Meet the Team: Chris Yu, VP of Product

What does a successful PM need to bring to the table, either in the AI era or in general? Chris Yu believes it’s a devotion to aligning business outcomes with solving customer problems—and that’s is exactly what’s driven him for over a decade managing products at companies like Microsoft, Calendly, and Kajabi. Chris joins Amplitude as VP of Product for our foundations team.

We discuss his product management ethos, how he thinks product leaders can best use AI, and where he predicts AI will take product management in the next decade.

What first got you excited about product development? What do you love about it?

Back in 2013, I hit a crossroads. After four years as a financier, I got tired of analyzing up-and-to-the-right charts. I wanted to be the one driving the outcome, not just commenting from the sidelines. I was exploring operating roles and weighing the path between PM and starting something myself, and I ended up joining a gaming company called Kabam.

That’s where it all clicked. I learned how to work with cross-functional teams, build alongside design and engineering, and pull my own SQL to figure out what was really going on. It was in those early days that I developed the product ethos that’s stuck with me ever since: The job of a PM is to solve real customer problems in service of real business outcomes.

That connection between product usage and measurable impact is the thread that’s run through every role I’ve taken since. It’s rarely a straight line from insight to outcome, but that messy middle, with all the people, alignment, and tradeoffs it takes to get there, is the part I love. When you get it right, everyone wins.

How do you use AI in your own product work, or what’s a top piece of advice you’d give to PMs using AI?

AI has become core to how I work. Product leadership is high-context and high-velocity. You are constantly juggling across domains, teams, and decisions all day long. So any tool that gives me leverage is a no-brainer. For me, that’s AI.

I use it daily: to research unfamiliar topics, synthesize dense docs from cross-functional partners, co-write product specs, pressure test roadmap thinking, and even to draft and refine presentations. Tools like ChatGPT and Claude are foundational to my workflow now. Without them, I wouldn’t be able to move nearly as fast or go as deep across so many areas.

If I had to give one piece of advice to PMs: Treat AI like a force multiplier, not a stand-in. You still need taste, judgment, and context. AI just helps you get to a better answer faster. Velocity matters in this new age of AI.

What should customer-obsessed product teams be wary of when using AI?

Just because AI can produce an output doesn’t mean it’s good. Yes, it’s getting better, but without context or the ability to communicate results clearly, it’s still just words on a page.

Customer-obsessed teams need to stay grounded in real user needs. Great product work still depends on human taste, insight, and judgment—the things that come from talking to users, spotting patterns, and making smart tradeoffs. AI can scale your thinking, but it won’t replace the craft.

Penciling this in for 2030: What do you think the state of AI tech will be in 5 years?

By 2030, I think AI will feel less like a tool you open and more like an ambient layer that shapes how we work and collaborate. It will be baked into the systems we already use, from analytics to docs to design tools, and it will help us operate with more speed, personalization, and insight than we’ve ever had before.

In product work, I expect AI to become a co-pilot in the truest sense. It will help you explore ideas, test assumptions, summarize feedback, simulate the impact of roadmap decisions, and ultimately take those actions on your behalf. The question won’t be “what can AI do” but “what do I still need to do myself.” That shift is already happening, but adoption will be so widespread that it will feel second nature.

You’ve used Amplitude in previous roles. What sealed the deal for you with this position at Amplitude? What are you looking forward to here?

I’ve been an avid Amplitude user since 2015 and have seen firsthand how it’s transformed how product and growth teams make decisions. It brought structure, clarity, and accessibility to analytics when most teams were still relying on cobbled-together dashboards.

What sealed the deal for me was the ambition. Amplitude has evolved from a single product into a multi-module platform. From analytics to something more foundational for how digital teams and businesses operate. That shift is bold, and it’s the kind of challenge I love leaning into.

This role is a chance to work on something already loved by thousands of teams, and help shape what the next generation of that product looks like. I’m excited to build with a team that’s sharp, humble, and pushing the edge of what’s possible, especially as we bring AI deeper into the core experience.