getting the job you want. This is a proactive system that replaces reactive job searching with intention, and helps you build a compelling throughline, spot misalignment early, and course-correct toward roles that genuinely fit.

The Architected Job Search

Learn to enhance your creative thinking and problem-solving skills with practical, proven methods from "Creative Velocity" with this infographic.

Five Techniques to Build Your Creative Capacity

We've all been there.&nbsp; What if I told you that was kinda the worst way possible to use some of the world's most powerful technology.&nbsp; Spoiler alert: it kinda is.&nbsp; Make sure to catch this episode for some creative frameworks to change how you use LLMs.&nbsp;

Creative Frameworks - The Everyday AI Podcast

Most professionals are stuck at the bottom of the AI engagement pyramid—and they don't even know it exists. Moving up this pyramid requires both technical skills AND critical thinking development. You need to know not just HOW to use AI, but WHEN to trust it, WHERE it falls short, and WHY human judgment remains essential.Most organizations are focused on Level 1-2 training. The competitive advantage goes to those building capabilities at Levels 4-6.

The GenAI Engagement Pyramid 

The Gen AI Engagement Pyramid

This Lightning Lesson gives PMs practical tools to stress-test product plans before costly mistakes are made. If you fail to plan, you should plan to fail. By mastering this approach, product managers develop strategic discipline, and can demonstrate they’re not only imaginative but prepared. You’ll walk away with a method you can reuse across products, launches, and pivots.

Use Gen AI to Bulletproof Your Path to Achieve Your Goals
 

This paper introduces creative thinking frameworks designed to help leaders and security teams collaborate with generative AI (GenAI) to stress-test assumptions, identify opportunities, explore edge-case risks, and uncover blind spots, often caused by cognitive biases.

Premeditation of Evils: Risk Planning in the Age of Generative AI

As referenced in my talk at the Artificial Unintelligence Conference, structured problem-solving frameworks amplify outcomes by providing a strategic lens for guiding both human and AI-driven creativity. These free resources include:<ul><li>Generic Parts Technique Worksheet</li><li>SCAMPER Worksheet</li><li>Premeditation of Evils Worksheet</li></ul>

Artificial Unintelligence Session Resources

Jay is a pioneering digital media innovator and former Independent Vice Chairman of Deloitte Digital. Over his career, he has led breakthroughs in music and video distribution, social media, and e‑commerce, shaping how billions engage with technology. Jay is also an accomplished artist who paints predominantly in a&nbsp;Pop Art&nbsp;style with subjects that explore the tension between technology and humanity.What makes Jay's perspective so compelling is how the same mindset that disrupts entire industries can unlock creative potential in any field.

Innovator Interview: The Former Vice Chairman of Deloitte Digital on How To Find the Big Ideas and Solve Problems at Scale 

I'm thrilled to share an inspiring conversation with Scilla Andreen, Emmy-nominated costume designer turned social impact filmmaker and founder of IndieFlix and Impactful Group. What makes Scilla's story so compelling? She's living proof that creativity isn't reserved for the "chosen few" – it's something we all possess and can cultivate. Scilla's journey reminds us that thinking differently isn't a weakness; it's our greatest strength. And in the age of AI, she reminds us that human beings have what will always be the most essential piece – energy.

Innovator Interview: Scilla Andreen, CEO and Founder at IndieFlix and Impactful Group, on living a creative life. 

This provocative interview with Pat Copeland, currently the GM of Moloco's Commerce Media platform and a former Vice President with Amazon Ads, reminds us that our humanity, specifically our emotions, experiences, and connections with each other, remains our greatest creative asset in the age where Generative AI can produce anything in a matter of seconds. Key Takeaways:🌟 AI is an amplifier, not a replacement🌟 The human element is irreplaceable 🌟 There's power in the wandering mind🌟 Embracing creative failure takes courage

The Innovator Interview: How Moloco's GM of Commerce Media Sees Creativity in the Age of AI

Kerry Lenhart &amp; John Sakmar are TV Producers and Writers (including MacGyver, 1986-1988) who were responsible for getting the title character out of a tight situation each week. To Macgyver, constraints were an opportunity to innovate and think creatively. The show's whole premise was that restrictions sparked ingenuity rather than hindered it. Lenhart and Sakmar detail the specific criteria that qualify a solution as a MacGyverism. Most importantly, the writers explain how working on MacGyver taught them skills that helped them be more resourceful.

