Through his research and practical experience at MasterCard, Nishant Parikh identified 19 key activities that define the role of software product managers. He emphasizes that these activities vary based on context (large vs. small organizations, B2B vs. B2C, Agile vs. Waterfall). The discussion reveals how product management has evolved since 1931 and highlights the importance of clear role definition to prevent job frustration. The core focus of these activities is on thorough market research, continuous customer engagement, and strategic product development.

In this episode, I’m interviewing Nishant Parikh, Director of Product Management at MasterCard. We explored the 19 essential activities that define successful software product management today.

Drawing from his 20+ years of technology experience and extensive research, Nishant shared insights about how these activities vary across different organizational contexts – from startups to enterprises, B2B to B2C, and Agile to Waterfall environments. He emphasized the importance of role clarity and how the lack of it often leads to frustrated product managers leaving their positions.

In this article, I’ll share the key takeaways from our discussion, including why market research should be your foundation, how customer engagement has evolved to become a continuous process, and the ways AI is reshaping traditional product management activities.

Nishant’s motivation came from his personal experience navigating different product management roles over six years. Each position required vastly different responsibilities:

This variety of experiences left him confused about the core responsibilities of a product manager. This confusion motivated him to pursue research to better understand:

He noted that while large organizations might have 100 defined activities for product managers, it’s impossible for one person to handle them all. This led him to research and identify 19 core activities specific to product management, with clear separation from product marketing, sales, and go-to-market functions.

Nishant identified three main bodies of knowledge in product management, each with distinct limitations:

The key problem he identified is that none of these bodies of knowledge clearly distinguish between different product management roles or account for various contextual factors that affect how product managers should work, such as:

He emphasized that these contextual factors significantly impact a product manager’s role. For example:

Nishant’s research aimed to consolidate insights from these different bodies of knowledge and account for various contextual factors to provide a clearer, more comprehensive perspective for product managers and leaders. His goal was to help product managers understand how their role should adapt based on their specific organizational context and product type.

As software product managers navigate the complex landscape of product development, market research emerges as a crucial first activity. Thorough market research in the problem space is fundamental to product success.

The primary goal of market research is to validate whether a real problem exists and if customers truly care about solving it. This validation process requires intensive effort but sets the foundation for all subsequent product development activities. As Nishant emphasizes from his own research experience, investing time in understanding and defining the problem statement pays significant dividends later in the product lifecycle.

How market research is conducted varies significantly between large and small organizations:

Modern market research has been transformed by artificial intelligence tools:

The key takeaway for software product managers is clear: invest heavily in market research regardless of organizational size or resources. A solid understanding of the problem space leads to:

After establishing a clear understanding of the market through research, the next critical activity for software product managers is solution identification.

Solution identification represents the transition from problem space to solution space, involving two key components:

What makes this activity unique is its relative simplicity and consistency – regardless of organization size, industry, or methodology, the core process remains largely the same.

The heart of solution identification lies in customer validation. Product managers must:

Unlike other product management activities that vary significantly based on organizational context, solution identification maintains its fundamental approach whether you’re working at a startup or an enterprise company like MasterCard.

This activity serves as a bridge between problem validation and product vision development. By identifying and validating solutions before creating a product vision, product managers ensure they’re building on solid ground rather than assumptions.

The straightforward nature of solution identification shouldn’t diminish its importance – it’s a critical step that transforms validated problems into potential products. Its success relies heavily on the thoroughness of the preceding market research phase while setting the stage for subsequent product positioning and vision development.

Nishant highlighted a lesson from his early career: the mistake of creating a product vision before completing market research.

The proper approach to product positioning involves:

A well-positioned product should include:

Product positioning represents the first step in formal product documentation, serving as:

Generative AI has become valuable in this phase by:

While primarily focused on internal alignment, product positioning can serve both internal and external purposes:

This positioning phase creates the foundation for all subsequent product development activities, making it important to get right through proper sequencing and thorough documentation.

Once product positioning is established, product managers move into the more action-oriented activity of roadmapping. This planning phase requires careful consideration of multiple contextual factors that significantly impact how roadmaps should be developed and managed.

The methodology used has a significant impact on roadmap development:

Market focus significantly influences roadmap development and release strategies:

As Nishant points out from his experience at MasterCard, B2B products often don’t require the same frequency of releases as B2C products. Once core features are delivered and customers are satisfied, there’s less need for constant updates focused on minor UI/UX improvements.

When developing product roadmaps, product managers should:

Understanding these contextual factors helps product managers create more effective roadmaps that better serve both their organization and their customers.

Following roadmap creation, requirements engineering emerges as a crucial activity where product strategy meets technical execution. This phase highlights the important distinction between product manager and product owner roles, particularly in Agile environments.

Nishant provided valuable historical context about how these roles evolved:

How these roles are implemented varies by organization size:

The separation of roles can create:

As requirements engineering continues to evolve, organizations must carefully consider how to structure these roles to maintain effective product development while avoiding communication gaps and ensuring clear accountability.

In discussing product verification, Nishant highlighted how this crucial activity has transformed dramatically with the adoption of different development methodologies, particularly in the software industry.

The approach to product verification varies significantly by industry:

The evolution to continuous verification offers several advantages:

As Nishant notes, this transformation in product verification represents a fundamental shift in how products are validated, moving from a single checkpoint to an ongoing process integrated throughout the development lifecycle.

According to Nishant’s research, customer insight represents a fundamental shift in how product managers engage with their users throughout the product lifecycle. This shift moves from periodic customer engagement to continuous involvement at every stage of product development.

Historically, customer engagement was limited to specific points in the process:

Today’s best practices involve customers at every stage:

Nishant emphasizes one critical point for all product managers: Stay close to customer as much as possible and as early as in the process. This continuous engagement ensures:

In the software world particularly, this continuous customer insight loop enables ongoing product enhancement and ensures the product continues to meet evolving customer needs.

Nishant described financial analysis as one of the more challenging product management activities, with significant variations between different organizational contexts. This activity encompasses business case development, pricing strategies, and ongoing financial validation.

A comprehensive financial analysis includes:

Business case development is a continuous process that evolves through several stages:

Product managers should understand that:

As Nishant notes, while initial projections are important, the true test comes when products hit the market, often requiring significant adjustments to the business case based on real-world performance.

Software product management is far more nuanced and context-dependent than many realize. Nishant’s research-backed framework of 19 key activities provides clarity for product managers struggling to define their roles and responsibilities. Whether working in large enterprises or small startups, understanding how these activities adapt to different organizational contexts is necessary for success.

