Lior Sassy | Lightricks | How Do You Build an AI Product for Video Production?
Host: Eyal David · Guest: Lior Sassy · About the host
Lior Sassy, PM Lead at Lightricks on LTX Studio, explains how to build a new AI product for filmmakers and ad creators: start from the technology (text-to-image) and an internal tool, then break down the user's real need, why anyone makes a storyboard in the first place, and rebuild the platform from scratch. She also shows you can reach product management without a technical background: from theater, through UX, via internal mobility at Lightricks.
In this episode
- With AI products the solution comes before the problem: LTX Studio started from text-to-image technology and an internal tool, and the real work was breaking down what filmmakers and ad creators need and finding where the product truly gives them value.
- A POC is a way to feel the idea, not a foundation for the product: the first version was thrown away and rebuilt from scratch, and optimizing and training the model became a competitive edge that's hard to reproduce with ChatGPT.
- In AI, user behavior is hard to interpret: changing the seed can signal either satisfaction or frustration. So KPIs like sharing ("showing it to your parents"), retention and time on platform serve as quality signals.
- You can reach product management without a technical background: Lior moved from theater to UX and then into product through internal mobility, thanks to initiative (a Figma doc of ideas) and a manager who championed her.
- A good product manager holds two almost contradictory sides: a leader with intuition and ideas, and someone who gets into the details, researches and decides carefully. Plus the ability not to get your heart broken when a direction is killed.
- For juniors: bring relevant experience to the interview, even if it's from volunteering, the Scouts or a university group project, and show a desire to learn. Interviews mainly test product sense, not UX.
Listen to this episode
Episode Description
Lior Sassy started out as an actress at Beit Zvi, moved into UX, and within four months at Lightricks became a product manager thanks to a Figma document of future ideas and a manager who believed in her. Today she's PM Lead at LTX Studio, an AI platform that turns an idea or a script into a shot-by-shot storyboard. In conversation with Eyal David, she describes how the product grew out of an internal tool built by three people after the CEO got access to DALL-E, why they threw away the POC and rebuilt it, how they wrote the prompts themselves before there were data scientists, who the competitors are (Runway, Midjourney, Krea), which KPIs you measure when AI user behavior is hard to interpret, and what juniors who want to break into product should bring to an interview.
Chapters
- 0:46 · Lior, LTX Studio and hiring juniors
- 1:45 · What LTX Studio does: AI storyboards for filmmakers and ad creators
- 3:46 · How it was born: DALL-E and a three-person internal tool
- 7:05 · From POC to product: rebuilding from scratch
- 8:41 · Beta, partners and the competitors: Runway, Midjourney and Krea
- 11:58 · Keeping up with AI, and from theater to UX to product
- 17:18 · Product skills: leadership vs. attention to detail
- 18:30 · What they look for in juniors and what the interview looks like
- 20:06 · How the product works and the challenges: market fit and moving to web
- 25:27 · Not getting your heart broken when direction changes, and data
- 29:26 · Breaking down the need and writing prompts without a technical background
- 34:30 · KPIs for an AI product: sharing, retention and time on platform
- 37:37 · The users: the eToro ad, Eretz Nehederet and AI enthusiasts
- 41:07 · Lior in 10 years, and tips for juniors
Full transcript with speakers and timestamps
Selected quotes
“The ability not to get your heart broken is extremely important for anyone who wants to be a product manager.”
“I can write, give me a romantic comedy in the style of Wes Anderson meets Emily in Paris. And something comes out, and it's really exciting.”
“Basically, what I suggest is simply to come with a portfolio that shows relevant experience, and it doesn't have to be product management experience.”
Questions & answers
What is LTX Studio?
LTX Studio is a Lightricks product for filmmakers and ad agencies. You enter a one-sentence idea or a full script, plus genre and target audience, and the system breaks down the story and generates a shot-by-shot storyboard, with characters and style kept consistent across the project, which you can then edit with prompts or in the shot editor.
How was LTX Studio born?
Lightricks' CEO got early access to DALL-E, and a team of three (a marketing person, the CEO and a developer) built an internal tool for storyboarding before ad shoots. After everyone got excited about it, they formed a product team, threw away the POC and rebuilt the platform from scratch.
Who are LTX Studio's competitors?
According to Lior, Runway, Midjourney and Krea, the big text-to-image companies. The difference is that LTX Studio focuses on storyline and consistency: characters and style that persist across an entire project rather than a single asset.
How do you move from UX to product management?
Lior moved through internal mobility at Lightricks. As the only designer on a new project, she built a Figma document of future ideas, a kind of roadmap, and showed it to the division manager. Within a month she was leading the project at the product level. What helped: initiative, a manager who championed her, and a willingness to learn technical concepts on the job.
What does Lightricks look for in junior product managers?
Good communication, analytical thinking and a genuine desire to learn. Interviews test product sense, for example how you'd build a quarterly roadmap to move a KPI, rather than UX knowledge. Lior recommends coming with relevant experience, even from volunteering or group projects, and getting to know the company's products.
People & resources mentioned
People
- Lior Sassy
- Ari Folman — director (Waltz with Bashir), LTX Studio partner
- Ofir Lobel — LTX Studio partner
- Alon — Lightricks (Facetune), guest on an earlier episode
Companies & orgs
- Lightricks
- Runway
- Midjourney
- Krea
- Adobe
- eToro
- Fiverr
- Eretz Nehederet
Tools
- LTX Studio
- LTX-Video (LTXV)
- DALL-E
- Sora
- ChatGPT
- Facetune
- Videoleap
- Photoleap
- Figma
- Monday
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