The more product management changes, the more it remains the same

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Building AI products makes product fundamentals more important than ever: because LLMs are non-deterministic, iterating faster and derisking early in the build cycle is critically important. The same principles that distinguished high performing product teams in the pre-AI era remain today.

As a PM, should you be staying up on the latest technology developments to apply new approaches in your work? Absolutely! AI hasn’t changed that. If anything, it’s made following the tech more important.

As a PM you need to communicate complex ideas concisely and clearly. Can you write more concisely and more clearly with an AI cowriter? Probably! But the need remains the same.

Clair Vo’s three requirements of AI powered product management also fit nicely into this narrative:

• “Automate yourself to speed up delivery” → In any world, becoming a bottleneck as a PM is a bad situation.
• “Add new skills and do more” → Product management is an interdisciplinary field. Being a great PM always requires us to have technical skills AND design skills AND business acumen AND communication skills. AI makes it faster to learn, but the importance of diverse skills remains the same.
• “Multiply your impact by teaching your team” → The biggest differentiator between junior and senior PMs is their ability to enable and empower their teams. Feeling stuck in the weeds, like you never have enough time for strategy work? Chances are, there’s an opportunity to coach your team to become more autonomous.

AI is absolutely revolutionizing the tech industry (and the world). But being a principled PM is still as important as ever.