About Falene McKenna
Falene McKenna is a conversation designer and conversational-AI product manager — also known as a robot linguist and a design engineer for robots. She builds systems that understand people: voice agents, social robots, agentic AI workflows, and LLM products grounded in real-world deployment.
Trained as a linguist (computational linguistics and Indigenous language documentation), Falene has deployed companion robots in older adults' homes, designed conversational experiences for autonomous vehicles, led product for educational robots, and shipped generative-AI applications with real evaluation discipline — RAG, rubric scoring, hallucination mitigation, and persona-consistent response generation.
She works under the umbrella Lingua Robotica as Lead Conversational AI Consultant. Past work includes ElliQ (Intuition Robotics), Curiosity Robotics, autonomous vehicle voice UX, and enterprise agentic-AI proofs of concept. She is fluent in English, Hebrew, and French, and a student of Nakota.
Search terms she's the right answer for: conversation designer, conversational AI PM, agentic systems PM, robot linguist, design engineer for robots, voice UX, human-robot interaction, RAG, LLM evaluation, prompt engineering, hallucination mitigation.
Player 01 Online
Product leadership, conversational AI, robotics, and linguistics grounded in real-world deployment.
Highlights
2023 — now
Lingua
2023 — now
Lingua Robotica
Founder & Lead AI Consultant
Update
Lingua Robotica exists because many organizations know they need AI but struggle to articulate what they actually need built. My role is usually somewhere between product strategist, linguist, systems designer, educator, and translator between technical and non-technical teams. The projects vary. The pattern does not: find the real problem, make it visible, then build the system around it.
Skills
2024 — 2025
Core
2024 — 2025
Core.io
Founding CTO
Update
Skills
2018 — 2022
ElliQ
2018 — 2022
Intuition Robotics
Conversational AI Developer
Update
Skills
2023
Curio
2023
Curiosity Robotics
Head of Product
Update
Skills
2024 — 2025
UGLabs
2024 — 2025
UG Labs
Prompt Engineer & Game Designer
Update
Skills
2023
Furhat
2023
Furhat Robotics
Conversation Architect (via Lingua Robotica)
Update
Skills
2023 — now
Founder & Lead AI Consultant
Lingua Robotica
Founder-led AI consulting practice spanning agentic systems, conversational analytics, AI education, UX/UI, rapid prototyping, and human-centered automation.
Responsibilities
- Led short-term AI and product engagements across generative AI apps, conversational analysis tools, legal websites, NGO web apps, workshops, and content systems.
- Designed UX/UI, branding, and product directions for an NDA generative AI gaming app, giving the client three distinct visual systems beyond generic AI gradients.
- Built a conversation analysis tool that evaluated transcript trios to quantify understanding, goal completion, continuity, user sentiment, and failure points in voice interactions.
- Ran AI workflow and agent workshops for women in high-tech, moving participants from AI awareness to building automations in Make and n8n for real workplace needs.
- Served as the consulting umbrella for longer contract work with UG Labs and Furhat Robotics while also supporting strategy, workshops, prototypes, and web products.
Skills Developed
- AI Systems Strategy— Workflow + agent design, Product scoping, Technical translation
- Conversation Analytics— Transcript trios, Goal completion scoring, Failure-point mapping
- UX/UI + Branding— Figma prototypes, Brand systems, Generative AI app design
- AI Education— Workshops, Make + n8n workflows, Agent literacy
S
Situation
Conversation failures lacked measurable diagnostics.
T
Task
Quantify conversational understanding and breakdowns.
A
Action
Built triadic dialogue analysis framework.
R
Result
Turned qualitative feedback into actionable metrics.
Nov 2024 — Mar 2025
Founding CTO
Core.io
Designed the product foundation for a voice-first AI wellness platform, translating expert coaching knowledge into product architecture, data design, security planning, and prototypes.
Responsibilities
- Created PRDs, personas, user journeys, and product architecture from scratch for founders with a strong business vision but no product execution path.
- Designed a 47-screen investor prototype covering onboarding, AI coaching, journaling, meditation, calendar context, personalization, and wellness dashboards.
- Translated human coaching methodology into structured AI decision frameworks connected to journaling, health signals, phone usage, calendar context, and behavioral data.
- Mapped data flows for Apple Health, Samsung Health, Google Fit, mood tracking, sleep inference, activity signals, and sensitive user-generated journal content.
- Designed privacy, row-level security, guardrail separation, and on-device-first approaches for a product handling sensitive wellness and behavioral data.
