Melissa Hill Of Lucidworks On the Future of Artificial Intelligence
An Interview With David Leichner
People’s willingness to trust it. You see so many companies say ‘don’t copy and paste trademarked data’ — people may not realize there’s a nefarious way it could be used.
As a part of our series about the future of Artificial Intelligence, I had the pleasure of interviewing Melissa Hill.
Melissa Hill is the VP of Product Management at Lucidworks. She has decades of experience working with SaaS companies, including a decade at AT&T and several years at StackPath where she served as the VP of Product. Originally from Australia, she is currently based in Oregon with her family.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Can you share with us the ‘backstory” of how you decided to pursue this career path in AI?
My decision to pursue a career in AI stemmed from my fascination with how technology is always changing. There’s always an interesting problem that technology can solve. The ability to drive impact on a business or at a personal level with scalable technology is a really rewarding part of this career.
What lessons can others learn from your story?
Stay hungry, be adaptable, and embrace continuous learning. It sounds like such a weird thing to say, but eight months ago, no one could have predicted that ChatGPT would turn AI on its head. You have to be willing to be flexible and be comfortable learning. You’re not going to always be the smartest person in the room and you’ll never know everything, so stay curious, ask questions and take action. It’s through that action that your career takes shape.
Can you tell our readers about the most interesting projects you are working on now?
Lucidworks is a search platform and one of our focuses is ecommerce. One of the most interesting things we’re working on right now is generative chat. Basically we’re trying to take the in-store shopping experience and bring it online. You’re no longer going to be limited to a search of the site with 2–3 words — you’re asking a specific question and getting results back. There are so many different use cases this capability applies to. It’s really cool to see all the problems it can solve, and the way it takes personalization to a whole new level.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
I worked at AT&T for a long time. I found a boss who not only pushed me harder than I thought was reasonable half the time, but was also incredibly supportive of decisions that I made. I received multiple promotions and I realized that the comfort level I had knowing that a person believed in me was a serious motivator.
I actually changed business units three times to follow him. I worked for him for about seven years. It was so important for me to watch him be a leader and have him as a mentor. He had that perfect balance of firing up when needed but also being calm and methodical.
What are the 5 things that most excite you about the AI industry? Why?
- The pace. The speed of how quickly AI is evolving is both great and terrifying all in one.
- Capabilities. Some of the use cases for AI are incredible.
- Practical people out there already understand that there are regulatory and moral obligations. I’m heartened by the fact that there’s responsible people out there emphasizing that part of the conversation.
- Wide range of use cases. The problems AI is solving goes far beyond writing college papers. There are medical use cases and socially impactful use cases and more.
- Automation. You can take those day to day tasks in your individual role and have someone write a tool for it. Basically, it helps us reduce the time it takes for the crappy parts of our jobs.
What are the 5 things that concern you about the AI industry? Why?
- People’s willingness to trust it. You see so many companies say ‘don’t copy and paste trademarked data’ — people may not realize there’s a nefarious way it could be used.
- Pace is a scary thing. Moving fast means no checks and balances or no general regulating body that is weighing everything that happens through that moral/legal lens that I mentioned before.
- Ability to replace people. We’re all loving automation, but then also when you take the human element out of what we do you can become disconnected from the problems you’re trying to solve.
- You can never vet every company. They come up with a great idea and then they put it into production and you can buy it all in a matter of weeks.
- Where is it going? A year ago we never would have predicted ChatGPT. What is the next evolution that comes out of that from both a social perspective and a workplace perspective? If your goal is to use tools to replace workers, where do we go from here?
As you know, there are not that many women in your industry. Can you advise what is needed to engage more women into the AI industry?
Tech is notorious for working with really smart people but women are not given a seat by default by male leaders. I know that I’ve been fortunate to have people offer me a seat at the table and I’ve also watched when it hasn’t happened for my peers. In the leadership position that I’m in now, even though I’m finally one of the few women at the table, I still believe that being a good leader doesn’t mean having the loudest and “most important” voice in the room. As a leader, I should only need to speak up when there’s a problem that cannot be solved. I want to bring women who are still coming up in their careers to the table and make space for them to speak.
What is your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share a story of how that had relevance to your own life?
My favorite quote is from Brené Brown: “If you are not in the arena getting your ass kicked on occasion, I am not interested in or open to your feedback.” That was what a boss used to say — if you’re not going to speak when I give you a seat, if you’re passive and you’re not going to be an active participant, I don’t want to hear from you after the meeting.
When I was brand new to being a product manager, I learned that sometimes the biggest thing you can do (and bravest) is to really show up. It can be challenging to be a woman in a room of men. I really had to work at not taking it personally when others gave feedback, and not let that dampen my self-confidence.
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world? Can you share a story?
I’ve always been big on trying to uplift other women, and now I’m in a leadership role where I can really affect change. I’ve worked in multiple companies where I’ve led DEI initiatives, started book clubs, and advocated for fellow women. I want to show that I’m not a stuffy leader who people can’t talk to and half the time I forget I’ve got the title I’ve got. My goal is to figure out how to support people in finding their voice and their passion.
You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
I grew up in a single parent family for a long time. There’s a level of ‘less than’ that happens when parents go through a divorce. My utopia would be to find a way (and not just lunch or a hike) but a real way to actually support emotionally vulnerable children. I want to start something for those kids with a mom who works two jobs and help them with resourcing the emotional support that sometimes just isn’t there in single-parent homes.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
Find me on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/hillmelissa/.
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
About The Interviewer: David Leichner is a veteran of the Israeli high-tech industry with significant experience in the areas of cyber and security, enterprise software and communications. At Cybellum, a leading provider of Product Security Lifecycle Management, David is responsible for creating and executing the marketing strategy and managing the global marketing team that forms the foundation for Cybellum’s product and market penetration. Prior to Cybellum, David was CMO at SQream and VP Sales and Marketing at endpoint protection vendor, Cynet. David is the Chairman of the Friends of Israel and Member of the Board of Trustees of the Jerusalem Technology College. He holds a BA in Information Systems Management and an MBA in International Business from the City University of New York.