Today’s successful product managers must maintain ongoing dialogues with customers, constantly refine their business cases, and adapt their strategies based on real-world feedback. As the field continues to evolve, those who understand these core activities and how to adapt them to their specific context will be best positioned to create successful products that truly meet customer needs while delivering business value.

“Innovation is a dynamic process that applies scientific thinking to transform customer problems into valuable business opportunities.”   – Nishant Parikh

Nishant A. Parikh is a dynamic professional with a diverse academic background and extensive experience in computer science and product management. Graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Gujarat University in 2005 and an MBA from Webster University in 2020, Nishant combines technical expertise with business acumen. Currently serving as the Director in Product Management at Mastercard, he drives strategic direction and spearheads the development of innovative software solutions. Passionate about the field, Nishant has immersed himself in research at Capitol Technology University since 2022, exploring the challenges, trends, and solutions in product management. As an avid writer, he shares his insights, addressing the multifaceted issues faced by product managers. Nishant’s visionary leadership, industry knowledge, and commitment to innovation make him a driving force in shaping the future of software product management.

Thank you for taking the journey to product mastery and learning with me from the successes and failures of product innovators, managers, and developers. If you enjoyed the discussion, help out a fellow product manager by sharing it using the social media buttons you see below.

Innovation expert Doug Hall reveals why most organizations struggle with innovation despite recognizing its importance. Through his experience running Eureka! Ranch and Dexter Bourbon Distillery, Hall discovered that successful innovation requires a bottom-up transformation focusing first on empowering frontline employees to fix inefficiencies (“stop the stupid”), then enabling middle managers to improve systems, and finally allowing leadership to pursue bigger strategic innovations. This three-level approach has shown to increase innovation value by 28% versus the typical 50% decline seen in traditional top-down approaches.

Doug shared that when you look at any survey of CEOs, more than 80% will say that innovation is crucial for their organization’s future success. However, when asked about their organization’s current innovation capabilities, the numbers flip dramatically – only about 20% believe their organizations are effectively innovating.

Doug illustrated this disconnect with a story from his consulting work. His team had just presented breakthrough solutions to a problem that a CEO had previously deemed impossible. Rather than excitement, the CEO’s response was, “Huh, wow. I guess you did figure it out. Now what do I do? I guess I gotta do it.” The disappointment in the executive’s voice revealed a deeper truth about organizational resistance to innovation.

This resistance manifests in various ways:

Doug explained why simply having good ideas isn’t enough. Successful innovation requires addressing deeper organizational dynamics and systems that either enable or inhibit change. As we explored in our conversation, resolving this paradox requires a fundamental shift in how organizations approach innovation, starting not with grand strategies but with empowering employees to make small, meaningful improvements in their daily work.

Breaking through this paradox requires recognizing that innovation isn’t just about generating new ideas – it’s about transforming how organizations think about and implement change at every level. This understanding forms the foundation for a more effective approach to organizational innovation.

Doug shared a startling insight from three separate studies that crystallizes why traditional innovation approaches often fall short. When organizations take an innovative idea into development, its forecasted value typically declines by 50% before launch.

A truly disruptive idea will challenge multiple departments in an organization. A genuinely innovative product might require:

When these departmental challenges arise, organizations typically respond by compromising the original idea. As Doug put it, “It’s like you’re managing the death of ideas.” Each department makes small compromises to fit within existing systems until the final product barely resembles the original innovative concept.

Through our discussion, Doug revealed how organizational silos create powerful resistance to innovation:

Manufacturing departments hesitate to support innovations that might lower their productivity metrics.

In many corporations, departments operate as separate units where promotion and income depend on making their individual department heads happy, not on supporting cross-functional innovation.

Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and existing systems often can’t accommodate truly innovative ideas without significant modification.

Most organizations try to overcome these barriers through:

However, Doug found these approaches usually fail because they don’t address the underlying system issues. Traditional innovation approaches weren’t working because they ignored a fundamental truth: most employees face daily operational challenges that make innovation feel like an extra burden rather than an opportunity.

The data Doug shared revealed two primary barriers preventing employee participation in innovation:

These statistics point to a clear problem: organizations aren’t making innovation accessible and actionable for their employees.

This insight led to a radical shift in approach. Instead of pushing employees to create breakthrough innovations, Doug’s team started by addressing the daily frustrations and inefficiencies that drain employee energy and enthusiasm.

For example, at his distillery, while Doug was excited about developing new custom bourbon experiences, his employees were more concerned about immediate challenges like:

The power of this approach became clear as employees started solving these immediate problems. By focusing on improvements within their sphere of influence, employees:

This employee-first approach transforms how organizations think about innovation. Rather than treating innovation as a special initiative, it becomes part of everyone’s daily work. The results speak for themselves – organizations implementing this approach see an average of four improvement actions per employee per month.

More importantly, this foundation of employee engagement creates an environment where larger innovations can thrive. When employees feel empowered to solve problems and improve systems, they become natural allies in implementing bigger strategic changes.

Through his work at Eureka! Ranch and his own experiences running a bourbon distillery, Doug has developed a practical framework for transforming how each level contributes to innovation.

The transformation begins at the front lines, where employees are closest to daily operations. Instead of imposing top-down innovation mandates, organizations need to:

One of the most striking statistics Doug shared was that middle managers waste an average of 3.5 hours daily dealing with problems. Breaking this down:

The solution involves transforming middle managers from reactive problem-solvers into system improvers. This means:

At the leadership level, the transformation focuses on enabling rather than directing innovation. Leaders need to:

When these three levels work together, organizations can achieve remarkable results. For example, one B2B company Doug worked with saw their marketing department transform from one of the lowest-rated departments to generating 100 times more leads within three months of implementing this approach.

The key is understanding that each level plays a distinct but interconnected role in innovation:

This three-level alignment creates a foundation for sustainable innovation, where improvements build upon each other rather than getting stuck in organizational resistance.

After decades of helping companies innovate and running his own bourbon distillery, Doug has distilled his process down to fundamental steps that any organization can follow.

The first step focuses on giving everyone the basic tools they need to innovate. Doug has simplified complex innovation principles into accessible tools. This includes:

The second step involves what Doug calls the “stop the stupid” phase. Organizations should:

For example, at Doug’s distillery, they transformed a painful box-lifting process by simply redesigning how boxes were assembled around products rather than lifting products into pre-made boxes.

The final step moves from individual improvements to systematic change. This involves:

What makes this framework powerful is its focus on building internal capability rather than relying on external consultants or temporary initiatives. Organizations implementing this approach can expect:

Doug described the tangible results organizations achieve when they transform their approach to innovation. The metrics he shared demonstrate why this bottom-up, system-focused approach delivers dramatically different outcomes from traditional innovation methods.