The MacGyver Mindset: How The Show's Writers Turned Constraints Into TV Gold

This five-day creativity challenge is designed to support you on the path to expand your imagination with simple, unexpected exercises, no art degree or Zen retreat required. By the end of this challenge, you’ll likely notice a shift. You’ll look at problems more playfully. You’ll see more possibilities in everyday things. And you’ll learn to trust your creative instincts a little more. After all, creativity is a muscle that requires a great workout.

Your Five-Day Creativity Challenge

Looking for an AI tool to help you explore problem schemas and uncover novel solutions? Listen to this short audio clip to learn more about an innovative AI-assisted tool designed to enhance creative problem-solving using structured methodologies. The Supermind Ideator was developed by researchers at the Center for Collective Intelligence at MIT.

Deep Dive on Supermind Ideator

Product teams composed of individuals with diverse perspectives, backgrounds, identities, and work styles bring a rich tapestry of expertise and varied creative thinking methods to leverage. This diversity is not about ticking boxes or meeting quotas; it’s about ensuring the strength and richness of the team’s intellectual and creative fabric. This is foundational for creative velocity.

How Diverse Teams Unlock Product Innovation

The "MacGyver Mindset," inspired by the resourceful title character from the television series MacGyver, embodies the ability to solve problems creatively using everyday items. Here are three techniques to practice thinking like MacGyver.

What Would MacGyver Do?

Balanced emotional management helps increase creative capacity by creating an inner sense of calm and resilience, making it easier to stay curious and maintain a problem-solving focus. For instance, frustration and fear often lead to a defensive, closed-off approach, while balanced emotions support adaptability, helping one remain flexible and open to new possibilities. A link to a GPT will help you practice labeling and addressing how you react to events that may impede creative velocity.

Emotional Regulation Matrix

Prompts to help you practice problem-solving when collaborating with Generative AI to develop novel solutions.

Five Creative Thinking Techniques  to Practice with Gen AI

[Audio] Deep Dive on Supermind Ideator

Invention has been commonly conceptualized as a search over a space of combinatorial possibilities. The research found that, notwithstanding the very reduced rate at which new technologies are introduced, the generation of novel technological combinations engenders a practically infinite space of technologic configurations. Youn H, Strumsky D,Bettencourt LMA, Lobo J. 2015 Invention as acombinatorial process: evidence from USpatents. J. R. Soc. Interface 12: 20150272.http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2015.0272

RESEARCH: Invention as a combinatorial process - evidence from US patents

Use this one-pager to hold yourself accountable to the core principles that drive customer-centric product development. Understanding and embracing these truths is the key to creating impactful and sustainable solutions and delighting customers.

The Ten Truths of Customer-Centric Product Teams

Discovering the needs, motivations, and behaviors of your target audience is key to building a successful product or service. User personas help you humanize your insights and build empathy for your customers. With the help of our downloadable worksheet, you can create compelling customer personas that your team can rally around.

The Persona Worksheet

Several common pitfalls or ineffective behaviors in how organizations or individuals handle relationships and interactions with stakeholders can lead to failed innovation projects. Sound familiar? Recurring misunderstandings, unreliable information, and decreased stakeholder engagement are debilitating for product teams. When you begin to see any of the effects of poor cross-team dynamics, think about the root cause and solve for that. Use these best practices to help you keep things on the rails.

Ten Best Practices for Innovation Execution

Several common pitfalls or ineffective behaviors in how organizations or individuals handle relationships and interactions with stakeholders can lead to failed innovation projects. Sound familiar? Recurring misunderstandings, unreliable information, and decreased stakeholder engagement are debilitating for product teams. When you begin to see any of the effects of poor cross-team dynamics, think about the root cause and solve for that.

Managing Stakeholders for Innovation Success

Class projects will help you learn how to partner with GenAI to frame ambiguous problems, generate, and evaluate alternative solution paths.

