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:

I am Roberto Hortal, and I write about product leadership in the AI era, drawing on over 20 years’ senior Product and Innovation experience across 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.

Gross Margin Is a Product Decision

A product I worked on began as a prototype built on the usual suspects: Whisper for speech-to-text and a frontier OpenAI model for inference. The team …

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When Everything Changes, the Experts Have to Start Again

A chief executive I once worked for had every email printed. He scribbled his answers on the printouts and had them typed back. He did not last. He …

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The Travel Agent Test: What Online Booking Teaches Learning Leaders About AI

At easyJet I ran the web shop. Every ticket the airline sold went through it, and I introduced the features that now look ordinary: speedy boarding, …

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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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