AI and the Future of Product Teams

0:00 [Music] Most people that I talk to are not yet understanding the profound effect AI will have on everything about the workplace, including what these jobs mean. I get that it's not a novel perspective by any means. the fact that AI is here and it's only going to get better and it is going to impact the way work gets done and therefore it's going to impact our jobs both indirectly and directly. I don't think that part is novel. The part that is I think underappreciated is just how many people don't want to believe that. I still see people saying well AI can't do 2 plus 2. I asked chat GPT what is 2 plus two and it said five and so it's stupid right? I do get people sharing these kinds of sound bites.

1:00 Here's another one. I also encounter a lot of situations where people think that their best kind of defense for this kind of change that is happening is oh I should just use more AI tools in my job. So that is perhaps another I guess somewhat unique perspective I'll share in my view. Yes, of course you should use AI tools in your job and of course you should use AI assistance where it makes sense. Of course you should do that. That's like saying you know in 1994 95 you should really use the worldwide web right like more. Of course, people are going to use the worldwide web more. And maybe there were some people who did not, but they probably couldn't keep their job in technology if they refused to use the worldwide web. So for me, that analogy is very applicable here. Like of course you should be using AI tools, but not for one second should you assume that that is going to keep your job safe. the fact that you are I don't know summarizing customer conversations using some fancy AI tool or the fact that you are I don't know automating parts of your PRDS or updates to tickets or some workflows or you're using AI for data analysis etc etc again there's nothing wrong with it in fact I think more people should do those things where they make sense but what I'm saying is that if you think that you are safe from AI I taking over many parts of the workforce and workplace.

2:36 I think that would be a mistake. I think that would be a career mistake. My view is that and we're kind of already seeing this. I shared this view two years ago, but we're starting to see this is that roles are going to merge with AI enabling everything it is on the coding side with AI enabling everything it is on the design and prototyping side with AI enabling everything that it is on the analysis and product and workflow management and automation side. We're not going to have these very distinct roles like, oh, here's a product manager and they manage the product and here's an engineer and they write the code and here's the designer and they create mockups and prototypes and here's the data scientist and they do data analysis and various other things and that's the team like oh we're going to have these four key roles or five key roles whatever they are and every team shall have those four to five key roles. I don't think that is what the future of product teams is. Increasingly you're seeing there many engineers who've always been very product minded. So now they can do a lot more because on the one side AI is making a lot of things efficient on the code generation side of their work. So hey a product minded engineer might actually be a more effective individual on the team than a dedicated product manager. What I tell people is use your own imagination.

4:09 Right? Chat GPD launched two and a half years ago. Here's how far we've reached in two and a half years. In some ways, if we are product people, imagination is one part of our job, right? We are supposed to be able to use our imagination. Let's imagine what these tools are capable of 3, five, seven years from now and then see what you need to do to still be relevant, to still actually perhaps even excel. So that's my general perspective. Now that is for each individual to figure out. Again, I tell people don't take my word for it.

4:46 Don't believe it because Shrea said so because then it's not going to work. It's not going to last. These are basic things one can think through right like what is air going to be like five years from now seven years from now is it going to be just the same or is it going to be drastically more powerful and then at that point what human skills are going to be most important and how can I go develop those skills that is the million-doll question I ran a poll on LinkedIn where I actually asked this question what is going to basically enable your and your work to still be very relevant in this age where AI is taking over a lot of capabilities.

5:27 Right? I think the most common answer which I agree was the correct answer is the ability to actually think the ability to think clearly. My view is that for product managers and product people that is going to be even more at a premium because imagine two companies that are competing against each other. Both have very capable AI. So say this is three years from now, five years from now, right? Both have capable AI. They all have PMs who can use AI. So how is one company going to win over the other? They have capable AIs and everybody's trained on AI.

6:06 Everybody's using AI tools. So what is going to tell us which company wins, right? It's got to go back to the quality of the thinking involved in choosing what to do and presumably that's being done by humans. So I think that's where the real value is and I don't think enough people are paying attention to that. People are paying a lot more attention to oh let me learn this AI tool which is great like you should learn the AI tool. All I'm saying is that it is necessary not sufficient.

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