Stefan Schnabl is a Senior Product Manager for developer education at Google with over 15 years of experience in product management and software engineering. He is considered a thought leader in Software Product Management, Educational Technology, and generative AI. Stefan is passionate about leveraging new technologies to reshape how education can scale skills and opportunities beyond current boundaries, particularly in supporting the broader workforce and software developers.
Prior to Google, Stefan worked as a software engineer at Goldman Sachs, and before that at IBM deploying educational technology for the developer workforce. He holds a BSc in Data Engineering & Statistics and two MSc degrees in Software Engineering & Management from Vienna University of Technology. Beyond his role at Google, Stefan serves as an advisor to innovative EdTech startups like bizExaminer and shares his insights through his blog at theproductinsider.com.
In an exclusive interview with the CIO Magazine, Stefan shares his insights on the transformative role of AI in education, the future of product management, and the guiding principles that fuel his success.
You’ve had an impressive career journey from leading product management at Google to advising innovative startups like bizExaminer. What inspired your initial foray into the tech world, and how has your role evolved over the years?
My journey into tech started early – at 14, I received my first electronics science kit and completed all exercises within a week. By 16, I was building computers from scratch and teaching myself QuickBasic. This natural curiosity led me to pursue technical studies, including two Masters degrees in Computer Science with a management focus. My career began at Goldman Sachs as a software developer, where I worked on applications for trading in complex reinsurance markets. This experience taught me how to leverage IT and data analysis to build excellent products supporting valuable business outcomes. The transition to Product Management at Google felt natural – it combined my technical background with my passion for solving complex problems. Over the years, my role has evolved from leading Google’s marketing performance measurement products to now focusing on developer education, where I can directly impact how technology professionals learn and grow.
As an angel investor and mentor, what qualities or attributes do you look for in startups and entrepreneurs? Could you share a memorable experience from mentoring the bizExaminer team?
Trust is the fundamental quality I look for in startups and entrepreneurs. All my investments and advisory roles are with people I know extremely well. Beyond trust, I look for a visible drive – when you’re around these entrepreneurs, you should feel their energy and dedication. I also value experience and humility over pure performance. A memorable experience with bizExaminer was during a crucial client meeting. Their CEO, Bernhard, whom I’ve known since college, demonstrated incredible calm competence and experience in the digital assessment space. His ability to ground everyone with his 15+ years of experience completely changed the meeting’s tone and showed how powerful deep domain knowledge can be when combined with humility.
With your involvement in the Ed-Tech space, how do you see enterprise software shaping the future of education? What innovations excite you the most in this domain?
The impact of generative AI on enterprise educational software is particularly exciting. For the first time, we can realistically achieve hyper-personalized learning experiences at scale. At Google, I’m seeing how AI can transform developer education by delivering bite-sized learning content exactly when needed, right where developers are working. The technology also opens up possibilities for understanding users’ skill levels across various competencies more accurately. This combination of AI-driven personalization and precise skill assessment could revolutionize how organizations approach employee development. However, it’s crucial to implement these innovations safely and compliantly, incorporating proven testing and assessment principles to ensure this technology truly serves learning outcomes.
Your expertise spans public speaking, optimization, and training for sales and services. How do you ensure alignment between product goals and organizational needs in such dynamic roles?
My approach to alignment comes from my dual expertise in marketing analytics and educational technology. In marketing analytics at Google, I combined my academic background in statistics and technology with commercial behavior understanding to help advertisers reach customers effectively. In EdTech, I’m motivated by education’s power as a force for social mobility. The key to alignment is staying focused on measurable business impact while maintaining the integrity of educational outcomes. This means constantly evaluating how our products can deliver immediate value while supporting long-term learning goals. Whether working with sales teams or developing training programs, I ensure all stakeholders understand both the business metrics and educational objectives we’re targeting.
What emerging technologies or trends do you believe will significantly impact product management and user research in the next decade?
The AI revolution is clearly the most significant trend impacting product management and user research. We’re already seeing how generative AI can streamline tasks like summarizing findings and developing ideas. Looking ahead, I believe PMs will be able to focus more on deeply understanding problems while AI helps connect the dots between various outputs. I’m particularly excited about natural language access to coding tools, which allows PMs to quickly create prototypes and evaluate ideas. The ability to derive insights directly from usage data through AI will also transform how we conduct research, potentially making it faster while maintaining high quality through approaches like synthetic data generation.
Throughout your journey, what has been your guiding philosophy or mantra, and how do you stay motivated to pursue excellence across such diverse roles?
My guiding mantra is to be “relentlessly passionate about the problem you’re trying to solve, and relentlessly flexible on the solution.” This captures the essence of product management – we can’t fall in love with solutions but must stay committed to solving user problems. I also strongly believe in Jeff Bezos’s approach to decision-making, distinguishing between easily reversible decisions and those with high change costs. This framework helps navigate ambiguity effectively. Finally, I’m a strong advocate for first-principle thinking. Understanding the foundational principles of your product is crucial for senior PMs and can’t be outsourced to other functions. This approach helps maintain clarity and enables effective diagnosis when things don’t go as planned.