The contrast in results is striking:

The impact extends across various types of organizations:

Beyond the numbers, organizations experience fundamental shifts in how they operate:

Organizations implementing this approach see sustained improvements in:

This transformation doesn’t require massive resources or restructuring. Instead, it starts with simple steps:

The key is starting with small, achievable improvements that build confidence and capability for bigger innovations. As organizations prove they can successfully implement positive changes, they create momentum for larger transformations.

Transforming organizational innovation isn’t about generating more ideas or launching special initiatives. It’s about creating an environment where positive change can happen naturally at every level. By starting with employee-driven improvements, building middle management capabilities, and enabling leadership to pursue bigger strategic innovations, organizations can break free from the traditional innovation paradox where great ideas lose value during implementation.

The path forward is clear: empower employees to “stop the stupid” in their daily work, give managers tools to improve systems rather than just fight fires, and allow leaders to set ambitious goals without compromising them to fit current capabilities. When organizations align these three levels and follow a systematic implementation framework, they can achieve the holy grail of innovation – sustained, positive change that builds value rather than eroding it. The result isn’t just better products and services, but a more engaged workforce and a more adaptable organization ready to tackle future challenges.

“Stop the Stupid.”  – Doug Hall

Doug Hall is on a relentless, never-ever ending quest to enable everyone to think smarter, faster and more creatively.  His learning laboratories over the past 50+ years have included 10 years at Procter & Gamble where he rose to the rank of Master Inventor shipping a record 9 innovations in a 9 months and 40+ years as an entrepreneur including as founder of the Eureka! Ranch in Cincinnati Ohio – where he and his team have invented and quantified over 20,000 innovations for organizations such as Nike, Walt Disney, USA Department of Commerce, American Express and hundreds more.  Doug’s newest book,  out in December, PROACTIVE Problem Solving, was inspired by his experiences founding and leading a fast-growing manufacturing company, the Brain Brew Bourbon Distillery. Despite the COVID pandemic, Brain Brew grew from shipping a few thousand cases to shipping over 100,000 cases a year by enabling employee engagement. 

Thank you for taking the journey to product mastery and learning with me from the successes and failures of product innovators, managers, and developers. If you enjoyed the discussion, help out a fellow product manager by sharing it using the social media buttons you see below.

In this episode, I interview Mike Hyzy, Senior Principal Consultant at Daugherty Business Solutions. He explains how to conduct an AI-powered design sprint that transforms product concepts into clickable prototypes in just hours instead of weeks. Using a custom ChatGPT model combined with collaborative team workshops, product teams can rapidly move from initial customer insights to validated prototypes while incorporating strategic foresight and market analysis.

Imagine taking a product concept from initial customer insight to clickable prototype in just a few hours. That’s exactly what I witnessed at PDMA’s recent Inspire Innovation Conference, where Mike Hyzy demonstrated a groundbreaking approach to AI Design Sprints that’s revolutionizing product development acceleration.

By combining strategic foresight, a custom ChatGPT model, and collaborative workshop techniques, Mike led how six teams to achieve what typically takes weeks of work in just under three hours. As a product management professor and practitioner, I’ve seen many methodologies for speeding up innovation, but this approach was different – transforming ChatGPT into a virtual team member that accelerates every phase of the development process, from initial concept through digital product prototyping, while ensuring teams focus on solving tomorrow’s customer needs rather than just today’s problems.

In this episode, Mike will take us through the steps he led product teams through during his AI Design Sprint workshop.

At the beginning of the workshop, Mike explained the importance of strategic foresight. He emphasized a fundamental shift in how we should approach product development. Instead of focusing solely on today’s customer problems, product teams need to look 2-5 years into the future. This strategic foresight approach to product development isn’t just about making predictions – it’s about understanding how customer needs and market conditions will evolve over time.

Mike shared a sobering statistic that highlights why this forward-thinking approach matters: 42% of companies cite “no market need” as their main reason for failure. This happens when teams solve today’s problems without considering how those needs might change by the time their product actually launches. As I’ve seen in my own product management experience, the traditional product development cycle can take months or even years. By the time we launch, the market may have moved on from the problem we originally set out to solve.

To address this challenge, Mike introduced the Triple Diamond Decision Framework, a structured approach that helps teams look ahead while making concrete decisions. Here’s how the framework breaks down:

What makes this framework particularly powerful in an AI design sprint is how quickly teams can move through each diamond. Mike explains that traditional market analysis might take weeks of research, but with AI assistance, teams can gather initial market insights, including total addressable market (TAM) and serviceable market data, in minutes rather than weeks.

The key to success with this approach lies in the balance between divergent and convergent thinking at each stage. Teams start by thinking broadly about all possible needs, customers, or markets, then use data and insights to narrow down to the most promising opportunities. Mike emphasizes that this isn’t about rushing through the process – it’s about using AI tools to accelerate the research and analysis phases so teams can spend more time on creative problem-solving and validation.

This strategic foresight foundation sets the stage for the entire AI design sprint process. By starting with a future-focused mindset and using AI to accelerate market research, teams can avoid the common trap of building products for yesterday’s problems while ensuring they’re creating solutions that will still be relevant when they reach the market.

In this episode, Mike outlines how the success of an AI design sprint relies on the synergy between three core elements. Rather than simply replacing traditional methods with AI tools, this approach creates a powerful combination of human creativity, artificial intelligence, and real-world validation.

The foundation of every successful AI design sprint starts with effective team collaboration. As I observe during the workshop, the magic happens when small groups work together to explore ideas and challenge assumptions. Mike explains that having multiple perspectives around the table leads to insights that neither AI nor individual team members would discover alone.

For example, during our workshop session, when one team member mentioned the need for pricing tiers in their product concept, it triggered a deeper discussion about what would motivate users to upgrade from a free version to a paid tier. This kind of nuanced thinking emerges naturally from team interactions.

The integration of AI tools, particularly through Mike’s custom ChatGPT model, serves as a catalyst for rapid product development. Here’s how AI enhances the process:

What makes this element particularly powerful is how the AI tool becomes like another team member, offering insights and suggestions while the human team maintains control over creative decisions and strategic direction.

The third critical element involves getting feedback from outside the immediate team. During the workshop, Mike structures this through team-to-team interactions, where each group presents their concepts to another team for feedback. In a real-world setting, this would involve:

What makes this three-element approach particularly effective is how each component complements the others. The team’s creative energy feeds into the AI tool’s capabilities, while external validation helps refine and improve the outputs from both human and AI contributions.