First-to-market product exec; Author

Global, first-to-market product exec; Author; Lead Executive in Residence

The What If Method: A Practical System for Turning Ideas into Action with GenAI

Product Owner / Manager

Product Manager

Head of Product

Senior Director, Mobile Apps

Sr. Product Owner

IT Director

Product Management Director

This course is for you if you are stuck and need to break through the ambiguity or noise and take decisive action.Students learn a repeatable method and six discrete, structured creative thinking techniques to solve problems with Generative AI as a collaborative partner.This interactive course, based on my award-winning new book CREATIVE VELOCITY: PROPELLING BREAKTHROUGH IDEAS IN THE AGE OF GENERATIVE AI (WILEY, MAY 2025), unlocks the power and immediate actionability of frameworks like SCAMPER, Generic Parts Technique, and Contradictory Thinking, to effectively address major business, customer, and product challenges and improve strategic thinking.When you ask "What If" in a structured way GenAI can help you:➡️ Close information gaps – make critical decisions without precedent➡️ Avoid growth plateaus – discover untapped expansion opportunities➡️ Manage operating constraints – work within tight budgets or resource limitations➡️ Mitigate risk - maximize preparedness by planning for vulnerabilities➡️ Refine ideas - turn “What if?” explorations into tangible outcomes➡️ Innovate for your customers - channel the flood of possibilities into structured exploration

Use GenAI for strategic thinking, not just your tasks and busy work. 

Leverage AI as a strategic thinking partner to broaden your field of vision.

Create resilient plans by finding hidden or faulty assumptions that create risk

Break cognitive biases that support status quo thinking 

Senior leaders who want to empower employees to leverage AI to imagine innovative solutions, accelerate growth, &amp; improve customer outcomes

Product &amp; Program leaders who need practical, repeatable techniques to manage risks and constraints, dynamic markets, or growth challenges.

Startup Founders looking to build resilient plans while navigating limited resources and funding, information gaps, and product-market fit.

Make sure your resume tells your unique value proposition clearly.

Who Will Benefit From This Assessment?

Why This Matters.

Building a Resume Throughline

Does Your Resume Have a Golden Thread?

Learn More About Me

I will give you a read of the story your resume tells on 6 different vectors, with actionable feedback on what to change

Author & global, first-to-market product exec; ex-Apple, ex-Amazon; ex-T-Mobile

Personal Resume Assessment:  Increase The Chances You'll Get The Interview Call. 

Make Your Value Proposition Clear So Employers Choose You

Understand why hiring managers respond more quickly to coherent narratives than to bullet lists.

Recognize what a résumé through line is and does

Examine past roles, projects, and outcomes to find recurring themes and trends in your career journey.

Identify and interpret patterns in your career history

Synthesize patterns from your career into a concise narrative statement that connects the dots for hiring managers.

Construct a through line that connects your work experiences

Identify the recurring pattern of value you create across roles and translate that pattern into a clear through line.

Apply story thinking to analyze your career experiences

Think Big: A Self-Assessment for Leadership Development

Identify limitations to solving ambiguous problems and unexpected challenges

Your creative self-identity score

Learn how to grow beyond your natural cognitive biases

Your creative problem-solving profile

Mitigate friction that can show up when working with AI as a creative partner

Tips to manage ambiguity and unlock novel ideas

Use Gen AI to Bulletproof Your Path to Achieve Your Goals

Award-winning Author, Lead Executive in Residence, Global Product Executive

By imagining failure as already having happened, it is easier to surface concerns and identify risks.

Employ a repeatable framework for pre-mortem thinking

Uncover potential blind spots and obstacles on the path to launch by thinking expansively with the help of Gen AI.

Apply 3 contradictory thinking techniques to fortify plans

Exploit Gen AI pattern recognition to explore "what would guarantee failure" to prevent costly mistakes.

Flip your assumptions and goals to protect against adversity

Partner with Gen AI in a "premeditation of evils" exercise to strengthen your plans to achieve your goals.

Leslie Grandy will change how you solve complex problems with AI

Leslie Grandy

About Leslie Grandy

Courses

The What If Method: A Practical System for Turning Ideas into Action with GenAI

Lightning Lessons

Make Your Value Proposition Clear So Employers Choose You

Think Big: A Self-Assessment for Leadership Development

Use Gen AI to Bulletproof Your Path to Achieve Your Goals

Services

Personal Resume Assessment: Increase The Chances You'll Get The Interview Call.

Resources

Does Your Resume Tell The Story You Intend it To?

AI-Assisted Decision Stress Test

The Architected Job Search

Five Techniques to Build Your Creative Capacity