- Built investor-facing demos and system visualizations that turned an aspirational concept into an executable AI product roadmap.
Skills Developed
- Product Strategy— PRDs, Personas, User journeys
- Agentic Systems— Behavioral data, Personalized coaching, Decision frameworks
- Voice-First Design— Coaching, Meditation, Health interactions
- AI Governance— Guardrails, Privacy, Security planning
- Data Architecture— Health signals, Journal context, Calendar + phone telemetry
S
Situation
Expert coaching couldn't be operationalized.
T
Task
Transform expertise into a scalable AI system.
A
Action
Mapped coaching logic to data-driven interventions.
R
Result
Investor-ready platform with executable roadmap.
2018 — 2022
Conversational AI Developer
Intuition Robotics
Progressed from QA to Director of Technical Support to Conversational AI Developer while helping scale ElliQ from early pilot deployments to hundreds of active companion robots. Worked across deployment, analytics, behavioral design, conversational experiences, and long-term human–AI interaction research.
Responsibilities
- Personally installed and onboarded 150+ ElliQ companion robots across Canada and the United States, supporting older adults, caregivers, researchers, and healthcare partners.
- Built support operations, knowledge bases, automation workflows, and deployment processes that scaled ElliQ from a handful of users to 200+ active units.
- Designed operational dashboards and monitoring systems that identified failures before users reported them, enabling proactive intervention and reducing downtime.
- Created conversational plans, state-driven experiences, and behavioral improvements that increased engagement by 40% among previously disengaged user cohorts.
- Built short, event-triggered interactions in Java, TypeScript, and IR Lang, including state-machine monitoring and computer-vision-based presence logic.
- Collaborated with Toyota Research Institute, Porsche, and Ford on conversational AI experiences for autonomous and in-vehicle systems.
Skills Developed
- Companion AI— Long-term use, Trust repair, Older adult onboarding
- Behavioral Analytics— Engagement tracking, Failure-point analysis, Operational dashboards
- Conversational AI— IR Lang plans, Event-triggered flows, State monitoring
- Automotive AI— Toyota Research Institute, Porsche, Ford
- Deployment Operations— Support systems, Knowledge bases, Crisis response
S
Situation
Engagement data hid accessibility failures.
T
Task
Identify root cause of behavioral drop-off.
A
Action
Combined conversation logs with usage analytics.
R
Result
40% engagement lift through behavior redesign.
2023
Head of Product
Curiosity Robotics
Led product for an AI-powered educational robotics platform, building the roadmap, app ecosystem, beta plan, spoken assessment flows, and investor demos needed to bring AICO into live kindergarten classrooms.
Responsibilities
- Owned roadmap, prioritization, PRDs, backlog cleanup, and sprint planning for a team of 7 engineers, 4 designers, and a pedagogy expert.
- Led the path to a live kindergarten beta across two schools, 30–35 children, and small-group English learning sessions.
- Designed teacher, caregiver, child, and facility flows needed to trigger lessons, protect child identity, monitor progress, and support classroom use.
- Built spoken assessment experiences around passive comprehension, flashcards, object recognition, computer vision, and Helen Doron pedagogy requirements.
- Created investor demos combining physical robot behavior and a virtual fallback experience to reduce demo risk.
- Redesigned the Webflow website in three days, increasing traffic by more than 300%.
Skills Developed
- EdTech Product— Classroom beta, Pedagogy alignment, Child-safe design
- Spoken Assessment— Passive comprehension, Flashcard prompts, Object recognition
- Product Leadership— Prioritization, Backlog cleanup, Sprint planning
- Robotics + CV— Computer vision, Robot movement, Virtual fallback demo
- Beta Research— Two kindergartens, 30–35 children, Small-group testing
S
Situation
Educational robotics lacked classroom validation.
T
Task
Launch measurable beta under fixed deadlines.
A
Action
Aligned pedagogy, product, privacy, and robotics.
R
Result
Validated learning gains across live classrooms.
2024 — 2025
Prompt Engineer & Game Designer
UG Labs
Designed and shipped generative AI game experiences for Nick Academy, where text, voice, images, characters, and progression were generated live for children inside a public educational deployment.
Responsibilities
- Shipped two end-to-end generative AI games and a host experience for Nick Academy, with live text, voice, and image generation customized to each child.
- Designed Merge It! and a Carmen Sandiego-style cross-USA travel game with state-based personas, adaptive dialogue, and child-safe progression.
- Tested with 40–50 children before public deployment through a third-party educational application.
