Product + Tech: Healthy Tension in the Age of AI

Join PMA.LA and the LA CTO Forum for an insightful exploration into the changing dynamics between Product and Engineering teams in the age o Join PMA.LA and the CTO Forum for an insightful evening exploring what happens when Product and Engineering don't immediately agree, and why that tension can sometimes lead to better outcomes. Through real-world examples and case studies, we'll explore how productive tension, healthy debate, and adversarial collaboration can strengthen decision-making and help teams build better products. You'll hear examples of moments when the Product and Engineering partnership was challenged to reach a better outcome, along with the processes, conversations, and lessons that helped teams move forward with a shared vision. During the conversation, we'll explore: • How Product and Engineering teams can work together to bring roadmaps to life. • How leaders balance demand management with executive communication and storytelling. • The productive tension between business priorities and technical realities. • How ‘shared visioning’ can help Product, Engineering, Business, and IT leaders align around better outcomes. Come ready for a practical conversation about navigating disagreement, building stronger partnerships, and turning productive tension into better products. Panel • Bernadette Irizarry, VP Product & Design - Platform Experience • Julia King, Senior Vice President, Technology for Marketing and Distribution Moderator • Oded Noy, CTO - Crexi, Co-founder and chairman of CTO Forum Bios Bernadette Irizarry | LinkedIn Bernadette Irizarry is a digital innovator and transformational leader with over 20 years of experience across the media, non-profit, and tech sectors. Currently leading the Platform Experience team at Sony Pictures Entertainment, she specializes in UX, business strategy, and data-driven, customer-centric design. Bernadette is also an editor, frequent conference speaker, and board member dedicated to championing diversity and inclusion within design and technology. Julia King | LinkedIn Julia King is the SVP of Marketing & Distribution Technology at Sony Pictures Entertainment. A veteran of digital operations and strategy, she has led large-scale consumer experiences for global brands including Nike, Warner Bros., and MTV. Julia oversees teams focused on enterprise digital marketing platforms and focuses on the strategic deployment of emerging platform technologies to bridge the gap between creative vision and technical execution. Oded Noy - CTO - Crexi, Co-founder and chairman of CTO Forum Oded Noy is a technology leader and board advisor to SaaS companies. Noy currently serves as the CTO of Crexi, transforming the world of commercial real estate. In his private equity work as an active senior operating partner and board member, he has participated in multiple acquisitions and exits. He is a founder and managing partner for 12 years in the early stage fund Amplify.LA. He is co-founder and chairman of the CTO Forum. He holds 7 technology patents Our Sponsors We’re grateful to Mission Cloud and QA Wolf for their generous support in making this event possible. Your partnership helps us bring the community together and drive meaningful impact. Mission Cloud, a CDW Company, is a leading AWS Premier Tier Services Partner specializing in cloud migration, modernization, and generative AI. As an elite, born-in-the-cloud managed services provider, Mission Cloud serves as an external engineering arm for businesses looking to optimize their AWS infrastructure, reduce cloud spend, and accelerate digital transformation. QA Wolf is an innovative AI-native QA platform and service that helps software teams ship better applications faster by taking automated testing completely off their plate. Combining autonomous AI agents with an ultra-fast parallel infrastructure, QA Wolf delivers 100% flake-free, end-to-end test coverage for web and mobile apps, allowing engineering teams to deploy code with total confidence