Mike emphasizes that the real power comes from the rapid iteration possible when these three elements work together. Teams can quickly move from initial concept to validated prototype, with each element providing different types of input and validation along the way. This combination helps ensure that the final product concept isn’t just technically feasible but also genuinely meets market needs.

In this episode, Mike walks us through the step-by-step process of conducting an AI-powered design sprint. In his workshop, teams used Mike’s custom ChatGPT model, AI Design Sprint. What’s particularly impressive is how this approach compresses what traditionally takes weeks into just a few hours, while still maintaining the rigor needed for effective product development.

The discovery phase sets the foundation for the entire sprint. Mike structures this phase into distinct segments, each building on the previous one:

The first prompt for ChatGPT tells it that you’re going to use the triple diamond decision framing to explore needs, customers, and markets. You’ll work through it one stage at a time, starting with the discovery stage. It directs ChatGPT to read your input and ask corresponding questions. You’ll finish one section before moving on to the next one.

The AI tool supports this process by:

During the workshop, my team worked on the question, How do I use the space I have in my yard to create a garden? During the Discovery phase, once we told ChatGPT our initial ideas, its asked us the questions:

We typed our answers into ChatGPT, which used them to build a customer persona.

Once initial ideas are captured, teams dive deeper into understanding customer needs. The AI assistant helps accelerate this process by:

Moving into definition, teams begin to shape their solution. Mike shows how the AI tool helps teams:

The development phase is where the AI-powered approach really shines. Mike demonstrates how teams can rapidly move through:

Using the AI tool’s connection to DALL-E, teams can generate wireframes for each feature. What’s remarkable is how quickly teams can iterate on these designs. Mike shows us how to:

The sprint moves from wireframes to more detailed UI designs. Teams can specify:

The final step involves creating a clickable prototype using:

Mike shows how teams can use CodePen as a free platform to bring these elements together into a working prototype. This allows for immediate testing and validation of the user experience.

What makes this process particularly valuable is its flexibility. While Mike guides us through all these steps, he emphasizes that teams can adjust the focus based on their specific needs. Some teams might spend more time in discovery, while others might need to iterate more on the prototype phase.

Drawing from his experience leading multiple AI-powered design sprints, Mike shares key tips and strategies to help teams maximize the value of this approach. These implementation guidelines ensure teams can effectively combine human creativity with AI capabilities while maintaining focus on creating valuable products.

Mike emphasizes the importance of structuring your interaction with AI tools effectively. Here’s how to get the best results:

When it comes to creating prototypes, Mike shares several key strategies:

One of Mike’s most valuable insights is the importance of thinking about go-to-market strategy early in the process. He recommends:

To keep the sprint moving efficiently, Mike suggests:

Through his experience, Mike has identified several challenges teams should watch out for:

What I find particularly valuable about Mike’s approach is how he balances efficiency with effectiveness. While the AI-powered sprint can move quickly, he ensures teams don’t sacrifice quality for speed. He emphasizes that the goal isn’t just to create a prototype faster – it’s to create a better product by allowing teams to explore more options and gather more feedback in less time.

In this episode, Mike shares the critical elements that determine the success of an AI-powered design sprint. As I observe during the workshop, these factors make the difference between simply using AI tools and truly transforming the product development process.

The human element remains crucial even in AI-powered sprints. Mike identifies several key team factors:

Mike emphasizes that successful teams consistently maintain a future focus throughout the sprint:

Effective validation proves crucial for sprint success. Mike recommends:

Understanding how to effectively use AI tools makes a significant difference. Mike shares these best practices:

Successful teams keep their eyes on meaningful outcomes:

What makes these success factors particularly powerful is their interconnected nature. Mike demonstrates how each element supports the others, creating a robust framework for innovation. The combination of human creativity, AI capabilities, and structured validation helps teams not just move faster, but also make better decisions throughout the product development process.

In this episode, Mike shares the impressive results from the PDMA workshop, demonstrating how AI-powered design sprints can transform product development. The outcomes show both the immediate value and long-term potential of this approach.

The teams in the workshop accomplished several key deliverables in under three hours:

Mike explains how teams can apply this methodology in different contexts:

For teams looking to implement AI-powered design sprints, Mike recommends:

Beyond the immediate sprint outcomes, Mike highlights several lasting advantages:

Looking ahead, Mike sees several exciting possibilities:

What makes these outcomes particularly compelling is their practical nature. As I observe during the workshop, teams aren’t just creating theoretical concepts – they’re developing viable product solutions that could move directly into development. The combination of speed and quality demonstrates why AI-powered design sprints represent a significant evolution in product development methodology.

Mike emphasizes that while the technology is impressive, the real value comes from how it enables teams to spend more time on creative problem-solving and less time on routine tasks. This shift in focus helps ensure that the increased speed of development doesn’t come at the expense of innovation or product quality.

As this episode demonstrates, AI-powered design sprints represent a significant leap forward in product development methodology. Mike’s approach successfully combines the creative power of human teams with the efficiency of AI tools, enabling product managers to compress weeks of work into focused sessions while maintaining high-quality outcomes. The custom ChatGPT model he’s created, coupled with structured team activities and validation steps, provides a practical framework that any product team can implement.

What makes this methodology particularly valuable is its focus on future needs and market evolution. Rather than simply accelerating existing processes, these AI-powered design sprints help teams create better products by enabling rapid iteration, comprehensive market analysis, and meaningful validation. As Mike shows us, the future of product development isn’t just about working faster – it’s about working smarter by leveraging AI to enhance human creativity and strategic thinking.

“Product innovation is about having the foresight, which is not about creating solutions for problems that we know exist today, but about anticipating challenges and opportunities that might emerge in the future.” – Mike Hyzy

Mike Hyzy is a senior principal consultant at Daugherty Business Solutions.  He advises executive teams on AI, innovation and strategic product management, combining data-driven insights with cutting-edge technology to drive transformational change. Previously he has been a product management consultant and has held senior product management roles. 

Thank you for taking the journey to product mastery and learning with me from the successes and failures of product innovators, managers, and developers. If you enjoyed the discussion, help out a fellow product manager by sharing it using the social media buttons you see below.

In this episode, I speak with Atif Rafiq about how senior product leaders approach strategy development and execution. Atif brings valuable insights from a recent PDMA executive workshop where leaders discussed their real-world challenges with strategic decision making and innovation strategy.

