Roberto Hortal — Product Leadership in the AI Era

Hi, I’m Roberto Hortal
People-first. AI-powered. Building teams that punch above their weight.

For over 20 years I've turned bold ideas into products millions of people use — at Nokia, easyJet, Co-op, EDF, and now Wall Street English. I write about making AI adoption actually stick, leading product and technology teams, and the unglamorous work of turning strategy into shipped results. Subscribe below and get every new post the moment it goes live.

Roberto Hortal

Roberto Hortal. CPTO, Wall Street English

Making Products That People Love at:

Meet Roberto Hortal: a tireless innovator with over 20 years’ Product and Innovation experience at senior level across a range of sectors including Education, Green Tech, Energy, Retail, Travel, Insurance and Telecommunications.

I am Chief Product and Technology Officer at Wall Street English. Throughout my career, I have led Product, Technology and Innovation at several global B2C and B2B organisations.

I am passionate about transforming organisations, adopting the tools and practices of the Internet era to respond to the evolving needs of customers and colleagues.

Annualised Pilots: The Savings Number Nobody Ever Observes

Here is an illustration, invented for this post: a support team pilots an AI assistant for two weeks. Eight agents report that it saves ten minutes on …

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Resistance to Change Is a Rate Problem: What Cornflour Teaches Leaders

Stir cornflour into water until it is thick and milky, then hit the bowl with your fist. It behaves like a solid: your hand stops dead and the surface …

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Pass the Test or Master the Craft: Who Do You Want on Your Team?

Two people hold the same driving licence. One crammed the theory and drove for a few hours until the examiner was satisfied. The other has spent years …

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Positive Friction: The Step You Automated Away Was Doing a Job

A team I follow built a mock-testing platform very quickly, and then made a choice that looked like a step backwards: every piece of educational …

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Product Adoption Is the CPTO’s Real Job Now

Teams ship faster than ever now, and product adoption still fails at roughly the same rate it always did. People don't refuse to use something that …

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Company as a Product You Never Managed

Product leaders reject a spec with no success metric. They ask for a feedback loop before build starts. They refuse to ship a feature nobody asked …

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