Description:
In this episode of The Builders, Matt sits down with Jill Heinze, founder of Saddle-Stitch Consulting, to explore an unexpected but deeply logical career evolution: from research librarian to AI governance architect.
Jill’s journey began with a love of history and archival research. That passion led her into academic librarianship, where she discovered that modern libraries are not just about books. They are complex digital ecosystems. She managed databases, led web teams, navigated vendor systems, and taught scholars how to access and evaluate information at scale. At its core, her work was about stewardship, access, and trust.
That research-driven mindset eventually carried her beyond the university. She moved into agency-side research and product work, integrating user discovery and competitive intelligence into digital strategy. As AI tools accelerated, Jill recognized something familiar: the same questions libraries wrestled with for decades were now re-emerging around data quality, provenance, and governance. Today, she applies that foundation to responsible AI frameworks, helping organizations build guardrails before they scale.
This episode lays the groundwork for a deeper dive into responsible AI in Part II.
Key Takeaways:
- Research is not academic overhead. It is infrastructure for better decision-making.
- Modern librarianship is rooted in systems thinking and information architecture.
- Not all information is equally accessible or equally trustworthy.
- Governance is a building discipline, not a compliance afterthought.
- Career pivots often reveal continuity rather than reinvention.
- The skills needed for responsible AI have been quietly developed for decades in adjacent fields.
Jill Heinze
Jill Heinze helps product leaders make smarter AI decisions through strategic intelligence and ground truth research. As founder of Saddle-Stitch Consulting, she reveals the gap between what organizations assume about AI and what users actually experience, helping them spot opportunities competitors miss and avoid expensive mistakes before they happen.
With 20 years of experience in user research, competitive intelligence, and digital product strategy, she's worked with Fortune 500 clients across financial services, healthcare, and technology. As Research Director and Lead of the Data and AI Research team at a major consultancy, she built an AI evaluation framework that guided high-stakes implementations and founded the firm's first executive AI governance committee.
Her approach combines market research rigor with practical implementation experience, bridging strategy and execution to help organizations navigate AI uncertainty with confidence.
She serves as Responsible AI Program Director for The American College of Financial Services, is a member of the AI Leadership Institute, and hosts Responsible Tech Talks on LinkedIn Live.
Based in Charlottesville, Virginia, Jill enjoys local wineries, sci-fi shows, cake decorating, and cat wrangling.
THE MEAT OF IT!
1. Falling in Love with Research
- Studying history and the pull of archives
- Discovering library school and information systems
- Why research felt empowering, not academic
2. Beyond the Desk: Building Information Infrastructure
- Managing digital databases and vendor ecosystems
- Leading university web teams and digital touchpoints
- Teaching others how to navigate complexity
3. Marketing as Service
- Writing a book on library marketing
- Reframing marketing as alignment, not promotion
- Building systems that meet real needs
4. From Knowledge Systems to Intelligence Systems
- Recognizing the limits of “just Google”
- Understanding data provenance and paywalls
- Seeing early warning signs in the AI landscape
5. The Pivot to Responsible AI Governance
- Convening AI governance conversations
- Developing frameworks for responsible AI
- Launching Saddle Stitch Consulting
Check out these related Episodes:
- Episode 265: Dan Daly – Applying a $600M Customer Experience Playbook to Real Estate & the Golden Visa
- Episode 264: Lee Rossey – Building Proving Grounds for AI Security: Trust, Testing, and Reality
- Episode 263: Tyler Dane – The Long Arc of Building: Focus, Feedback, and Finishing What Matters