In this episode, I’m interviewing Atif Rafiq, who recently led an executive workshop at the PDMA conference, where senior leaders discussed challenges they face, including navigating ambiguity and making decisions with more clarity. In this episode, he shares some insights from that workshop and his experience in product leadership. Atif has spent 25 years working in both Silicon Valley and Fortune 500 companies, including leadership roles at Amazon, McDonald’s (as their first Chief Digital Officer), Volvo, and MGM Resorts. He has developed a systematic approach to problem-solving that forms the basis of his book, Decision Sprint: The New Way to Innovate into the Unknown.

During our discussion, Atif identifies three main challenges that senior leaders face when developing and implementing product strategy:

Organizations often struggle to get everyone moving in the same direction:

Atif explains that product leaders often struggle to gather useful input and work effectively across teams. Common problems include:

While many organizations value testing ideas, Atif notes several common issues:

In our discussion, Atif introduces “purposeful exploration” – a structured way to investigate and test product opportunities. This method helps organizations find balance between rushing into solutions and getting stuck in endless discussions.

During the workshop, Atif walked the senior leaders through an exercise to get buy-in for a coffee subscription service at McDonald’s. Three different groups crafted a problem statement related to this idea and then identified key questions they needed to answer. This example demonstrates how to balance different business needs when exploring a new product idea.

The teams identified key questions, including:

Next, each group shared their questions with the others, and they used AI to compare the breadth and depth of the questions.

Atif emphasizes the importance of early work—the foundation-setting activities before product development starts. He notes that this phase often determines success or failure.

During our discussion, Atif introduces Ritual, a tool he and his team developed to support strategic decision-making processes. Ritual combines workflow management with AI capabilities to help teams move from initial ideas to solid recommendations. The tool reflects Atif’s experience leading organizations through strategic decisions, incorporating features that support building and running explorations, gathering team input, and producing strategy documents.

Workshop participants using Ritual noticed significant improvements in their exploration process, with AI assistance helping teams work up to ten times faster while maintaining quality. The tool helps teams develop strategy memos and recommendation documents that include context, problem statements, goals and constraints, key issues, analysis insights, and final recommendations. While Atif emphasizes that good strategic thinking remains fundamental, tools like Ritual can help teams work more efficiently and maintain consistency in their strategic exploration process.

Atif recommends these steps for using these ideas:

Throughout our conversation, Atif emphasizes that product strategy works best when teams balance thorough analysis with timely action. The methods and frameworks we discussed can help product leaders work through strategic challenges more effectively.

Remember that improving how you make strategic decisions takes time and practice. Start with small changes, see what works, and adjust your approach based on results.

“There are one-way doors and two-way doors.” – Jeff Bezos

Atif Rafiq invented a system for problem-solving based on his 25-year career spanning Silicon Valley and the Fortune 500. His ideas proved so impactful as a competitive advantage that they sped his rise at Amazon and later to C-suite positions he held at companies, including McDonald’s as their first Chief Digital Officer, and at Volvo and MGM Resorts.

He wrote DECISION SPRINT: The New Way to Innovate into the Unknown and Move from Strategy to Action based on what he learned leading organizations from a product perspective.

Thank you for taking the journey to product mastery and learning with me from the successes and failures of product innovators, managers, and developers. If you enjoyed the discussion, help out a fellow product manager by sharing it using the social media buttons you see below.

In this episode of Product Mastery Now, I interview James Whitman, author of LAUNCH Code and founder of Growth Guidepost. James shares insights from his research studying companies that consistently launch successful products. His LAUNCH Code framework offers a practical approach to product launch management that any organization can implement.

James explains that Launch Code emerged from studying public companies that grew successfully through their product portfolios. These organizations share common practices that form the foundation of the LAUNCH framework:

Organizations are adapting to rapid changes in how AI affects product launches. James shares that many teams are now working with their second or third generation of AI tools, particularly in sales and marketing. This raises important questions about balancing human and machine roles in the launch process and keeping employees engaged when AI takes over some of their work.

A significant shift has occurred in venture funding, with more money moving toward AI investments. James describes working with one organization that had five different sales leaders in 18 months due to these pressures. This example revealed a deeper structural issue: The company needed to move up-market from a commoditized position to remain competitive.

James points out common decision-making problems in product launches. He describes what he calls the “Your PowerPoint is better than mine, but you’re wrong” syndrome – where strong presentation skills can override better strategic choices. Instead, organizations need to:

A key insight from our conversation is how product launches require coordination across departments. James shares an example where changing product strategy meant completely rethinking the sales approach. The company needed salespeople who could sell complex solutions instead of commoditized products, showing how product decisions affect the entire organization.

James emphasizes the importance of vocabulary in cross-team work. For example, he notes that “discovery” means different things to sales and product teams:

Using clear, shared terms helps prevent misunderstandings and builds better collaboration.

Culture plays a vital role in launch success. James points to Atlassian as an example of intentional culture-building that supports product success. Their approach includes:

James explains that PLG companies like Zoom, ClickUp, and Pendo demonstrate the Launch Code principles naturally. These organizations:

During our conversation, James shares how LinkedIn uses what he calls the “Tranche Model” for product launches. This approach involves:

For smaller markets, James recommends adapting this approach by creating representative samples. For example, if targeting 1,000 CFOs, start with 150 that represent different company sizes and industries.

James describes several approaches to controlling launch risks:

James shares an interesting observation: organizations often find it easier to test new approaches with new products. For example, if a new service guarantee works well during a launch, teams might then apply it to existing products. This makes product launches valuable testing grounds for innovation.

James identifies several patterns that can reduce launch effectiveness:

In this episode, James Whitman shares valuable insights about creating reliable product launch processes. The LAUNCH Code framework offers a structured approach that organizations can adapt to their needs. By focusing on continuous improvement, cross-functional alignment, and risk management, teams can build sustainable launch practices that support growth through innovation.

Remember that successful launches depend on more than just the product itself—they require careful attention to organizational dynamics, market conditions, and emerging technologies. Organizations that build these capabilities systematically while remaining adaptable position themselves for sustained growth.

“Build self-correcting mechanisms to dampen issues as they emerge.” – James Whitman

James Whitman is the author of LAUNCH Code: A Playbook for Continuous Growth and the founder of Growth Guidepost. He works with corporate leaders to help them make their most important decisions and achieve critical growth objectives. He has held senior positions in public and private organizations, where he successfully established repeatable commercial practices, launching dozens of products, building high-performing teams, and scaling organizations.

Thank you for taking the journey to product mastery and learning with me from the successes and failures of product innovators, managers, and developers. If you enjoyed the discussion, help out a fellow product manager by sharing it using the social media buttons you see below.

