In this episode of Designing with AI, I sit down with Wendy McKennon, Chief Product Innovation Officer at Color Health, to talk about her career and designing AI products. I couldn't help but include a bit about her career moves toward becoming a senior individual contributor on an executive team, and what it took to choose this path over the typical ladder-climbing route.
Deeper into the conversation, Wendy unpacks the messy, exciting, and sometimes uncomfortable reality of designing AI-driven products—especially in healthcare. We talk about “the squish”—AI’s unpredictability—and what it means for designers who are used to having control. Wendy shares insights from her journey across big tech and startups, how she took bold career leaps, and why AI isn’t just about adding sparkle—it’s about solving real problems.
A few key moments:
2:10 — Lessons from big companies vs. startups
4:27 — Making courageous career decisions
11:38 — How AI is being applied to cancer diagnosis and treatment
15:43 — Facing the scary with AI
17:00 — “The squish”
19:25 — Keeping humans in the loop
29:50 — Designing for imperfection
34:15 — Bias in AI and healthcare
40:59 — Structures for AI-focused teams
52:47 — What’s next for AI in healthcare and design
About Wendy
Wendy McKennon is Chief Product Innovation Officer at Color Health, where she focuses on new product development. During her 10+ years at Color, she has used her hybrid design and product skills to apply AI effectively in the cancer space, create an accessible clinical-grade genetic testing experience, and design one of the largest COVID-19 testing systems in the US during the pandemic.
Wendy was an early employee at Google, helping design products used by 100s of millions of users like Google Maps, Wallet, and Adwords. Wendy holds a degree in Symbolic Systems from Stanford University.
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