298 - How to Stop Managing from Memory: Amin Palizban (Co-founder & CEO, Topicflow)

Amin Palizban, Co-Founder & CEO of TopicFlow, joined us on The Modern People Leader. We talked about why managers are at a breaking point, how AI is transforming performance management, and what it takes to build AI-native people products that actually support managers in real time.----  Get the AI for Performance Management Toolkit: https://modernpeopleleader.kit.com/aiforperformanceSponsor Links:🔗 Explore the 2026 ​Deloitte Human Capital Trends Report🔗 Book a conversation with Compete at compete.com/mpl🔗 Learn more about Intuit QuickBooks Payroll at QuickBooks.com/workforceMPL Links:🔗 Go sign up for MPL Build.----  (03:33) Amin’s Career Journey: From Engineer to CEO of TopicFlow(07:32) Early Exposure to Performance Management Tools and Market Gap(10:05) AI’s Impact on Productivity and Internal Workflows (MPL 2.0)(12:36) Why Managers Are Burnt Out and the “Code Red” Situation(16:30) The Real Problem: Poor Manager Training and Promotion Practices(21:34) Why Traditional L&D and HR Tools Are No Longer Effective(24:21) What Real Manager Support Looks Like in the AI Era(26:49) Coaching vs Performance Reviews: Why They Should Be Separate(29:15) Why AI Coaching Can Be More Effective Than Human Coaching(34:38) The Increasing Span of Control and Manager Workload Challenges(36:02) Why Performance Reviews Are Still Not Data-Driven(40:01) What Data Sources Actually Matter for Better Reviews(46:15) Transcript Data as “Corporate Gold” and Cultural Shift Challenges(52:05) From Asking AI to Ambient Intelligence and Proactive Coaching(56:39) Personalized AI Coaching and the “Scale to One” Future---- 📬 Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to get episode recaps💡 Follow The Modern People Leader on LinkedIn😊 Follow Daniel Huerta on LinkedIn😊 Follow Stephen Huerta on LinkedIn---- Past guests on MPL include Brené Brown, Annie Dean (VP of Team Anywhere, Atlassian), Josh Bersin, Katie Burke (Chief People Officer, Harvey), Liz Fosslien, Helen Russell (Chief People Officer, HubSpot), Dave Scott (Chief People Officer, ADT), Melanie Rossenwasser (Chief People Officer, Dropbox), Crystal Boysen (Chief People Officer, Sprout Social), and many more.