In this episode of Product Mastery Now, I interview Jay Nakagawa, Director of Competitive Intelligence at Dell Technologies and a 25-year product management veteran. Our discussion reveals proven methods for understanding competitors and developing effective product strategies. Jay shares practical tools and frameworks product managers can use to gather competitive intelligence ethically and systematically. One compelling insight is that looking at competitors through our own lens often leads to misunderstandings – we need frameworks and methods to see the market from their perspective.

Jay has an interesting background that shapes his perspective on competitive intelligence. After spending over 20 years as a product manager, he found himself increasingly drawn to analyzing competition and developing strategies to outperform rivals. When Dell acquired EMC, Jay had the opportunity to transform this skill into a new career direction, leading competitive intelligence efforts.

His experience reveals an important shift in how companies approach competitive analysis. While understanding customer needs remains essential, gaining deep competitive insights has become equally valuable for product success.

Many product managers rely on SWOT analysis for competitive insights. However, Jay explains that in his field, they jokingly call SWOT a “Silly Waste of Time” because it reveals little about competition. Instead of providing deep insights into competitor strategies and capabilities, SWOT tends to focus on internal factors and broad market opportunities.

Jay learned about competitive intelligence from the Academy of Competitive Intelligence, which teaches product managers not only frameworks but also how to use them practically. Based on Jay’s experience at Dell Technologies, effective competitive intelligence includes:

Jay shares an example of how to apply Porter’s Five Forces using the large aircraft manufacturing industry:

Jay shares a metaphor about competitor analysis: Picture a kitten looking in a mirror and seeing a lion’s reflection. While we see the kitten, we need to understand that the competitor sees themselves as a lion. This perspective helps explain why competitors’ actions that seem irrational often make perfect sense from their viewpoint.

Jack recommends you focus on your primary competitors. Use Four Corners Analysis to understand their market:

The answers to these questions give you a good idea of what your competitor will do over the next 24 months. Then understand their biases and blind spots that you can exploit.

Jay explains how his team combines multiple sources to build reliable competitive insights:

Jay shares an example about a team that used a creative but ethical way to gather competitive intelligence for a pharmaceutical company. The team needed to understand a competitor’s capacity for manufacturing vaccines but couldn’t access internal information. Their solution? They contacted the local fire department to review the building’s fire mitigation plan, which revealed details about the facility’s size and potential production capacity.

Here are specific places where product managers can find competitive insights:

Jay observes that many product managers have become highly specialized, focusing deeply on specific features or release optimization. While specialization has its benefits, it can lead to:

Jay shares four common ways competitors respond to market moves:

When competitors can’t innovate quickly, they often try to copy successful features. Jay references Tony Fadell’s experience with the Nest thermostat as an example of how established companies respond to innovative products.

Some competitors will develop alternative approaches rather than direct copies. This often leads to market differentiation and can benefit customers through increased choice.

Jay notes that when competitors can’t compete effectively through products, they may turn to legal challenges, particularly around patents or regulatory compliance.

Larger competitors might attempt to buy innovative companies rather than competing directly, especially when facing significant technical or market barriers.

Jay’s organization looks at publicly available data to figure out the market direction where competitors are going in the next four years. They try to answer the questions, “Why does a company do what they’re doing? Why are they investing in that technology?”

Jay shares a quote from a friend: “Vision without execution is called delusion.” If a competitor claims a particular business objective is part of their vision, you should investigate whether they really have the ability to execute on that vision.

Drawing from his experience, Jay shares these warning signs of a disconnect between vision and execution:

Jay shares how competitive intelligence can reveal innovation opportunities. He uses the example of Tony Fadell’s development of the Nest thermostat:

Throughout our discussion, Jay emphasizes that competitive intelligence isn’t about following competitors – it’s about understanding the market landscape to make better product decisions. The goal is creating differentiated products that solve real customer problems while maintaining awareness of competitive dynamics.

“Ideas can come from anywhere.” – based on the story of Tony Fadell, inventor of the Nest thermostat

Jay Nakagawa is a 25+ year veteran product manager, with a track record of successfully building new products and developing turn-around strategies resulting in high revenue growth. As director of Competitive Intelligence with Dell Technologies, he and his team have been instrumental in providing critical guidance to product management teams providing insights that encompass how to create differentiated offerings to the market.

Thank you for taking the journey to product mastery and learning with me from the successes and failures of product innovators, managers, and developers. If you enjoyed the discussion, help out a fellow product manager by sharing it using the social media buttons you see below.

In this episode of Product Mastery Now, I speak with Jack Hsieh about successful product development strategies. Jack brings 20 years of experience managing innovation projects at companies like Sony Ericsson and Logitech. He shares practical insights from the Product Development and Management Association (PDMA) framework and explains how product managers can use these principles to improve their product development process. Through real examples from his work in consumer electronics and aerospace industries, Jack shows how PDMA’s body of knowledge helps create successful products while avoiding common pitfalls in portfolio management.

Key topics discussed:

While recording this episode at the PDMA Inspire Innovation Conference, I had the opportunity to talk with Jack Hsieh about product development evolution. PDMA has been supporting product professionals since 1976, making it the oldest organization dedicated to product management. Jack explains how PDMA’s comprehensive knowledge base helps companies innovate effectively across different industries and cultures.

Jack breaks down new product development (NPD) into clear components that every product manager should understand:

Jack describes how product development needs alignment at multiple levels:

During our conversation, Jack shares valuable insights from managing product portfolios at Sony Ericsson. He explains how the company handled three distinct product lines:

This experience taught him important lessons about resource allocation. For example, his business unit needed to coordinate holidays across three regions: Sweden, Taiwan, and Japan. The overlapping work schedule only provided 190 days per year for full team collaboration, making resource planning especially important.

Jack uses Boeing and Airbus as examples to illustrate key portfolio management principles:

Organizations need different development processes based on their specific needs. Jack explains several approaches:

Jack mentions that he has personally used more than 70% of the tools in PDMA’s Body of Knowledge. These tools span different product development stages:

Jack emphasizes that market research remains the most important skill for product managers. Modern approaches include:

Organizational culture significantly affects product development success. Jack shares team structures that work:

Jack shares a personal story about understanding market adoption patterns. When he started his consulting business, he initially focused on multinational companies in Taiwan, thinking his experience with foreign companies would be an advantage. Despite getting over 50 inquiries in his first year, he secured no deals. Reading Crossing the Chasm helped him understand why – these companies were early majority adopters, not early adopters, making them hesitant to work with a new consulting firm.

Jack shares an interesting case study from his time at Logitech. The project, named “Sicily Left,” aimed to create a mouse specifically for left-handed users. Key insights include:

Jack learned that the wrong business case for a project leads to a sub-optimal result.

