Beyond Rituals: Rethinking Product Discovery in the Age of AI
Design and product discovery have given us powerful frameworks and artifacts—journey maps, Miro boards, Figma files—that shaped how we work. But have these tools become rituals? Like the scholastic thinkers of the Middle Ages clinging to Latin texts before the Renaissance, we may have fallen in love with the artifacts themselves rather than the outcomes they serve.
With AI and large language models, we now have the ability to prototype ideas faster, test assumptions sooner, and even rethink the very notion of the MVP. Why settle for “minimal” when you can generate more, faster, and with less friction?
Xavier Rizos explores how rituals emerge when meaning is lost—when process replaces purpose. By connecting ancient wisdom to modern design practice, we’ll ask: how can we dwell in reality, let go of illusions, and move from surface-level rituals back to the deeper fruit of discovery?
This is a provocative invitation to question our habits, confront our attachments, and embrace a more fluid, AI-enabled way of designing and building.
Xavier Rizos
Xavier Rizos serves as Global Chief Strategy and Impact Officer at PALO IT, a B Corp certified consulting and software development firm focused on "Tech for Good." He leads strategic initiatives across nine countries—Australia, France, Spain, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, USA, Mexico, and Colombia—helping organizations in financial services, retail, health, logistics, government, NGOs, and SMEs navigate digital transformation with sustainable impact at the core.
Rizos brings over two decades of strategic leadership experience from major Australian financial institutions, including senior roles at Bank of Queensland, Westpac, and NAB where he co-founded the NABLab innovation incubator. He holds engineering degrees from CentraleSupélec and Georgia Institute of Technology, and combines expertise in Design Thinking, Agile, and DevOps methodologies to help organizations reduce time to market while delivering meaningful digital transformation without compromising on sustainable outcomes.