Group Product Manager at Zapier leading the AI Code Gen initiative, pioneering the revolutionary “support team as coders” model where customer support specialists use AI tools to ship production code. PhD from University of St. Andrews, former Senior PM at Human API and Airship. Based in Portland, Oregon.
Empowering Support Teams to Ship Code
Lisa Orr leads one of the most compelling organizational experiments in AI-assisted development: enabling support teams to write and ship production code. At Zapier, she’s developed Scout MCP (built on Cursor and Model Context Protocol) that lets support specialists diagnose issues, generate fixes, and validate solutions—achieving 70% accuracy rates and doubling team velocity to 3-4 fixes per week.
Current Work
As Group Product Manager for Zapier’s AI Code Gen team, Lisa spearheads initiatives that democratize coding for non-engineers. Her work centers on:
- Scout MCP Development - AI-powered coding assistant purpose-built for support teams, achieving 70% accuracy on fixability assessments
- Support-to-Engineering Pipeline - Support team members using Scout are being promoted directly into engineering roles
- AI-Powered Custom Actions - Led product launch enabling non-technical users to create custom Zapier integrations using natural language
- Model Context Protocol Integration - Pioneering MCP adoption for deeper AI agent orchestration capabilities
Background
Lisa brings extensive product management experience from regulated and high-scale industries. Previously Senior PM at Human API (healthcare verification) and Urban Airship/Airship (marketing automation), where she developed products including Predictive Send Time Optimization and Airship Journeys. She holds three patents in automation and machine learning, including “System and method for custom action creation in automation workflows.”
Her background spans data science, continuous discovery methodologies, and team development. She’s recognized for establishing the Copilot Academy Mentorship Program at Airship—a company-wide initiative with 50+ mentor/mentee partnerships across 6 sessions.
Philosophy on AI-Assisted Development
Lisa’s approach challenges conventional organizational boundaries:
Support teams are uniquely positioned for AI-assisted coding - They’re closest to customer pain, excel at real-time troubleshooting, and best understand whether fixes actually solve user problems.
Orchestration over isolation - The true value emerges from tiering tools together. Scout MCP combines Cursor’s AI capabilities with Zapier’s automation platform, not using them in isolation.
Role elevation, not replacement - Rather than automating support away, empower support specialists to implement solutions directly. This creates natural career pathways from support into engineering, bypassing traditional academic gatekeeping.
Key Articles & Projects
- Introducing AI-powered Custom Actions - Feature article on Zapier’s AI-powered Custom Actions
- Customer’s Voice and Product Success: 3 Key Insights - Interview on product management practices
- How to Build a Mentorship Program - LinkedIn article on mentorship program design
- Product Portfolio - Showcasing COVID-19 Vaccine Passports, Predictive Send Time Optimization, and other projects
About Zapier
Zapier is a leading automation platform serving 600,000+ businesses, enabling integration of 8,000+ applications without coding. The company is pioneering Model Context Protocol (MCP) integration for AI-powered automation and recently launched AI-powered Custom Actions that allow non-technical users to create custom integrations using natural language.
Conference Presentation
Event: AI Engineering Code Summit 2025 Date: November 20, 2025 Time: 9:45 AM Session: Your Support Team Should Ship Code
Lisa presented Zapier’s groundbreaking case study demonstrating how support teams can ship production code using AI tools. Key results: 70% accuracy rates, 2x velocity increase, 40% of troubleshooting videos handled by Scout, and support team members transitioning directly into engineering roles. Her session challenged conventional organizational structures, showing that empowering people closest to customer problems—rather than automating them away—creates both dramatically increased velocity and an internal pipeline of engineers who deeply understand user needs.