Meet Danielle Darby, a Product Manager for Dream Screen
Sep 18, 2024 – minute read
For Danielle Darby, working to build creation tools isn’t just a job, it’s a passion. For the past 10 years, the Bay Area native has found herself on the frontlines of companies like Yahoo!, Adobe, and Google doing just that. As a Product Manager for Dream Screen, one of today’s Made On YouTube announcements, Danielle works to empower users with the ability to create immersive and interactive experiences. We spoke to Danielle about how AI is changing creation and why she believes that providing people with the right tools can unlock their full creative potential.
Before coming to YouTube three years ago, you worked for Adobe and Yahoo. During your time in tech, how have you seen the industry evolve?
I first started in Product Management over 10 years ago as an intern on Yahoo’s mobile apps. At that time, lots of people had mobile phones for productivity and communication. Social apps were also popular, where people shared written updates and sometimes photos. But since then, phones and tech in general have matured and many people depend on these mobile devices and apps throughout their day for a variety of tasks. One of those key tasks is connecting with others. When I started at Adobe in 2013, I saw the shift toward short-form video, and it was happening fast. YouTube had been around, but we were starting to see the barriers to creation drop immensely due to mobile and tech advancements. This allowed more people to not only connect through video formats, but also enable new forms of storytelling and creation at scale. That’s what drove me into working on video creation products and ultimately why I came to YouTube.
“ What I’m most excited about with AI is enabling new forms of storytelling and empowering people who never thought they’d be a creator.”
You’ve spent the last 10 years of your career focused on creation tools, what are the biggest pain points for creators and where are the areas where you think Gen AI can be most useful?
Getting started and feeling confident about creating videos and sharing them with others are common pain points I hear from creators. After overcoming the learning curve of shooting and editing videos, more established creators often feel overwhelmed not knowing what to create, how to bring an idea to life and make it look good, or how to optimize their videos for their audience to grow. I believe Gen AI can help both new and experienced creators throughout their entire creation journey, assisting with ideation and editing tasks and building confidence along the way. What I’m most excited about with AI is enabling new forms of storytelling and empowering people who never thought they’d be a creator, similar to the shift of short-form video. With Veo in Dream Screen, which was shown today at Made On YouTube, we aim to lower the barriers to creation. All creators need is an idea and they can transform that into images and videos they can use to tell their story. Creators who already use Dream Screen have shared feedback that this feature stimulates creativity and saves time. I’m excited to see how AI can help more people share their personal experiences, passions, and connect with others.
“ What I love the most is the impact these creators have on others – like sharing a vulnerable story that makes someone else feel like they’re not alone, educating others on a topic so they are more informed, or connecting on a common passion.”
What is it about creators that drives your passion?
I love watching creators and seeing their process. From how they bring ideas to life to how they share their stories in unique ways. But what I love the most is the impact these creators have on others – like sharing a vulnerable story that makes someone else feel like they’re not alone, educating others on a topic so they are more informed, or connecting on a common passion. At the end of the day, we’re all people and thrive on human connection. Creators foster and remind us of the importance of these connections.
As a Product Manager who focuses on the user experience for AI tools for creators, what does your day-to-day entail, including the most challenging and the most rewarding aspects of the job?
Everyday is different when it comes to the types of things I do day-to-day, but each day does consist of meeting with and partnering with others to make progress toward our goals. Some days are more heavily focused on working with Engineering to review requirements or test a new flow, while others might be brainstorming with User Experience Designers and Researchers on future concepts. We also work with many teams across Google to build products and share learnings and updates. As a PM, the most challenging part of my role is making tough trade-offs on projects the team is excited to pursue. Not to mention, my team is amazing and continuously has great ideas, making that job even harder! We work hard to align on priorities and stay goal and creator oriented. That pays off when we hit a big milestone like a feature release, where we get to see how creators bring ideas to life with our new AI tools. That’s the best and most rewarding part of this job – seeing what creators make, which never fails to excite and motivate me!
Danielle Darby with other members of the Dream Screen team
What does it take to get the tools you work on from concept to delivery?
There are several steps that happen when our team brings a concept to launch. Usually, we start with creator feedback or User Experience Research (UXR), where we dig into understanding creators’ pain points and how they work around these issues. From there, PM and UX align on a prioritized list of requirements based on what we learned. Once we have requirements, we (PM, UX, and Engineering) start brainstorming and building prototypes that we can bring back to creators to obtain their feedback – and determine if they address their pain points. For example with Dream Screen, we ran a multi-quarter beta program in partnership with several creators where we saw how they used the feature, captured challenges, and made several iterations to address their feedback. This is a critical step in determining what we build and ultimately launch to creators, which sometimes happens over smaller, iterative launches. Throughout this process, our Program Managers lead our team milestones and ensure things remain focused and on track. Partner teams we co-build features with, such as the Google DeepMind team, and others like Product Marketing, Go-to-Market, and PR are also key as we prepare in launching features to creators.
As a mom of two and a leader in tech, how do you think about the future of AI and creating technology in a responsible way for future generations?
I truly believe that AI will not only amplify creativity, but it will also let people spend more time doing things they love. We’ve seen huge strides in how AI can assist people with everyday tasks, like helping draft an email or planning an upcoming trip. When I think about my family, I think these everyday time-savers allow me to be more present and thoughtful about how I spend my time. I’m excited for the possibilities my children will have with AI. Learning complex subjects, preparing for big milestones like a presentation or interview, and even creating their own fantastical stories will all be made easier with AI. Of course, at the center of all of this is people – and we have to build and use these tools responsibly.