ProductBC Event Summary: Leveraging AI as Product Managers

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Hi everyone, Here are the product notes from the latest ProductBC event "Leveraging AI as Product Managers with Ryan Smith - In Person Workshop" Ryan Smith will be happy to do a Q&A here in this thread for anyone who has any questions about his workshop.

  • Avatar of Jackie Ho
    Jackie Ho
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    Ryan Smith I can kick off a question. From a product designer's and developer's standpoint, it feels like it's encroaching into our "lane". With the use of this AI rapid prototyping approach, I understand that it can really speed up the development of features to hammer out issues but design is a very human approach and requires observation and sometimes a bit of nuance. How do I make sure that the customer is not expecting the interactive prototype to be the final result and the designer is not just beautifying a UI after it's generated but really creating the UX that the customer really needs? (edited)

  • Avatar of Ryan Smith
    Ryan Smith
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    My 2 cents, and would love to hear other thoughts, is that we are entering a wholesale recalibration moment. If we were new to using desktop computers in the 80s and 90s, we'd be having a similar conversation - with these new tools, how do I do the job I'm familiar with? Is this even the right job anymore? Product Managers, Software Developers/Programmers/Software Engineers, and Product Designers are all relatively new professions. It does look like we are entering a phase where all of our lanes will be redesigned. The customer will have whatever expectations your team is setting, and I'd assume teams are syncing on product objectives and not working in silos, so I wouldn't worry so much about an interactive prototype, or polishing someone else's UI. I would be looking for higher value tasks - like strategic alignment, design systems, consistent components, and coaching/critiquing anything that interfaces with the user. As a PM, if I have been iterating on UX concepts based on user interviews and other data, I'd love to take those prototypes to a product designer who knows the user well already. That's a great first sync. Not to get pixel edits, but refine the experiment that is about to be tested.