“Connected systems are the glue between physical products and digital value” – David Dwight
On July 10, 2025, our Product Management Special Interest Group, led by Marketing Practice Director Tom Hershberger, gathered to discuss the implications of turning AI and IoT insights into actionable steps. This event featured a survey introduction led by Peter Commons, followed by an outstanding panel discussion.
The event began with Peter Commons, senior lecturer at the Wisconsin School of Business, who highlighted time estimation as the core challenge in project management. He noted that late project delivery has become “just normal.” His research focuses on Agile’s use of “story points” to estimate effort and complexity, rather than direct time. He finds this method leads to better estimates and outcomes and aims to identify which story point practices truly drive success versus those that may be unnecessary.
The panelists were handpicked for this event. Their perspectives align perfectly with the entire product life cycle, offering distinct lenses on AI, connected data, and product decision-making. The discussion flow was structured to mimic how product decisions often unfold: from big-picture strategy to data, design, delivery, and finally, impact.
Our first panelist, Adam Schanfield, Senior Strategist and Principal at TXI, brought a strategy-first mindset and encouraged bold, transformative thinking over incremental change. He also emphasized that imagination—not data—is often the missing ingredient. Adam shared multiple examples and case studies that highlight the importance of managing both digital and physical time horizons. He also noted the growing demand for transparency with the use of data to meet rising expectations. As AI automates routine tasks, he stressed the increasing importance of exceptions.
“Product management is about execution and value” – Tom Hershberger
Our second panelist, Phil Hendrickson, Senior Data Scientist at AE Business Solutions, brought a data science lens to team leadership and AI. He distinguished between Generative AI and Classical Machine Learning, stressing the need to clarify what “AI” really means—often just advanced statistics. Phil challenged the assumption that all answers lie in existing data, urging organizations to consider what data they’re missing. He saw AI’s true power in augmentation, not automation—enhancing human capabilities in complex or creative tasks, and freeing people to solve new problems.
Moroni Mills, Product Marketing Manager at KI and our third panelist, shared how his team uses generative AI tools like ChatGPT and Copilot for strategic planning, market analysis, and product feasibility. He emphasized prompting AI to “respond expertly” for better internal insights and external outcomes. Moroni highlighted how their marketing team improved email performance immensely by optimizing layout, subject lines, and timing. Across the organization, AI also supports meeting summaries, customer support, manufacturing scheduling, and sales operations. While he doesn’t believe AI will replace jobs, he stressed that those who use it effectively will have the edge.
Following Moroni Mills was Chris Medlock. Chris leads connected product efforts at Pierce Manufacturing and draws on nearly 20 years’ experience as a firefighter. He focused on using customer feedback and live vehicle telemetry to improve fire truck uptime and safety. Despite the fire service’s slow tech adoption due to funding limits, Chris provided actionable data to help departments with predictive maintenance and decision-making. He highlighted how telemetry revealed unsafe operating procedures and stressed the challenge of managing highly customized trucks. Chris continues to advocate for augmenting firefighters’ control rather than full automation to enhance reliability and safety.
“Technology that doesn’t ship, sell, solve the right problem is just noise” – David Dwight
Kalena Knapp, manager of account management at C.H. Robinson and our final panelist, leads a team that connects customer freight needs with carrier relationships. She talked about her experience leveraging AI agents and automation to cut through noise, allowing her team to focus on critical issues. Her use of AI helps build manual orders, schedule appointments, and match carriers with capacity, which she calls “finding the needle in the haystack faster.” Kalena saw AI evolving to deliver real-time insights while emphasizing the importance of transparency and balancing technology with strong customer relationships.
After hearing from the panelists, the event concluded with attendee-led breakout groups where they learned from each other’s experiences and discussed further topics on connected and intelligent products in their workspaces.
“Thanks for putting on the event! I learned that I share the same problem as many other folks in that providing the data needed to power decision making (or AI assisted decision making) is a real challenge.”
– Participant from LeMans Corporation
UWEBC members can view the full event recording and download presentation materials here.
Published July 30, 2025
Summer Yang, Marketing Student Assistant