Jack’s experience managing mobile phone portfolios provides valuable lessons:

During our discussion, Jack helps clarify the important differences between project and product management:

In this episode, Jack demonstrates how PDMA’s framework guides successful product development. His experiences at global companies like Sony Ericsson and Logitech show how these principles help product managers handle complex challenges. Whether you’re managing consumer electronics, aerospace products, or software, these insights can help you create better products and advance your career in product management.

“Innovation takes dedication, but the choice is more important than the dedication.” – Jack Hsieh

Jack Hsieh has 20 years of experience in planning, executing, managing, and consulting on innovation projects across the world. Jack is the President at Maestro Project Management Consultants, which helps clients with innovation management, new product development, and project management. Previously, at Sony Ericsson, he led a cross-functional international team to develop handheld devices that served millions of users worldwide.

Thank you for taking the journey to product mastery and learning with me from the successes and failures of product innovators, managers, and developers. If you enjoyed the discussion, help out a fellow product manager by sharing it using the social media buttons you see below.

In this episode of Product Mastery Now, I’m interviewing Leah and Philip Abraham, a creative duo with expertise in songwriting, acting, music production, and filmmaking. Their diverse background offers valuable lessons for product managers looking to improve their innovative thinking techniques. Throughout our conversation, we explore insights from their creative process that can be applied to product innovation and management.

This episode explores insights from creative professionals that can be applied to enhance innovation in product management, offering practical strategies for product managers to foster creativity, leverage rapid feedback cycles, and overcome challenges in the innovation process.

We start by addressing common misconceptions about innovation, particularly the belief that creativity is an innate talent rather than a skill that can be developed. This idea is especially important for product managers and leaders responsible for driving innovation within their organizations. Leah and Philip share their experiences, showing that innovation is indeed a process that can be learned and improved over time.

Leah and Phillip have experience in acting and film production and are now most famous for cinematic shorts on social media. They explain that they enjoy creative collaboration in many areas, including filmmaking, photography, music, and art.

Leah and Phillip share that their creativity is complementary and they bring out creativity in each other. Phillip has a technical background while Leah focuses on character arcs.

When making a skit, Leah and Phillip often start with a sketch of the story and improv to fill in the details. They’re often inspired to make a skit based off something that happens in their lives. For example, a recent video called “When they cancel plans but you’re both introverts,” was inspired by Leah and Phillip’s introvertedness.

Leah and Phillips use a  “no bad ideas” approach, which creates a safe space for sharing and building upon concepts. They give each other permission to throw out ideas without shame and then make those ideas better together.

Compared to producing a whole film, creating short-form content on social media provides more opportunity to receive rapid feedback and iterate. Analytics let Leah and Phillip see what aspects of their content viewers are engaging with most. Sometimes the parts of their content they almost didn’t include end up being the most popular with their audience.

Leah and Phillip share that feedback from viewers has been affirming and eye-opening, and the most fulfilling part of their creative process is figuring out what viewers like about their content and building an intuition for creating engaging content.

Leah and Phillip explain that they’re learning about to balance intuition with data-driven decision making. I think of intuition as my experience taking shape that my brain hasn’t recognized yet. Leah describes intuition as your body knowing something before your mind can articulate it. She had an intuition that she and Phillip should start doing social media and that it made sense for their hodgepodge of creative skills. They observed that most viral TikTok videos were not high-quality narrative skits and decided to use their skills to fill that gap.

This episode offers valuable perspectives on fostering creativity and innovation in product management. By embracing collaborative approaches, rapid prototyping, and a willingness to learn from failures, product teams can enhance their innovation capabilities and create more successful and impactful products.

Key takeaways for product managers:

“If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.” – unknown

“Success is stumbling from failure to failure without any loss of enthusiasm.” – Winston Churchill

Leah and Phillip Abraham are an up-and-coming social media couple known for their highly cinematic viral skits, which have gained over 85 million views since their launch in February of 2024. Having both spent over a decade hustling in Hollywood, and acting on shows like Aquarius, CSI, Ballers, and Good Trouble, they found a ceiling placed on their potential as creatives, ultimately moving to Nashville and starting their production company, Philea Media. Together they wrote, produced, and acted in a feature-length musical that is loosely based on how they met, which is scheduled to premiere at film festivals in 2025. 

Thank you for taking the journey to product mastery and learning with me from the successes and failures of product innovators, managers, and developers. If you enjoyed the discussion, help out a fellow product manager by sharing it using the social media buttons you see below.

https://youtu.be/14cLrVAu7BA

In this episode of Product Mastery Now, I’m interviewing Chris Elmore, a tech entrepreneur and college professor who helped found Avid Exchange, a unicorn startup that went public in 2021. Chris brings years of experience in product innovation and management, and he’s here to share his thoughts on driving innovation and keeping businesses growing for the long haul. Here are the key points from our conversation:

As we start our chat, Chris highlights why innovation matters so much in today’s fast-moving business world. Products and services don’t stay relevant as long as they used to. Because of this, companies can’t just rely on what worked in the past. Innovation is key to keeping a business growing and thriving.

One of the main topics we explore in this episode is how a company’s culture can help or hinder innovation. Culture is the unwritten rules of an organization – what people are allowed and expected to do. Chris shares his experience of keeping a strong culture, and even improving it, as his company grew. This challenges the common idea that company culture always gets worse as a business gets bigger.

Chris says that the quickest way to destroy culture is to put someone in charge of it. When someone is in charge of culture, the culture becomes that person’s version of culture.

Instead of taking charge of culture, leaders can use stories to reinforce a culture of innovation. For example, Chris tells his teams a story of how he tells his kids that he doesn’t care about their grades as long as they’re putting in full effort, but usually full effort leads to good grades. This communicates to his team that effort will eventually lead to the desired outcome.

We also discuss Chris’s thoughts on how company structure can affect innovation. He critiques traditional hierarchies, suggesting they can make it hard for innovative ideas to flow, especially ideas from employees who work closely with customers.

Chris observes that most good ideas come from the middle third of an organizational chart. Often, people in the middle or bottom third of an organization try to communicate their ideas to leadership who don’t understand the idea or are scared of innovation, so many great ideas fail.

Instead of a traditional org chart, Chris proposes thinking of the organization as a curve that represents everyone’s understanding of where the organization is going. The beginning of the curve represents where the organization is today, and the end represents where the organization needs to go. The goal of a leader is to get the organization over the valleys to go further down the curve. This approach focuses on aligning everyone in the organization towards common goals and outcomes, rather than rigid reporting structures.

