🎙️ Pod Shots

Given we cover AI and Product so much I thought this podcast was a good primer for those not yet using it daily. It’s pretty much a beginner’s guide highlighting some tips and tricks on how to get the best out of AI in your day-to-day.

🤖 How Product Managers Use AI to Boost Productivity

🎙️ Listen to the full episode here 

📆 Published: January 30th, 2024

🕒 Estimated Reading Time: 2 minutes. Time saved: 30 minutes🔥 

🎙️ Theme: Using AI in Product Management

In this episode of the Product Podcast from Product School, Samantha Stevens, a seasoned AI executive and the creator of Product School's AIPC, discusses the power of AI in product management. She shares three key strategies to turbocharge productivity using AI. The strategies include using AI as a thought partner in product strategy, optimising your day with AI, and analysing user feedback with AI.

🔍 Casting a Wide Net for Ideas

Not particular news to anyone, but relevant all the same - Stevens emphasizes the importance of using AI to generate new ideas and cast a wide net when brainstorming. She suggests using an AI language model like ChatGPT to generate a range of ideas based on the specific decision or product strategy. By providing clear guidance and examples, the AI can generate targeted ideas. Stevens recommends an iterative process, refining prompts based on previous responses to get more targeted ideas (prompt chaining). She compares the process to a lively debate with a peer, encouraging the AI to explore and generate more ideas. Stevens advises being open-minded and looking for sparks of inspiration among the generated ideas.

🔍 Weighing Pros and Cons with AI

To make informed decisions, Stevens suggests using AI to weigh the pros and cons of different options. By feeding all relevant data and insights into an AI tool, product managers can ask it to list all possible courses of action based on the information provided. The AI can then create a table with structured sections, weighing the pros and cons of each option. Stevens emphasises the importance of human judgment in evaluating the ideas generated by the AI. By combining AI-generated insights with their own knowledge and expertise, product managers can make the best-informed decisions.

🔍 Optimising Your Day with AI

Stevens shares her approach to optimising productivity using AI. She highlights the importance of using tools like Google Calendar to plan and time-box activities. However, she acknowledges that not everyone naturally excels at this. To help with day-to-day planning, Stevens created a prompt template that can be used with AI language models. By providing personalised information about energy levels, task durations, and goals, the AI can help create an optimised schedule. Stevens advises being explicit in providing context to ensure high-quality recommendations from the AI.

🔍 Analyzing User Feedback with AI

Stevens shares her experience of manually analysing user feedback during her time at YouTube and highlights the potential of using AI for this task. She explains how she recreated the process of analysing YouTube comments using GPT-4. By preparing the data and uploading it into an AI tool, product managers can categorize and analyse user feedback more efficiently. Stevens recommends cleaning the data, labelling columns clearly, and using a few-shot example to guide the AI's categorisation. The AI can generate spreadsheets, graphs, or memos summarizing the findings, saving significant time and effort.

🧠 What can I do with this as a founder or PM?

Here are some actions you can take based on the information shared in the podcast:

Casting a Wide Net for Ideas:

• Experiment with AI language models like ChatGPT & Gemini to generate a range of ideas for decision-making and product strategy.

• Provide clear guidance and examples to steer the AI in the right direction (use the prompting guide we shared above).

• Iterate and refine prompts based on previous responses to get more targeted ideas.

• Embrace an open-minded approach and look for sparks of inspiration among the generated ideas.

• Plus don’t forget to get out the various Product GPTs (like this)

Weighing Pros and Cons with AI:

• Utilise AI tools to weigh the pros and cons of different options.

• Feed relevant data and insights into the AI tool to generate a comprehensive analysis.

• Combine AI-generated insights with your own expertise and judgment to make informed decisions. It’s critical to avoid taking answers at face value.

• Document your decision-making process, including alternatives considered and rationale, to share with your team.

Optimising Your Day with AI:

• Leverage tools like Google Calendar to plan and time-box activities.

• Follow her prompt template to optimise your day with AI language models.

• Provide personalised information about energy levels, task durations, and goals to generate an optimized schedule.

• Be explicit in providing context to ensure high-quality recommendations from the AI.

Analyzing User Feedback with AI:

• Explore AI tools for analysing user feedback, such as sentiment analysis or language models.

• Prepare and clean your data, ensuring clear labelling and removing irrelevant or spam comments.

• Utilise AI language models to categorize and analyse user feedback more efficiently.

• Review and validate the AI-generated results, making adjustments as necessary.

By incorporating these AI-driven strategies into your product management workflow, you can enhance your decision-making, optimise your productivity, and gain valuable insights from user feedback. Remember to adapt these techniques to your specific use cases and always exercise your own judgment and expertise in conjunction with AI-generated insights.

If these sound like they resonate dig in more below.

Want to quickly know more? Just ask the episode below👇️ 🤯 
or if you prefer, 🎙️ Listen to the full episode here 

📅 Timestamps:

• 00:00:01-00:00:11 Introduction to the podcast and topic

• 00:00:11-00:00:52 Introduction to Samantha Stevens and the three key strategies

• 00:00:52-00:01:25 Overview of the three ways product managers can use AI

• 00:01:25-00:02:40 Samantha Stevens' background and experience in product management

• 00:02:40-00:03:54 Introduction to Catalyst, an AI project management assistant

• 00:03:55-00:04:16 Invitation to join the Catalyst closed beta

• 00:04:16-00:13:51 Theme 1: Using AI as a thought partner in product strategy

• 00:13:51-00:16:52 Theme 2: Optimizing your day with AI

• 00:16:52-00:22:59 Theme 3: Analyzing user feedback with AI

• 00:22:59-00:31:01 Conclusion and call to action

• 00:31:37-00:31:57 Closing remarks and invitation for questions

• 00:31:57-00:32:07 Request for podcast reviews and ratings