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Product · Org design · AI

I design how humans and AI agents work together.

Operator, founder and human-centered product leader. I helped scale General Assembly's engineering programs from 1 to 12 markets on its way to a $412.5 million acquisition, and I've done similar work from startups to larger tech companies. Now I build AI that people trust and communities benefit from.

I advise, lead and build with foundations, public agencies, nonprofits and AI companies that want AI to work for people.

  • State Bar of California AI Technology Champion
  • Patent-pending human-AI framework
  • 17+ years in product and org design

Why I do this

AI will change how every organization works. I want that change to reach the people and communities who need it most, and to leave them stronger, not sidelined.

Most AI efforts don't fail on technology. They fail on trust, adoption and change. That is why I connect product, organizational design and AI.

The question I ask of every system I build: does this expand a person's capacity to think, or does it train them to require less thinking of themselves?

Charmaine Lacsina smiling, shown as a sticker against a mint background with a pink sun and sparkles
Hi, I'm Char.

What I stand for

Five values I build into every system.

Designed with, not for

The people closest to the work know where it breaks. At Open Door Legal, staff could ask anything about AI anonymously, and what they asked shaped our position.

Choice before adoption

Mandates get compliance. Choice gets adoption. I design for the yes people can give freely.

Trust is infrastructure

You can't bolt it on at launch. It lives in audit trails, in human review when confidence drops, in rules checked while the work happens.

Rhythm and care

Poetry and breathwork taught me pacing. Systems need it too: a rhythm people can rely on, and a pause when something matters.

Scale that keeps its soul

Taking General Assembly from 1 market to 12, I learned the curriculum travels easily. Culture has to be carried.

Ways to work together

Where I can help.

Advising

AI strategy, governance and adoption

You've decided to bring AI in. I help you decide how, so your people trust it, use it and stay in charge of it.

State Bar of California AI Technology Champion. Built an AI readiness model to help adoption scale across legal aid organizations.

Talk about advising →

Leading

Product and AI initiatives

I take the work from idea to everyday use: the product, the people who run it, and the change in between.

17+ years leading products and programs, from Dev Bootcamp and General Assembly to Open Door Legal.

Talk about leading →

Building

Agent pilots with the frontline

We start where the work actually happens, with the people who do it, and build something small enough to learn from and real enough to matter.

Led Open Door Legal into Salesforce's Agents of Impact Accelerator, which accepted under 5% of applicants.

Talk about building →

17+

Years building products and organizations

1 → 12

Markets for General Assembly's flagship engineering programs, scaled as an early team member

<5%

Acceptance rate of Salesforce's Agents of Impact Accelerator, which I led Open Door Legal into in 2025

$1.5M

And 1,000+ students, from three products I launched as Dev Bootcamp's first product hire

$4M → $10M

Open Door Legal's growth as a nonprofit since I joined, now the largest legal aid organization in San Francisco

1

Patent-pending framework for how humans and AI agents collaborate

What I bring

Product, org design and AI, in one practice.

I help leaders bring AI into their organizations in a way people trust, understand and choose.

Human-agent collaboration

Designing roles, handoffs and trust between people and AI.

Where does the agent stop and the person start? I make that line visible, then design the handoffs so nothing important falls through.

Patent pending

The Pi Worker Model: from tool to teammate.

Most organizations still treat AI as a tool on the side, and most people were never trained in prompt engineering. The Pi Worker Model turns AI into a teammate inside a governed system: a shared rhythm, new hybrid roles, agents that translate what people mean, and autonomy that adjusts to the stakes.

Morning briefing

People and agents align on priorities and context.

Continuous work

Agents carry steady work. People own judgment and care.

Evening feedback

People review and coach. Every correction teaches the system.

Try it: set the stakes

Low

Like sorting an inbox or drafting a meeting summary.

80%

How sure the agent is about this particular piece of work.

61% agent autonomy39% human oversight

The agent drafts. A person approves.

Routine steps move on their own, and nothing reaches a client until someone signs off.

Confidence is healthy. Review happens in the evening feedback, and every correction trains the system.

Bringing AI into your organization? Let's talk about the human side.

Governance people can follow

Rules that work on a busy Tuesday.

Rule one: AI is always optional.

The first line of the AI Use Policy I wrote for Open Door Legal. Then I turned the policy into practice.

1

Policy

Three golden rules: protect sensitive information, verify everything, be transparent.

2

Training

A staff series built around a TRUST checklist for verifying AI output.

3

Earned access

Tools come after people read the policy, train and sign an acknowledgment.

4

Listening

An anonymous channel reviewed monthly, and open sessions where staff shape the position.

Public trust

Selected for the State Bar of California's AI Technology Champions committee, bringing the frontline view from legal aid.

Products for an agentic workforce

As a product board member at TrustBound, I build governance and regulation products for humans, agents and AI tools.

Security funders trust

Wrote Open Door Legal's security incident response policy to meet a city funder's requirements.

A readiness model for legal aid

Built an AI readiness model so adoption can scale across legal aid organizations, not just one.

Journey

Every stop taught me something about people and systems.

  1. 1

    Emory University

    B.A. in Anthropology, Biology and Economics

    Anthropology taught me to watch before I fix. Most problems are rituals before they are processes.

  2. 2

    Dev Bootcamp

    First product hire. Launched three products

    Students quit jobs to bet on what we built. Every feature was a promise with someone's rent attached.

  3. 3

    General Assembly

    Early team. Scaled engineering programs from 1 to 12 markets. Acquired by Adecco Group for $412.5 million

    Twelve markets in, I learned that whatever you tolerate early becomes what you scale.

  4. 4

    StartUp Health

    Head of Product

    In health, the person waiting on your product is already tired. Speed is a form of care, and so is getting it right.

  5. 5

    Singularity University

    Senior Program Director, with 150% enterprise growth

    The technology was never the slow part. People were, and they were usually right to be.

  6. 6

    Tayo Collective

    Founder, organizational design firm

    Every org chart is a theory of who gets to decide. I started redesigning the theory.

  7. 7

    Open Door Legal

    Director of Innovation and Strategy · State Bar of California AI Technology Champion

    A client's story arrives uneven and afraid. Good technology lets it stay human long enough to be heard.

  8. 8

    TrustBound

    Product board member, building governance products for an agentic workforce

    Trust is infrastructure. Now I build it.

From my writing

What concerns me, finally, is not that machines will think for us. It is that thinking itself may become optional, and then rare.

From The New Luxury Is Thinking for Yourself

Essay · Charmaine Lacsina

The New Luxury Is Thinking for Yourself

A woman facing eviction types her story into a text box, and a system quietly teaches her how to be legible. I help build tools like that, and I believe in them. This essay is about what they cost: who still gets the time and quiet to think, and the question I now ask of every AI system I touch.

The whole person

How something feels matters. Technology too.

I'm a poet, spoken word performer and breathwork facilitator. The attention I bring to a line of poetry, or to a room breathing together, is the attention I bring to the systems I design.

Keep breathing with BreathBeat, my free breathwork app →

Breathe with me. One breath.

Let's build it together

Bringing AI into your organization and want to get the human side right? Let's talk.

I love hearing from mission-driven teams, foundations, public agencies, civic tech and AI companies, whether you're shaping a strategy, building agents or writing the rules.

Or write directly: [email protected]