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Mind the Product

Artificial intelligence (AI)

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🌎 <a href="https://www.mindtheproduct.com/world-product-day/" style="color:#FFFFFF;text-decoration:underline;">Happy World Product Day!</a> Be sure to celebrate product, yourself, and your peers today! 🎉

A deep dive into internal product management

Lessons from my first year as a Prod Ops Manager

It’s the Strategy, stupid – Andrew Martinez-Fonts (VP Product, Honeysales)

Poll results: What tools are product managers using the most?

Leadership coaching: 5 reasons why you should do it

Christine has been in product management for 12+ years, and has held roles from Product Manager to Director leading teams to Head of Product Operations. She’s done so across finance, fintech, and SaaS and has focused on not only delivering product and outcomes to customers, but strengthening product teams while doing so.  

Christine believes great experiences for customers start with a frictionless product experience that helps them build trust with the company, ultimately creating a partnership vs a transactional relationship. Her passion for connecting product people to their partners and customers helped guide her throughout her career in product and has been foundational to her role as a pioneer in Product Operations, and thought leader in the product space.

She’s led and coached teams through product-led transformation and continues to mentor product leaders on setting up foundations for strong teams, creating and delivering best practices, and creating a system for product managers to do their best in. Christine enjoys giving back to the product community and looks at product management as a discipline rather than a role in technology.

Christine Itwaru

<p>Try to go one day without hearing or reading about AI. I bet you can’t. A few months ago when <a href="https://www.mindtheproduct.com/how-will-chatgpt-change-product-management/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ChatGPT</a> launched, many jumped at the chance to give it a whirl, as we do with the very many new products that emerge and generate buzz each month. But this time, we realized, was different. This time, we’re not talking about something we’ll use here and there and otherwise forget about. ChatGPT’s launch was what some call a defining moment for tech, a signal that our world will be forever changed by artificial intelligence.</p>
<h2>The AI buzz vs. the reality</h2>
<p>News stations and publications continue to feed into the ongoing stream of content on AI. Because of our inherent fear of the unknown as human beings, much AI coverage tends to focus more on the negative outcomes this tech could bring about. Why? Because we’re afraid of not knowing what’s next. We need to plan so we can exert a bit of control. It’s simple science. And at this moment, many people are experiencing fear because of the power of AI, and what (or whom) it can potentially replace.</p>
<p>One thing I know to be true about product managers is that we are pretty damn comfortable not knowing what comes next all the time, and are great at making the best of what we have available to <span style="font-style: italic;">innovate and create</span>. We’re good at this because we are used to placing bets on our next move based on what we have in hand right now. It’s no different this time. Yes, there’s chaos in headlines and on our feeds about AI, but it’s important to separate the signals from the noise. Product managers across our customer base are <span style="font-weight: bold;">embracing AI as their partner</span>, and we’re doing the same here at <a href="https://www.pendo.io/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Pendo</a>.</p>
<h2>Freeing product managers up to create and innovate more</h2>
<p>In my previous role as head of product operations at Pendo, one of the most important things I did was analysis of customer feedback across our NPS and Feedback products. Prior to machine learning (ML) and AI becoming a part of our platform, I manually categorized everything that came in and then spent even more time understanding trends and writing analysis and recommendations for our leaders. As we introduced ML into our product, the hours I spent doing most of the manual work moved over to other critical things, like coaching and more strategic projects that benefited the product team and company.</p>
<p>In this way, ML followed the same general pattern that’s emerged across the last two decades of technological change. We’ve seen digital streaming take the reins over traditional at-home entertainment options, increasing choice for customers. We’ve seen cloud computing take over traditional methods of delivering products and services to customers, freeing up space and dollars, and empowering humans to focus on rapid improvements, shortening time to value. We’ve also seen renewable energy and sustainable technologies provide options for us to reduce our carbon footprint, helping us move collectively toward a better, cleaner world.</p>
<h2>A time to build</h2>
<p>In times like these, product managers innately think about massive change waves as opportunities to create for their customers. This AI moment is not one in which a trend is causing <a href="https://www.pendo.io/pendo-blog/how-product-teams-can-break-free-from-cognitive-bias/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">recency bias</a> or clouding our judgment as we make product decisions. We’re not after the next shiny carrot. Product managers are leaning in and trying to build on, or, reinvent the experience that exists for their customers.</p>
<p>At Pendo, we’re watching our own customers do a double-take on that lot of feedback they received where changes may not have been as easily achieved pre-AI. We’re watching them experiment with new ways to make their products’ self-serve experiences better, reducing time to value and increasing sentiment. In today’s world—where efficiency is critical due to changes across the business landscape—this is gold.</p>
<h2>Two product management pillars AI will never replace</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.pendo.io/pendo-blog/adapting-your-digital-experiences-to-the-ai-era/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Because AI tech</a> continues to evolve with each passing day, experimentation is the name of the game. An experimental approach to innovation will allow us to learn what’s working, and implement and upgrade quickly. But as quickly as we experiment, we must never forget two things: <span style="font-weight: bold;">building responsibly and communicating effectively</span>. They’re two items that can’t be assigned to an AI tool.</p>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-weight: bold;">Build responsibly</span>: You need to do the work as a product manager to understand whether you’re building responsibly for your customer base, causing any ethical concerns for your company, or increasing business risk. Just as GDPR laws drove us to review and stand up privacy and security guardrails across every industry, there will be checks in place for AI. Stay alert and partner with the appropriate cross-functional teams to stay ahead.</li>
<li><span style="font-weight: bold;">Communicate effectively</span>: Here I’m not talking about auto-generated status reports. I mean truly being present and communicative with customers, engineers, stakeholders, and cross-functional teams. This is what helps us understand if we’re solving the right problems, whether we’re providing enough details for others to do their jobs well, and helps us articulate value. Alignment and transparency are critical to the success of any team, and with product managers sitting in the middle of organizations, communication during this wave of change is the most important thing to focus on. Let’s not distill its value.</li>
</ul>
<p>There are already some incredible examples of AI enhancing many of our favorite products, like Miro, <a href="https://www.pendo.io/pendo-blog/when-ai-meets-product-led-growth/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Canva</a>, and Notion. These examples have inspired us to think outside the box, and explore what’s possible for our customers with Pendo. We hope you’ll be inspired to experiment, learn, build responsibly, and communicate effectively, as we all ride this massive wave of change together.</p>
<h2>Discover more great content on AI</h2>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.mindtheproduct.com/from-lala-land-to-the-matrix-can-ai-replace-product-management/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">From LaLa Land to The Matrix: Can AI replace product management?</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.mindtheproduct.com/how-to-use-existing-product-documentation-to-generate-marketing-materials-using-ai/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">How to use existing product documentation to generate marketing materials using AI</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.mindtheproduct.com/the-role-of-an-ai-product-manager/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The role of an AI product manager by Hiroki Nakamura</a></li>
</ul>

core/freeform

LLM workflows for product managers: 3 key takeaways (Niloufar Salehi, Assistant Professor at UC Berkeley) – ProductTank SF

The future of product management: Insights from ProductTank San Francisco

Product lessons learned making early moves with AI in media: Lindsey Jayne (CPO, Financial Times)

A year with ChatGPT and product innovation: Navigating the AI landscape

How to keep your head about generative AI (when everyone is losing theirs) by Claire Woodcock

Embracing AI as a partner

Christine Itwaru

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