To explain what the organization is working toward and get a team aligned around common goals, Chris concentrates on three things: mission, purpose, and outcome. The mission and purpose should be aligned with the organization’s outcomes. If not, we have work to do. If someone can’t get behind the mission and purpose, they can’t be in the organization anymore.

Chris takes an unusual approach to hiring. He focuses on the person rather than their resume. In fact, he says he’s never read a resume in his life. This approach allows him to assess candidates based on their potential and how well they fit with the company culture, rather than just their past experiences and qualifications.

Chris offers a simple definition of innovation: “It’s better than what it was.” This straightforward idea makes innovation something everyone in the company can understand and participate in, not just the people in research and development or product design.

Chris advocates for a broad definition of “customer” that goes beyond just the end-users of a product or service. He explains that customers include internal and external stakeholders and even employees’ families. Product managers should think about serving all of those customers.

This wider view encourages product managers and leaders to consider the needs and perspectives of various stakeholders when driving innovation. By considering a wider range of “customers,” organizations can ensure their innovations create value not just for end-users, but for employees, investors, partners, and even the families of team members.

Chris wants everyone in his organization to be aware that they can be an innovator. In his company, every time someone was hired, Chris gave them his definition of innovation and told them it’s their job to be an innovator.

While big, disruptive innovations often get the most attention, Chris emphasizes the importance of small, ongoing improvements. He explains that small innovations over a long period of time is a huge thing.

This view encourages product managers and leaders to focus not just on big breakthroughs, but also on the cumulative impact of smaller, incremental improvements over time.

Driving innovation in product management is about more than just developing new features or technologies. It’s about creating an environment where innovation can thrive at every level of the organization. A culture of innovation leads to better products and more resilient organizations. Innovation is simply about making things “better than they were.” As product managers and leaders, our challenge is to embody this principle in our daily work and inspire our teams to do the same so that we can ensure our organizations not only keep pace with change but lead the way in creating value for our customers and stakeholders.

“Luck is when opportunity meets preparedness.” – Earl Nightingale

Chris Elmore is a seasoned tech entrepreneur and a respected college professor. Chris played pivotal roles in the founding of fintech AvidXchange, a unicorn startup that went public in 2021 with a $2.3B valuation. At AvidXchange his roles spanned numerous functions, including development, product, marketing, and mergers and acquisitions. Chris is also a passionate musician, performing solo and in bands as a singer with his guitar and ukulele.

Thank you for taking the journey to product mastery and learning with me from the successes and failures of product innovators, managers, and developers. If you enjoyed the discussion, help out a fellow product manager by sharing it using the social media buttons you see below.

In this episode, I’m interviewing Brian Collard, an expert in managing big projects and plans for global companies. Brian has been working for 15 years in different industries like finance, healthcare, and technology. We’re talking about how artificial intelligence (AI) is changing the way we manage products and come up with new ideas.

As people who manage products, lead teams, or come up with new ideas, we’re right in the middle of this AI revolution. We need to figure out how to use AI to make products that customers will love, while also dealing with all the new things AI brings to the table.

Before using AI, check your organization’s policy to make sure you’re in compliance. Be careful when using AI, especially with sensitive information.

Large language models can come up with ideas, but always keep humans in the loop. AI is a great way to augment the discovery process, but it won’t completely replace traditional research methods.

Brian recommends a three-step formula for prompting AI:

One area where Brian sees significant promise is in the creation of product briefs. He shares that product managers are reporting efficiency gains of around 50% when using AI to assist in drafting these important documents. AI can help with:

Brian notes that while AI can significantly speed up the process of creating product briefs, these documents often require nuanced understanding and strategic thinking. He advises using AI as a starting point, but always reviewing and refining the output to ensure it aligns with product strategy and organizational goals.

Large language models can hallucinate, or make up information, such as links that do not exist. Brian recommends the tool Perplexity.ai, which removes hallucinations and brings in real-time information. He also recommends that we trust but verify when using information from AI.

Brian gives some tips for talking with AI tools, or prompt engineering.

Brian explains that when we use AI tools, we need to give them clear background information. This helps the AI understand exactly what we’re working on and what we need.

Brian introduces the idea of chain of thought prompts. This means guiding the AI through a series of steps. It’s especially useful for complex tasks.

For example, “Here are three product ideas. Based on these ideas, please give me another one.”

Encourage AI to use logical reasoning by giving it examples or frameworks. This can be particularly helpful for tasks like figuring out market size or making financial projections.

For example, “Given a particular market size and capture rate, how many sales do I need to break even?”

You can get similar results by including the words, “think step by step,” in your prompt.

You can ask the AI model, “How would you improve this prompt?”

The AI tends to remember the beginning and end of a prompt. Instead of providing one long prompt, provide a series of short prompts, asking the AI to refine its response each time.

For example, begin with an outline of a product brief, and then ask the AI to fill in the sections. This also helps make your work more defensible in front of an executive, because you can explain how you created it.

Brian recommends the tool Superpower GPT, which allows you to run a series of prompts (a prompt chain) all at once.

Brian explains how AI is revolutionizing market research, offering new ways to gather and analyze data. He mentions using tools like Perplexity.ai for real-time information gathering and fact-checking.

AI can help create more detailed and data-driven user personas, including the generation of synthetic personas based on market trends and user data.

AI can assist in documenting and organizing product requirements, including automated extraction of requirements from various sources.

AI tools can enhance traditional strategic analysis frameworks like SWOT and PESTLE analysis.

Brian emphasizes the importance of viewing AI as a complement to, rather than a replacement for, traditional product management methods. He discusses the use of synthetic data and personas, and the importance of balancing AI insights with direct customer interaction.

Brian shares several best practices for integrating AI into product management workflows:

In this episode, we’ve explored with Brian Collard how bringing AI into product management offers significant opportunities for innovation and efficiency. Brian reminds us that AI is a tool, not a replacement for human expertise. The most successful product managers will be those who can effectively combine AI-driven insights with their own experience, intuition, and strategic thinking.

“I haven’t failed. I just found 10,000 ways the product hasn’t work yet.” – based on a quote from Thomas Edison

Brian Collard has 15 years of experience in managing strategic project portfolios for global organizations. He has proven success across multiple industries including finance, healthcare, and technology. Brian holds a degree in engineering and an advanced business degree and is the co-founder of the St. Louis PDMA chapter.

Thank you for taking the journey to product mastery and learning with me from the successes and failures of product innovators, managers, and developers. If you enjoyed the discussion, help out a fellow product manager by sharing it using the social media buttons you see below.