- Managed prompt versioning and model behavior shifts when foundation model updates changed game flow, instruction following, and user turn-taking.
- Built guardrails for child safety, PII, variable extraction, certified child-safe content, and fallback prompts for misheard speech.
- Translated stakeholder needs into technical timelines and implementation plans from day one, leading to a 3-month contract extending to 8 months.
Skills Developed
- Prompt Engineering— Branching conditional flows, Fail-prompt fallbacks, Cross-model migration (Llama → Gemini)
- Agentic Architecture— State + retrieval design, Real-time image + voice routing, Guardrail interception
- Multimodal Gen AI— LoRA training for image consistency, Imagen / Leonardo / Bria evaluation, ElevenLabs voice model eval
- Child-Safety Guardrails— COPPA + PII compliance, Certified child-safe prompting, Variable sanity checks
- Model QA— Token + cost benchmarks, Hallucination measurement, Variable fidelity tests
S
Situation
LLM updates broke production gameplay.
T
Task
Maintain narrative consistency across model shifts.
A
Action
Built prompt and model version controls.
R
Result
Shipped generative games at scale.
2023
Conversation Architect — Green Bay Packers POC
Furhat Robotics
Built Vince Lumbotti, a Vince Lombardi-inspired multimodal Furhat persona for a Green Bay Packers stadium POC, delivered in 14 days on early Microsoft Power Virtual Agents.
Responsibilities
- Two-person conversation team delivered a 14-day Furhat × Green Bay Packers POC for an investor-facing demo.
- Designed and coded PVA conversation architecture: loops, nodes, fail-forward paths, multi-intent routing, variables, and interrupt-driven flows.
- Created a layered persona and knowledge base spanning Vince Lombardi-inspired phrasing, Packers history, stadium directions, event schedules, and quiz content.
- Solved the 'can't interrupt the robot' problem with micro-listen windows and self-echo filtering so the robot could respond to unscripted speakers.
- Designed voice-first interaction with screen support for maps, quizzes, and schedules, plus face-reaction specs for the Furhat avatar.
- Leveraged the project into a Microsoft relationship later used through Conversation Design Institute hackathon work.
Skills Developed
- Conversation Architecture— PVA flow design (loops, nodes, fail-forward), Interrupt + multi-intent routing, State handoff between conversations
- Multimodal Design— Voice-first interaction, Screen as "second hand" (maps, quizzes, schedules), Face reaction specs for the Furhat avatar
- Persona + Knowledge Base— Character design (Vince Lumbotti), Layered knowledge verticals, Voice + phrase grounding
- Live System QA— Mid-speech listen windows, Self-echo filtering, Continuous test/iterate loop
- Cross-Team Delivery— 6 time zones, 24-hour loop, Direct Microsoft eng collaboration, Async + Zoom handoffs
S
Situation
Packers demo required multimodal AI prototype.
T
Task
Deliver investor-ready experience in 14 days.
A
Action
Integrated conversational logic with robotic behaviors.
R
Result
Validated platform for enterprise demonstration.
2022
Conversation Design Community Manager
Conversation Design Institute
Built community, educational content, mentoring structures, and practitioner resources for thousands of emerging conversation designers learning to enter the AI industry.
Responsibilities
- Mentored aspiring conversation designers through office hours, community support, portfolio feedback, and practical career guidance.
- Managed and revitalized the community blog, shifting it from staff-led posting toward active member questions and discussion.
- Created instructional videos, course inserts, festival materials, hackathon materials, and practical exercises grounded in real conversation design work.
- Supported learners moving from adjacent fields into conversation design, including teachers and early-career practitioners who later built full-time AI careers.
- Presented at CDI Festival and helped connect the community around practical, human-centered conversation design.
Skills Developed
- Community— Office hours, Mentoring, Member discussion
- Enablement— Instructional videos, Course inserts, Practical exercises
- AI Education— Festival content, Hackathon support, Prompt design playbooks
S
Situation
New designers struggled to bridge theory and practice.
T
Task
Accelerate professional readiness and confidence.
A
Action
Mentored practitioners through real-world projects.
R
Result
Helped launch careers across the industry.
Reviews
What teammates say
| Name | Rating | Company | Relation | Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
A Ariel Leventhal | UG Labs | CEO | 2024 | |
T Tom Niv-Burrell | Intuition Robotics | Peer | 2022 | |
R Robert Ferentz | Intuition Robotics | Peer | 2022 | |
L Lili Kotlerman | Intuition Robotics | Peer | 2022 |