An All-A Advantage

Louis Dudley (MMM '17) turned to Northwestern's MBA + MS Design Innovation (MMM) program to jump-start his career in product management. Since then he's held PM roles at Apple, Amazon, and Airbnb.

Airbnb, Amazon, and Apple are three of the largest tech companies in the world. They also are Louis Dudley's past or present employers.

Dudley (MMM ‘17) currently is a product lead at Airbnb, where he is working on the relaunch of Airbnb Experiences – unique activities designed and hosted by locals to give guests an opportunity to delve deeper into a destination’s culture and community. 

He joined the company in 2023. 

“The MMM program opened so many doors, accelerating my career in product roles I’ve loved,” he said. “I truly believe it gives you an advantage.”

Dudley was a software engineer at Motorola Mobility when he turned to MMM. He loved the product management he was doing in his current role and wanted to continue his career in that type of work, but he wanted to learn how to better connect seemingly disparate parts of organizations.

“I love thinking at the intersection of design, engineering, and business,” he said. “I was looking for a program that offered deep integration across those fields. There are only a few options and none as integrated as MMM.”

The program taught him about the importance of starting with thoughtful design and not attempting to back into it in later iterations.

"Either you start with thoughtful design," Dudley said, "or you will forever iterate on bad design."

He also learned that a customer’s perception has to be a product manager's reality — even if that reality does not match what the product manager knows about the product.

"You have to build the bridge and guide your customer," he said. “Empathy and humility are required to create the best products. You have to put yourself in your customer’s shoes."

Dudley applied those lessons immediately after graduating from MMM when he joined Apple as a product manager. He spent more than four years at the company. During that time, he was the product management lead for the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro that introduced the all-new Ultra Wide camera and brought advanced computational photography to the iPhone. He was also the product lead for iPhone 13 Pro, praised by customers and media for its leap in battery life, ProMotion display, and superb camera.

In 2022, Dudley left Apple for Amazon, where he worked as principal product manager for artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning in Amazon Fashion. His work included using computer vision, natural language processing, and large language models to help customers and selling partners solve the biggest pain-points of shopping for clothing online — size and fit.

“At Amazon, science was at the center of everything I worked on,” he said. “Between there and Apple, I learned that quantitative and qualitative both need a seat at the table to deliver the best products.”

Today, he applies that lesson at Airbnb, where he leads the product work for how experiences will show up across the company’s digital products. These experiences range from cooking classes and dining experiences to sunset paddle boarding and guided city tours.

“I love connecting with new cultures and cuisines through travel, and in a world where social media, AI, and augmented and virtual reality are reducing human connection, it’s exciting to create in-real-life connections to places, people, and culture,” he said. “The work is fast-paced and scrappy, touches so many product surfaces, and comes with big expectations.”