Tyrone Ross

Tyrone Ross

AI Product Builder · Product Strategist · Operator

San Francisco Bay Area, CA

Experience

Product

2020 - Present

Strategic Product Management

Cisco Systems

Crafted Secure AI Factory product offer for Nvidia partnership; Productized CX services offers for AI infrastructure; Designed 0-to-1 offers for AI software. Also built new go-to-market motion and pricing for desktop video devices, professional services offers, and emerging market expansion.

2020

Product Manager

ShearShare

Grew active users 157% over 7-month period. Launched 30+ iOS/Android features and managed 6-person dev team

Strategy

2020 - Present

Product Strategy

Cisco Systems

Built strategy to scale IoT SaaS 3x faster than market; Built strategy for several partnerships (e.g., Google, IBM, etc.). Built company-wide TAM for investor day; Designed strategy about when and where to bundle CX services into products

2023 - 2025

Corporate Strategy

Cisco Systems

Prioritized investments across 70+ product lines; Built company wide assessment of tariff impact on pricing, revenue, supply chain, and strategic relationships

2019

Product & Business Strategy

Google

Recommended and prioritized 20+ privacy and security features to Android product roadmap

Operations

2025 - Present

GenAI Adoption Lead

Cisco Systems

Leading AI to find and implement Agentic AI use cases and track ROI for Corporate Strategy org. Also launched bi-weekly chats, a 2-month training program, and prompt library

2020 - Present

Product Operations

Cisco Systems

Built customer centered product development process for collaboration and networking product lines; Aligned businesses behind a platform narrative for investor day

2016 - 2018

Pre-sales Strategy & Ops

Akamai Technologies

Built programs to improve pre-sales engineers ability to qualify, demo, and sell SaaS and mobile SDKs; Also planned events for sales conferences, and worked with 1st line managers to build targeted training plans for employees

1 strategy, 3 operations and 1 venture roles

Why I Build

Because it’s fun. I enjoy turning abstract ideas into something tangible. I’ve spent my career helping design product architecture, UX, and how components fit together. AI now lets me use this experience to execute on my ideas solo. This site is where I share what I’m building and what I’m learning along the way.

How I Build

I care about user experience and continuous improvement. I incorporate, monitoring, security, and prefer composable architectures that allow me to re-use components. I eventually plan to share core components as SDKs for data ingestion, web scraping, etc.

I start my projects with thoughtful planning including defining requirements in a PRD, identify key workflows, and pre-defining key behavior driven tests. I’ve also found the most success incorporating observability from the beginning with OpenTelemetry, LangSmith, and Sentry.

My background in industrial engineering helps me see user interactions as discrete events that flow together into a process. I’m always looking for ways to make steps easier, faster, and more pleasant for the user.

My Background

I’ve spent 15+ building products and strategies at Cisco, Google, ShearShare, IBM, and Akamai. I’ve worked in large enterprises but most at home in startups or small nimble teams within large companies.

I’m an Angel investor, Chicago Booth MBA, and former Marine Corps officer. I’m also active in local non-profits and sit on the Board of Chapter 510. I also have a M.S. in Industrial & Systems Engineering from San Jose State University and a B.S. in Human Factors from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

Personality Profile:

MBTI: ENTP. High D + I on DISC.

  • I love trying new things, enjoy debating, have strong opinions but quickly admit when I’m wrong
  • I enjoy building processes to make things better, yet get bored by process for process’s sake
  • I love research. I tend to go deeper and further into understanding “why” than most people I know

Get in Touch

I’m looking to meet other curious builders and learners. If you’re experimenting with AI, working on side projects, or just want to trade notes, reach out on LinkedIn or via email tyrone@rosslabs.ai