How to Break Into Tech, What to Focus on Instead of a CS Degree0

• AI, airbnb, as-told-to, Business, Careers, changing-workplace-big-bet, computer-science, contributor-2026, Finance, product-manager, stanford, Tech, wework
• June 3, 2026

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Jiaona Zhang, the CPO at the AI software company, Laurel. She previously worked in product at Airbnb, WeWork, and Linktree. Since 2018, she has taught an annual graduate-level class in product management fundamentals at Stanford, in-person and online. She is in her late 30s and lives