Zeke S. Smith

Building products, exploring AI, and writing about the future of software.

Vice President of Product with nearly three decades of experience leading software teams, modernizing complex products, building side projects, and writing about product, engineering, UX, AI, and software development.

See what I'm building Read the writing

Featured projects

Things I'm building and experimenting with

Side projects exploring history, games, recommendations, and the edges of AI-assisted product ideas.

TimeFrame homepage with a year input set to 1776 and a Travel button on a dark navy background

Live

History / Learning

TimeFrame

A tool for exploring historical events and understanding how moments in time connect across history.

PokeScout search results for Pikachu showing the Pokémon portrait and type details

Live

Gaming / Side Project

PokeScout

A Pokémon companion app for searching, exploring matchups, and learning type effectiveness.

ClosetCast welcome screen with name and location setup over a soft outfit-planning interface

Live

Lifestyle / AI Experiment

ClosetCast

An experiment in personal recommendations and decision support around clothing and style.

Writing

Notes on product, AI, and how software gets made

Essays and drafts on operating models, AI, and the converging craft of product and engineering.

Product strategyDraft

8 min readComing soon

Why product teams are moving beyond SAFe

Large-scale planning frameworks promised alignment. Many teams are discovering that speed, clarity, and ownership come from a different operating model.

OrganizationsDraft

7 min readComing soon

The product operating model actually works

What changes when teams organize around outcomes, empowered decision-making, and continuous discovery instead of ceremony and handoffs.

AIDraft

6 min readComing soon

How AI is changing software development

AI is rewriting the economics of building software — shrinking the distance between idea, prototype, and shipped product.

TeamsDraft

7 min readComing soon

Why product and engineering are converging

Modern tooling and AI are collapsing the old walls between product managers and developers — and that changes how great software gets made.

CraftDraft

6 min readComing soon

Building software without being an engineer

What it means to stay deeply involved in crafting products when you lead through product, design, and systems thinking rather than production code.

About

Product leadership, builder instincts

Zeke S. Smith is a Vice President of Product who has spent nearly three decades leading software strategy, product teams, and cross-functional delivery. His work sits at the intersection of product leadership, UX, engineering collaboration, and AI — with a focus on building modern software products that feel clear, useful, and inevitable.

Current interests

AI-assisted software development
Product operating models
Modern UX
Investing and markets
Golf
Music and guitar
Building small software products